Hello all! I've recently upgraded my system and it's a real screamer. FS9 preforms like I never imagined (30-50 FPS with sliders maxed out). Anyway, I've just gottem back into VATSIM again but am slightly disappointed. I've followed the instructions to move to PAI aircraft instead of CSL, yet I can't make it work. I even went so far as to not install any of the CSL files, yet when I flew last night, that's all I saw for other players aircraft. I'm confused? Also, if I edit the CSL_ICAO.csv file, do I have to do it in MS Excel to make it work? I did some tinkering with the file using notepad and the changes seemed to stick. Lastly, do I need this mysterious VIP2 program to make this all work? IF so, where can I find it? Thanks in advance!

Look at www.vatsim.net/prc under Vatsim 104 docs. There is a note about this with a file link to avsim. PAI should be all you need to do this, and yes you need to use Excel to edit this file, and make sure you save it as a csv format when you are done

While it is nice to have Excel to edit CSL files, they are actually text files in which each line is formatted in a certain way, and it is possible to edit it with any text editor. However, it is critical that every comma you can count in the preceding and following line are in your added/edited line, too. Each comma represents a field break (thus the name CSV, Comma Separated Values) and you have to fill every field and place every comma, or unpredictable results will, er, result. :-rollSo, if you have Excel (or any spreadsheet program that can read and write CSV files), great! OTOH, if you don't, but you're certain that you can keep the fields and commas straight without the friendly help of a spreadsheet, I'm here to tell you that you can do it with Notepad. Better copy that CSV before you doctor on it, though ;-)