My second time on VATSIM

[John McMurdo]

The second time went slightly better, but it was by no means a success.  Having already contacted ATC on a previous occasion I was not sat there for half an hour with my finger hovering over the PTT button.  However,  as the instructions got more and more complicated I sometimes had to ask ATC to repeat them,  and as soon as I was up in the air my hands were beginning to shake again.  I kept mishearing which frequency I had to tune to and it was taking me longer to change frequencies,  or change anything my hands were shaking so much.  Then I realised I must have misheard or miswritten the last frequency I was given,  because I heard nothing.  My notebook started off neat and tidy,  but as I began to write things down franticly,  it got a bit messy which I think  could have been part of the problem, I am glacing over at it now and cant read some of what I wrote.

 

I was sat  not knowing who to contact.  Eventually I got a text message  asking to contact EDDG on (I cant remember what frequency)  and from then on I was doing OK, everything was going fine, I was handed over to a couple more ATC's before Munich, and I had managed to follow all the instructions up to the holding point of Munich,  when it happened again.  I had no idea who to contact, noone online at Munich. So after 15 minutes of holding I decided to just sign off.

Edited September 16, 2021 at 09:11 PM by John McMurdo

[Dace Nicmane]

I know it's hard (impossible) to wrestle the nerves, but please, calm down a little, the ATC don't bite 🙂

If you've got a frequency wrong, no biggie, go back to your previous frequency and ask them again. Happens in real life, too. 

I didn't quite understand what happened at the end of your flight. Did you get a landing clearance from tower and then they suddenly disappeared leaving you vacated behind the holding point? Or did they hand you off to ground or unicom (e. g. if they were closing)? If you're ever handed off to unicom, just announce your intentions on 122.800 and listen for any other traffic nearby. You don't need to disconnect because there's no ATC. Otherwise, stay with your controller who will work you in a top down fashion (more on the top down principle in the VATSIM learning center). 

[John McMurdo]

1 hour ago, Dace Nicmane said:

I know it's hard (impossible) to wrestle the nerves, but please, calm down a little, the ATC don't bite 🙂

If you've got a frequency wrong, no biggie, go back to your previous frequency and ask them again. Happens in real life, too. 

I didn't quite understand what happened at the end of your flight. Did you get a landing clearance from tower and then they suddenly disappeared leaving you vacated behind the holding point? Or did they hand you off to ground or unicom (e. g. if they were closing)? If you're ever handed off to unicom, just announce your intentions on 122.800 and listen for any other traffic nearby. You don't need to disconnect because there's no ATC. Otherwise, stay with your controller who will work you in a top down fashion (more on the top down principle in the VATSIM learning center). 

Thanks for the advice - I will give it a second shot tomorrow,  and then a third,  and a fourth...until I get it right and hope I don't annoy too many controllers in the process lol

I know its a HUGE no-no trying to guess what ATC might have said,  but I still feel awkward asking them to repeat themselves.

I was handed over to ground who then handed me over to approach who then went offline,  shortly after which ground went offline.

I was thinking about the situation I was in on approach,  and thought I could have probably tuned into any frequency and asked for help from any ATC, they would have known what frequency I SHOULD be on.

Edited September 17, 2021 at 12:18 AM by John McMurdo

[Torben Andersen]

Don't feel awkward for asking atc to repeat - it is MUCH MORE AWKWARD, when atc see you doing something, you were not told to do, beleave me 🙂

. You can even have it on text if needed.

regards

[Matthew Bartels]

^1000% this. ATC might roll their eyes at the 5th “say again.” 🙂 But even then we would rather repeat so you get it right, than guess wrong out of fear of upsetting the controller by asking for clarification.

The number one golden rule for all pilots is that you do not accept a clearance you do not understand or are unable to comply with.  I would much rather come up with an alternate plan  that you are able to do than wonder what the heck you are doing when I see you deviate from what I expected because you were too scared to admit you didn’t know what you needed to do in the assigned clearance.

[John McMurdo]

So my third time went way better than expected.  Departure from Gatwick was pretty straight forward,  cruise across channel into Germany was also pretty straight forward,  however the radio was frantic,  sometimes difficult to get a word in lol.  But when I got to Munich same thing happened as before ;confusion over who to contact after Munich went offline.  I went back to last frequency and asked for a diversion to Frankfurt,  an airport I had not even flown to offline.  I was given a route and used the time to do a bit of research on chartfox,  a site I always keep up on my second monitor when I'm flying.  I was pretty pleased with myself being able to follow instructions after having to deviate from my original flight plan and to a fairly big airport,  I overshot slightly on final,  but ATC gave me a new course to correct it and I engaged approach and just let the plane do its thing, I did not trust myself to do a manual approach on my first attempt, plus it had already been pretty intense up to that point! 

As for taxiing, I was thankful I had AVS otherwise I would most certainly have been lost taxing to my gate.

Not a perfect flight, but I still consider it a success.

Edited September 17, 2021 at 10:17 PM by John McMurdo

[Dace Nicmane]

Glad to hear it, congrats!

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Great lesson in adaptability.  One of the biggest learning barriers a new VATSIM pilot experiences, coming from that solo environment where you are always the only or the most important plane in the sky, into a multiplayer environment, is this: a flightplan is only a plan.  Plans often change.

[Paul Albertz]

Get used to ask ATC to repeat an instruction 😅

Nearly every time I have to ask more than once to repeat a "Direct to ..." instruction.

"Direct to Upperbrighton Chesterhamwittlesby Downfolleymarksboroughstownsend"

"🤔Please repeat"

"Direct to Uniform Charlie Delta"

[Alistair Thomson]

3 hours ago, Paul Albertz said:

"Direct to Upperbrighton Chesterhamwittlesby Downfolleymarksboroughstownsend"

Go Direct to Upperbrighton Chesterhamwittlesby Downfolleymarksboroughstownsend. Do NOT pass CrowleyOnTheWealdByNetherWallopAuldBucket and DEFINITELY do not collect 200 of your local currency...

 

[Tobias Dammers]

And don't forget to LEVEL BY SHUUUGOL!