James Underwood Posted June 28, 2020 at 01:17 PM Posted June 28, 2020 at 01:17 PM Hello all, Yesterday was my 4th, or so, session on VATSIM. I'd have been flying before on and off on FSX, I never had a PC that could handle it so flying went out the window all the time. On the first month of Furlough, I treated myself to a new PC, now that I wasn't going to be spending dosh at model shows or air shows as I would do this season, now was a chance to get a PC! I got P3D and loved being able to fly without it being a slideshow...but I was still struggling with my ATC. VoxATC isn't too bad, I ditched it as it has it's own random generated traffic rather than the AIG traffic files, so at most places I had very little chance of being able to dock anywhere. I finished off with Radar Contact, which drove me up the wall, telling me off for things I didn't get an instruction for, sending AI traffic off at a taxiway where I was, and then having to go on the grass to get out of it's way and then getting told 'hey, what are you doing on the runway!!' I nearly gave up flying, I could do it with AI turned off but doesn't seem right to have 0 traffic anywhere in the world. The VA I am with, Fly UK, does a bi-weekly ATC event on their own server, a relaxed version but also had a seminar event about ATC as well, along with some basic phraseology. Having done that, the next day I loaded myself at the back of Edinburgh and tuned in to Ground, just to sit and listen. It was then when I decided maybe I should throw myself in the deep end and give it a go, and I did! Only Edinburgh ground was on but that was ok, it was a start, and an airport I've done before so I know there won't be a massive string of taxiways. I did accidentally approve the GOSAM departure when I should have requested the TALLA departure as I was a Dash 8 but I wasn't worried about that. The second time I noticed Jersey Tower and Ground was on so I stepped up and did a Southampton - Jersey - Southampton round trip. The guys at Jersey were great, and it was surreal seeing an easyjet A320 at the holding point waiting for me to come in, not an AI plane that was about to jump in front of me, no, it was someone watching me come in and I tried not to balls it up!! On the return to Southampton I had London Centre, I wasn't expecting that! But wow how crazy that is, callsigns and instructions everywhere, I don't know how the controller managed all of that! Yesterday (28/06) did Southampton to Edinburgh, used all the runway to stop which was embarrassing, but interesting to hear and see how a runway change operation is done. On the same day I did Edinburgh to Manchester. I must apologise to whoever was on Manchester Approach, you were having a tough time with a GA (I think) not responding or reading back instructions, and a couple of others who didn't respond and I added to that here and there as well. I was surprised to have two other Company 'Skyways' flights also coming in to EGCC as well, so there were times where you were saying Skyways 719 when I thought you were talking to Skyways 135. First time I've had the situation of more of the same callsign ICAO code. Lessons learnt, I am looking forward to doing more and more VATSIM flights, the more I do it the more I'm going to find it easier, it's the only way I can learn myself. I cannot however see me returning to Radar Contact or any other ATC program, this online flying ramps up the realism no end!! See you in the skies! James. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Hannant Posted June 29, 2020 at 10:52 PM Posted June 29, 2020 at 10:52 PM Glad to hear you're reaping the benefits of coming online and off AI ATC programs James! Feel free to use and abuse Jersey and Bristol if you need somewhere that's a little quieter while you pick up more confidence (and practice not landing long! 😉 ). As a controller at both, I'd be happy to help out with any questions/tips to help you build up from where you're at now. See you in the virtual skies soon! Trevor Hannant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Underwood Posted June 30, 2020 at 04:37 PM Author Posted June 30, 2020 at 04:37 PM 17 hours ago, Trevor Hannant said: Glad to hear you're reaping the benefits of coming online and off AI ATC programs James! Feel free to use and abuse Jersey and Bristol if you need somewhere that's a little quieter while you pick up more confidence (and practice not landing long! 😉 ). As a controller at both, I'd be happy to help out with any questions/tips to help you build up from where you're at now. See you in the virtual skies soon! Thank you Trevor! I might need that, I struggled to land at Manchester fighting a surface wind, a normal day for a Dash 8, turned off at A at Manchester, which is where the A380's normally end up, not a Dash 8, how embarrassing! 😄 I will be on EGGD soon, Bristol is my 'home' airport, and as I'm planning on getting the A320, I plan to do some training circuits at Bristol to learn the aircraft, get used to the ILS and give some go around's ago, would be good practice to learn that and using ATC as well. Thank you! James. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Hannant Posted June 30, 2020 at 04:53 PM Posted June 30, 2020 at 04:53 PM I'll be on this evening from 1900 local for a couple of hours... There's a crowd of us who are either based in the South West or trained there on VATSIM who try to cover Bristol, the Channel Islands, London Control (West Sector) and others every Tuesday evening. Feel free to do circuits or a couple of trips between Bristol and Jersey etc. Trevor Hannant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Hannant Posted June 30, 2020 at 08:50 PM Posted June 30, 2020 at 08:50 PM Good to have you fly in this evening James, looked good, sounded good and confident! Haste ye back! Trevor Hannant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Underwood Posted June 30, 2020 at 09:52 PM Author Posted June 30, 2020 at 09:52 PM 59 minutes ago, Trevor Hannant said: Good to have you fly in this evening James, looked good, sounded good and confident! Haste ye back! Thank you! Enjoyed it shame my UK2000 Bristol scenery was broken, could not find the stand at all! Had problems with Guernsey as well, I seem to have to keep re-installing Guernsey, and by the looks of it, Bristol scenery, something to do with Orbx I don't know, usually if I re-install Orbx or install something with it, UK2000 Guernsey goes bust. (probably the same for Bristol, only used it once when I installed the new UK2000 EGGD. Will re-install and hope it works). Glad I went out of Jersey rather than in, bloody foggy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Underwood Posted July 1, 2020 at 12:04 AM Author Posted July 1, 2020 at 12:04 AM 2 hours ago, Trevor Hannant said: Good to have you fly in this evening James, looked good, sounded good and confident! Haste ye back! Also if you are interested in seeing it from the perspective of the 'pointy end', I've uploaded the journey on YouTube, starts at Jersey with the IFR Clearance and is cut down to mostly feature the ATC parts. Includes a censor when I swore as I started backtracking the wrong way at Jersey as I distracted myself on the iPad looking for the SKERY chart! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Hannant Posted July 1, 2020 at 12:43 PM Posted July 1, 2020 at 12:43 PM 14 hours ago, James Underwood said: Thank you! Enjoyed it shame my UK2000 Bristol scenery was broken, could not find the stand at all! Had problems with Guernsey as well, I seem to have to keep re-installing Guernsey, and by the looks of it, Bristol scenery, something to do with Orbx I don't know, usually if I re-install Orbx or install something with it, UK2000 Guernsey goes bust. (probably the same for Bristol, only used it once when I installed the new UK2000 EGGD. Will re-install and hope it works). Glad I went out of Jersey rather than in, bloody foggy! Make sure you set an Insertion Point in ORBX Central that is NOT 'Top of Scenery Library'. I've got mine set to 'Sharurah' as this is one of the highest default options in the list. When adding anything else, it should go above that and sit on top of ORBX OK however you will probably need to rename the ORBX files for these airports as they can interfere. Find your: EU England\ORBX\FTX_EU\FTX_EU_ENG_05_SCENERY\scenery ...folder and rename any file with the ICAO Code of any other developer's addon airports to add .off at the end of the file name. This will stop you getting double artifacts etc. and only have a single copy of the airport in your sim when you're there! Trevor Hannant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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