NRiese

I'll try looking into some VFR flying then. Thanks for the videos, all. I'll check them all tomorrow! Hopefully I will find some more time soon to do some VATSIM flying!

Might be a stupid question - but then what difference does it make and in which way will it help me to move on to IFR flying if the only time I need to interact with the ATC is when getting my clearance? If it's to become familiar with ATC I do see the reason but it will not help me when flying IFR later on as it's a completely different ATC experience as far as I've heard, right? And in order to fly VFR I guess I need to practise the route offline right? I guess I need to learn the route somehow as going from A to B VFR for the first time will be impossible as I've most likely never been on that specific route ever before. Yup, vPilot is apparently right now the only client that works. And when filling in my route on Vatsim.net/fp they suggest to put "Newbie" in the section with the comments thingy. That's what I'll do for sure

I'll try that when time is allowing med to. Haven't got a lot time for FSX atm. I really need to do some VFR training offline as I have litteraly no idea how to fly VFR. I know the rules, but I have no clue what to do with ATC etc. I can easily fly the default Cessna but I have no clue how to put in the route either. But that's what you don't do, right? I know VATSIM has some pilot training and I have already passed my first test over there. (Nor VFR related) Right now my plan is as following: • Do some VFR offline and check some videos about basic VFR flying, VATSIM ATC videos and VATSIM flights. • Connect to VATSIM, go to a busy airport and just listen to ATC. • Do some VFR flying (VATSIM) • Basically becomming familiar with VATSIM. •After training go 737 and IFR. I don't know about FSinn. Seems a bit complicated from what I've seen. Might just stick to vPilot until I have become familiar with VATSIM. I don't know really. What would you guys say? Thanks for your tips and help, too. It's highly appreciated. If I don't reply to posts straight away it's because the holidays are over. Unfortunately :-)

I'll try out FSInn then! :-) To be honest I feel a lot more comfortable flying a 737 as this together with A319-20-21 is the only planes I really am used to flying. I don't have any payware smaller planes either and I am not familiar with VFR flying at all. I'll see what happens, might be an idea

I'll just use this one instead of making a new thread - I can't see where to turn squawking standby using vPilot. Do I have to do this inside the plane above the panel? Looks like you have a seperate button if you are using FSinn in the menu.

Understandable! I will of course start somewhere not as busy as the big airports. Thinking of EKCH - LSZH for example. I'm not sure about the traffic at LSZH though. Might bee too busy an airport. Okay, thank you! Good to know that it's before crossing the point. Where then? Am I able to jump in and listen without placing my aircraft at a gate or ramp? :-) Yup, sure! So, I basically connect to Vatsim, go to let's say JFK and just sit there and listen? In my vPilot client there's a room called "Observers". Am I supposed to join this room? Or just the tower or ground or whatever? It's not like I haven't checked the manuals at all. I am just not patient enough to sit for hours and reading through every bit as usually I know half the stuff and therefore I find it easier to look after the specific operations I want to know more about. As for the VNAV right now I don't get why it doesn't work when I am descending. I go to legs > put in the speed and altitudes for each waypoint > and activating VNAV. This doesn't work for some reason. LNAV works which is weird. Heading select, level change etc. works as well. So, either in a case like this I find it much easier to ask here or at the iFly forums at least to start off with. People on Avsim are always very helpful! And the second thing I do is to check YouTube, make sure I understand every bit and if not the last thing I'll do is to check the manuals. FS2Crew is very helpful too I think. I'm using it for my iFly and by using that you'll get some extra hands in the cockpit and actually some help if you're stuck somewhere or has forgot to set something. Looks like VATSIM has their own charts or at least have websites linked to where you can get charts. I am definitely going to get them every time! As for now I need some time to go through a couple more VATSIM ATC videos and find out what's wrong with the VNAV. And again, make sure that I know what's needed to know of my aircraft for flying online and at the same time being able to communicate with the ATC :-)

Yup, I have. I passed a test online, not sure exactly what it was but some kind of VATSIM pilot training. I'm pretty sure I can connect to VATSIM soon. I'll do a test flight later and pretend it's VATSIM. I still don't understand why VNAV isn't working though. If anybody knows please let me know if I might be doing something wrong or if it's a bug, I've done some researching but can't find a solution on this. Is there anyway to find a overview listed all the things I need to know about my airplane? I am really not sure what more I need if I need to know more. I guess autoland etc. isn't needed.

Okay, so I just did a flight from EKBI - EKCH. Everything went fine until the descend. The VNAV didn't seem to work at all. What I did was open the FMC, go to legs and check the speed and altitude was set and finally execute. If I turn on VNAV shouldn't it do the job for me and descend, adjusting speed etc.? Also the localizer wasn't working apparently. I had set the ILS frequency for RWY 22R which is 110,90 and I double-checked on the map. The localizer didn't say so. Any idea what I did wrong here?

Don't know what happened to the post above. Probably my mobile :-) Anyways, one more question! Right now I have turned Indicated Airspeed on in FSX. However, when I am looking to file a flightplan by using the vatsim.net/fp it says I need to enter the speed in True Airspeed. I know how to calculate online what 350 IAS is in TAS if we're flying FL320 and the temperature is 20 degrees F. But do I need to change the speed settings in FSX to true airspeed when setting up VNAV etc.? Also, when I have my flightplan ready how do I deliver it to tower? Will they automatically be able to see my flight plan? Thanks again!!

Yeah, hopefully! Still need to watch some more ATC vids and jump in and listen as you requested. I'll do that tomorrow. Yeah, hopefully! Still need to watch some more ATC vids and jump in and listen as you requested. I'll do that tomorrow.

Let's say this: I am assigned a specific STAR for a specific airport. I find the airport chart and it tells me that when passing the waypoint X I need to reduce my speed to X knots and decend to FL X. Is this what you mean? It might be a stupid question, but I am not really sure. I can read charts pretty easy, put the route into the FMC and I know how to edit waypoints, airways, SIDs and STARs, RWY's etc. I feel pretty confident, but at the same time I know I have to see a couple of more videos regarding the ATC on VATSIM's website. Also, I need a few more videos for the iFly 737! I guess it's positive though, thank you :-) Yup, sure thing! This has been my plan from the start. Just to clarify - the ATC is giving me vectors for a specific runway, right? I need to type it into my ILS frequency etc. Is this the same place I enter the frequency for any atc? Thanks again for all your help. Really appreciated! Don't know what to do without help from you guys ^_^

Thank you! :-) I'll check out some videos on YouTube explaining holding. Not sure about the numbers on the yoke, I'll check it out later. Would indeed be nice to have quick access to frequencies. I guess I'll have to watch some videos on YouTube now on some iFly guides. I'm thinking of buying PMDG 737 soon when they make the PMDG planes compatible with FSX-SE. A bit more guides and hopefully I'll be flying soon! I have already setup VATSIM and vPilot, downloaded VATspy and joined Norweigan Virtual. All needed now is some more knowledge of the ATC and a bit more knowledge of the plane itself Oh, and I passed my first VATSIM PTD exam pretty easy, hurray!

I do know the basics of SIDs and STARs, how they work, how to put them in your route (FMC) etc. Sometimes it tells me that the route is inconsistent, which I have no idea why it should be. Things like these I definitely need to somehow find out what I am doing wrong. The iFly forums is always telling me to study manuals, and rarely a manual is helpful, at least in my opinion, where video tutorials are a lot more helpful. I'll see if I can find some complete-flight tutorials for iFly 737 and check how to handle things I am unsure of. I know how to handle the in-build FSX ATC when flying offline if that's what you're talking about. This is in my opinion a lot more different as you get every message on text and with a understandable, 'clean' voice, while the videos I've watched on YouTube and several guides it appears that the controllers mic's are pretty bad. I am not sure if that's just me, if it has something to do with the quality of the videos or whatever, but to write down what they say and how to readback correctly is one thing - another thing is to actually understand the nato phonetic alphabet and all the numbers. Sometimes I think it goes very fast and there's a lot of these to remember. If the voice isn't very clean combined with the fast-speaking ATC's I find it too hard to understand 100%. 1) Check 2) Check 3) Not exactly sure what this is actually 4) Check 5) Check - I do get SIDs and STARs and transitions, transition altitudes etc. but I am not exactly sure how detailed a SID and STAR chart is and therefore I can't tell you exactly if I can follow a chart like this. 6) I am pretty sure I got this right, too. Not too sure and this will be one of the things I definitely need to check some guides for. 7) Look earlier in this post 8) Check So I do know the basics for flying and a bit more. I can easily startup the aircraft from cold and dark, fly, land, and shut it down. I just don't get a lot of these flightexpressions like ILS etc. I know it's Instrument Landing System (it is, right? ) but what exactly is under this category I am not sure of. Also I am not sure exactly what in the cockpit overhead panel is for what. Again, more videos Shouldn't be a problem at all when it comes to follow directions etc. If I get what the ATC says I shouldn't be having problems reading back correctly, but my problem is that too many informations and a fast-speaking controller I am lost So, if I go to the airport the ATC won't speak to me if I tune the tower for example? ;-) Thanks for the guide btw, I'll write it down.

Hi! The last couple of days I have been watching several videos, reading Vatsim guides and trying to figure out what's needed in order to start flying. Apparently it's literally every single mechanism you need to know which makes me pretty frustrated as I only know the basics and a little more in my iFly 738. Has someone got any experience with Vatsim? I guess I might be too impatient to learn and read on forums and websites how and what to do. I preffer watching a 5-hour-video telling me everything I need to know about the plane and Vatsim, but these videos don't exist ;-) Anyway, I guess everyone's been there. How did you study and learned everything about not only vatsim but also your aircraft? Right now I just feel like giving up on Vatsim and flying offline casual, and maybe that's the right thing to do for now. But I just wanted to hear how you guys got there. Right now I am at a point where I just can't control the aircraft, listen to the ATC and undestanding the ATC, taking notes etc. all at once. Happy New year! - Nikolas

PMDG 747 doesn't work (stand-alone installation) either. EZdok is working absolutely fine, you need to upgrade it to 1.18 beta though