VATSIM.net

I'll be updating this whenever I have time to.




Facts:

Brazil is the 5th largest country in the world, so finding an ATC in some areas might not be an easy task.

The main language spoken is the portuguese, and ATC controlling at mayor airports are required to speak english.

The country borders other 10 nations, even though, spanish is not an official language (except some minor regions where it's allowed).

Brazilian airspace is divided in 5 regions named FIR (CTR). They are: Curitiba, Brasilia, Recife, Amazonic and Atlantic. Each of these FIRs are subdivided in smaller ones. (eg. up to 9 controllers might be online within Curitiba's FIR at the same time). Note: if there's only 1 or 2 atc for the position, they will be taking the entire region.

UNICOM frequency within the brazilian airspace is 123.45 (rw.liveatc.net/123.450), please note text is mandatory.

Airways are separated in Low and High. High airways begins at FL245 (not included).

Transition level is determined by ATC based on local pressure. Transition Level will be informed by the controller or will be within the ATIS. Note atc will (in most of the cases) inform when you have to reset your altimeter. Below the Transition Level, instructions will be given as altitude.

Default sceneries are not realistic at all. Downloading add-on scenery (there are some very nice freewares) will certainly improve your flying experience.


What's different:

Some or most of the airports use radar surveillance. This means: pilot will be given a certain SID or STAR and he's supposed to follow it. Note: radar vector can be used at anytime when atc finds better and whenever pilot requests. Also note pilot will be informed when he is "under radar surveillance". Resuming, pilot is informed of the SID/STAR from the delivery controller or before start descend. Later, he will follow the chart (fmc) procedure. ATC must at all times monitor the flight and call the pilot whenever he doesn't follow the procedure.

During the flightplan approval, it will be informed: airway, final flight level, sid procedure, squawk, departure control frequency. Initial flight level is rarely given by delivery atc. Note FL restrictions might be given before or after take-off. Just as anywhere in vatsim, APP controllers will assume del, gnd and twr tasks whenever those positions are not occupied.

SID and STAR procedures are chosen by ATC (pilot may request an specific one), but SID/STAR should not be at the flightplan.

IAC procedures might be named as ILS Z, ILS Y, NDB or C, D, H. (eg. ILSZ 15 is used for ils procedure in Curitiba and H3 is the ils procedure for sao paulo's airport).

Portuguese is spoken in all the airports (incluiding vfr and ifr).


Where to:

Find charts: http://charts.vatsim.com.br or http://www.aisweb.aer.mil.br/aisweb/ (this website is mantained by brazilian's government).

Find flightplans (national): http://www.cgna.gov.br/rpl/localidades_cpvr.htm , within this link, select the departing city. It will open a list of rl flightplans. (eg:
0234567 TAM8095 A330/H SBGR0040 N0440 270 UW62 PERES UW62 SBGL0043
This is a TAM's flight with Airbus A330. Dep: SBGR. 0440IAS. FL270. route: UW62 PERES UW62. Dest: SBGL). Note here that the first and last waypoints are not on the FP, they are on the SID/STAR.

Find São Paulo's sceneries (for SBGR, SBSP and SBMT): http://www.pstair.com.br/marcato/sao/sao.html

Find other sceneries: there's a payware pack name Fly to Brazil. It includes something like 50 brazilian airports and most of them are very detailed. For Rio, there are two famous ones: Wonderfull Rio and Tropical Sim's scenery. There are other known websites, and I think I'll list them later. An other nice option is to download AFCADs from AVSIM.


to be continued ...

Great post. I love flying in other countries, but don't do it that often because of the difficulty of finding the necessary charts/procedures. By the time you look it all up, the ATC is offline.

This post will go a long way towards helping me be ready quickly.

Joao, so we really have to use 123.45 instead of 122.80 there?


Thilo

yep, that's correct. But that's only for Brazil. As far as I know all the other south american countries use 122.80.

Congrats Yuehan for your post


Regards!

Some of the Brazilian major airports.


the list follows the quantity of pax since jan/2008
for charts check http://charts.vatsim.com.br


1st. São Paulo Guarulhos (SBGR-GRU).
located in the state of São Paulo, receives flights from more than 26 countries.
main traffic: B737, F100, A319, A320, A330, A340, B747, B767, B777 and regional props.
longest rwy: 3700x45m.
rwys: 09L/27R usually taken for t/o and 09R/27L for landing. Procedures C2 (09R) and C7 (27L).
some routes (some of them might not be up-to-date):

SBGL (Rio de Janeiro - Brasil)
SBGR>SBGL: UW62
SBGL>SBGR: UW50

SAEZ (Buenos Aires - Argentina)
SBGR>SAEZ: UM788 BGE UA314 ISALA UA314 PAPIX DCT
SAEZ>SBGR: DORVO UN857 JUICE UA314 FNP UW21 SAT

MMMX (Cuidad de Mexico - Mexico)
SBGR>MMMX: SCB UM782 MTU UA317 TBB UG440 ISEBA UL318 PBC DCT
MMMX>SBGR: DCT PBC MEBAS UJ64 MTT DCT SZT ASOKU UL655 BRU UW62 CPN

KMIA (Miami - USA)
SBGR>KMIA: UW2 BRS UA317 ATF UL795 URSUS DCT FOWEE JUNUR LUVLY DHP
KMIA>SBGR: DCT EONNS URSUS UL795 ATF UW9 PSN

LFPG (Paris - France)
SBGR>LFPG: ROCHO UN866 APASO UN871 GDV UN873 EVX
LFPG>SBGR: LGL UN872 ERIGA UN741 PSN

SCEL (Santiago - Chile)
SBGR>SCEL: SCB UA310 BRETA UL310 POS UW14 ERE UA307 DOZ UA306 UMKAL
SCEL>SBGR: NEBEG UA307 CBA UA432 GENAS UW6 VAPES UA432 POR UA314 FLP UW21 SAT

EDDF (Frankfurt - Germany)
SBGR>EDDF: ROCHO UN866 APASO UN871 GDV UN858 AMASI
EDDF>SBGR: ANEKI Y163 HERBI Y164 OLBEN UN869 TBO UN995 PPN UN857 NOR UB623 REC UW58 PCL

KJFK (New York - USA)
SBGR>KJFK: BGC UW2 BRS UZ6 MAN UA300 KIKER A300 CHAMP B24 SIE
KJFK>SBGR: SHIPP FATON A523 DDP A300 KIKER UA300 MAN UW9 PSN

SUMU (Montevideo - Uruguay)
SBGR>SUMU: NIBGA UW24 CTB UA310 TELAK
SUMU>SBGR: SOLIS UA309 POR UA314 JUICE UM540 ANISE


visit http://www.cgna.gov.br/rpl/Movimento/Mo ... S_EOBT.txt for more routes.

:arrow: 2nd. São Paulo Congonhas (SBSP-CGH).
also located in the state of São Paulo, it's the main regional airport in Brazil.
main traffic: ATR42, F100, B737, A319, A320, air taxi and general aviation.
longest rwy: 1940x45m.
rwys: 17R/L and 35R/L.
after July 17th 2007, the brazilian government prohibited flights with destination or origin farer than 1000 kilometers and imposed weigh restrictions.
flight plans: http://www.cgna.gov.br/rpl_anterior/Mov ... S_EOBT.txt
how to read it:

VRN2130-----B733/M-----SBSP0930-----N0430-----360-----UM788 DELAY UW19-----SBFL1020-----EQPT/W RMK/DEP SP0930

Operator (VARIG) and Flight number.
Aircraft and turb. category (M stand for medium).
Departing airport and EOBT (estimated off blocks time).
Indicated airspeed on cruise level. Final Flight Level.
Route (note initial and final waypoints are not within the flight plan).
Destination airport (SBFL stands for Florianopolis) and ETA (estimated time of arrival).
Remarks.



3rd. Rio de Janeiro Galeão (SBGL-GIG).
the biggest airport in Rio. Most of the foreigner tourists visiting Brazil choose Galeão's Airport as the entrance door.
main traffic: F100, B707, B737, A320, A330, A340, B747, B757, B767, B777, DC10, MD11.
longest rwy: 4000x45m.
rwys: 10/33 usually taken for take-off and 15/28 for landings (but atc will always decide the active rwys).
within Galeão there's a VEM maintenance center (the largest hangar in southern hemisphere and 5th in the world). They attend more than 38 customers from 4 continents. It's located on appron 6 (check ADC chart).
some routes (might not be up-to-date):

SBGR (Sao Paulo - Brazil):
SBGL>SBGR: UW50
SBGR>SBGL: UW62

SAEZ (Buenos Aires - Argentina):
SBGL>SAEZ: UA314 ISALA UA314 PAPIX DCT
SAEZ>SBGL: DORVO UA308 POR UA314 ETANO

SUMU (Montevideo - Uruguay)
SBGL>SUMU: UA314 LACON UA310 TELAK
SUMU>SBGL: SOLIS UA309 POR UA314 ETANO

for more national routes: http://www.cgna.gov.br/rpl/Movimento/Mo ... S_EOBT.txt

I dont agree whit Brazil different UNICOM, it should be 122.800 like all VATSIM.

The UNICOM frequency is different in Brazil, because we follow the procedures and frequencies used by real aviation here in our Country. And these rules are the ICAO rules since the Brazil is a member of this Org.

If you look at the real documentation at ICAO´s site, you will find out that the only country that uses the 122.800 for the coordination frequency is the US, all the rest of the world uses the 123.45 freq.

Although I'm all for following real world procedures closely on VATSIM, I think that assigning a different UNICOM frequency to one country is taking it a bit far, and causes problems for pilots. Please note that I am completely oblivious to how VATBRZ is run and how the procedures work, I am simply looking at it from an outsiders point of view. I have a few points about why having seperate UNICOM frequencies can cause problems:

1) What happens with aircraft that are flying along airways close to borders with other countries' FIRs? If the correct UNICOM frequencies are followed, there will be aircraft on the Brazilian side broadcasting their intentions on 123.45 and aircraft in the adjacent FIR broadcasting theirs on 122.80. This means that, unless I'm very much mistaken and these frequencies somehow magically communicate with eachother, they won't be able to see eachothers' transmissions which completely defeats the point of UNICOM.

2) It is difficult to communicate to all pilots who fly in Brazilian airspace that the UNICOM frequency is different to what they would expect, especially pilots who don't fly in Brazil often. This means that there might be some pilots in Brazil flying under the UNICOM frequency 122.800 and others 123.450. An effective way of putting across this message to pilots needs to be established.

3) It complicates things for new pilots. It's a lot easier to say to an inexperienced VATSIM member - "when you don't have control use 122.800 as the UNICOM frequency" as opposed to "when you don't have control use xxx.xx in this country, xxx.xx here, xxx.xx here, xxx.xx here and xxx.xx here."

just my 2 cents[/i]

Well, what happens when a real pilot that only flys at US, France, UK comes to flight to Brazil, arriving at Not controlled airspace?

Prob before he flight in Brazil, he will need to plan and see what freqs he needs to use on this cases. If he does not do that, some accidents like the GOL one will happens.

The same procedure in my opinion must be performed here on VATSIM, before flight at a non knowledge space, take familiar to it (this topic is just for it, to show the others how are the procedures here). Since the vatsim simulates the as real as it gets.

When I flight outside the Brazil I prepare and study the country procedures, freqs etc.. before login, the new users should be encouraged to do the same, study first than flight. If all do this, we will be doing a real simullation on this network.

I think the most likely reason for a different unicom frequency in Brazil is because 122.800 is used as a control position.

I'm sure this happens somewhere else, South Africa is it?

yep, you're right, and the second reason is that real-life unicom in brazil is 123.45.

i've already seen many foreigners using 122.80 to coordinate and complaining brazilian pilots would not coordinate

anyways, let's not argue for something that: 1) it follows real-life procedures; 2) it has been approved by vatsim; 3) we're happy with it.

most of the countries DO have on the website information to foreigners, etc, and I couldnt agree more with Ricardo when he says about studying (I would call planning) everytime before a flight.

we've had some unsolved matters within brazilian division and the manuals couldn't be translated, so that's the reason I created this topic.

Feel free to ask, suggest, add.
I'm afraid threads can not be edited here, so it might get a bit long, sorry

Joao,

Your postings is probably the best thing to do for your sector!

Just like any business, to be successful you need a competent crew, and you need to MARKET your services. In VATSIM land, this is via the forum and you need to create graphical "pictures" of your events, not a picture of an aircraft departing, but SELL Brazil as the place to go!!

I don't speak Portuguese (I have enough trouble with my native language English ) but I think you would have a lot more success if your controllers could speak English, as perhaps some of the USA/Europe traffic would be most interested in flying south of the equator to pay you guys a visit!

Keep up the good work, and with some marketing and staffing, we hope you can keep your controllers on the scopes because of the traffic levels!

My friend, it's a Win-Win for everyone on VATSIM if this can happen!

Cheers!

Gerry, is true that we have lots of ATC who don't know English very well, but here in Brazil we have problems with Portuguease, is too hard with lots of rules, I hate it!!! LOL

Well I know english very well, and I always speak it online when necessary!
The problem is: only who know english will learn the aviation english, and who don't know how to say "My name is XXX" never will learn "GOL4576 under surveillance ... "

But we try to teach them

Cheers