April 21, 201511 yr Hi All, As you may see from previous posts I have slowly been building up my skill in FSX and my long term plan is to become a virtual pilot. I have owned the game for 4 months and initial spent the first 4 learning the stock aircraft and ILS Landings. I then bought myself something for fun (A Carenedo Phenom) and continued glying GPS then ILS Landings. Moved onto flying High and Low altitude airways and them for better at my flight plans and using IFR approached and FSX ATC. Purchased a BAE AVRO and continued to fly ILS and IFR flight plans, but also earning a more complex aircraft and Autoland Then moved onto a modern Airliner with the Aerosoft Airbus A318/319/320/321, spent time learning this aircraft and have now also spent the last 2 weeks learning Full VFR Flight including SIDS and STARS, plus using this to autoland. I have also been sticking to actual destination flown from Bristol and back I am now more confident about moving online without making a fool of myself, but want to know is there anything else I need to learn before doing so? Once online I aim to find a Virtial Airways where I can use my Airbus with flights in and out of Bristol EGGD.
April 21, 201511 yr I suggest you go through the pilot ratings at the Vatsim ZLA virtual ARTCC. They will prepare you better than anything else. A lot of fun too! Jim Shield Cybersecurity Specialist
April 21, 201511 yr The main thing controllers really wish of pilots online is for you to be in control of your aircraft (i.e. can you point it where you want it to go at any given moment rather than asking 'what's it doing now?'). On a typical IFR flight in the Airbus you'll need to: - File a flight plan - Request a clearance - Follow an assigned taxi route from the stand to the runway - Fly the assigned clearance (which may occasionally, for a multitude of reasons, be different to that you have filed). - Navigate to your destination - Fly some radar vectors (i.e. in HDG SEL or whatever Airbus calls it!) - Land - Follow a taxi route to a parking space. There are foibles of the VATSIM ATC system that you need to learn (what to do when there's no ATC, setting up the pilot client etc) -- for which I would heartily recommend the P1 course from the VATSIM Pilot Academy (http://academy.vatsim.net/). You'll also want to learn some basic ATC phraseology. As you're flying in the UK, CAP413 is the main reference and worth a read through: http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=33&pagetype=65&appid=11&mode=detail&id=6449 The golden rules: you are the PIC. If you don't understand an instruction, ask for clarification. If you can't carry out an instruction for whatever reason (maybe it's outside your capabilities or the capabilities of your aircraft), say so. Controllers are quite happy to explain or to come up with a different plan: what's difficult for all concerned is when a pilot accepts a clearance or instruction and then doesn't follow it because they don't know how to, or because they didn't understand what they were being asked to do but accepted the clearance anyway and didn't say anything. Likewise if you need something (e.g. you're at or approaching your top of descent) don't be afraid to ask. Good luck! Simon Kelsey
April 21, 201511 yr What have been said elobrating a few things Learn to understand and speak standard ATC phraseology.. youtube is a great ressource.. There is also bunch of official documents out there with the phraseology in it.. The key to flying online is understanding an instruction, and acutally perform the instruction or ask for clarification if you did not hear what the controller said.
April 21, 201511 yr Author Hopefully my 3 months flying IFR routes where the FSX ATC instruct you in (Fly Heading 355 descend to altitude 10,000 etc) may have helped me when I go online. I will spend time on VATSIM reading their guides before I start and also plan to sit at Bristol at the Gate just listening to the Ground and ATC (When they are on) without actually flying anywhere to get an idea of the speak. From the other bits I have some more things to learn File a flight plan- Need to learn this as I understand there is a VATS sim programme you have to file your plan with - Request a clearance - Think I am OK - e.g Easy (Flight number) request VFR Clearance to Malaga? etc - Follow an assigned taxi route from the stand to the runway - can do, have Navigraph subscription and printed of the maps of the gates and taxiways - Fly the assigned clearance (which may occasionally, for a multitude of reasons, be different to that you have filed). If I was told to fly runway 9 eggd I would input that on my MCU and select my SID (Exmor). If ATC differs I may become stuck - Navigate to your destination Can do - Fly some radar vectors (i.e. in HDG SEL or whatever Airbus calls it!) - Should be ok I hope as per my first sentence in IFR flying - Land - As long as I'm given an ILS runway with Autoland should be fine, if not some passengers my not make it LOL - Follow a taxi route to a parking space. - Can do
July 19, 201510 yr Why all this autolanding.? You are loosing the most interesting part of flightsimming: Manual landing.
July 19, 201510 yr Hi All, As you may see from previous posts I have slowly been building up my skill in FSX and my long term plan is to become a virtual pilot. I have owned the game for 4 months and initial spent the first 4 learning the stock aircraft and ILS Landings. I then bought myself something for fun (A Carenedo Phenom) and continued glying GPS then ILS Landings. Moved onto flying High and Low altitude airways and them for better at my flight plans and using IFR approached and FSX ATC. Purchased a BAE AVRO and continued to fly ILS and IFR flight plans, but also earning a more complex aircraft and Autoland Then moved onto a modern Airliner with the Aerosoft Airbus A318/319/320/321, spent time learning this aircraft and have now also spent the last 2 weeks learning Full VFR Flight including SIDS and STARS, plus using this to autoland. I have also been sticking to actual destination flown from Bristol and back I am now more confident about moving online without making a fool of myself, but want to know is there anything else I need to learn before doing so? Once online I aim to find a Virtial Airways where I can use my Airbus with flights in and out of Bristol EGGD. H Hi, I fly online with a group called the Bristol Flight Sim Group(BFSG) There are 3 sub groups, the General Aviation (GA) The Dash 8 (Majestic) group and the Commercial Jet group who fly the big jets. You can expect a warm welcome from all these groups if you are interested in flying online. Dave
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