To the newbie - First Time Jitters

[James Duncan 1001989]

My first experience:

SCEL, Santiago de Chile, night time, so I log in,few aircraft parked, TWR operational, . . . umm somenthing strange is on the screen, but it doesn't matter I'll sort it later, yea sure! it was the squakbox box, I didn't even know what it was . . . so I listen for a while, spoting my DC-3, humble but lovely, then a Big one appears right in top of me, just where I am parked so I kindly offer to move aside, push my throttle while ATC is in touch with someone that is about to land, about to land , I want to see how it looks like so I start to taxi closer to the RWY to have a better view, and there she is just touching down and starting to roll towards the terminal . . . suddenly ATC asks WHAT ARE YOU DOING SIR . . . what? I am having a look at a plane landing . . . STOP INMEDIATELLY I know I have to stop at the edge of the paving . . . but for some extrange reason I have a bad feeling . . . DISCONNECT OR I WILL REPORT YOU !!! ok ok I will disconnect . . . but . . . how do I disconnect? click here, there, even further away and then ilumination shut down FlightSimulator, that will disconect me for sure . . . now I now, yes I do now it took a couple of months to go online again, short flight in Europe . . . TAXI TO RWY XX VIA APRON, sorry what taxi way? . . . VIA APRON, WHERE YOU ARE STANDING SIR , aaahhh take off OK, then autopilot turns left instead of right . . . Thanks to ATC I could get back in route . . . next one : taking off from Norway in route to Turkey . . . climbing to FL450 or near . . . after ATC convincing me to accept his flight plan because Direct gps is not valid, hands me over to second ATC: XXX-XXX WHAT ARE YOUR INTENTIONS SIR? . . . ??? continue to fly as filed . . . ATC after making sure that I was sure of my heading explains to me that going west I must use an impair flight level . . . so what do you think is happennig at that moment . . . I am on a steep dive, . . . but, but autopilot is on what the . . . switch him off, try to recover, lift, lift, liiiifffft, lost speed . . . stall, down again, dooown fast . . . ATC mentions that IT SEEMS YOU ARE LOOSING ALTITUDE TOO FAST SIR . . . yes I am, sure I aaaammm up, up, uuuup, and lost speed again, stall, dive, dive, and up, up, and dive but lower every time, I will have to disconnect I tell ATC, he accepts . . . this time I now . . . how to disconect .

 

Last 2 flights at uncontrolled areas KSPS-KABQ (no ATC at that moment ) and FL210 in EU LERT-LIPA . . . nothing else after that because I am afraid Of course these experiences are in no way a complaint against ATC . I posted them just to make you laugh at me, just as I have laughed at yours . . . It's all about a good time, I can not wait to interact with ATC as fluent as it gets . . . and swet as wet as it gets safe flighing, and as I read somewhere that I can not remember "LET THE YOKE BE WITH YOU" . . .

[Celestyn Chmielewski]

Whoa, too much emoticons!

[Scott D. Williams]

Not sure about this one. Perhaps to try a calming sedative pill?

[William O'Mally 1013295]

interesting reads!!

[Aaron Devisser 1013582]

hi i know this not the right topic to post this question to but how exactely do i make squawkbox work with xplane 8.60 on a mac i can get squawkbox to connect then nothing happens its basically the same as when i first started. another thing also i have a macbook that has airport extreme i was wondering if i could use to use squawk box and xplane to connect to the internet because when i use an ethernet cable i ccan go to data input and go to inet 1 and see my ip address at the top but when im connect to the internet with airport my ip address in xplane comes up with 0.0.0.0. is there some way i ccan change what xplane uses to connect to the internet or is ther something i over looked ,

thanks

[Donald Hudson 947262]

hi i know this not the right topic to post this question to but ...

 

Why does this happen?

[Ross Carlson]

hi i know this not the right topic to post this question to

 

Whenever you start a post like that, perhaps you should stop and figure out the right place to post it. We have an xplane forum already.

[George Yunaev 1009376]

Hi there,

 

Found VATSIM long time ago, but stuck in PRC readings, so forgot about it for a while. Then after FS X was released started thinking about it again. Looked through the PRC again, and was ready to give it up. There was a lot of information, which I considered impossible to remember, feeling mentally retarded. I was definitely sure I gonna screw it up, and this would make everyone scream and laugh on me, and that kept me out. However after I found this thread, I got the impression I'm not alone, so I decided to give it a try.

 

My first flight was from KDEN to KCOS, with KDEN_CTR present. I didn't have an airport map, so the controller gave me directions to the runway. It was Cessna, and it really didn't want to fly at all until somewhere in the middle of flight I understood I forgot to lean the mixture However it was good experience, everyone around was nice, friendly and tolerate to mistakes - so it was better than I expected.

 

I'd like to personally thank Eric Tombaugh for his tolerance and advise during this and the following flights.

[Richard Meiss 985871]

You'r definantaly not alone every single person here in all of VATSIM gets that way during their first flight, even rw pilots.lol. I got kicked from the server on my first flight into DFW by a controller. Thats fine though, i just went somewhere else and flew.

[Alex Bailey 969331]

Controllers can't kick pilots, it was probably a server problem

[Dan Morera 1009190]

Ok, so I have not been flying long (about 3 months) and I find out that you can actually fly online with other people (so that's what that multi thingy does) by this point you can tell I ain't really smart I read about VATSIM, but seems a little to advanced for me, so I stay away, but everywhere everyone keeps talking about it.

 

I spend about a week setting everything up and reading the materials. Then I decide to try 1 flight (EGGD to EGNT I think). I file a flight plan (sort of), now I'm sitting at a parking spot. Take a look at SB I see noone, remember to set COM1 to UNICOM, and say "Hello, anybody here....helloooo" (I bet that made me sound like a pro) So figure either I install everything wrong or theres nobody on line, either way it was ok, I was soo nervous.

 

So I start typing my intentions, push back and taxi, I hold short, look left look right, give my self clearence to take off and here I go. I have done this route offline a couple of times to be prepared. Everything going great. I'm getting close to EGNT, when I get "Contact me xxx.xx" OH GOD NO!!!

Keep in mind english is my second language and this gentleman has a perfect English accent, so I do my best no to sound retarded.........and failed, he starts giving me instructions and I try to repeat them back, so far so good, sweating a lot, can't read what I write. I notice that he is taking me around the airport to land in a different runway than I had practiced "I'm dead I though" follow instructions, wife comes in the room "honey I need you to....Not now woman!! (I interrupt) I'm trying to land at EGNT............she looks at me like huh?! "sure you are" walks aways and I have to buy pizza for dinner, oh well. Going back to the action, I'm now lined up for landing, but I'm so nervous now I come in to fast and to high, make my first smart move since 1988 request a go around, the ATC gentleman (a real gentleman) calmly helps me to go around and and line up again, I was decided to nail it. Altitude was fine but was too fast way too fast, I tried to slow down but barely having any effect, I somehow manage to land...not to say fall on the runway but I can not slow down my Dash8 for some reason, nose starts bouncing (you can tell this does not end well) until yes it takes a nose dive, first time this happens to me so I don't know what's going on, try to go to spot view and yes my nose is under the runway, try to go back to the cockpit only to see my self running at 140knots but going WHERE!??? go back to spot view fast trying to see whats going on, only to see my plane running over bushes and things still at 140knots. Don't know what to tell controller who is asking me to leave the runway turning left at first exit, I guess he didn't noticed I was way off the runway by now. Disconnected and have not logged in since.

 

I tried that approach again for 3 or 4 days trying to figure out what happen only to find out that the Speed on the AP was probably still on when I landed setup at 140kts.

 

One of this days I may try it again, still very very nervous

 

Dan

[Corey Elliott 903412]

"Hello, anybody here....helloooo" (I bet that made me sound like a pro)

I'm getting close to EGNT, when I get "Contact me xxx.xx" OH GOD NO!!!

"honey I need you to....Not now woman!! (I interrupt) I'm trying to land at EGNT.

 

That made me laugh!

 

I haven't tried my first flight online yet, I'm still reading and monitoring. But after reading this thread, maybe I'll try it tonight!

 

Corey

[Andrew Simmons 1016927]

Well ive only been flying on Vatsim for about 2 weeks, and I already flying the PMDG 747 online,I even did a trip across the pond and back EGLL-KJFK and flew the first part with Shannon center (i think thats what its called).

I can usualy manage to fly SIDs and Stars ok and follow what ATC tell me to. But the moment Im on the ground I lose all use of my brain and just compleatly mess up the taxiways and upset the controllers. I seem to go into a post flight brain lock where I cannot function properly. If the controller says "turn right on bravo onto Echo ,hold short and then LINK42 to stand 104" i end up miles from where Im supposed to be. I have the charts for every airport I intent to flly to Im just unable to relate what a contoller says with whats on the chart lol.

 

The other thing Im always doing atm is forgeting to state my callsignh before or after a communication. I guess with a little practise I will get better at it.

 

 

Andrew

[Dan Morera 1009190]

Well ive only been flying on Vatsim for about 2 weeks, and I already flying the PMDG 747 online,I even did a trip across the pond and back EGLL-KJFK and flew the first part with Shannon center (i think thats what its called).

I can usualy manage to fly SIDs and Stars ok and follow what ATC tell me to. But the moment Im on the ground I lose all use of my brain and just compleatly mess up the taxiways and upset the controllers. I seem to go into a post flight brain lock where I cannot function properly. If the controller says "turn right on bravo onto Echo ,hold short and then LINK42 to stand 104" i end up miles from where Im supposed to be. I have the charts for every airport I intent to flly to Im just unable to relate what a contoller says with whats on the chart lol.

 

The other thing Im always doing atm is forgeting to state my callsignh before or after a communication. I guess with a little practise I will get better at it.

 

 

Andrew

 

I'm new to VATSIM and FS. And what you mention just gave me a flash back to this Sunday, I want to apologize to tower and ground at EGLL for being a total idiot, (was not understanding instructions, had the airport diagram in front of me but could not see where they wanted me to go)

 

Had to disconnect.

[Thomas Parker]

Well, this is great guys! I love to hear that y'all are giving it a shot. Yeah, it's nerve wracking at first, but you get past that.

 

Welcome aboard.

 

Tom

[Jason Archambeault 863920]

It may seem kind of funny, but my first few times on VATSIM weren't that tough. If anything I actually found it to be an excellent training tool for real world ATC (To a point). When I began my real world flying lessons, I was more nervous about talking to ATC. When I finally calmed down enough, I realized that it was like I've been doing on VATSIM for all this time.

Ask any real world pilot or controller and they'll tell you the same thing. VATSIM and real world ATC are similar.

[Sean Bolli 988617]

I get nervous mostly about the ATC, as I have read and am sure many people do when new. Not being a RW pilot means I spend more time 'learning on the job' than anything else and it can be tough, because I hate screwing up and I do it often.

 

My biggest issue is that many of the ATC (who have all been great to me) speak so fast sometimes, its hard to understand them. I often have to ask for them to repeat themsevles a couple times or slow down and I am embarr[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ed to do so. I know that with time I will know whats coming and understand, but it causes me to not want to get online sometimes.

[Dan Morera 1009190]

........ speak so fast sometimes, its hard to understand them. I often have to ask for them to repeat themsevles a couple times or slow down and I am embarr[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ed to do so. I know that with time I will know whats coming and understand, but it causes me to not want to get online sometimes.

 

Same here, it takes me a couple of weeks to try it again.

[Jeremy Castellanos 1007109]

I get nervous mostly about the ATC, as I have read and am sure many people do when new. Not being a RW pilot means I spend more time 'learning on the job' than anything else and it can be tough, because I hate screwing up and I do it often.

 

My biggest issue is that many of the ATC (who have all been great to me) speak so fast sometimes, its hard to understand them. I often have to ask for them to repeat themsevles a couple times or slow down and I am embarr[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ed to do so. I know that with time I will know whats coming and understand, but it causes me to not want to get online sometimes.

 

I Vatsim ATC out of KMIA and I agree. ATC can talk fast to expedite traffic quicker but I prefer myself to talk at a good speed so others can understand me the first time. If I have to repeat it again I will. If then you still can't understand me then I will text it to you. Better to make sure the pilots understand then have them think that they will just move around thinking they know what was said.

[Yevgeny Beedin 1016679]

Well the thread topic conveys my thoughts exactly, so I'll chime in Foreshadowing: I made a bunch of mistakes during my first flight, so I truly welcome all of your advice.

 

I'm not a private pilot -- in fact I've been in a small plane only once. I'm saving up until I can afford flight lessons, so in the mean time I've been learning as much about flying as I can here on the ground, including radio usage. I've read a couple of books on ATC communication, gotten a radio scanner to listen in on my local airport, and even spent hours each day listening on other airports through LiveATC. I figured that VATSIM would be a very helpful next step, so I joined up a few weeks ago.

 

I flew my first flight today. (It takes a long time to get through all the required reading, and then work up the courage to connect.) I spent a while just listening to ATIS and the tower, getting used to the flow of things. This airport was larger than I'm used to flying in my sim (it was Chicago O'Hare [KORD], a monster of a Cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts] B airspace; my home airport [KPWK] is a very pleasant Cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts] D). I studied the airport chart and flew a couple of practice patterns before connecting. (I'm not the kind of guy to just rush into things, you see.) Despite never having practiced my Cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts] B skills while driving my car like I often do with Cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts] D, I figured that I had enough of a background to try Cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts] B and "fill in the gaps" as I went along.

 

So, I keyed the mike and very professionally introduced myself to the tower with the standard greeting. Unfortunately, the professionalism ended there. The tower came back to me with a departure clearance and squawk code and who knows what else -- I had a total brain freeze. I'd copied down as much as I thought I heard, sat there for about 5 seconds, and then just apologetically said, "uh, say again, please?" The controller must have seen my "new member / student pilot" remark in my flight plan, because he very patiently repeated everything he had just said. I must have A.D.D., though, because, while I had gotten most of what he said, I still didn't catch the squawk number. "Uh, O'Hare Tower, say again squawk frequency -- err, squawk code -- please?" (Could you tell I screwed up there?)

 

Well alright, I got my squawk code, my departure heading, and my clearance for takeoff. Wait, what? I was sitting at the terminal ramp, not holding short of any runway, so why was I already getting a clearance? Maybe he misheard me giving my location on initial contact? "O'Hare Tower, uh, unfamiliar with airport, request progressive taxi." I figured that that was a subtle way of making sure he knew I wasn't holding short, while at the same time getting help I desperately needed. (I really did want progressive taxi, because my flight sim, X-Plane, has no taxiway markings or anything.) "Piper N577SQ, taxi to the T10 intersection." Oh okay, thanks. Now where is that and how the heck do I get there? I searched the chart and finally found it. Now the trick was to correlate the bird's-eye-view of the route with the cat's-eye-view from my cockpit. I admit, I had to cheat here -- I opened the local map in X-Plane every 5 seconds to check my position while taxiing around the ramp like a drunken narcoleptic.

 

About five minutes later, the controller is clearly wondering why this loony isn't airborne yet, so he says something about the T10 intersection again. (What did he say? Who knows? My engine was revving too loud and I was too flustered to catch it.) I just replied "Piper 7SQ taxiing to T10 intersection." I guess that satisfied him. Now, I had finally figured out the way to get there, but something else was bothering me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't I have heard the phrase "and hold short" somewhere in his first taxi instructions? I'm certain that I did not hear it. The controller was a senior student, so it's possible that he forgot, but I just [Mod - Happy Thoughts]umed that I had yet again been too slow or stupid to hear and interpret his commands. So I just taxied real slow and stopped squarely before the runway.

 

Before I had a chance to announce my accomplishment to the tower, he told me that I was clear for takeoff. Okay, cool! Whatever mistakes I had made, I figured that this meant I did well enough, and the rest should be a cakewalk. Almost so. I started the takeoff roll and noticed that I had a real hard time keeping the centerline. As soon as I had rotated, I knew why. ATIS had mentioned something about 25 kph wind gusts, and apparently it was telling the truth. I could not for the life of me keep the plane stable for more than half a second. The wind tossed me left and right, and I had to devote all of my attention to keeping my aircraft in the air. My path was so zig-zagged that I half-expected the controller to call and ask me what I had been smoking before takeoff.

 

I continued skyward, staying below the 1,900 feet clearance I was given (or at least I thought so -- I didn't mention that I forgot to set my altimeter, so it was indicating about 150 feet below actual MSL), and waited for the handoff to departure. Nothing came. There was no departure controller on duty, but since I had been given a departure frequency as part of my instructions, shouldn't I have done something with it? I kept flying and waiting, and finally the controller comes on and says something to me, ending with "frequency change approved." I figure I'm leaving the airport shelf, so I end the communique on a high note: "Frequency change approved, thanks for your help, Piper 57SQ." (Note the superfluous repetition of his instruction and the omission of a '7' from my callsign. I figured I should make my last transmission memorable. ) How many mistakes can YOU make on a single flight, boys and girls?

 

So, I screwed up just about every aspect of my flight, and when I quit X-Plane, I felt the same relief I feel when I sit down after giving a talk. I was actually more jittery after my flight than before it. I recognize many of my mistakes, but, as I said, I sincerely welcome any advice, because I'm resolved to learn and master ATC communication on VATSIM and in real life.

[Jeremy Castellanos 1007109]

I have trying to get things right offline with Xplane before I got online and deal with the real virtual controllers. I still have things to work out but I get fustrated with certain things I forget to do in flight and before landings and it's a 50/50 chance of me killing everyone on my approach because I forgot to set something. Also in flight I wind up blacking out with certain planes so again we all die. I plan on going online soon and fly with a plane I know very well and have next to none problems with. I do ATC online alot more then flying but I still get jitters doing that because I don't want to mess up even when I do and then that makes it worse for me.

[Wycliffe Barrett]

Yevgeny

 

Welcome to your addiction I hope things are going a little better now.

 

You need to know as this thread indicates we ahve all got it wrong at sometime or another and many of us still make the odd mistake.

 

I can only come up with one word of advice and please dont yell at me for this.

 

Can i gently suggest that you get rid of X plane, and buy FS2004 (you'll will get it for a few dollars) I know that xplane has better flight dynamics etc but whne it doesnt even have basic taxiways for amajor airport like Chicago well your in a world of hurt.

 

The airport I control at, EGFF, has only a rwy in Xplane and some local UK pilots who used to fly into EGFF in xplane soon bought FSimulator.

 

Enjoy your addiction and remember blue skies.

 

Very funny story.

[Anthony Atkielski 985811]

One should not [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ume that real-world pilots are seasoned veterans with ATC. Many private pilots fly only VFR and manage to find ways to almost never communicate with anyone on the radio; indeed, in the U.S., it's legal to fly VFR with no radio as long as you stay out of certain airspaces. So many real-wolrd pilots are extremely nervous about talking to ATC, too. Of course, airline pilots and instrument-rated pilots have lots of experience with ATC and don't usually suffer from any nervousness.

[Yevgeny Beedin 1016679]

Yevgeny

 

Welcome to your addiction I hope things are going a little better now.

 

You need to know as this thread indicates we ahve all got it wrong at sometime or another and many of us still make the odd mistake.

 

I can only come up with one word of advice and please dont yell at me for this.

 

Can i gently suggest that you get rid of X plane, and buy FS2004 (you'll will get it for a few dollars) I know that xplane has better flight dynamics etc but whne it doesnt even have basic taxiways for amajor airport like Chicago well your in a world of hurt.

 

The airport I control at, EGFF, has only a rwy in Xplane and some local UK pilots who used to fly into EGFF in xplane soon bought FSimulator.

 

Enjoy your addiction and remember blue skies.

 

Very funny story.

 

Thank you for the warm welcome, and for your advice. Unfortunately, I'm on a Mac (pre-Intel), so MS FS is not an option for me. I'm hoping that the next version of X-Plane will improve the situation. In the mean time, I've found some user-created scenery and taxiway layouts for the airports in which I routinely fly, so that helps things a bit. If we can get VATSIM users to email the X-Plane guys, we can really get the support we need

[Stephen Billings 1022660]

In case you guys dont know, I'm new to the whole online Flight Simulator thing, but not new to FS. I'm probably one of those people that ATC frown upon when they see my callsign in their airspace, because I'm newbie and dont know the "ATC Language and terms" (fully) and have responded with the wrong information back. A few weeks ago I bought a book and in this book and it had what and what not to say to ATC, so I've been practicing and learning. Well last night I decided to "grow some big ones" and fly to my home base Orlando(KMCO) and take on the challenge in communicating to ATC correctly.... Well guess what, just my luck there was no ATC around, out of all the days last night would have been the day. Even though I still had a beautiful flight I was kinda disappointed. My wife was like "try Los Angeles or Atlanta or New York", I just smile and said they really don't have time for me (incase I mess up) hahahaha.

 

Just a story decided to share with your guys