When do you use autopilots?

Judah writes:

Is this route off-airway?

It's a route that I concocted myself from waypoints, which I presume
means that it's not on an established airway (although some of the
waypoints are on airways).

What is the OROCA in that area?

I don't know. I don't have charts, so I guessed based on previous
flights over the area and the en route altitude recommendation of the
simulator (which presumably knows all the heights along the way).

8500 is not an IFR altitude, so unless you will be changing to
VFR on top, you'll probably either be at 8000 or 10000 in real life.

I've never been assigned an en route altitude that isn't an even
thousand by the simulated ATC, but I don't know if that's true in real
life as well. I'm sometimes assigned to the nearest hundred feet for
final descents and interception of localizers and what not.

I don't know the area well enough to know for sure...

I don't have a chart so I don't know the exact heights. I think 8000
would clear everything. The mountains east of San Diego are the
highest points, I believe.

It sounds like you have some ideas of what it takes, but you really should
get some formal training.

Flying a simulator is free and can be done on a time-available basis.
Formal training is very expensive and cannot be easily worked into a
schedule. Otherwise I might well do it, even in a place like France
where I'd be learning a lot of the wrong stuff.

If you're that afraid of flying, you should at least go to a Ground
School course. They are not typically very expensive,
but they are very informative. Another alternative might be to purchase the
Gliem test prep books.

The best I could hope for would be an occasional book. Even books are
costly.

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