Fighter Escort sevice.

[Eric Martinez 1136244]

Im a new member that flies mostly in my home region of WA state. I like the scenry of the Cascades and the pacific northwest.

 

It came to me that to be a better IFR pilot, I should fly with a mentor to show me the ropes. Since I have observed most pilots to be IFR/ Jumbo Jets why not target them as potental mentors.

 

I want nothing more than to tag along with you flying my favorite jet-- The F-18 Hornet. I have a complete understanding of the Radios/Navigation, and would love to hold while you took off and got to your flight level, or hold during your final approch. Enroute I would accompany you at whatever distance you felt comfortable. Although I cant shoot the bad guys, Im sure you would find my escort professional and courteous.

 

My callsign is "NEWMEM84", please contact me online so I may get charts and route info organized. Remember that Im probably not going to ask questions as much as pay attention to HOW an IFR flight is conducted in VATSIM. I read the PRC on a daily basis, and still print parts of it. I look forward to flying with you.

[Callum McLoughlin]

Hello, it is my interpretation of the VATSIM SOA policy that you need to be a member of an approved VSOA to be able to escort an aircraft.

 

Please find this policy here: http://www.vatsim.net/library/specialops.pdf

 

I hope this helps!

[Martin Bergin 931070]

I'll gladly accept this

Route we'll be taking: SAMAR UN873 BAROK DCT GANSU DCT DEMOS UP40 BEGAS T9 LASNO UP600 CRK UW10 KLY UW10 LIFFY UL975 LYNAS/0359

 

Your routing for the Irish portion should be LASNO dct CRK dct LIFFY.

[Eric Martinez 1136244]

After reading the policy on escorting aircraft, you are right. It counts as a special Op. ATC will maintain separation since its IFR and asking the controller to keep us together requires permission that I must get by appying for vsoa.

[Ernesto Alvarez 818262]

instead of fighter escort, you can always just fly in formation, thats not a "no no". you should just get a handle of how to make the request with ATC and what to do while in formation

[Kyle Ramsey 810181]

No Ernesto, he is right, if the flight is military in nature it is covered. We get people trying to cover up their military flight operations by saying they are only flying formation, but a fighter jet escorting a civil airliner is still a military operation. The gent has indicated he will look for a suitable VSOA which is exactly the right answer.

 

I have huge fears that when these things get started and are thought to be allowed, before we know it we'll have folks not taking the care this gentleman has taken doing intercepts and then we're off to the races, or maybe the DCRM office.

 

Anyone attempting to do this must understand that even if you got permission up front and the interceptee/escortee decides he's not having fun anymore and calls a SUP, the interceptor/escorter will be the one who gets a 24 hour vacation, so you put yourself at risk if you do this.

 

In 2010, we will see a large uptick in enforcement of VSOA rules.

[Ernesto Alvarez 818262]

my bad. shouldve clarified it.

 

how bout if its 2 cessna's or 2 airliners in formation. same?

[Trent Hopkinson]

Im a new member that flies mostly in my home region of WA state. I like the scenry of the Cascades and the pacific northwest.

 

It came to me that to be a better IFR pilot, I should fly with a mentor to show me the ropes. Since I have observed most pilots to be IFR/ Jumbo Jets why not target them as potental mentors.

 

I want nothing more than to tag along with you flying my favorite jet-- The F-18 Hornet. I have a complete understanding of the Radios/Navigation, and would love to hold while you took off and got to your flight level, or hold during your final approch. Enroute I would accompany you at whatever distance you felt comfortable. Although I cant shoot the bad guys, Im sure you would find my escort professional and courteous.

 

My callsign is "NEWMEM84", please contact me online so I may get charts and route info organized. Remember that Im probably not going to ask questions as much as pay attention to HOW an IFR flight is conducted in VATSIM. I read the PRC on a daily basis, and still print parts of it. I look forward to flying with you.

 

 

Quite apart from the VSOA stuff, there's far better ways to learn IFR than flying in formation, which is, after all, an entirely visual manouver, and would not neccicarily on it's own, teach anyone how to fly IFR either by:

 

Tuning and tracking a Radial to/from a VOR

sucessfully inserting and then appropriatley tracking a flight plan on a GPS system.

Using an FMC from the lengthy setup on the ground on up to inserting STARs and skipping waypoints etc airborne.

[Charan Kumar]

Using an FMC from the lengthy setup on the ground on up to inserting STARs and skipping waypoints etc airborne.

Not to mention changing landing rwys when u r 40 miles out .

 

Eric, on a related note, a couple of us are secondary airport hopping and the next flight is KOAK-KGEG which will cover the exact area. Follow this topic: viewtopic.php?f=106&t=46167 for updates.

 

As has already been mentioned, you cannot fly formation, but u can certainly fly with us on the same rte, and maybe I can help you answer some of the basic IFR flight planning and flight here on VATSIM. Our flights will be in the 9:30pm-12:30am PST range which I am [Mod - Happy Thoughts]uming should suit you.

 

Cheers!!

[Julian Hoffman 850174]

Be very careful when flying in formation. Aside from getting approval, make sure your crash detection is turned off. If not, FSINN or SB3 updates may cause you to *bang* even though you really haven't. And if you really do, well... Don't know what to say there.