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zihmer001

VATSIM: Perspective from the new guy

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37 minutes ago, Ident said:

Great write up. The default ATC is a great start of the flow of communications and phraseology. Once one understands the fundamentals of radio work, going with a live controller makes for a huge part of the overall flight. VATSIM is a great free option. For myself, I use PilotEdge for my ATC flying. If you ever find yourself on their site, go to the page where you can listen to daily recordings as they save all radio transmissions and remove all dead space in between calls. It will give you a nice example of the level of professionalism you will have as a member. If you like what you hear, they a a free trial period.

 

I could see the benefit of PilotEdge.  Last night (9pm EST) I filed plans, pulled charts, fired up MSFS2020, and received IFR clearance 3 times to then have ATC shut down for the night within 3-5 minutes.  I didn't feel like flying UNICOM so I kept doing it over and over.  I can't complain at all on a volunteer, for fun platform - but I could see why one might opt to pay for ATC services 🙂  


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Selling EVGA 2080 Super Ultra XC (8GB) - used for 3.5 months - PM me for info if interested!

My uncle taught me "how to fly" on MSFS95, got MSFS98 for a birthday, and I have been hooked ever since

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Just a quick not from me regarding the state of MSF combined with Vatsim: 

For VFR flights the sim is great. As long as you have the proper vfr maps (ie from skydemon) you can have an amazing experience being able to look out your window and identifying an vfr reporting point on vatsim.

For IFR, the sim is really bad for beginners right now. Because when you look up theory about how things SHOULD work, most often than not they do NOT work like that in MSF. 100% of my trips I have to ask for some sort of special treatment from ATC because my aircraft is unable to handle standard procedures. For a totally new guy this could be a bad experience. 

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Andreas Stangenes

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Andreas - I've been on the network a couple of times and in my flight plan notes I've stated; "Flying MSFS".

That means the controllers get the heads up that I might, on their issuing of an instruction, quite often, be "Unable" 😃

 

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27 minutes ago, Andreas Stangenes said:

Just a quick not from me regarding the state of MSF combined with Vatsim: 

For VFR flights the sim is great. As long as you have the proper vfr maps (ie from skydemon) you can have an amazing experience being able to look out your window and identifying an vfr reporting point on vatsim.

For IFR, the sim is really bad for beginners right now. Because when you look up theory about how things SHOULD work, most often than not they do NOT work like that in MSF. 100% of my trips I have to ask for some sort of special treatment from ATC because my aircraft is unable to handle standard procedures. For a totally new guy this could be a bad experience. 

Furthermore, this is made better/worse based on the airplane.  From what I have been seeing, the G1000 planes are decent, G3000/5000 are pretty well useless at making changes midflight, and I have no experience with FMC/FMS of jets/airliners.  I want to fly the King Air so badly, but there is no way that I can make any change once I load from World Map (unless I have completely misunderstood how it works).  However, I've had pretty good luck at making changes on the Beech G36 and G58.  I haven't added/removed points to Flight Plan, but changing active leg and then flying headings has been pretty good.  I guess you could always toss a VOR frequency in when directed to a new point, toggle the CDI to VOR1, then go back to GPS on the CDI with an updated leg once you get to "as filed".  Again - as you say, probably NOT what you would actually do - but then, maybe it isn't so bad to have some extra tools in the old tool belt!


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Selling EVGA 2080 Super Ultra XC (8GB) - used for 3.5 months - PM me for info if interested!

My uncle taught me "how to fly" on MSFS95, got MSFS98 for a birthday, and I have been hooked ever since

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9 hours ago, MikeyOnTheFlightDeck said:

I’m a VATSIM newbie and I’m put off by the inaccurate taxi ramps and signs. I know I need charts but will they help when many of the airports aren’t that accurate? For now I’m going to remain parked and listen and learn!

As far as I can tell the taxiway layouts in MSFS are accurate, just not the names. Provided you can figure out where you are on the ground it's far from impossible to navigate your way around. Little Navmap (freeware) is great for bringing up a live moving map display showing precisely where you are in the world, and can also be used as an observation tool to see what other players are doing. Good for listening to ATC and building a mental picture of what's going on.

Navigraph is also good if you fancy paying a bit for professional-grade IFR charts along with the moving map, though you can't track others with it. Best used if you're into hardcore simulation of airline flights, which happens to be most of what Vatsim is about!

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13 minutes ago, lambourne said:

As far as I can tell the taxiway layouts in MSFS are accurate, just not the names. Provided you can figure out where you are on the ground it's far from impossible to navigate your way around. Little Navmap (freeware) is great for bringing up a live moving map display showing precisely where you are in the world, and can also be used as an observation tool to see what other players are doing. Good for listening to ATC and building a mental picture of what's going on.

Navigraph is also good if you fancy paying a bit for professional-grade IFR charts along with the moving map, though you can't track others with it. Best used if you're into hardcore simulation of airline flights, which happens to be most of what Vatsim is about!

It keeps sounding like Navigraph would make my life easier within the VATSIM world.  I think I'm going to create an account and try it out for a month, but from what I am seeing it will give some really awesome tools.


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Selling EVGA 2080 Super Ultra XC (8GB) - used for 3.5 months - PM me for info if interested!

My uncle taught me "how to fly" on MSFS95, got MSFS98 for a birthday, and I have been hooked ever since

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1 hour ago, zihmer001 said:

It keeps sounding like Navigraph would make my life easier within the VATSIM world.  I think I'm going to create an account and try it out for a month, but from what I am seeing it will give some really awesome tools.

I’m currently doing the same thing. Trying it out for a month. Been avoiding paying for charts but I end up flying late at night in the US which means flying overseas when I want daylight and Skyvector only has US stuff. I’m thinking my recently cancelled Netflix blu-ray subscription is being permanently redirected to navigraph lol. It has totally upped my flight planning and actually made it quicker. Yes you can sometimes get away with just searching for a pdf of whatever approach etc and finding it on various sites but that’s extra time I don’t always want to spend. 

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+1 for Navigraph Charts and FMS Data. Controllers use the latest AIRACS and procedures. We can accommodate you if you don't, but the best practice is to keep your navdata updated.

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Matt Bartels

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great post!  you've inspired me to dig further into VATSIM. I do plan to give it a whirl, but I've lots to learn (and I'm up for it!)  🙂 

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So in VATSIM can you see the other players (aircraft) like a regular multiplayer session? 

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1 hour ago, reignman40 said:

So in VATSIM can you see the other players (aircraft) like a regular multiplayer session? 

Yes! And you can talk to them if you are on the same frequency. ATC is for ATC talk, but other frequencies can then theoretically be used. 
 

When ATC asks if you have visual of a plane, you will really see it - it’s pretty cool. 

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Selling EVGA 2080 Super Ultra XC (8GB) - used for 3.5 months - PM me for info if interested!

My uncle taught me "how to fly" on MSFS95, got MSFS98 for a birthday, and I have been hooked ever since

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2 hours ago, javelina said:

great post!  you've inspired me to dig further into VATSIM. I do plan to give it a whirl, but I've lots to learn (and I'm up for it!)  🙂 

It is a ton of fun - read up, practice, and get on VATSIM!

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i7-10700k (OC at 5.05MHz) | EVGA 3090 FTW3 (24GB) | G.Skill RipJaws V Series 32GB RAM (Effective 3200MHz) | 1TB SSD M2 (Samsung EVO) | Corsair 850W Gold P/S | MSI MAG CoreLiquid 240R | MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Edge WiFi | Logitech Yoke and Throttle Quad | Logitech Saitek Rudders | Logitech Switch Panel | Thrustmaster T.Flight 4 HOTAS | HyperX Cloud Flight S Headset | 43” LG 43UN700B 4k monitor | HP Reverb G2 (VR)

Selling EVGA 2080 Super Ultra XC (8GB) - used for 3.5 months - PM me for info if interested!

My uncle taught me "how to fly" on MSFS95, got MSFS98 for a birthday, and I have been hooked ever since

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8 hours ago, flyinion said:

I’m currently doing the same thing. Trying it out for a month. Been avoiding paying for charts but I end up flying late at night in the US which means flying overseas when I want daylight and Skyvector only has US stuff. I’m thinking my recently cancelled Netflix blu-ray subscription is being permanently redirected to navigraph lol. It has totally upped my flight planning and actually made it quicker. Yes you can sometimes get away with just searching for a pdf of whatever approach etc and finding it on various sites but that’s extra time I don’t always want to spend. 

Bought Navigraph, the iPad app, and got it all working. Wow - this is some fancy stuff. To say it’s a huge help is putting it mildly. The only thing that would make it better would be if I could annotate with my iPad pencil directly in the app on charts. But in all seriousness, I have no complaints. 
 

Flew a simple route near home (KAGC to KERI) - much faster than going to flight aware, pulling the charts, etc. Plus, these were up to date and different (slightly) than what I have been using. 
 

This is a game changer for when you get IFR clearance and the departure specifics, SID, Navaid and then “as filed”. 
 

I didn’t even start to mess with the FMS tool. Does it tie into G1000 at all? Or just the traditional FMS found on jets and airliners?


i7-10700k (OC at 5.05MHz) | EVGA 3090 FTW3 (24GB) | G.Skill RipJaws V Series 32GB RAM (Effective 3200MHz) | 1TB SSD M2 (Samsung EVO) | Corsair 850W Gold P/S | MSI MAG CoreLiquid 240R | MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Edge WiFi | Logitech Yoke and Throttle Quad | Logitech Saitek Rudders | Logitech Switch Panel | Thrustmaster T.Flight 4 HOTAS | HyperX Cloud Flight S Headset | 43” LG 43UN700B 4k monitor | HP Reverb G2 (VR)

Selling EVGA 2080 Super Ultra XC (8GB) - used for 3.5 months - PM me for info if interested!

My uncle taught me "how to fly" on MSFS95, got MSFS98 for a birthday, and I have been hooked ever since

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So - I've been flight planning in Navigraph.  This tool is amazing.  So I found a bug/workaround (probably has been stated somewhere else) - when you create a plan in Navigraph (or another tool I am assuming), and you load the .pln file into the World Map - it shows you the flight plan you created.  HOWEVER...when you change the departure from Runway to a parking area, it defaults to what MSFS2020 would have given you for a plan.  I spent about an hour running diffs of files generated by Navigraph and MSFS2020 to find the line in the XML that creates departure/spawn area.  Either I found the wrong thing, or it is buried further, or with a flag that needs set but updating the XML by hand did not function for me.

On a whim, I decided to just set pick the airport and start in GA parking.  Once the game fired up, I had no flight plan.  I then pressed ESC, when to Load to load the file, and it only looks for .plt files now.  If you type " *.pln" in the directory, it will show you your just generated PLN from Navigraph.  Load that file, and voila! Your flight plan from navigraph is loaded into the G1000!!

Is it perfect? No - but a so far reliable way to use Navigraph flight plans in a G1000 airplane.  I flew 3 routes last night this way, all with success.


i7-10700k (OC at 5.05MHz) | EVGA 3090 FTW3 (24GB) | G.Skill RipJaws V Series 32GB RAM (Effective 3200MHz) | 1TB SSD M2 (Samsung EVO) | Corsair 850W Gold P/S | MSI MAG CoreLiquid 240R | MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Edge WiFi | Logitech Yoke and Throttle Quad | Logitech Saitek Rudders | Logitech Switch Panel | Thrustmaster T.Flight 4 HOTAS | HyperX Cloud Flight S Headset | 43” LG 43UN700B 4k monitor | HP Reverb G2 (VR)

Selling EVGA 2080 Super Ultra XC (8GB) - used for 3.5 months - PM me for info if interested!

My uncle taught me "how to fly" on MSFS95, got MSFS98 for a birthday, and I have been hooked ever since

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3 hours ago, zihmer001 said:

So - I've been flight planning in Navigraph.  This tool is amazing.  So I found a bug/workaround (probably has been stated somewhere else) - when you create a plan in Navigraph (or another tool I am assuming), and you load the .pln file into the World Map - it shows you the flight plan you created.  HOWEVER...when you change the departure from Runway to a parking area, it defaults to what MSFS2020 would have given you for a plan.  I spent about an hour running diffs of files generated by Navigraph and MSFS2020 to find the line in the XML that creates departure/spawn area.  Either I found the wrong thing, or it is buried further, or with a flag that needs set but updating the XML by hand did not function for me.

On a whim, I decided to just set pick the airport and start in GA parking.  Once the game fired up, I had no flight plan.  I then pressed ESC, when to Load to load the file, and it only looks for .plt files now.  If you type " *.pln" in the directory, it will show you your just generated PLN from Navigraph.  Load that file, and voila! Your flight plan from navigraph is loaded into the G1000!!

Is it perfect? No - but a so far reliable way to use Navigraph flight plans in a G1000 airplane.  I flew 3 routes last night this way, all with success.

Nice find!  I'll have to try that out.  That sounds a lot faster than building it by hand in the sim and trying to find matching waypoints or avoid the buggy thing where it loops you to the new waypoint from an earlier or later point in the plan.


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