VATSIM - Yes or No?

[Dane]

Just reading about and thinking of using VATSIM.
Wondered if many use this and/or what your thoughts are about it?

[Dane]

Escrito originalmente por Steve Mak:

You can start at unmanned areas to get a feel for how it connects and so on. In unmanned areas you just type your t/off and landing intentions on the Unicom frequency. It's a simple way of doing it. Uncontrolled, then VFR next, and finally IFR.

The likes of FSCloud is another online client a bit like Vatsim without a requirement for ATC knowledge. It has a lightweight computerised ATC .... so good as a progression toward Vatsim.

Good to know, I think I will try the Unicom first at unmanned airports to first see what it's all about

[LeadCatcher]

Just a quick question concerning Vatsim, I fly GA exclusively and as such pretty much use smaller airports - would Vatsim add much to my flying?

[Tommy Lee]

That might be a problem, especialy in EU and Uk areas where you have tendency of most controllers to go almost exclusively on large airpirts, so when I flew there it was just boring as hell since I was almost exclusively in unmanned areas. Only thing I could do is to adjust my route to go across controlled airspace to get some interesting atc, ofc if day is busy, center tend not to offer you ATC in B or C airspace transitions so that can fail too. It might help that you watch their schedule and prepare to go online when they annonce controlling of some small airport that allows VFR traffic. Still in some cases that can fail too since some younger controllers tend to forgot if airport is bigger that also offers VFR aproach and departure so they dont allow you to fly and that is ashem (beed there and went off vatsim after that). I agree it is fun, but it is mostly fun for Airliner guys...GA guys tend to have less fun due to reasons above.
I would love that it is different these days, but that you will have to check yourself. I never ever were able to find propper spot for me but you maybe of better luck.

[Eriol_Mits]

I perfer not flying on VATsim to be honest. Now being able to speak to people over the radios is cool. The is problem lies in the ATC coverage being spotty. Unless you are flying into major airports your not likely to have ATC online and even then their is also the potential for the control to go offline during the flight.

When i was mainly flying on FSX, I found using a good traffic program like MyTraffic, and a ATC add-on like Radio Contact gave a better experiance. Again not perfect but atleast you could fly with consistant ATC and also the traffic programs made the skys much busier than they are with VATsim.

[SteveFSX/P3D]

Escrito originalmente por LeadCatcher:

Just a quick question concerning Vatsim, I fly GA exclusively and as such pretty much use smaller airports - would Vatsim add much to my flying?

I fly GA exclusively also, and they are great for Vatsim. Obviously most of the manned airports are the big international type, but there are plenty of GA aircraft around.

[LeadCatcher]

Escrito originalmente por Steve Mak:

Escrito originalmente por LeadCatcher:

Just a quick question concerning Vatsim, I fly GA exclusively and as such pretty much use smaller airports - would Vatsim add much to my flying?

I fly GA exclusively also, and they are great for Vatsim. Obviously most of the manned airports are the big international type, but there are plenty of GA aircraft around.

Thank for the response - as I get nearer retirement, need to start planning on how to avoid "Honey-do" list overload - what a better way than noise cancellation head phones :-)

[SteveFSX/P3D]

Escrito originalmente por LeadCatcher:

Escrito originalmente por Steve Mak:

I fly GA exclusively also, and they are great for Vatsim. Obviously most of the manned airports are the big international type, but there are plenty of GA aircraft around.

Thank for the response - as I get nearer retirement, need to start planning on how to avoid "Honey-do" list overload - what a better way than noise cancellation head phones :-)

I know what you mean wth having a wife around myself.

I find Vatsim good for when flying alone online, but I prefer FScloud when flying with others as the areas I fly are rarely controlled anyway.

[MightyCaco]

VATSIM is fun, and I generally use it regularly in place of the not-so-good default offline ATC services.

This said, some of the controllers do make me raise my brow a bit. I remember flying to anchorage once during an event, and instead of putting everyone on a STAR for effective traffic flow, the controller radar vectored everyone around. He gave me a 50 mile downwind, at altitudes below MSA, and even cut an aircraft in front of me (yay for realism). I've also received a holding clearance at night at an altitude that gave me "terrain, pull-up" while flying over the mountains.

It's all in good fun though, and sometimes, flying in an online community can be enjoyable. Not teh kind of place if you just want to fly with friends though.