New member callsign question

[Robert Thornton]

As a new member still skittish to get on voice (i have sat for hours scanning the different ATC's  to get a feel for the cadence), one thing I have noticed is that all of the callsigns for pilots are airline nomenclature and the vast majority of planes are commerical jet liners. 

I have initially been on a Baron G58 and am moving onto my first jet in the CJ4.  while i am still learning cockpit familiarization with those I am also watching videos on the A320 but don't feel I will be ready for that any time soon. 

So after all that preamble, are there those who connect as civilian or private pilots with appropriate callsigns, or does everyone use commercial identification regardless of what planes they fly?

Sorry for the ramble! 

[Alistair Thomson]

25 minutes ago, Robert Thornton said:

are there those who connect as civilian or private pilots with appropriate callsigns, or does everyone use commercial identification regardless of what planes they fly

The bottom line is that you can choose your callsign. Normally members choose something in line with the environment, so, for example with a VFR flight in a light single in the UK, you might pluck a callsign out of the air which matched the normal private registration callsign pattern, eg. G-XXXX. I often used G-AVUS because that was the first RW aircraft I flew. It doesn't matter that that is a real registration in the UK.

Note that you can apply your chosen callsign to whatever aircraft you are flying, even if it's a Boeing 767, so it isn't restricted to light singles VFR. It's about the registration of the aircraft, not its purpose or size. It's good if you obey the registration naming system of the jurisdiction of the aircraft's original location (like G-XXXX in the UK for private ownership). For an IFR flight in a passenger jet you might invent an airline called NewAire, abbreviated as NAR and your specific flight might be NAR45, for example.

There are some issues there, of course, because ATC has, I think, a list of standard callsigns which are  "understood" to be well-known airlines and calling your aircraft "Speedbird 201" might give the impression that you're flying for British Airways and not NewAire. I honestly don't know what effect that has on the system, but someone will definitely chip in on that! :)

[Kirk Christie]

If you log into my.vatsim.net and head to 

Learning Center / VATSIM Basics / Choosing a Call Sign

That should help you get started.