What Should I Have Done?

[gumffo 2]

I was just flying out of a moderately busy European airport (would rather not say which as it may identify the other people involved, which is not my goal) during a non-peak time. I have about 30 flights on VATSIM now so I am still getting the hang of it, although I am a commercial pilot in real life so I'm by no means a rookie at ATC communications. 

So I load up my flight at a gate, there's a few planes at the airport but not too many, and there is no controller online. I announce my preferred runway and my taxi intentions over UNICOM as I always do, and begin my taxi. As I line up and announce over UNICOM again, I see a 777 line up on the opposite end and begin to throttle up. In order to avoid a collision (as I had forgotten to turn my "crash-detect" off, oops) I vacate the runway just in time. As he passes me, the pilot of the 777 messages me to ask what on earth I was doing. I tell him that I had announced my intentions on UNICOM and had received no answer at all, so I had lined up and was preparing to go. His only answer was "haha, good luck with that". I didn't think much of it, figuring he had just forgotten to announce. Right away, however, another 777 lined up on the opposite side of the runway and began to takeoff as well. After takeoff, he sent me an angry message (even though I was well behind the hold-short line by this point) with the winds, indicating that I couldn't possibly takeoff on my preferred runway with the winds as they were (which he was 100% correct about). This leads me to my first question:

1) Keeping in mind that there was still no controller online at this point, how did he get the winds information while still on the ground? Perhaps its a really newbie question, but I would assume that even with "Use real world weather" checked as I have it, it still is not going to be very precise and thus going to an outside source would be fairly useless. Is there a program that these pilots have downloaded, or am I missing something very simple?

At this point, I begin my taxi to the opposite side of the runway because of the winds information, when a CTR comes online. I message him my intentions over text and get no response. I figure he's just busy so I slowly continue taxi and wait for him to respond (keep in mind I've filed for /r at this point). I reach the end of the runway and hear him talking to some A/C in the air, but still no response. I ended up waiting more than 10 minutes, sending occasional messages to his frequency just checking if maybe he had missed me or something, and don't get even a "standby" back by voice or by text. At this point I think I must have a software issue, so I double check that I'm sending the messages to his frequency (I am) and then refile my flight plan as /t (text only) and send him a message letting him know. I spend the next 15 minutes holding short of the runway, monitoring both UNICOM and the CTR frequency. I can still hear the controller talking to other aircraft, so I know I was connected and all that. Eventually I give in and decide to simply takeoff via the SID and be on my way. I announce over both frequencies, line up, and takeoff. As I takeoff, I hear another plane ask CTR why I took off as he was landing. CTR replies that he doesn't know as he didn't clear me to takeoff, and proceeds to berate me over frequency about not communicating with him and getting clearance. He then proceeds to threaten me with a suspension for flying incommunicado. At this point I apologized over text and simply disconnected as it was clear something wasn't right. Let me reiterate a few things. I am well aware of how to communicate with ATC and that I need clearance to take off, that is obvious. I also understand that I could have ruined other pilots' flights, and I always try to overcommunicate before I do anything on VATSIM. However, I had been sitting there for 25 minutes total at this point without getting a single voice or text response, even with nobody else waiting to takeoff ahead of me. I was also constantly trying to get in touch with ATC and was constantly informing over UNICOM as well. Finally, I was able to communicate with other pilots over UNICOM and was still hearing the controller over his frequency. This brings me to my second question:

2) Was this incident likely due to software issues, ATC not monitoring text, a grouchy ATC, pilot error, or a combination of a few of these? In addition, what should I have done in this situation different from what I did?

Now I understand that VATSIM is just for fun and that a suspension, if it does come, likely won't be a big deal, but I also want to double check that I'm not making any glaring errors that will continue to cause situations like this. It's no fun for other pilots to have me taking off as they're trying to land, it's no fun for ATC having a plane that is 'apparently' not communicating, and it's no fun for me being berated over frequency when I'm just trying to have a bit of fun. Please let me know what you think, and feel free to lay into me if you feel I've done something stupid ;D I look forward to hearing from more experienced VATSIM pilots as well as controllers with a different perspective!

[HighBypass 2,339]

Hi and WELCOME to AVSIM!

I'm not sure about the specific VATSIM questions because I don't even have a headset for my PC (only my Xbox One) let alone fly multiplayer.

The weather: Yes, there are weather programs (some payware, some free) to use which take real world METARS and inject them into the simulator to  quite good effect (not useless) - you haven't said which sim you use although you saying real world weather and crash detect made me think you're using FSX....

My specific example: I use FSX Steam Edition. I use a program called FSOpen Clouds. It's free for UK weather, but £5/year for worldwide METAR access. Not only does it inject METARS, it introduces some cloud layers which help with the sudden fog layer in the default sim. If it's peeing down at EGCC in the real world with 20 knot winds then that's the METAR used for the sim , appropriate runways should be in effect.

Hope you get further input from more VATSIM-knowledgeable members.

Oh, and Clear Skies to you, both real and virtual. 

[skelsey 765]

Hi there!

On 1/2/2018 at 1:40 PM, gumffo said:

1) Keeping in mind that there was still no controller online at this point, how did he get the winds information while still on the ground?

Which pilot client are you using? Assuming vPilot (or Squawkbox) simply type .metar <ICAO> in to the text bar and you will get the current METAR for whichever ICAO you specify.

This is the official VATSIM weather source and is what you should refer to when selecting runways etc.

In terms of your sim weather -- what sim are you using? If you are using FSX Boxed or SE then as you are no doubt aware the real-world weather feature is... less reliable than it used to be, for certain. You will get far better results using an external weather engine such as Activesky (payware but very much the 'standard' at present) or there are other similar payware and freeware applications of varying degrees of quality. Most of the good ones (including Activesky) will have an option to "use VATSIM weather" -- if checked (which is always a good idea when flying on VATSIM) this will download METAR data from VATSIM's servers to ensure that you are always in sync (though to be honest as the source data is probably the same there's very little difference these days).

On 1/2/2018 at 1:40 PM, gumffo said:

2) Was this incident likely due to software issues, ATC not monitoring text, a grouchy ATC, pilot error, or a combination of a few of these? In addition, what should I have done in this situation different from what I did?

In honesty it all sounds very odd and I can't offer any obvious answer as to why your messages did not appear to be getting through. At the risk of stating the obvious, you did have the correct frequency/COM radio selected on the ACP within your aircraft? Have you managed to successfully communicate on VATSIM before?

My best suggestion is that you might want to post over on the relevant forum for the client you were using over at the main VATSIM forums to see if anyone might have any ideas.

[MarkW 1,479]

I think you did everything right, or at least it sounds like it. I am also wondering if you had the wrong frequency or perhaps had ATC on COM2 and he somehow you could hear him but he could not hear you or see your texts.  If you are not using vPilot then that is definitely the one you want to use.

Most Vatsim pilots are using an addon weather program and I would guess Activesky is use by the vast majority.  I would also suspect most have it set to Real world weather and not to Vatsim weather, although as Simon states both are very close.  Activesky will give you the metar either in text or on COM2.

You should download and install Vatspy as it will show you who is on the ground, controllers online, incoming aircraft and also weather.  Very helpful.

Finally, I would say that in uncontrolled airspace Vatsim is a bit of the wild west and as long as you announce on Unicom (in vPIlot you need your radio tuned to 122.800, some other programs did not require this) you can select your preferred runway.  Vatsim rules allow pilots to make the runway decision so regardless of what others are doing you have the right to select your preferred runway, announce and takeoff/land. Obviously best if its all nicely co-ordinated but I find that especially at larger fields that are not controlled many pilots are using the real world landing runway (found via some secret internet site) which in many cases is not the best selection when looking at wind alone.  Toronto Pearson CYYZ is a great example where they use the EAST/WEST runways up to 25knot crosswind limit due to traffic congestion in the real world.  On Vatsim with 3 aircraft in the area you really don't need to worry about this limitation and can land on a north/south runway, yet sometimes Vatsim pilots will get upset at this otherwise logical decision.

All the best with Vatsim, I would say don't get too discouraged by this event.

 

[gumffo 2]

Thanks for all your wonderful replies, they're much appreciated. I think it was probably a software issue of some sorts, so hopefully it doesn't happen again (hadn't had the issue previously and hope it doesn't happen again). I also think I'm going to have to download a wx addon as suggested 😄 Cheers!

[HighBypass 2,339]

Whilst you're here gumffo, what do you fly in the real world? Had to ask!