As a beginner, i have some questions

[Cyprien BEE 1481854]

Hello everyone !

 

As a new Vatsim member and a beginner pilot, i have somes question to ask:

In first, it is allowed to file a flight plan from an airport to the same airport as the departure airport ? (to make some training for exemple)

I use a VR controllers to fly planes : Can i [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ign a "push to talk" button on a controller like this ?

If i do some training with an airliner like the 737, my call-sign need to be like an other airliner that do a real flight (like AF256) or can i use the aircraft registration code ?

A special training exercise (like TCAS alert, engine failure or other failure) is allowed to perform ?

If there is no ATC at my departure airport, did i need to do specials things ?

and a simple question : can we do some training flight if the ATC is notified and my intention is noticed on my flight plan (In VFR or IFR) ?

 

Note : I write this post to give a better flight experience for me and other peoples that will fly near me

 

Thanks you for your replies !

 

Good flights ^^

[Andreas Fuchs]

Hi Cyprien and welcome to VATSIM.

 

Thanks for asking these valid questions before doing "stupid" things!

 

Flightplan: yes, you can file from wherever you like to wherever you like. Even when you perform a local flight (for example training) air traffic controllers and other pilots will appreciate if you file a short and basic flightplan so everyone knows what type of aircraft you use and what your intentions are.

 

For VR controllers I cannot help you, as I am not doing this. If your VR controller has a button, it probably can be [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igned as a PTT button.

 

For training you can use an airline callsign or your aircraft registration. Please not that airline callsigns must always use he 3-letter ICAO code of the airline. For example, Air France is "AFR". "AF" is the 2-letter IATA code, please do not use the IATA code. When using registrations, do NOT insert the "-" as callsign. For example, if your aircraft is registered as "F-GHMP", you would log on to VATSIM as "FGHMP", just like in the real world. But you will probably prefer an airline callsign anyway.

 

You can do almost anything online, as long as it does not negative affect other members. You can simulate emergencies, but when you happen to be in active airspace with ATC, the controller has the right to tell you to either stop the emergency (due to traffic load) or continue your emergency offline. Quite often ATC will play the game with you, so don't worry. But as well do not overdo it - we have some kids who try to get priority for landing through emergencies - not nice!

 

When you are outside active airspace (=no ATC online), then tune to UNICOM 122.800 and announce your intentions for critical phases of flight by voice: takeoff, landing, starting an approach etc.. Your voice-range on UNICOM is 15 NM. If you use text on 122.800 your range will be much higher, but voice is preferred. Reports would start like "De Gaulle traffic, Air France 1234, now lining up and departing runway 26R, AGOPA 3 ECHO departure, climbing FL310".

 

As long as ATC is informed and has approved special manoeuvrers, you can do that of course. Always communicate, get a clearance. Both parties need to be on the same page.

 

Have fun!

[Cyprien BEE 1481854]

Hi Cyprien and welcome to VATSIM.

 

Thanks for asking these valid questions before doing "stupid" things!

 

Flightplan: yes, you can file from wherever you like to wherever you like. Even when you perform a local flight (for example training) air traffic controllers and other pilots will appreciate if you file a short and basic flightplan so everyone knows what type of aircraft you use and what your intentions are.

 

For VR controllers I cannot help you, as I am not doing this. If your VR controller has a button, it probably can be [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igned as a PTT button.

 

For training you can use an airline callsign or your aircraft registration. Please not that airline callsigns must always use he 3-letter ICAO code of the airline. For example, Air France is "AFR". "AF" is the 2-letter IATA code, please do not use the IATA code. When using registrations, do NOT insert the "-" as callsign. For example, if your aircraft is registered as "F-GHMP", you would log on to VATSIM as "FGHMP", just like in the real world. But you will probably prefer an airline callsign anyway.

 

You can do almost anything online, as long as it does not negative affect other members. You can simulate emergencies, but when you happen to be in active airspace with ATC, the controller has the right to tell you to either stop the emergency (due to traffic load) or continue your emergency offline. Quite often ATC will play the game with you, so don't worry. But as well do not overdo it - we have some kids who try to get priority for landing through emergencies - not nice!

 

When you are outside active airspace (=no ATC online), then tune to UNICOM 122.800 and announce your intentions for critical phases of flight by voice: takeoff, landing, starting an approach etc.. Your voice-range on UNICOM is 15 NM. If you use text on 122.800 your range will be much higher, but voice is preferred. Reports would start like "De Gaulle traffic, Air France 1234, now lining up and departing runway 26R, AGOPA 3 ECHO departure, climbing FL310".

 

As long as ATC is informed and has approved special manoeuvrers, you can do that of course. Always communicate, get a clearance. Both parties need to be on the same page.

 

Have fun!

 

Thank you for your replie

But i have now a problem : Xpilot, doesn't detect my microphone and i can't speak so ! Did you know what can produce this problem ? Maybe i need to install a special plugin ? (I use Xplane and my microphone is fine, it work with other app)

[Andreas Fuchs]

How do you know that xPilot does not recognize your microphone?

[Cyprien BEE 1481854]

How do you know that xPilot does not recognize your microphone?

 

 

To see that i only have to select the (Audio/Push to takl (PTT)) option and see when i speak if the peak level indicator is lighting up !

[Andreas Fuchs]

Ok, I am not using xPilot, so I can only guess. I assume that you have consulted the docomentation at: http://xpilot.clowd.io/docs

 

Edited April 21, 2020 at 12:26 PM by Andreas Fuchs

[Cyprien BEE 1481854]

Ok, I am not using xPilot, so I can only guess. I [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ume that you have consulted the docomeentation at: http://xpilot.clowd.io/docs

 

 

Ok, thank you for the information

[Evgeny Zavershinskiy]

Hi. Another newbie here. 🙂 I have two questions for now.

First about unicom. Is it preferable to use voice to announce at unicom? I read in some vatsim documents (can't say the particular one but somewhere in the beginner's guides) that text is preferable in unicom. Maybe I read it incorrectly? 

Second one is about text-only controllers and the game pause. The situation I was in couple days ago: I flew VFR in Yak-18T which does not have any navigational instruments except ADF (without DME) and no autopilot. So it is 100% manual and day-VFR-only aircraft. The only controller in the area was the airport's tower and it was text-only. So to contact tower and announce my aircraft type, my position and distance from the field and my intentions to land I have to type all this in the xPilot by one hand and fly at same time. So the question is - is it "legal" to pause the sim, type all you need, unpause and transmit it? And how paused players are viewed from controller perspective? Planes just stuck in place for some time on their screens? And the question is mainly about the initial contact 'cause future conversation is usually short messages of read backs and "rogers" so you don't need to use pause to type long text.    

[Samuel Rey]

1 hour ago, Evgeny Zavershinskiy said:

Hi. Another newbie here. 🙂 I have two questions for now.

First about unicom. Is it preferable to use voice to announce at unicom? I read in some vatsim documents (can't say the particular one but somewhere in the beginner's guides) that text is preferable in unicom. Maybe I read it incorrectly? 

Second one is about text-only controllers and the game pause. The situation I was in couple days ago: I flew VFR in Yak-18T which does not have any navigational instruments except ADF (without DME) and no autopilot. So it is 100% manual and day-VFR-only aircraft. The only controller in the area was the airport's tower and it was text-only. So to contact tower and announce my aircraft type, my position and distance from the field and my intentions to land I have to type all this in the xPilot by one hand and fly at same time. So the question is - is it "legal" to pause the sim, type all you need, unpause and transmit it? And how paused players are viewed from controller perspective? Planes just stuck in place for some time on their screens? And the question is mainly about the initial contact 'cause future conversation is usually short messages of read backs and "rogers" so you don't need to use pause to type long text.    

About UNICOM - VATSIM has had an old, outdated voice system up until last October, when we upgraded to the new one, called Audio For VATSIM. The old codec didn't allow for voice on UNICOM, so it was mandatory to use text. However, now that AFV has launched, UNICOM does have voice capabilities and it's the preferred way of communicating.

As for text-only controllers, I'd say don't worry about it: it's extremely uncommon to have a text only controller. However, if you do need to type something on text, do not pause the sim. For other people, you appear frozen in mid air, and it can screw up separation, sequencing, etc. My recommendation is to use shorthand so that you don't need to type a very long message, for example 'EGKK via J1 t/o 08R' (I usually don't type out my callsign as the chat already has the callsign before any message, it shows up like '[your callsign]: [your message]')

And welcome to the network! Hope you have fun here.