Flight Simulation (PC)

All the help you need for online ATC is on VATSIM.net. As mentioned earlier, find an airport that has a bit of traffic and a controller and listen in. You'll soon pick up what is expected. It's actually fairly straight forward. I found flying jets far more fun than flying little piston props. Again, there are plenty of guides online to get you going. Flying these aircraft is remarkably straight forward if you have the right gear, ie a setup that gives you smooth frame rates and a decent yoke.
 
All the help you need for online ATC is on VATSIM.net. As mentioned earlier, find an airport that has a bit of traffic and a controller and listen in. You'll soon pick up what is expected. It's actually fairly straight forward. I found flying jets far more fun than flying little piston props. Again, there are plenty of guides online to get you going. Flying these aircraft is remarkably straight forward if you have the right gear, ie a setup that gives you smooth frame rates and a decent yoke.

Hope in a Concorde and say that :act-up:

I'd be impressed if you had the engines running after 20 minutes :alien:
 
My brother was a pilot. I chopped the wood and he piled it :act-up:
 
The most confusing part is simply the clearances.

It's intimidating to hear that long clearance and know you have to give readback. However, it's not as hard as it sounds. Clearances are given in a form called CRAFT:

Clearance
Route
Altitude
Frequency
Transponder

So a clearance would be something like,

"November seven six four juliet papa, cleared to the San Francisco airport via the Ventura Five departure, vectors Ventura, then as filed. Maintain 5000. Departure frequency 123.45, squawk zero seven one two"

So:

Cleared: "to the San Francisco airport"
Route: "via the Ventura Five Departure, vectors to Ventura, then as filed"
Altitude: "maintain 5000"
Frequency: "departure frequency 123.45" (frequency you change to when tower tells you "contact departure")
Transponder: "squawk zero seven one two"

So, upon takeoff, you'd fly the Ventura 5 departure which gives you an initial heading to fly, you'd climb and maintain 5000 until the controller gives you higher, and you'd wait for the controller to turn you on course to the Ventura VOR.

It's handy to have a pencil and paper ready when receiving a clearance so you can jot down the relevant details for a good readback. However, if the controller does not change anything your clearance, it's perfectly acceptable to readback only the squawk:

"November seven six four juliet papa, squawk zero seven one two"

"six four juliet papa, readback correct, expect runway 25R for departure, advise ready to taxi"

I'll go through a more complicated example later when I have more time.
 
Hope in a Concorde and say that :act-up:

I'd be impressed if you had the engines running after 20 minutes :alien:

I never mastered Concorde. But then that was a completely different beast.
 
The most confusing part is simply the clearances.

It's intimidating to hear that long clearance and know you have to give readback. However, it's not as hard as it sounds. Clearances are given in a form called CRAFT:

Clearance
Route
Altitude
Frequency
Transponder

So a clearance would be something like,

"November seven six four juliet papa, cleared to the San Francisco airport via the Ventura Five departure, vectors Ventura, then as filed. Maintain 5000. Departure frequency 123.45, squawk zero seven one two"

So:

Cleared: "to the San Francisco airport"
Route: "via the Ventura Five Departure, vectors to Ventura, then as filed"
Altitude: "maintain 5000"
Frequency: "departure frequency 123.45" (frequency you change to when tower tells you "contact departure")
Transponder: "squawk zero seven one two"

So, upon takeoff, you'd fly the Ventura 5 departure which gives you an initial heading to fly, you'd climb and maintain 5000 until the controller gives you higher, and you'd wait for the controller to turn you on course to the Ventura VOR.

It's handy to have a pencil and paper ready when receiving a clearance so you can jot down the relevant details for a good readback. However, if the controller does not change anything your clearance, it's perfectly acceptable to readback only the squawk:

"November seven six four juliet papa, squawk zero seven one two"

"six four juliet papa, readback correct, expect runway 25R for departure, advise ready to taxi"

I'll go through a more complicated example later when I have more time.




Sooooooooo this is not complicated? :bulgy-eyes:
 
Its alot easier when you've got a chart or something to reference... Or, when you've got an FMC and its all programmed in for you anyway, so all you need to do is worry about the frequency.
 
Sooooooooo this is not complicated? :bulgy-eyes:

It's not. If you are going full out nerd, you'll know most of that before all that is even read out. Plus this is an online game so it's rare that the ATC controllers give that much info. And finally, if it's all a bit much, ask them to repeat, and they will normally say it all again as well as firing off a pm that will pop up with the clearance for you.
 
It's not. If you are going full out nerd, you'll know most of that before all that is even read out. Plus this is an online game so it's rare that the ATC controllers give that much info. And finally, if it's all a bit much, ask them to repeat, and they will normally say it all again as well as firing off a pm that will pop up with the clearance for you.


And once you get use to the aviation language then it all comes to circle. Sounds like fun as I have always been interested in flying and all that it entails.
 
And once you get use to the aviation language then it all comes to circle. Sounds like fun as I have always been interested in flying and all that it entails.

Exactly. It's daunting at first, but it soon clicks into place. I used to have to talk to ATC regularly in my last job at Heathrow. I remember the first time I had to do a crossing across a busy runway. I shat myself LOL.
Any flight simulator should come with a warning though. My missus used to be away from home a lot. I regularly used to waste whole days flying from Heathrow to LA in real time LOL.
 
These vatsim people are so friggin serious I'm just scared to screw up.

I haven't even mustered the courage to say anything yet hahab


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These vatsim people are so friggin serious I'm just scared to screw up.

I haven't even mustered the courage to say anything yet hahab


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Explain you are new. They should understand and be helpful. It will go along easy however if you show you have tried to learn the basic communication.

Tap Talking my way thru the World of golf!
 
These vatsim people are so friggin serious I'm just scared to screw up.

I haven't even mustered the courage to say anything yet hahab


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They'll definitely help you out if you explain you're new. A good thing to do is pick a smaller airport with ATC coverage, or a slow time. Although controllers are always happy to help, their capability to do so is limited if things are really hopping.

If you get "yelled at," don't get defensive or upset. Most importantly, don't just keep doing your own thing. Simply ask the controller "Sorry, I'm new and I guess I got that wrong. What would you like me to do?"

Once you get your feet wet, I highly recommend you fly in LAARTCC. It's the busiest airspace on VATSIM (which is a good thing - makes it more interesting than flying into an airport with nobody within 400 miles) with lots of interesting procedures, challenging terrain and the most professional controllers.
 
They'll definitely help you out if you explain you're new. A good thing to do is pick a smaller airport with ATC coverage, or a slow time. Although controllers are always happy to help, their capability to do so is limited if things are really hopping.

If you get "yelled at," don't get defensive or upset. Most importantly, don't just keep doing your own thing. Simply ask the controller "Sorry, I'm new and I guess I got that wrong. What would you like me to do?"

Once you get your feet wet, I highly recommend you fly in LAARTCC. It's the busiest airspace on VATSIM with lots of interesting procedures, challenging terrain and the most professional controllers.

I've noticed Gatwick seems to be extremely busy as well.

I like hanging out with the Brits


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The guys in europe are nuts... like hundreds at a time... London is a very busy destination... Check out the website VatView and see who's online.
 
The guys in europe are nuts... like hundreds at a time... London is a very busy destination... Check out the website VatView and see who's online.

Yeah I download vatspy ( same thing I imagine ) and intentionally go to places with a controller and hardly any traffic but then I chicken out.

My wife sits there and laughs at me


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Yeah I download vatspy ( same thing I imagine ) and intentionally go to places with a controller and hardly any traffic but then I chicken out.

My wife sits there and laughs at me


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I've done that for almost a year... not sure why... same thing when i'm flying 'online' and all of a sudden the center controller pops on. Big chicken here...
 
Yeah I download vatspy ( same thing I imagine ) and intentionally go to places with a controller and hardly any traffic but then I chicken out.

My wife sits there and laughs at me


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Jump in and own it like a boss! Not like they can throw you in jail. Do it wrong and they will explain it.

Tap Talking my way thru the World of golf!
 
Jeez. Never realized people were so hardcore in the world of sim flying. I've been flying for so long I forgot how fun it was when I first started.


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Jeez. Never realized people were so hardcore in the world of sim flying. I've been flying for so long I forgot how fun it was when I first started.


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I have a relative who is a real world ZTL controller. He watched me control in ZLA one evening on VATSIM and was extremely impressed. He remarked that other than a few understandable concessions like text-chat and one controller covering multiple positions, it was extremely realistic.
 
So after extensive research I ended up downloading P3D last night.

Sucks to waste 70$ on FSX but P3D just seems so much smoother and well run. Plus I wanted to decide on a platform before I started spending money on addons.


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Yea? Going with the "educational" license since its not for "entertainment purposes"?
Since they've gone with that stance, there will never be as many add ons as fsx..



So after extensive research I ended up downloading P3D last night.

Sucks to waste 70$ on FSX but P3D just seems so much smoother and well run. Plus I wanted to decide on a platform before I started spending money on addons.


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Yea? Going with the "educational" license since its not for "entertainment purposes"?
Since they've gone with that stance, there will never be as many add ons as fsx..

You obviously know way more than I do but I've found that generally all the addons thy have for FSX they have for P3D.

GSX, vatsim , planes, etc

Please tell me if I'm missing something I don't wanna regret this in a couple months


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You obviously know way more than I do but I've found that generally all the addons thy have for FSX they have for P3D.

GSX, vatsim , planes, etc

Please tell me if I'm missing something I don't wanna regret this in a couple months


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If they're serious about software development they'll go p3d. Not sure if PMDG is on board or not. That'd be a deal breaker for me as they are the best hands down. As long as you can get weather, terrain and airports along with decent airplanes you'll be fine. Not sure if there is a Vatsim client for p3d? From what I've seen the file system is identical to FSX (config files etc).


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