Ruth McTighe 824054

Welcome Alex - and don't worry about being nervous, it hapepens to us all. Have a read of the thread at viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5251 and you'll find you're in good company. My only hint would be not to start at Heathrow or Gatwick as they can be very busy. My first flight was Stansted to Birmingham. Put "new pilot" in your remarks, and the controller will be happy to help.

The quick start docs are aimed at experienced controllers who are changing from another type of software. It's not detailed enough for a beginner. What you need is the Observers Guide, which you'll also find on the VRC docomeentation page at http://www.metacraft.com/VRC/docomeentation.shtml Ruth

You set the QFE exactly the same way as you do the QNH, i.e. turn the altimeter knob to the right number. The difference is the resulting figure the altimeter needle points to. For QNH it's the number of feet above mean sea level (the altitude), for QFE it's the number of feet above the aerodrome level (the height). So for example, if you were on the ground at Biggin Hill (EGKB) with the QNH set your altimeter would read 600ft, but if you'd set the QFE it would read 0ft

The main VFR charts (the equivalent of US sectionals) are not available online. You can buy paper or electronic versions, but unless you are really keen on flying with completely up-to-date charts, I'd suggest using the free programme Plan-G http://www.tasoftware.co.uk/ which takes its airspace data direct from FS9 or FSX and displays it on Google maps. Things like UK VRPs have also been added. It also has a lot of useful facilities for the VFR pilot, and does actually cover the whole world. For local airfield VFR information check the NATS site that Mike listed.

If you don't seem to be hearing ATC, but not getting a reply it suggests that you are not being heard by ATC. Try sending them a message by text, and if that doesn't work send them a private message via the chat facility. It may be your system is not quite correctly set up. If you are using FSInn, read the sticky at the top of the FSInn forum on here on how to get things working. Best VFR nights in the UK are Monday at Shoreham (EGKA), Tuesday at Gloucester (EGBJ) and Friday at Biggin Hill (EGKB). All three would be very happy to help you get started

Have a look at the excellent Euro Primer at http://www.vorstaedt.de/eurprimer.html

Oh dear, thank you for pointing that out We seem to have stopped running general beginners nights in favour of one-to-one sessions on a night that suits both learner and instructor. If you decide to join then e-mail Peter Dodds, the Chief Flying Instructor, if you'd like to arrange some session. His contact details are at http://www.cixvfrclub.org.uk/contacts.php Ruth

I'll look forward to seeing you there Ruth

One of the problems is that it's a vicious circle. There aren't many VFR pilots on VATSIM, so the little airports don't get staffed because it's very boring sitting an an airport all night with no traffic. I aim to staff London Information (EGTT_I_CTR) once a week, which covers all traffic in England and Wales outside controlled airspace, and am lucky to get more than one or two VFR pilots in 3 hours, unless my own Virtual VFR Flying Club is having an event. As has been said, look out for organised VFR nights as that's when you are most likely to get ATC. Tuesday is the best night if yo

There's lot sof useful information on flying VFR in the Uk on VATSIm at http://www.cixvfrclub.org.uk/ Ruth

Go to this page http://www.metacraft.com/VRC/docomeentation.shtml on the VRC website and download the Observers guide. That has a walkthrough to enable you to get VRC up and running. You'll need to get the sector files (which show the airports, waypoints etc for the area you're interested in) from the vatusa.net website.

Yes, that's another possibility which I didn't mention. The official route from the end of the STAR really does go round the houses (or at least half of the LOREL hold). So if it's very quiet, and there's no outbounds climbing to the west from Stansted, it's possible to take the aircraft off the STAR and provide vectors direct to the ILS, cutting a good 30 or more miles off the route. You'll find the standard vectoring digram at http://www.vatsim-uk.org/regions/essex/downloads/Luton_vectoring.pdf Ruth

For descent planning for Luton arrivals, the controller should aim to get you at FL200 at ROGBI, FL 150 at CLIPY, and FL80 at BKY. Remember the STAR takes you past Luton to BKY, and then you are vectored round via Busta, so there's at least another 30 miles compared with the direct route to Luton Ruth

I wasn't implying that you have a lack of flight sim experience. I was trying to point out that you were alleging that VATSIM ATC always gives late descents, and that you do NOT have sufficient online time to make such a sweeping statement. Put it down to experience or bad luck or something. We'll be happy to see you in Essex airspace again for another go. Ruth

If he wasn't responding it's more likely that he had a disconnect or there was a glitch in the system. So he may not even have been online to give you the turn. On the other hand, even real world controllers forget about aircraft sometimes (read the story of Mike Romeo http://www.pprune.org/atc-issues/164502-long-downwind-leg-egll-22-2-05-a.html#post1764600 ) You don't say at what point you were told to fly a heading of 150. If it was before CLIPY then the most likely cause is that you were being separated from other aircraft flying on the same route. But you should normally be turned

If you look at the ASKEY chart it says at the top VOR BPK u/s - that means it's for use when the BPK VOR is out of service, which it rarely is, especially on VATSIM. As for deciding which STAR to use, it helps to understand the principles a bit. I'll try to explain it UK style with reference to Luton. If you look at the AIS index to Luton http://www.nats-uk.ead-it.com/public/index.php%3Foption=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=95&Itemid=144.html you'll see it has a long list of STARS, but very helpfully puts a geographic direction on each one. So if you are arriving from D

If you want to join the UK you'll need to wait until the site comes back, as all the information and facitilities are on that site. In the meantime, logon as an observer in the UK watch and talk to the UK controllers, and you'll start to pick up what is going on

You'll find all the instructions in the VRC docomeentation at http://www.metacraft.com/VRC/docomeentation.shtml Try the Observers Guide to start with as that [Mod - Happy Thoughts]umes you don't know anything about VRC or ATC before you start.

Excellent choice! Congratulations Alex and good luck!

You'll find ASRC at http://www.asrc.info/ There's a setup guide for ASRC in the avsim file library at http://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=Observers+guide&CatID=onlineatc&Go=Search Everything for VRC is on the VRC website at http://www.metacraft.com/VRC/docomeentation.shtml In the UK training takes place within the regional training system, so you need to decide which part of the Uk you'd like to train in (basically you can pick any major airport except Heathrow). Because the UK website is out of action we'll then need to put you in touch with the relevant region

I don't think Wick wouldn have p[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ed the cricket test. btw have you heard Dickie Bird reaidng his own autobiography? It's dreadful! He should stick to umpiring

Correct. You can also programme a mouse button if there's enough buttons on your mouse to ensure it doesn't conflict with anything else you need it to do.

May I point out item 1 of the first post in this thread Now we can't actually police that as there's no way to tell if a particular screenshot is VATSIM related, but this IS a VATSIM forum so we do rely on our members to use it as such. There are plenty of other forums on the internet where you can post non-VATSIM stuff. Ruth

Congratulations Ivan Ruth (Not a VATanything)

Not sure either, but a quick google search came up with http://www.vatmex.com. Cheers Now why didn't I think of that?! Thanks Oliver Ruth