Congratulations, Zane!

 

Even if the concurrent usage is fairly low right now, there are 500+ VFR drone aircraft flying 24/7, so there's plenty to see below FL180, regardless of how many other live pilots are online at the time.

 

Regarding being a little tongue-tied, don't worry, you are welcome to fly on the network as long as you're doing what you can to comply with the instructions. It's also very likely that you'll get back in the saddle fairly quickly. It really is like riding a bike, it's just a lot harder to put baseball cards in the spokes :)

 

If it helps, there is a pilot training program with 3 VFR flights and 11 IFR flights that you undertake live on the network under the watch of ATC, who will also serve as your examiner on the flight. These flights are well documented with charts, videos, reference material and even ATC transcripts with sample exchanges of what to say and what you can expect to hear. These can be a real ice breaker if you're getting back in the saddle.

 

As for wishing everyone would come over from VATSIM, that will never happen, nor would I wish that to happen.

 

The traffic will be coming soon enough from our commercial users, not to worry.

 

We offer monthy and annual pricing options at the moment, and we have one more pricing model in the works. It should be announced in the next week or so.

 

The X-Plane folks are pretty vocal, but I'd never say it was X-Plane centric. I'm well aware that FS9/X hold the lion's share of the market for now.

 

We're also going to be announcing a recurring series of online workshops in the near future, some to help with new user familiarization, Q&A with the controllers, VFR and IFR flight planning, and even type-specific workshops tought by real pilots who fly those specific airplanes (ie, 737-800). Some will be members only, but others will be open to the public. It's going to be an interesting ride.

Keith, thanks for chiming in. As previously said, I'm very impressed with what you're doing and have done based on the parts I can see. I spent a fair bit of time on your website a few months back and obviously need to take the time to do another visit. I may yet take the plunge.

 

Thanks again to Zane and everyone else for helping to pop this back to the top of my brain-stack.

 

Scott

In xPlane you can preset an altitude and remain at present altitude without the aircraft starting a climb or descent automatically...

 

Just for your information Zane, you can make a simple aircraft.cfg change to any aircraft to achive the same results...

 

[autopilot]
autopilot_available= 1
flight_director_available= 0
default_vertical_speed= 0.0	   // was 700.0 (* Set to 0.0 to allow for altitude preset *)
...

 

This way, you can preset the desired target altitude, but the a/c will continue at currently locked altitude until you command a change in vertical speed... :Nerd:

Just for your information Zane, you can make a simple aircraft.cfg change to any aircraft to achive the same results...

 

[autopilot]
autopilot_available= 1
flight_director_available= 0
default_vertical_speed= 0.0	   // was 700.0 (* Set to 0.0 to allow for altitude preset *)

Thanks Fr Bill... I've done that cfg mod to the aircraft I fly often. Just curious why MSFS chose to simulate autopilot operation in such an unrealistic fashion. The worst examples are those set for 1,800 fpm default, quick trip to ground when flying low! Sure with there was a way to add CWS via the cfg or FSUIPC.
...

 

This way, you can preset the desired target altitude, but the a/c will continue at currently locked altitude until you command a change in vertical speed... :Nerd:

 

I have made this cfg change to the aircraft I frequently fly, it is unfortunate that MSFS doesn't realize they teach incorrect behaviour by coding the sim this way. Especially frustrating when the default vertical speed is set at 1,800 which will put you into the ground rather quickly at low altitudes. Sure wish there was a cfg setting or way in FSUIPC to set up a CWS button, I know some payware aircraft have this capability coded into their custom autopilot.

 

Edit: Now I know why I will sometimes see a quote with nothing written. I originally wrote this message on my iPad only to discover later the part I wrote somehow didn't make it to the post, only the quoted portion... odd!

Just an update on this, there are plans starting at $4.99 on PilotEdge, I saw it yesterday and wanted to let others know.

 

edit: Just saw that it was $4.99 and then $2.00 for every hour after that, so if you're planning to use it at least 8 hours per month, it'd be a better value to just get the unlimited one for $19.99..

That is correct. The hourly pricing was introduced to cater to pilots who want the service, but can't get in front of the sim often enough for the 'all you can eat' service to be worthwhile. A good number of pilots cancelled their service and said, "love it, but I don't have enough time to fly each monh, even in the sim." So, we made the adjustment.

 

We now offer hourly, monthly and annual pricing. The annual is the best bang for the buck (not surprisingly), coming in at $14.92/mth.

Hi guys

 

Is it FAA only or can the user have an ICAO ATC service?

 

Or is it planned for the future?

Wawo just what i needed. But do you really need to speak like professional pilot or basic stuff? I would love to try this .

Nice thanks for sharing only wrong part of the planet for me not Europe ;-)

I think since the only locations available right now for service are North California and South Califirnia, the rules for communication would fall under standard FAA communication rules.

[removed by myself- realize someone already answered in detail]

Hi guys

 

Is it FAA only or can the user have an ICAO ATC service?

 

Or is it planned for the future?

 

US procedures for now since the ATC service only covers a part of the USA. However, we would very much like to add European coverage at some point once we have achieved profitability with the current system.

 

Wawo just what i needed. But do you really need to speak like professional pilot or basic stuff? I would love to try this .

 

We're going to add a section to the web site about this to address this question soon. You don't need to be a professional pilot to use this, but you do need to have a basic understanding of:

- how to fly the aircraft,

- working knowledge of how to communicate with ATC

- basic knowledge of the airspace in which you're going to fly

- where to get sectional/TAC chars

- how to read the charts to obtain frequencies, navigate, and identiy various airspace boundaries

- communication requirements for Class B, C & D airspace (if you're going to fly VFR)

 

In other words, you should be able to execute at a similar level to a student pilot.

 

Many sim enthusiasts can fly their aircraft just fine, but have not tried ATC communications before. There is a pretty steep learning curve associated with this and we ask that pilots who are not at all familiar at least consider utilizing our Training Program to become familiar with communications and airspace. Good news! The training program has NO written tests and consists of 3 VFR flights and 11 IFR flights, all of which are flown on the network anyway! Each rating has a written transcript, a introductory video, and all the reference material required to be successful in learning how to fly "in the system."

 

We're also going to be having a series of online workshops (via TeamSpeak and screensharing) for people who know how to fly the system, but aren't familiar with comms and airspace.

For someone who hasn't ever done much online stuff (I don't even own a mic) do you have a recommendation for a mic setup/push to talk? I seen to recall there is even a way to adapt a real headset for use?

I think since the only locations available right now for service are North California and South Califirnia, the rules for communication would fall under standard FAA communication rules.

 

The US is still under FAA rules... but we're using some rules from ICAO (I'm not a fan). I expect things to switch over to ICAO eventually.

 

For mics I use a kb key for PTT and a Sennheiser headphone/mic setup. I know there's a way to get ATC audio through your headset and airplane noises through your speakers, but I've got no idea how to accomplish that.

I use a $25 headset from Logitech. Really, just about anything will do. Using your aviation headset is totally overkill and not likely to be very comfortable (unless you have a really nice headset, I guess). Aviation headsets are designed for cockpits, which are noisy places. Most home 'pits aren't nearly as loud.

 

For FS9/X, the PE client currently uses the default output device for audio playback, and it opens the device when the software is first loaded. With that knowledge in hand, you can set the default audio device to be your headset, fire up the PE software, then change it back to normal and fire up the sim. The next release will have a more elegant method of allowing you to select an output device.

 

The X-Plane client already has the ability to specify an audio device for playback.

 

Truthfully, even though I have X-Plane, I've just been routing everything through the speakers and keeping the engine/prop noise turned down and the master volume fairly loud. Works great and is zero hassle.