Getting started with online virtual flying- Pilots guide

highlydebased

Online virtual flying is a highly addictive hobby. Believe me, if you start, you'll have serious problems tearing yourself away from it.....

Just decided to put this together as an aid for any wannabee virtual pilots on VATSIM. VATSIM is the virtual air traffic simulation network. It is comprised of virtual pilots and virtual controllers, so instead of using the crappy FS ATC, you can use VATSIM to enjoy a much more realistic experience.

To get started....its pretty simple. Well, what do you need?

1. Knowledge of flying and how ATC works:: you'll need to know how ATC works, what means what, and of course you'll need to be able to fly your aircraft too
2. Software: Apart from Flight Simulator, you'll need to download Sqwawkbox or FSINN. (Dont install both.) Sqwawkbox is the recommended option as its easy to work with and not as complicated.
3. Aircraft: If you plan on doing nothing but vfr circuits, the default aircraft will do you. But, if you want to fly realistic flights you'll need to purchase a decent payware aircraft, like the pmdg 737 series or wilco airbus. These have the FMC (Flight management computeR) which you'll need to fly real world routes, and so on.
4. Microphone/Headset: while you can communicate with ATC using text, voice is the preffered option. A decent headset with the volumes set correctly makes for an incredibly realistic flight
5. Charts: For busy/large airports, you'll need charts. You can find them usually on the aviation authority of the relevant country
6. Route planning: Again, only relevant if you're flying proper routes you'll need to be able to plan routes. vroute is a free piece of software which has a large database of routes. Just to note, you cannot fly direct between two airports, unless VFR or its a very short flight (eg Galway to Knock)
7. VATSIM ID: You'll need to signup on www.vatsim.net and get a VATSIM ID and password to sign into the network.

Thats a very rough guide. Logging onto the network can be a tad daunting for the first few times, but it gets incredibly addictive. The following links below will be of use:

www.vatsim.net - vatsim homepage
www.vateir.com - Irish division of VATSIM
www.avsim.com - freeware addons for FS
http://www.iaa.ie/safe_reg/iaip/ - Irish airport charts
http://www.ais.org.uk/aes/login.jsp - UK charts (registration required)
http://www.vateir.com/connecting.php - How to get started with sqwawkbox
http://www.vateir.com/pilots.php - Further pilots guides
http://ifsd.ie IFSD Irish Scenery

promo video....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDhbxdGak4g

(If the mods like the idea of this, could this possilby be made a sticky...?)

pclancy

Good stuff....+1 for sticky In our someday to appear flight sim forum also?

ch252

+1 From me also
the scenery in the vid is from www.ifsd.ie also:)

RoundyMooney

Done.

Sim stuff is most welcome here, until we find hopefully get a proper home for it.

It's easy to move stuff around after, if necessary.

highlydebased

Just some useful apps and other websites that may be of interest....

Servinfo- basically tells what ATC and what pilots are online....very old but good piece of software. available here

vroute- Has similar functions to servinfo, but also has route planning which is useful. premium version has other bits and pieces, like fuel planning etc. available here

vatspy- replacement for servinfo. available here

dolomynum- same as above apps, but just on a big fancy map. dont really like its layout myself...linkage

sqwawkbox- nessecary for connecting to vatsim (eep no link....)

FSinn- alternative to SB, although confusing and difficult to use....here

Euroscope- what us VATsim controllers use (well, most of us). here

Eurocontrol charts- charts for everywhere....... registration needed. here

other charts..... some outdated jeppview charts. here

free routefinder good aul reliable if other sources fail, sometimes it gives strange results but otherwise its good here

vataware another flight tracking site, can search by pilot, route, airline, city pair and a whole lot more. its a good site, has some downsides but i use it alot. HERE.

francie81

Just was reading up on this whole virtual flying. I have FSX and starting to rack up flying time I only really do the free flights using IFR but getting in on this sounds savage, from just this alone anyone think am ready for it?


Thanks,
Francie

francie81

Hello,

Can someone help me with getting squawkbox to work with FSX? I downloaded and migrated it into the program but it doesn't actually give setup instruction for FSX on the website?

Thanks

bandit197

I gave up on squawkbox with FSX. It always causes FSX to crash. For FSX I use FSInn. Its a little bit more complicated to set up but there are loads of guides out there.
Im using X Plane 90% of the time now and find XSquawkbox to work flawlessly.

francie81

Yeah I thought that myself didn't know wether it was lack of memory or the program itself clashing so it was the latter afterall, thanks aslong as I know its that am gonna get rid and try the one you mentioned.

Thanks again

somefeen

So to become a controller on VATSIM do you have to have A full on flight simulator first?

Oddly I have no interest in flying but would love to try the ATC side of it

highlydebased

somefeen wrote: »

So to become a controller on VATSIM do you have to have A full on flight simulator first?

Oddly I have no interest in flying but would love to try the ATC side of it

Certainly not, though a knowledge is helpful.

If its Ireland you're interested in controlling in contact the lads at vateir.com

SRFC90

Anyone know what the story with RYRVirtual is? Was a member about a year ago and got removed from the roster for inactivity as I hadn't the time. Says on their site there's about 300 pending applicants? Sent an email to the various addresses given on the site about a week ago and no reply!

Lofty1069

Anyone in or around the Limerick area wishes to meet up and fly ?
I fly mostly VFR, I generally fly with the CIX VFR club (search for CIX VFR Club in your browser)
Do some controlling also (S3 - Approach controller in the Moncton FIR)