Progressing in Vatsim

[Ahmad Ashraf]

Today I decided that I will shoot my shot on Vatsim , but it really went messy 

 

First off I paused a while rereading the delivery clearence and then asked for another clearence while I was pushing back then the controller told me that you dont have a pushback clearence 😅 

Then as soon as I got taxi clearence the frame rate dropped below 20 multiple times then I kept getting disconnected and then my pc froze so it was an overall horrible experience 😁

 

So does anyone have tips to improve because today was so frustrating

[Frans van Santbrink]

Well, important to remember is that this is just a sim and not real-life. So no one's lives are at stake and we do this as a hobby; for fun. Although you may come across a select few who can end up taking it way too seriously and want to berate you for making mistakes, but generally you'll find majority of people on VATSIM are friendly and willing to help. I say all this to hopefully put you at ease, because I know it can be daunting for newcomers who feel like when they make a mistake it angers everyone else. At the end of the day, we were all there at some point, and even the most experienced VATSIM members still make mistakes.

Also, I would suggest sitting at a busy airport with ATC in Observer Mode (or spectator mode if you want to call it that). If you're using VPilot or XPilot, when connecting there's a little checkbox to enable Observer Mode. This will essentially allow you to connect to the network and see and hear everyone, but they can't see you (afaik). Use Map.VATSIM.net to see where there's active ATC before you connect. So by doing this, you can just sit anywhere at an airport and listen to ATC to familiarise yourself with how things usually operate, phraseology (if you aren't already familiar) and so on.

You seem like you already know or have an idea of basic procedures and how to fly an aircraft properly. So once you're comfortable, you can try your hand at doing a VFR flight (or IFR if you're already familiar) from a more quiet airport with ATC. That way you don't get overwhelmed and the controller should have more time to be of assistance if needed. It's a bit harder if you try to do your first flight at Heathrow or Gatwick for example with 20 other aircraft on frequency. Once again, use Map.VATSIM.net to find where ATC is currently online. It can also show you which airports are most and least busy.

From there, it's just being consistent and doing more and more flights. You'll get into the groove of it. And don't be afraid to make mistakes. My opinion: If you mess up really bad, you can always just disconnect and try again another time. Once I did an entire 3 or 4 hour flight and forgot to put the landing gear down. Greased that landing on the fuselage. 😅 I tried seeing if the FBW A32NX would let me put the landing gear down after the fact so I could at least taxi off and pretend nothing ever happened, but nope. So I just disconnected right there to not inconvenience anybody else and just laughed at myself.

[Ahmad Ashraf]

On 2/15/2022 at 4:23 AM, Frans van Santbrink said:

Well, important to remember is that this is just a sim and not real-life. So no one's lives are at stake and we do this as a hobby; for fun. Although you may come across a select few who can end up taking it way too seriously and want to berate you for making mistakes, but generally you'll find majority of people on VATSIM are friendly and willing to help. I say all this to hopefully put you at ease, because I know it can be daunting for newcomers who feel like when they make a mistake it angers everyone else. At the end of the day, we were all there at some point, and even the most experienced VATSIM members still make mistakes.

Also, I would suggest sitting at a busy airport with ATC in Observer Mode (or spectator mode if you want to call it that). If you're using VPilot or XPilot, when connecting there's a little checkbox to enable Observer Mode. This will essentially allow you to connect to the network and see and hear everyone, but they can't see you (afaik). Use Map.VATSIM.net to see where there's active ATC before you connect. So by doing this, you can just sit anywhere at an airport and listen to ATC to familiarise yourself with how things usually operate, phraseology (if you aren't already familiar) and so on.

You seem like you already know or have an idea of basic procedures and how to fly an aircraft properly. So once you're comfortable, you can try your hand at doing a VFR flight (or IFR if you're already familiar) from a more quiet airport with ATC. That way you don't get overwhelmed and the controller should have more time to be of assistance if needed. It's a bit harder if you try to do your first flight at Heathrow or Gatwick for example with 20 other aircraft on frequency. Once again, use Map.VATSIM.net to find where ATC is currently online. It can also show you which airports are most and least busy.

From there, it's just being consistent and doing more and more flights. You'll get into the groove of it. And don't be afraid to make mistakes. My opinion: If you mess up really bad, you can always just disconnect and try again another time. Once I did an entire 3 or 4 hour flight and forgot to put the landing gear down. Greased that landing on the fuselage. 😅 I tried seeing if the FBW A32NX would let me put the landing gear down after the fact so I could at least taxi off and pretend nothing ever happened, but nope. So I just disconnected right there to not inconvenience anybody else and just laughed at myself.

Alright thank you so much sir