Can someone assist me with this. The may be very basic but Im not clear on how this works.generalwindows xp running fs9.1 and sbox for communication and roger wilco for voice.I am running in the north american sector_______________________________________questions1. is there a program that shows all listing of active atc and control in the sectors. I dont know where to look for the list of active controllers.2. Can the program set the freq on atc automattically. is there a program that interfaces with vatsim to make this work3. do i continue to run AI ( airnav or traffic 2005) , does vatsim see the ai traffic4. I am using avs ,and active sky ,for wx, do i use the weather settings in these programs or just use the fs weather5. what about ground control. does vatsim offer taxi instructions on the ground to the active and will ground see the ai i have on my local machine.6 do i have to file a flight plan in vatsim as well as sqbax and do i also create the same flight in fs9.1, is this necessary7 where do i file my flight plan with vatsim , do i have to clear wx in fsuipc prior to loading weather and if i use my own wx program , does vatsim know if im ifr or is only on the l,ocal machine, It could be that instructions from vatsim are in conflict with ifr minimums if i have set my local wx too low.8 does vatsim retrve and use real world wx9 How do i cancel my flight plan if I dont intend on taking off or if i cancelling in flight

Welcome to VATSIM!I started typing detailed replies to your questions, but then as I read through I realised you can't have found the Pilot Resource Centre where the vast majority of your questions are answered. Go to www.vatsim.net and click on "New pilots start here", or you can go direct to www.vatsim.net/prcHave a good read and then feel free to come back with anything outstanding or that isn't clear.You'll also find the answers to lots of questions on VATSIM's own forums. Go to www.vatsim.net and click on forums. There are far more people there than here, so the breadth and depth of discussion is much greater.The key point at the moment you seem to have missed is that Squawkbox is the program that does all the communicating with the VATSIM servers. You don't need anything else. AI traffic is turned off automatically as you will be interacting with other real live people, both controllers and other pilots.RuthVice President - Communicationswww.vatsim.net

I remember having all the same questions you have an more. As the other user mentioned, take your time and go thought the pilot resource center at http://www.vatsim.net/prc . You have friendly people on both VATSIM's forum and this forum that would be glad to help you once you. I was somewhat intimadated when I first started the PRC a little more than 18 months ago. I tried hard to get a perfect score on all the test. Some of the test I took a couple of times and eventually did. However, you don't have to have a perfect score. Going thought the motions will give you a good foundation of which the other friendly simmers will be glad to help fill in the gaps. Looking forward to seeing your report of your first flight (as well as any other questions). By the way, since you already mentioned you have the latest version and patch for FS9, you only need one other piece of software to install. Your pilot client. There are two to choose from, SB3 or FSInn. Your pilot client will handle all the weather and just about any other thing you'll need. The radio tuning would be done by your FS9's radio stack. The pilot client will do the inner work, invisible to you. As far as the ATC and other pilots in the area, you might want to grab serinfo. This is a neat utility that gives a great snapshot of VATSIM's activity. Again, as the other member mentioned, reading the PRC is very important. We're standing by to fill in the gaps. -- L. James------------------L. D. [email protected]/~ljames