Well, as the title says, for the first time ever I'm seriously looking at flying online. I'm just wondering if you wouldn't mind giving your pros and cons about VATSIM/online flying. At the moment I only fly the NGX. I will probably be adding the Q400 soon as well. I have been watching YouTube videos and reading up and I think I will be using FSInn. Anyone have any feedback with that combo - NGX/Q400/FSInn? Also, I have some more questions that I haven't exactly found the answers for yet in my research...

 

-I use Opus for weather. Any issues there?

-Do I need to fly using current time? Right now, I fly real routes and depart at their real times rather than the current actual time(I set my computer clock to departure time(-20 mins) and time zone for wherever it is that I am. Can that still be done online or do I need to fly in current/actual time?

-Unfortunately due to real life obligations, I usually don't sit "in the cockpit" for the entire flight now. When I get up to cruise altitude, I usually leave the autopilot do its thing and then come back in time for descent. Is this possible in online flying? Can I drop offline for cruise or do I need to be there constantly to take hand offs between centers?

-How is the ATC coverage really? Will I be flying most of the time without any ATC? Lately I have been flying mostly in Europe. Usually Norwegian Airlines routes. So, that means some flying way up in northern Scandanavia. How's the coverage up there? Do ENGM, EKCH, and ESSA at least have coverage more often than not?

 

Thanks in advance for your help and your time.

Vatsim is great, once you fly it I think you will be hooked.  The downside is that it is a volunteer network so you are not going to get every sector (DEL - CTR) covered 24 hours a day as in the real world. Having said that, there are lots of opportunities to fly online with ATC and other pilots.

 

Now to answer your questions.

 

FSInn - Yes this is the way to go.  Works fine with all addons and I currently use it with both NGX and Q400.

 

Opus Weather - No Problem, I use it with AS2012, but still no issue.

 

Flying Time - You fly whatever time you like.  Some people fly the real time of their flight (if emulating a real world flight) or VA schedule.  Others fly real time of their current location and still others just pick a time they like and fly it.

 

You can only leave the network for up to 30 minutes and in reality need to be online almost all the time when under air traffic control.  Yes you can disconnect in cruise if you will be away for too long.  My suggestion is just turn up the speakers and listen for the DING DING that you will get when a controller sends you a "Contact Me message".  If you are just around your house you should be fine if you keep an eye on things.

 

ATC Coverage is spotty and you need to work with the times that the ATC you want is available.  for ENGM, EKCH, ESSA they do have descent coverage and if you check their Vatsim Page ( http://vatsim-scandinavia.org/ ) you will see when controllers plan to be online.  Not surprisingly this is weekday evenings and weekends. I suggest you use the website www.vateud.org to check the ATC areas in Europe.

 

Bottom line is that it's not perfect but it is fun and you will definitely not get a better ATC experience than with a live person controlling you.

 

final tip - you can use AI Traffic on Vatsim when using FSInn but just be sure to turn it down when in busy areas so you don't get confused as to Vatsim and AI planes.  you can use Vatspy to see who is online both pilot and controller.

Thanks for the quick response..another question I just thought of. How does it handle the scenario where I have a payware airport that is really detailed and the controller doesn't? Or, vice versa? In other words, can we use whatever scenery we want? I assume so, but just checking. I guess the Vatsim clients must handle that somehow and let the controller know what I actually have?

Controllers usually, at least my experience in the US, carry updated info. They will accommodate you though if you are running a difference on course for say a ILS and parking.

 

If His and your Taxi directions don't match due to an update, all is needed to say is that you have such and such or whatever and they will roll with it.

 

Vatsim is great, full of good people and very understanding. I can't remember the last time I flew offline.

 

 

Sent from my Apple communications device.

Thanks for the quick response..another question I just thought of. How does it handle the scenario where I have a payware airport that is really detailed and the controller doesn't? Or, vice versa? In other words, can we use whatever scenery we want? I assume so, but just checking. I guess the Vatsim clients must handle that somehow and let the controller know what I actually have?

You can use whatever scenery you want. The controllers sector file generally follow the real world layout. That means that on some airports planes will seem to have parked on the taxiway rather than at the stand with some sceneries. For example, people using the default FSX ENGM scenery will appear to be a couple of hundred feet further to the north than what somebody using an updated scenery like for example the excellent freeware package Airports of Norway (very highly recommended, make sure that you get the accompanying photoscenery as well) or Aerosofts Mega Airport Oslo. The controllers will know about this tho, so it shouldn't really be a problem.

 

As for the coverage of Norwegian Airshuttle's routes; the ATC coverage in Scandinavia is pretty good in my experience, it's above VATSIMs average coverage. You will of course run into times where there will be no controllers online. You can see some statistics about ATC coverage on http://stats.vatsim-germany.org/

 

Here's a screenshot of the total ATC coverage by country on VATSIM this year. You'll see that the Scandinavian countries are 6th (Sweden), 8th (Denmark) and 12th (Norway) in regards to total ATC coverage. Neighboring countries like the UK, Germany or Poland are also doing very well, so you are more likely to get full coverage on a flight originating in Scandinavia than from a flight originating in say Spain

 

I have joined VATSIM but not flown under control yet.  Seems (correct me if wrong) to be focused on other than GA aviation. i.e. Commercial/VA.   I now fly exclusively GA.  So is VATSIM really for me?

FSInn loves to crash. Fortunately a new client is in the works.

 

You'll need a good Ai package so you get good aircraft matching with the appropriate paints.

I have joined VATSIM but not flown under control yet.  Seems (correct me if wrong) to be focused on other than GA aviation. i.e. Commercial/VA.   I now fly exclusively GA.  So is VATSIM really for me?

VATSIM doesn't focus on commercial flights, however, controllers are more likely to staff a major airport rather than a small local one, as pilots generally want to fly to and from majors rather than tiny local ones. It's not particularly fun to staff tower on a small airport and sit there for hours without getting a single movement. But VATSIM has a system of top-down coverage, that means that center controllers generally control every airport located within their sector, so if a tower controller is not online at a local airport then center will be working tower as well. Same goes for approach, if there's no tower online then approach will be handling towers duties for the airports in his sector.

 

FSInn loves to crash. Fortunately a new client is in the works.

 

You'll need a good Ai package so you get good aircraft matching with the appropriate paints.

I have never had FSInn crash on me, so I don't know how typical that really is. I'm guessing your problems are either with your configuration or perhaps you collection of AI models used for traffic matching. It works great for me, I'm using World of AI for model matching

excellent freeware package Airports of Norway (very highly recommended, make sure that you get the accompanying photoscenery as well) or Aerosofts Mega Airport Oslo

Yeah, I have the Airports of Norway and Mega Airport Oslo. I'm also doing the best I can with making my own photo real scenery for Scandanavia too. Of course, the further north you go on the globe, the worse the satellite coverage becomes. But, I still have some pretty good stuff for Norway already. What a beautiful country!

FSInn is probably crashing on me because I use sweetfx to tweak my graphical settings. Oh well, something I just have to live with because fsx looks dull without it.

 

Ftx global will be another alternative for global scenery/textures, launching next month.

 Fortunately a new client is in the works.

 

 

Whaaaaaaaaaat?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? :mellow:

 

You're not kidding, are you? <_<

Whaaaaaaaaaat?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? :mellow:

 

You're not kidding, are you? <_<

 

No, I'm not. http://forums.vatsim.net/viewtopic.php?f=124&t=66765

I have joined VATSIM but not flown under control yet.  Seems (correct me if wrong) to be focused on other than GA aviation. i.e. Commercial/VA.   I now fly exclusively GA.  So is VATSIM really for me?

Ya generally focused on tube liners ... They staff the big airports.

 

You should try Pilot Edge.

The controller software (In Canada we use Euroscope with an addin called CanScope that accurately shows the way Canadian Controllers see their scopes) is set up to use the layout of the real airport, it is not based on addon scenery.  So essentially we are seeing the ground layout of the runways, taxiways and parking spots as they are in the real world.  We also see the updated AIRAC (airways, waypoints, VOR's, SIDS, STARS, etc).

 

Here is an example a controller posted of LEBL:  http://forums.vatsim.net/viewtopic.php?p=473984#p473984

Disregard