Shared Cockpit in VATSIM.

[Marlon Gomez]

Hi,

In the future, I am considering flying with someone in a shared cockpit flight on VATSIM, but we don't know how to do it. If both of us connect to VATSIM, we end up with 2 planes, and if we wanted to fly together on VATSIM, only 1 of us would be able to connect. Is there any way possible to sort this, maybe by using Audio for VATSIM, so we can both talk to ATC directly.

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Your aircraft has to have this feature.  All VATSIM Pilot Clients do is allow one of you to connect as an Observer so ATC only sees one plane.  The core functionality of sharing a cockpit (i.e. one person throws a switch or turns a knob, and the effect happens in simulated planes on two separate computers across the world from one another) has to come from your simulator and/or add-on aircraft. 

[David Gant]

Yes Marlon, you can do this so both of you can talk to ATC from within one aircraft.  I use this method regularly with students.

JoinFS is a free utility for networking FSX/P3D/Xplane simulators together.  It supports cockpit sharing which is limited to basic controls only.  For example, you would see the other pilot lower flaps and change the heading bug, but it would not show you complex controls such as seatbelt switches, APU settings.

The procedure takes some explaining so I have made video tutorials:

How to download and set up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgXMN-MnE1c&t=15s

How to cockpit share: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qXWaZnyQPE

 

[Evan Reiter]

If you're using FSX, you could also use these instructions: https://forum.bvartcc.com/uploads/bva/GettingStarted/FSX/index.html?Page=sharing_index.html.

JoinFS is good too, from what I've heard.