Theory with sharing a cockpit

[Grant Williams]

Hey all!

I’m just now getting back into the hobby of flight sim after several years off (and oh boy am I coming in fast and hot... my partner is about to start limiting my computer time HAHA).

I have a friend that also flies FSX: Steam Edition. I am wanting to share a cockpit with him in a simple way. If we connect to a private lobby on Steam, share a cockpit, and then connect to VATSIM using vPilot as one of our clients... would that in theory allow us to share a cockpit with minimal issues? Or is there a better way to do it?

My understanding in the minimal research I’ve done is that sharing a cockpit is possible with XPlane because of add on software. Not sure about FSX:Steam Edition, however and looking for a workaround.

Thanks! See you in the air!

Grant

[Ross Carlson]

3 hours ago, Grant Williams said:

my partner is about to start limiting my computer time HAHA).

Tell your partner that VATSIM isn't just a hobby ... it's educational! 😄

vPilot has checkbox on its connect screen where if you check that box, you will connect to VATSIM in observer mode, and vPilot will watch for another pilot nearby that has the same callsign as you, minus a trailing letter, and it will not inject an aircraft model into your sim to represent that other pilot. Without this feature, you would both see a ghost aircraft copy of yourself superimposed over your aircraft at the same position.

For example, if the two of you are flying as "DAL123", and your friend is the "main" connection, they will connect as "DAL123" and you will connect as "DAL123A". (You just need to suffix the callsign with a letter.) That way, your copy of vPilot will not inject an aircraft model for DAL123, and your friend's copy of vPilot will not inject a model for you because you will be connecting in observer mode. (Meaning you are invisible to other pilots and controllers.)

This is all that vPilot does for you in terms of shared cockpit flying. It is up to your specific flight sim and choice of aircraft to provide the actual synchronization between your two sims. I believe you can do shared cockpit with the default aircraft that come with FSX, but I've never tried it.

[Grant Williams]

Thanks for the reply and the tip! Good info to have! I might give this a try and see what happens. I think we would have to be in a default aircraft because I don’t believe he has any add-ons. Even so, tooting around in a Cessna is fun as can be!

And yes, it is very educational! If I taught an older grade (I teach 2nd) I would see about using flight simulator to teach certain science concepts. We used to have a flight sim in a technology class when I was a kid. Quite a fun experience.