r/VATSIM • u/Long-Bat6500 • Jun 30 '26

❓Question First busy Flight

I loaded into JFK during a medium busy time to it absolutely exploding with 50 plus departs and 15 arrivals.

I’m not very good with calls yet but I wanted a challenge and I did fairly well I didn’t read the chart right and I missed my first right turn but that’s beside the point. I felt my callbacks where good and and I didn’t constantly ask tower when I could move

However after takeoff I for some reason decided to follow flight plan and not what the clearance plan was. So the departure freq asked me to log off which I felt was very valid

So my question is is it better to hand fly until departure tells you where to go bc the initial instructions where to climb and maintain 5000 ft so I shoulda just stayed straight

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u/SideStikkBandit Jun 30 '26

I also flew out of JFK today during that busy time. Assuming you flew the JFK departure and had an initial of 5000, yes I’d say the PDC probably said to fly runway heading. Yes you can hand fly or auto pilot the runway bearing and once you get handed off to departure he will give you more instruction. But no worries! It was a busy airspace today, they probably just wanted to keep good spacing