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New to Vatsim and Flight Planning


Kevin Shires 1199920
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Kevin Shires 1199920
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Posted

Sorry if these may appear to be stupid Q's.

 

I am located in Germany but my 'home' airport is EGCC. When I am at EGCC my P/C time is naturally set at German local time. Should I reset the sim. time to EGCC local time ie. 1 hour before. Also when filing a flight plan the correct time is Zulu ie. 1 hour before EGCC local time eg. German time 12:00, EGCC time 11:00 (Sim. time) Zulu time 10:00 (Flight Plan Time). Can someone confirm, or not, that these steps are correct. Also I am totally new to VatSim so what do I do if there are no controllers 'in range' according to ServInfo

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Miguel Frias
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Hi Kevin. Welcome to VATSIM!

 

You should always use UTC=Zulu time because that's the standard time zone for all time references. When flying, you can have your time and date set to whatever you want. However, if you fly in Oceanic airspaces or in non-radar zones, you will have to report your positions and estimates to the next waypoints. The estimates are the time of expected crossing. Since controllers will use UTC, then you will have to as well.

And.. it makes the flight experience more realistic since you fly at the time of the place where you are at.

 

Regarding who is online... If you don't have a controller online, your experience is not going to be so nice but hey... this is a hobby and we're not paid to be online 24x7 So... use UNICOM on frequency 122.800. This is normally a text-only channel where pilots self-announce their intentions. Example:

 

MMZ193 taxiing to holdingpoint runway 03.

MMZ193, on approach to LPPT, descending to 5000ft 40nm from CP NDB.

 

The goal is to coordinate with other pilots to avoid conflicts when no ATC is present. My personal suggestion: don't make this a game where you have to land before others. Be courteous and do a different thing than normal such as entering a hold, performing an orbit. It's actually even more challenging.

 

I take the opportunity to add the following:

- if you didn't understand something -> "say again?"

- if you're not sure you got something right -> confirm it

- if you don't know/can't do something -> "unable" (request vectors... request progressive taxi...)

 

Enjoy!

 

Miguel

Miguel Frias

Senior Instructor (I3) & Certified Pilot (P4), ZLA I-11 graduate

Portugal vACC Training Director (ACCPT2), VATEUD Operations Director (VATEUD8)

Portugal vACC, VATEUD, VATSIM

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Kevin Shires 1199920
Posted
Posted

Many thanks Miguel, clears up my questions admirably

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