First - if this belongs somewhere else, I apologize and Mods please move...

 

I connected to Vatsim for the first time last night.  For anyone who is thinks to themselves "Flight simulator is fun but its just a game" - Vatsim definitely gives you a level of realism, it was truly everything that I hoped for and more.  I've been flying the FS2020 ATC and wanted to get the sense of more "realistic" flight.  Now, I have some questions - I truly don't know the answers and I would honestly appreciate any help.

 

• I file an IFR flight plan, I have the option to file from takeoff runway through landing runway, including departure and arrival (in the FS world map)
  • Am I misunderstanding, but ATC will give me the runways that they want me to use and then the departure and arrival that they want - is there a way to get this known ahead of time so that I can have a more clear "what I will be doing"?
  • I feel like I know what I would like to do, then ATC tweaks that for me 
  • Is it standard operating procedure to ask GND (or other) for essentially what the deviations from my flight plan will be prior to being in the air
  • I see both sides - once a plane is in the air, Departure will put you where they need to in order to keep everyone safe.  Couldn't this be known more in advance?
• I now have a flight plan (from the world map tool) in FS2020, loaded into the G1000 (I spend a lot of time flying the Beechcraft Baron and Bonanza) - I really want to just rock out to this plan
  • ATC changes things up - so then when I finally am ready to get back to what I'll consider my known flight path, when I turn auto pilot on, the plane usually does a 180 to get back to a point of origin.  This makes the ATC folks very unhappy (and understandably!)
  • Should I / Could I have the flight plan in the G1000 set to like a 2nd or 3rd way point and just hand fly to that point? So that when I do turn on AP I can go to a point that is intentionally "ahead" of me?
• Same problems/concerns on arrivals - I know where I would like to land and the arrival that it needs - then ATC has me come in a different way

 

Lastly, if I have completely misunderstood and am just an word not allowed - you can tell me that too. My questions around AP, G1000 flight plans are that I'm not sure if those are really bugs or just how the systems behave.  For ATC (using vatsim) I really respect what the controllers are doing - I'm just trying to pre-plan and know what I'll be doing before I'm 1/3 of the way through my initial climb going in a direction that I really didn't think I would be flying.

1 hour ago, zihmer001 said:

First - if this belongs somewhere else, I apologize and Mods please move...

 

I connected to Vatsim for the first time last night.  For anyone who is thinks to themselves "Flight simulator is fun but its just a game" - Vatsim definitely gives you a level of realism, it was truly everything that I hoped for and more.  I've been flying the FS2020 ATC and wanted to get the sense of more "realistic" flight.  Now, I have some questions - I truly don't know the answers and I would honestly appreciate any help.

 

• I file an IFR flight plan, I have the option to file from takeoff runway through landing runway, including departure and arrival (in the FS world map)
  • Am I misunderstanding, but ATC will give me the runways that they want me to use and then the departure and arrival that they want - is there a way to get this known ahead of time so that I can have a more clear "what I will be doing"?
  • I feel like I know what I would like to do, then ATC tweaks that for me 
  • Is it standard operating procedure to ask GND (or other) for essentially what the deviations from my flight plan will be prior to being in the air
  • I see both sides - once a plane is in the air, Departure will put you where they need to in order to keep everyone safe.  Couldn't this be known more in advance?
• I now have a flight plan (from the world map tool) in FS2020, loaded into the G1000 (I spend a lot of time flying the Beechcraft Baron and Bonanza) - I really want to just rock out to this plan
  • ATC changes things up - so then when I finally am ready to get back to what I'll consider my known flight path, when I turn auto pilot on, the plane usually does a 180 to get back to a point of origin.  This makes the ATC folks very unhappy (and understandably!)
  • Should I / Could I have the flight plan in the G1000 set to like a 2nd or 3rd way point and just hand fly to that point? So that when I do turn on AP I can go to a point that is intentionally "ahead" of me?
• Same problems/concerns on arrivals - I know where I would like to land and the arrival that it needs - then ATC has me come in a different way

 

Lastly, if I have completely misunderstood and am just an word not allowed - you can tell me that too. My questions around AP, G1000 flight plans are that I'm not sure if those are really bugs or just how the systems behave.  For ATC (using vatsim) I really respect what the controllers are doing - I'm just trying to pre-plan and know what I'll be doing before I'm 1/3 of the way through my initial climb going in a direction that I really didn't think I would be flying.

I'm not very familiar with VATSIM, but I can give you a real-life pilot's perspective:

1. You can generally figure out which runways they're going to give you by checking the weather ahead of time. Wind out of the West? You'll get runway 27, not 09, etc. Same for landing. The prevailing wind will tell you (generally speaking) which runway you will get. They will assign you an approach, but if you want a specific one (say, the ILS27 rather than the RNAV27), ask for it. You can also ask Center which approach you can expect during the cruise portion of your flight, they might be able to tell you.

2. ATC tweaking is a part of life. Happens all the time.

3. You can't really ask for deviations on the ground, but once you're airborne, if you want something, ask for it. Higher altitude to get out of (or into) the clouds? Ask for it. A deviation to the right or left to get around a thunderstorm? Definitely ask for it. Etc. Think of ATC as a negotiating partner.

4. You need to learn more about the G1000. What you're looking for is the -D->, or direct-to, key. When you're getting vectored around, if you're IFR, once they want to stop giving you specific directions and send you on your way, they will say "Bonanza123B, proceed direct [WAYPOINT], resume own navigation". What they're telling you, essentially, is to go directly from where you are to a specific point (which presumably was in your flight plan, or is along your route of flight), and from there, continue as you originally planned.

Hope this is of some help.

Edited September 18, 20205 yr by mtr75

45 minutes ago, mtr75 said:

I'm not very familiar with VATSIM, but I can give you a real-life pilot's perspective:

1. You can generally figure out which runways they're going to give you by checking the weather ahead of time. Wind out of the West? You'll get runway 27, not 09, etc. Same for landing. The prevailing wind will tell you (generally speaking) which runway you will get. They will assign you an approach, but if you want a specific one (say, the ILS27 rather than the RNAV27), ask for it. You can also ask Center which approach you can expect during the cruise portion of your flight, they might be able to tell you.

2. ATC tweaking is a part of life. Happens all the time.

3. You can't really ask for deviations on the ground, but once you're airborne, if you want something, ask for it. Higher altitude to get out of (or into) the clouds? Ask for it. A deviation to the right or left to get around a thunderstorm? Definitely ask for it. Etc. Think of ATC as a negotiating partner.

4. You need to learn more about the G1000. What you're looking for is the -D->, or direct-to, key. When you're getting vectored around, if you're IFR, once they want to stop giving you specific directions and send you on your way, they will say "Bonanza123B, proceed direct [WAYPOINT], resume own navigation". What they're telling you, essentially, is to go directly from where you are to a specific point (which presumably was in your flight plan, or is along your route of flight), and from there, continue as you originally planned.

Hope this is of some help.

Thank you a million times over!

Keep in mind that even with the patch, AP isn't where it needs to be in this sim yet. That 180 you talked about isn't surprising. I've had the AP do that to me when I load a STAR or other procedure while en-route. When I do that, it will immediately target whatever waypoint I passed last, and turn around to go there again.

Hopefully the VATSIM folks understand that you are, essentially, working with a broken plane and don't get too mad at you. 😉  Might be a good idea to disengage the AP any time you make changes, then see what the flight director wants to do before you let the AP have control again.

 

 

3 hours ago, eslader said:

Keep in mind that even with the patch, AP isn't where it needs to be in this sim yet. That 180 you talked about isn't surprising. I've had the AP do that to me when I load a STAR or other procedure while en-route. When I do that, it will immediately target whatever waypoint I passed last, and turn around to go there again.

Hopefully the VATSIM folks understand that you are, essentially, working with a broken plane and don't get too mad at you. 😉  Might be a good idea to disengage the AP any time you make changes, then see what the flight director wants to do before you let the AP have control again.

 

 

I appreciate this feedback - I hadn't thought about relying more on FD than AP. This would at least give me a heads up that things are about to go in a very different direction than i had intended (pun intended)

You can tune ATIS on VATSIM if that is available and sometimes the ATIS will tell you which is the active runway for departures.  If you are using VatSpy, you can right click on the controller and one of the options after right clicking allows you to view any notes the controller has written (sorry, I can't remember the exact option when you right click the controller in VatSpy).  In vPilot, you may be able to get the text version of the ATIS if that is available and it may tell you the active runway for departure.

I appreciate everyone’s feedback! Was able to fly Orlando to Daytona last time with partial ATC available. Checking ATiS helped, knowing at least what was ruled in/out. 
 

I was able to learn to use Direct To, and then Active Leg from Flight Plan. These let me pick back up where I needed. 
 

lastly, was able to select and load an approach from mid flight. 
 

also on the off chance the guy running MCO-APP last night - thanks for the help!

13 minutes ago, zihmer001 said:

I appreciate everyone’s feedback! Was able to fly Orlando to Daytona last time with partial ATC available. Checking ATiS helped, knowing at least what was ruled in/out. 
 

I was able to learn to use Direct To, and then Active Leg from Flight Plan. These let me pick back up where I needed. 
 

lastly, was able to select and load an approach from mid flight. 
 

also on the off chance the guy running MCO-APP last night - thanks for the help!

Fantastic! Glad you're making progress.