Getting started with online virtual flying- Pilots guide

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....



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