Dave Chaffe Posted August 6, 2020 at 11:39 AM Posted August 6, 2020 at 11:39 AM Greetings, I have been attempting to fly in formation with a friend in a remote location. We can each log onto Vatsim and we are able to see other labelled flight activity. However, even though we are logged on separately with no other connection we don't see each other. We have tried many times at various locations and a variety of aircraft. Recently we were both parked side by side at Heathrow and we could see the same activity but not each other. Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mats Edvin Aaro Posted August 6, 2020 at 11:51 AM Posted August 6, 2020 at 11:51 AM Can you see other aircraft? Are you sure you have proper CSL installed? Mats Edvin AarøAssistant to the Vice President - Supervisors VATSIM General Manager: Member Engagement[email protected] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Chaffe Posted August 6, 2020 at 12:24 PM Author Posted August 6, 2020 at 12:24 PM Thanks Mats, we can each see the the same aircraft, at Heathrow for example, because the call signs are displayed as labels. We have used Smart Co-pilot in the past and have it as a plugin but we do not connect when on Vatsim. Could there be some background residual from Smart Co-pilot? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Fuchs Posted August 6, 2020 at 03:48 PM Posted August 6, 2020 at 03:48 PM What pilot client are you using? Cheers, Andreas Member of VATSIM GermanyMy real flying on InstagramMy Twitch streams of VATSIM flights and ATC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Shearman Jr Posted August 6, 2020 at 05:19 PM Posted August 6, 2020 at 05:19 PM (edited) Whether or not you sort out the visibility issue, note that formation flying on VATSIM is next to impossible because of position latency on the order of around 5-6 seconds. That is, when you see other players, you're not seeing where they are now; you're seeing where they were 5-6 seconds ago. You might feel you're flying wing-to-wing with your buddy at 120kts, but your buddy will actually be around 1200ft ahead of you -- and to him, you'll appear a further 1200ft behind that! Edited August 6, 2020 at 05:20 PM by Robert Shearman Jr 1 Cheers, -R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Hannant Posted August 6, 2020 at 07:47 PM Posted August 6, 2020 at 07:47 PM Take a look at the following if you're going to do a lot of formation flying: https://pmem.uk/joinfs/ If all of you flying in formation connect via this, you will have far lower latency and will be able to hold the formation far far better. It will however make it look like you see two of each pilot connected to JoinFS but that's easily fixable via your pilot client. Not sure about other pilot clients*, but in vPilot you can disable the display of any aircraft by typing the ".aircraft" command then clicking on "ignore" next to the aircraft you want to hide. You then only have that aircraft visible via your JoinFS connection... *I assume other pilot clients have the same option via the same dot command but can't say for certain... Trevor Hannant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Chaffe Posted August 7, 2020 at 05:32 PM Author Posted August 7, 2020 at 05:32 PM On 8/6/2020 at 1:19 PM, Robert Shearman Jr said: Whether or not you sort out the visibility issue, note that formation flying on VATSIM is next to impossible because of position latency on the order of around 5-6 seconds. That is, when you see other players, you're not seeing where they are now; you're seeing where they were 5-6 seconds ago. You might feel you're flying wing-to-wing with your buddy at 120kts, but your buddy will actually be around 1200ft ahead of you -- and to him, you'll appear a further 1200ft behind that! Thanks for info Robert, much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts