Another rookies cry for help.

[Troy Woods 1150922]

Hey peeps.

So many questions, I don't know where to start. Please forgive me if I come across as a bit of a nuffy, but I am pretty new to all of this.

OK, so I have been playing with flight sims for about a year now and have taken the plunge and purchased X Plane 9, which is so awesome, I cannot find the words to describe.

Anyway, since as a kid, I had some experience flying de Havilland Chipmunks and have had an interest ever since, I have nailed the basic “flying” of a light aircraft, such as Cessna and Pipers.

I am now trying to understand the difficult stuff, mainly communication.

I am getting the hang of the NAV stuff and the settings for approaches at airports etc, but I am having no luck with the COM settings on the Piper PA 46 310P.

 

So, whenever I log into xsqualkbox and observe, no matter what airport I choose, I seem to only hear what I believe to be New York ATC. For example, if I go to EGLL (Heathrow) and set Com1 to 132.60, I still hear the same New York ATC. No matter what frequency I choose, nothing changes and I continue to hear the same old thing. Of course, I can switch this off in the Sound settings in X Plane by un-ticking the "Background radio chatter" box, but then I have silence.

Am I supposed to set up COM frequencies in Xsqualkbox or using the aircrafts COMs or something else?

 

Also, when using xsqalkbox plugin I choose “whose on line” from the drop down box, no other pilots appear, but I can see them taxing and flying.

 

As I am very conscious of getting in the way. What airport with ATC should I use, where I can get talking to ATC and some basic instruction in taxing, take off's and landing procedures, without frustrating the hell out of everyone else.

I have of course read the VATSIM PRC and various forums, but am still none-the-wiser of how to get started.

 

I guess, to simply know how I should initiate contact with the tower and what to say would be a start.

 

Also, am I best use text rather than audio at this stage and if so, how do I set that up in X Plane and Xsqalkbox?

 

I have just read the comments in the “To the Newbie – First time jitters” thread, which is re[Mod - Happy Thoughts]uring.

Maybe I am not a complete nincompoop after all!

 

I have 6 million other questions, but this some pointers on these issues would be greatly appreciated.

[Sebastien Bartosz]

Hi Troy, the New York ATC chatter is from the game itself, its a series of .wav files I believe that are played in a loop. What you want to do is mute those sounds in the XPlane settings.

Now, as far as listening to ATC chatter at Heathrow for example, first you have to position yourself there (NOT on a runway..), then you have to get the "Who is online" box down from XSB, it will show online ATC's, ATIS' and OBS' in your area.

A frequency will be [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ociated with the position, you put that frequency in your COM1 and listen in.

If you see a frequency 119.998, that is because that person has no primary frequency set up and you will not be able to listen in (its usually only OBS' that have 119.998, but every once in a while, Controllers forget to set their primary frequency).

 

As I am very conscious of getting in the way. What airport with ATC should I use, where I can get talking to ATC and some basic instruction in taxing, take off's and landing procedures, without frustrating the hell out of everyone else.

I have of course read the VATSIM PRC and various forums, but am still none-the-wiser of how to get started.

 

I guess, to simply know how I should initiate contact with the tower and what to say would be a start.

You can basically start wherever you want, but first do your homework i.e try and find out some local NAVAIDs, Fixes, get the charts out, find tutorials, do whatever you have to do.. That is what I do before planning a flight, wherever it may be (Europe, North America etc.) I do my homework, I check the charts out before hand, I see what departure Im going to expect, I check the ATIS out on Servinfo before I actually load up the game to see which runway I can expect, then I will choose a parking not too far, I will try and see what taxi route I should use etc. I know Im repeating myself, but I strongly advise to do the "homework" before flying, not just you, but every pilot... because we still see some pilots where we have to spell out Fix names for them, and they dont realise its on their very own route, or we have to spell out VOR's because they didnt get familiar with the area and they dont know the names of VOR's. This is essential and it makes everyones day a bit better, and more realistic. I was departing Hamburg last night, and instead of the controller saying cleared to Kastrup, Lima-Uniform-Bravo Eight-Golf departure bla bla, He said cleared to Kastrup, Lubeck Eight-Golf departure....bla bla and I answer with cleared to Kastrup, Lubeck 8G runway 33 bla bla because I know that LUB is Lubeck, and before last night, I did not know that LUB is Lubeck, but before the flight, I check that information out, and found what I wanted to know.

 

 

 

To use text with XSB, you have to set the hotkeys up in the XSB menu once in the game.. allthough I do recommend starting with Voice as soon as possible, even though it can be intimidating, but its a lot funner, realistic, and of course, typing while setting up for and ILS approach for example can be tricky, while instead you have one hand pressing the PTT button, and the other hand doing whatever it needs to do for example.

 

Hope this helps

[Wade Williams 877539]

Troy,

 

Sebastian has given you most of the info.

 

Understand that "Who's online" only shows controllers online and in radio range. You can use a a program like VATSPY (PC) or QuteScoop (Mac) to see what other controllers might be on that might not be in radio range of the airport you're currently at.

 

As for where to start, I'm biased to the ZLA (Southern California airspace) since we have a lot of controller coverage. I wouldn't start at KLAX for your first flight, but maybe KSNA for example. However, any ARTCC will be glad to help you out, so which airport you choose doesn't really matter - I'd just advise avoiding the really big ones (KLAX, KATL, KJFK, etc) until you get a bit more comfortable.

[Troy Woods 1150922]

Thanks Guys. That gives me a good start. I will take your advice on board and let you know my progress. See you in the sky soon I hope.