Know the feeling well Mike.Took me ages to take the plunge and that was with hand-holding from a local virtual flying club.My best advice is to park up on the ramp/apron, NOT on the runway or taxiways at a local airport with ATC.In the remarks box of your SB flight plan form type soemthing like 'Novice. No flight, just listening'This will tell the controller that you do not intend flying.Sit there and just listen to ATC, you will get a good idea what is expected of you when you go on line.Even better, see if a local airport/VATSIM region has a pilot training progam you can join.Safe flying

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I guess i'll start joining as an observer to see what's going on. Take careMike

Shez,It shouldn't be a probelm using taxiwaysigns.com's taxiway signs. Shoot an e-mail to the creator of the project, Thomas Lin, at [email protected]Ryan-Flightpro08 :-coolVATSIM Pilot/ControllerZLA ARTCC Controller 1 (C-1)SAN TRACON Lead [link:www.taxiwaysigns.com]Taxiwaysigns.com Scenery Designer

I'm planning on creating a "Getting on VATSIM for Dummies" guide. Hopefully it will be done soon. :-)Ryan-Flightpro08 :-coolVATSIM Pilot/ControllerZLA ARTCC Controller 1 (C-1)SAN TRACON Lead [link:www.taxiwaysigns.com]Taxiwaysigns.com Scenery Designer

Please let us 'dummies' know what it's done! :-jumpy You better add some words of encouragemet in there to give some courage to the ones like me who are like the lion from the Wizzard of Oz! I need C...C...CCourage!Mike

Some words of encouragement before flightpro8 publishes his dummies guide :-) Read all you can about flying with VATSIM.Set-up instructions are at www.vatsim.netLearn what is expected of you from the controllers, plenty of resources out there, but scattered.One I can recommend (I'm sure there are others)www.vatsim-uk.net, click on the 'Pilot Information' link and then check out the Ground school and flight school sections.See if your local VATSIM area has any pilot training courses.Most 'newbies' are mike shy, I know I was. To get over this the best advice I can give is:-Park up on the ramp/apron at a local airport that has ATC going on.In the SB flight plan enter the code for that airport in both departure and destination boxes (i.e you ain't goin' anywhere )In the FP remarks box type something like 'Student. Not flying'Stay in standby squawk mode. Tune to any of the available controllers and just listen...do NOT try to transmit.You will learn far more from sitting and listening than just reading about ATC 'chatter' although having read you will understand more of waht is going on.Finally, enjoy 'as real as it gets' and forget any social life :-lol Hope that helps.

HiOh, I have read so much stuff about online flying..I studied so many tutorials I don't even know which is from what site...I have some trainig packs from VATSIM (I think) and I read so much. My social life has dissapered long time ago... :-lolI will do that 'observer' part and see what I can learn. Maybe it will give me some confidence. Thanks for the encouragement..I'm off to locate my local VATSIM to see about training courses. :-hahMaybe someday I will be flying online...before I grow old and die :-lolTake careMike

>Maybe someday I will be flying online...before I grow old and die

hehe...I promise..I will try it before next week is over! :-hah Maybe even this weekend. I look at Whassup a lot and I see so many planes online that sometimes it makes me want to join in but it also makes me think..."Whoa it's so crowded!, I better stay out"I will try it...what's the worst that can happen? A virtual crash! :-lolThanks for the encouragement.Take careMike