I need some help gentlemen. It seems that every now and then, when I fly an oceanic route on VATSIM, I get a FSS or "Radio" controller on line who insists on throwing me curve balls. You see, I am just not very well versed in oceanic procedures. I get by somehow and have picked up on how to relay position reports but I still am not sure if I am doing that correctly. Mark McGrath's "etopsv2.zip", http://ftp.avsim.com/library/sendfile.php?DownloadID=9720 is an excellent resource for ETOPS procedures. But what I am looking for is a tutorial or protocol for radio communications procedures. "ATC says this, you say that." On my last flight over the Pacific, OAK_FSS wanted me to acknowledge something and I had no clue what it was - still don't know. It was one of those aviation oceanic acronyms that I can't even remember today.So to keep me from feeling stupid next time over the pond, please point me to a good resource or contact me sometime and get me trained.

ETOPS procedures and oceanic procedures go together, but have separate concepts you need to master. The best guide to oceanic flying online that I've found is on VATSIM-UK's site. http://www.vatsim-uk.net/vatsim-uk/. Click on "OCEANIC OCA" at the bottom left, and you'll get information on VATSIM's NAT tracks and procedures, along with a step by step tutorial.Note: Giving position reports with PIC is quite easy. Go to the PROG page and select Position Report at LSK6L. It gives you all the information you need to provide to the controller.Jon (KSEA)

Here are two very good resources that are directly out of City Birds SOP that should explain a lot. If you have any specific questions I will try to answer them...I hope you have a lot of ink ;-)http://www.smartcockpit.com/b767/MNPS.PDFhttp://www.smartcockpit.com/b767/MNPS%20summary.PDF

Right on the mark Jon. And yes, the PIC FMC was heaven sent on those position reports. Thanks a bunch.Now to find that mystery acronym...

Found it, "SELCAL" Now what does it mean,, reading on...Thanks Ryno

OK, it was "SELCAL" I was being asked to respond with. Still don't know why since my digital version of a B763 only is equipped with a transponder. Hmmm, maybe I had an anal retentive controller or something. Well 20 pages of reading down, 200 more to go and I will be ready for my next crossing, NOT! Thanks guys!

I'm glad you found it ;-)I'm still not sure why the controller asked you for a SELCAL on VATSIM.

SELCAL - Select Call I beleive....each aircraft has a SELCAL...for VATSIM, Iam guessing he wants you to ".msg" using his callsign...SELCAL workaround.

>I'm still not sure why the controller asked you for a SELCAL >on VATSIM.I agree, this is a little odd, but not more odd than making position reports over the NAT (since the NAT airspace is a radar environment in VATSIM).Another good site for information about the NAT and the RVSM and MNPS airspace ishttp://www.nat-pco.orgMartinIt's a lot like life and that's what's appealing

http://curie.pct.edu/courses/tinman/avc227...imer/sld001.htm

Mike, there's always the good old "unable".Lee Hetherington (KBOS)

Many pilots like to use Roger Wilco for chatting while flying the longhauls...so that's one reason. Besides it's kinda cool with SELCAL checks and so on...so I don't see why we shouldn't use it? Besides, the NAT is as much radar as you like. I prefer to turn radar off completely and control with a pen and a paper. A completely different challenge from working ESSA_APP ;-)Though, I must say, working Shanwick is not often worthwhile. Very few planes actually contact you, and fewer yet know the correct procedures (no offence Mike :-)) which means I can't do much for them unless I first spend 30 minutes on a chatbox. Oh well...And Mike,This is how I use SelCal when I control Shanwick: At intial contact, I ask the pilot for his SelCal code. The code consists of two letter pairs, each letter representing a unique tone. The first letter in each pair must be alphabetically before the second. (AB-CD or KL-BV for example) Once I get a code, I send a private message to the pilot, something like this: SelCal--->ABCD and the pilot should then respond with "SelCal ok" or something like that. If I need to contact the pilot again, I just drop a SelCal and he should then check in to my voice with a cheerful "Shanwick, American 327 responding to SelCal. ;-)Obviously this is not very realistic, but it works well for VATSIM. The Santa Maria Oceanic guys are working (I think they're still working on it) a realistic SelCal software. Stay tuned...If you want to know something else about oceanic controlling, feel free to ask.Regards,Karl

Or when doing a SELCAL you could just play your modem noise over RW, very similar sounds.

This clears it up a WHOLE lot for me. I can certainly appreciate being free of monitoring oceanic control service for long periods on RW. Your outline is exactly what I was lacking in understanding control's expectations. Please drop me a short email sometime so I can grab your email address as a future resource.Thanks for your help.

WOW!Everything here from outlines and operations manuals, to tutorials and slide shows.THANKS EVERYONE...