Problems on starting up

[Jacopo Colussi 1367791]

Hello everybody,

 

I'm xplane 9.70 user and i dowloaded xsquawkbox and made registration to vatsim as Pilot. Now for several days i'm in alaska for bush flight with pilatus pc6 turbo porter. The problem is this: i made everything suggested from the starting guide but when i connect to a vatsim server but no one seems to be online . Could someone help me? probably i made something wrong.

 

Thank you

[Nicholas Cavacini]

There is a possibility that nobody was on in the area around you, espicially in rural Alaska. All members, including ATC are volunteers so they are not always online. Check a source like VATTASTIC (http://www.vattastic.com) to see who is online around you. If you haven't already, take a look at the Pilot Resource Center at www.vatsim.net/prc for a lot of helpful information.

[Jacopo Colussi 1367791]

Thank you very much for the reply. However for a correct procedure i'll send a flight plan even if anybody is nearby. Correct?

[Nicholas Cavacini]

Yes, you can and should still submit a flightplan. If someone comes by later in the flight they will be able to see it.

[Jacopo Colussi 1367791]

Thank you.

I did my first two vfr flight in vatsim and every time i wrote plan with the vatsim form. If you could check it and tell me if everything is correct.

But for the complete procedure with atc i didn't find anyone in alaska so i can't have training. Could you tell me how can i have training?

 

thanks

[Nicholas Cavacini]

Looking at your FP from yesterday, there are only a few things and they are mainly minor. You have the right idea.

 

Callsign: As a general rule, USA general aviation callsigns are in the format of either N###XX, N####X, N#####. Where # represents a number and X represents a letter. For more information on N numbers, the FAA has further information here: FAA

 

Aircraft type: PC6B isn't an official type designation. You can search for ICAO codes for aircraft at: http://www.icao.int/publications/DOC8643/Pages/Search.aspx

 

Altitude: I'm going to [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ume that you mean 350 feet here. This is written in MSL (Mean Sea Level) in reference to altitude above sea level not above ground. You may want to chose a different altitude but it doesn't matter too much since you are VFR. Typically you won't want to fly that low even if it was 350 ft above ground. FAA says minimum altitude is 500ft above unpopulated areas and 1000 ft above populated areas, mainly cities. That is above the highest listed obstacle, not ground level. There are some exceptions to this such as arrivals/departures. If you wanted to fly at 1,500, you would type 1500.

 

Route: Always have a route. For a short flight it could be listed at just the dep/arr fields but you should always put something in here. It can be an airport ICAO (PANC), vor (ANC), fix (WINOR), or any other navigational aid. For VFR flights, you can include charted VFR waypoints, city names, etc.

 

Some further help for you can be found at the Pilot Resource Center at http://www.vatsim.net/prc. There is pilot training available through Training organizations at http://ptd.vatsim.net.

[Jacopo Colussi 1367791]

Thank you very much for the clear reply. I'll do everything you wrote.

 

Thanks again

[Nicholas Cavacini]

I didn't have much time to write but if you have any further questions I would be happy to answer them. You can ask them here or via pm.

[Jacopo Colussi 1367791]

Thanks again for your precious help. I've decided to join VAtita, a training organization recognized by vatsim to reach P1 level and learn how to flight in netwrok world.

[Nicholas Cavacini]

Awesome! You'll learn a little through the training program.