Leaderboard

VATSIM has, for maybe 3/4 years, discouraged this flying during CTP. You're quite out of date Sean.

I like to use SkyVector for flight planning - it has both VFR and IFR charts of varying quality around the world. Note that it's primarily intended for real-world pilots, so if you choose to make an account, be careful that you don't file a real flight plan 🙂 If you're flying in the United States, you can download all the official VFR charts ('sectionals') straight from the FAA's website. Each download covers the area of a few states, and is usually about 200MB in size. VFR charts for other countries are a lot harder to come by - if you want to see what I mean, go to the US-Canadian border in SkyVector's VFR mode, and observe how suddenly the level of detail drops! VFR charts for the UK are only available from specific publishers as far as I can tell, and they are quite pricey. Try ChartFox for taxiway diagrams for specific airports - it has ICAO taxiway diagrams for what appears to be every British airport, and old Jeppesen charts for Canadian airports which can be a bit 'hit or miss'.

Tim, VATSIM (unless things have changed) have never stopped pilots from flying nor discouraged them. Regardless of event traffic any pilot can still connect and fly. The issue becomes when their is ATC onboard! If one of them wants to me a (blank) and put you in a hold for three hours then unless you call a SUP who is considerate, you have to comply with ATC instructions. So although VATSIM encourages you to fly, some event staff may make life “more” difficult for you due to their priorities.

Nick, there is a CoC so if any person on the network tried to ruin anything they are in breach. But how can a pilot who wants to fly and follows instructions be ruining anything?