hi guys,As with all good things ,our fellow human beings can spoil things!Years ago when flying online I was departing from an uncontrolled airport ,having used the unicom function when I was subjected to an abusive barrage from another pilot who was about to land.As I had been monitoring the unicom band for some 30 mins this pilot was not following Vatsim guidelines and announcing his intentions.As I fly for my enjoyment I quit flying on line some five years ago.!Many other pilots have had similar events happening to them and just do not fly online anymore.For that reason I would say use Radar Contact and download the alternate voice package from Avsim.The voices used on Radar Contact are actual voices from fellow simmers ,but bearing in mind that this product is older than PFE in its current form the voice choice in PFE is better.Radar Contact version 5 is in the offing ,perhaps later this year!Norman Bowman

I've been flying on VATSIM for nine years I think, and I can't say I've ever had encountered virtual pilots that were so rude or disturbing that I had to disconnect. Sure, sometimes you have pilots taxiing through other planes or lining up and taking off without ever talking to the online ATC. But taxiing through other planes can also be due to network issues.Anyway, flying on vatsim is for me a HUGE shot of endorphines and a feeling of real accomplishment. If only my wife could understand when I try to explain to her (at three o'clock in the morning) the beauty of the perfectly executed approach I just performed. I would never let the odd virtual pilot not confirming with the Vatsim rules keep me away from it, but of course to each his own. What DOES sometimes break my spirit is when you are about to land after that 10 h brilliant flight with lots of ATC, you are perfectly lined up handflying the ILS through the clouds, start making out the approach lights, aaalmost home and then WHAMM!!! a CTD shows its ugly face and you staring at the windows desktop!I do have RC4 also and I used to fly it quite a lot just to enjoy all the variety of airlines you would encounter.@Rob, I turned crash detection off long time ago when I realized you didn't have to actually touch another object to have a collission. Also, some sceneries have bugs, invisibile objects, that will cause you to crash if you get too close to them.

The UK division of Vatsim had arranged a massive ATC coverage of EGLL (London Heathrow) this evening and I think I counted 12 different controllers for the area. I first started from EDDN (Nürnberg in Germany) and talked to at least 10 different controllers on my way to EGLL. Unless my computer had crashed I would have talked to four more before pulling up at the gate. So all in all some 14 controllers on a 500 nm trip - not bad! :D Now I am crossing the Atlantic on my way to KJFK. Gotta love VATSIM! ;D

That sounds great but just how many days/evenings a week are there enough controllers for the flights the "you" want to do???In effect you have to wait for a "fly-in" to do any serious flying!vololiberista

That sounds great but just how many days/evenings a week are there enough controllers for the flights the "you" want to do???In effect you have to wait for a "fly-in" to do any serious flying!vololiberista

vololiberista have you actually tried flying online? you don't have to wait for events to do 'Serious' flying'. In the past 6 years I have only flown one event, and that was across the Atlantic.Quick question, how many times have you done 'serious' flying with robotic ATC?

That sounds great but just how many days/evenings a week are there enough controllers for the flights the "you" want to do???In effect you have to wait for a "fly-in" to do any serious flying!vololiberista

I think you don't know anything about online flying...everyday from 1630Z to 2300Z you will find a lot of ATC connected, with high probability to complete a full staffed flight...Either on IVAO for Europe or VATSIM for USA...then there are so many "Online Days" that you don't need to wait much before you find a full staffed route...Continue with FS default ATC or other software but online flight is top notch.Cheers,

That sounds great but just how many days/evenings a week are there enough controllers for the flights the "you" want to do???In effect you have to wait for a "fly-in" to do any serious flying!vololiberista

Well, it's not like I have my mind set on doing a flight between ABC and DEF and wait for an evening when these two airports have controllers. Instead I check where there are controllers and base my flight on that. My usual procedure is to1) Check Servinfo which airports have controllers and consider the the likelihood of the controllers remaining online (based on experience).2) Among these airports choose two that I have add-on scenery for (yes, I am that picky but then again I also have lots of airport sceneries....) and that are 1-3 hours apart.3) Check Flightaware for RL flights between the airports (if I fly in the US) and choose one with a callsign that won't wreck my tongue...4) Pick the routing from Flightaware, import it to Vroute Pro and export to all necessary formats and away I go.I can assure you, I can find atc controlled routes to fly almost every day of the week. I might not always have coverage from start to end and controllers do drop out, but I find more opportunities to fly than I can really manage.Also, Fly-ins happens quite often. They might not always be of the EGLL magnitude I wrote about, but there are many say Frankfurt Open on a certain day of week. And every so often a controller is having his final test and it turns into a mini fly-in since he is often backed up by other positions. Take a look at the coverage of Europe on Vatsim around 10PM every day of the week, and you'd be surprised!

We are all entitled to our opinion and it's not necessary to be discourteous!As an ATPL I fly with real ATC in real life!!!! (So I know very well how ATC works!!!!!)From the sim point of view I prefer PFE. Plus I use voicechecklist and background cabin announcements.This means that I can fly anywhere I wish when I wish and there will be a half reasonable ATC service.If Vatsim were entirely global and all stations manned at all timesthen provided thatATC was proficient enough then abviously more would use it. But as it is not then many simmers prefer to use other forms of ATC to enable them to fly when they wish and to the destinations they wish.The default ATC is worse than useless particularly outside of N.America!!!!This is my opinion and if you don't like it then there is no need to attack it. Just state your point of view.vololiberista

We are all entitled to our opinion and it's not necessary to be discourteous!As an ATPL I fly with real ATC in real life!!!! (So I know very well how ATC works!!!!!)From the sim point of view I prefer PFE. Plus I use voicechecklist and background cabin announcements.This means that I can fly anywhere I wish when I wish and there will be a half reasonable ATC service.If Vatsim were entirely global and all stations manned at all timesthen provided thatATC was proficient enough then abviously more would use it. But as it is not then many simmers prefer to use other forms of ATC to enable them to fly when they wish and to the destinations they wish.The default ATC is worse than useless particularly outside of N.America!!!!This is my opinion and if you don't like it then there is no need to attack it. Just state your point of view.vololiberista

Not too sure what having a ATPL has to do with this but good for you anyway! No one is questioning your preference for offline flying, as you have stated it works a lot better for some people for a number of reasons.It's your statements that show a clear lack of knowledge about how online ATC and topdown coverage works, nothing more nothing less.So just to clarify, no one claims you don't know how ATC works, but the first bit of your post reminds me of a old pilot joke. Q 'How can you spot a pilot in a crowded room?' A 'He tells everybody' ;)Regards

Fantastic, thanks for that insight :(

I believe you said you are flying the JS41. Not the easiest of planes.Get on IVAO and/or VATSIM and practice with a plane you can fly with your eyes closed, so that you concentrate on flying with ATC Online. The experience has no equal. Remark in your flight plan that you consider yourself a "Newbie" and get on with it.Ask for help. Both ATC and pilots will help you.You will learn quickly and get back to the JS41 in no time, when flying online will again be a worthwhile adventure.Tomas Munoz :( :(

IVAO for Europe and South AmericaVatsim for North America and Austrailia..I am UK and i fly solely IVAO

Vatsim is also pretty damn good for europe, even tho the european traffic in general are lower than on IVAO

Ace, a few quick questions, what client does IVAO use? can it be run on a seperate machine? can you use payware models to display other traffic?Lastly, are you really a dreadlocked Rastafarian?

Very interesting stuff guys, thanks for sharing your experiences.

I believe you said you are flying the JS41. Not the easiest of planes.Get on IVAO and/or VATSIM and practice with a plane you can fly with your eyes closed, so that you concentrate on flying with ATC Online. The experience has no equal. Remark in your flight plan that you consider yourself a "Newbie" and get on with it.Ask for help. Both ATC and pilots will help you.You will learn quickly and get back to the JS41 in no time, when flying online will again be a worthwhile adventure.

I think this is the best advice I've had so far. Yes, I'm flying the J41, which is a heavy workload with ATC on top. Learning in something easier is good advice, thanks. Can I still use things like FS2Crew whilst flying online?

IVAO for Europe and South AmericaVatsim for North America and Austrailia..I am UK and i fly solely IVAO

I was looking at IVAO earlier as someone previosly mentioned earlier that there were issues with Vatsim and Win7. Are there any issues with IVAO and Win7 64-bit?

There are no issues with vatsim and W7. The one who told you that is misinformed

Ace, a few quick questions, what client does IVAO use? can it be run on a seperate machine? can you use payware models to display other traffic?Lastly, are you really a dreadlocked Rastafarian?

IVAO is very busy in European airspace except UK always more than VATSIM...I fly more with VATSIM, but IVAO have more crowded skies in South America and Europe, that's real.Also, IVAO client, IvAp is more user-friendly respect FSInn (just too complicated) or SqwakBox (very few options)...I use both of them (IVAO and VATSIM) and i like both. No need for an IVAO vs. VATSIM war...it's useless.Cheers,

Ok cool, good to know that both are usable.