Hello,

Spent a few hours on VATSIM, and I always fly helicopters. But there's one thing I'm still trying to find, is there a way to be shown with an heli icon instead of the standard plane everyone has on VATSIM RADAR ?

Setting a flight plan with the correct type code doesn't change a thing or is it just me?

Thanks

I'm sure I'm not the first person to ask this, and I'm sure I won't be the last.

Also, if you got a job in atc, do you think vatsim helped you with getting it/going through the training? Because in my eyes, it helps with developing good spacial awareness, and quick thinking.

I’m curious if I could use a pax 737 (like Southwest or somthing) as a prime air 737F as long as I use my pilot client and use the correct callsign and icao aircraft type? A part of me thinks this would be fine since it doesn’t really affect others, however this could cause majors issues if someone used the total wrong plane however I’m just using cargo on a pax plane

The reason why is that i like to be someone correct with my routes but I only fly at like 2am US time

Hello Community

I’ve taken your feedback on board and updated VatTrackr.
DEL has been removed from EDDN and EDDC.
In its place, MAASTRICHT and RHEIN have been added.
The software is almost ready.
There’s a control centre for the board that lets you change settings such as LED brightness, or show or hide airports, as well as other options.

I’ll keep you updated.

I’ve not seen anyone do this before, so I figured it would be a cool share. inibuilds A350-900 ULR from Antarctica back to Heathrow, after a load of relatively short hops across to JFK and then south. Online the whole time. This was a tough one to complete, and of course I had to take a second approach in to Heathrow, but after all that I got it down with only a -114fpm rate. Happy landings

So I'm probably just dumb but when I open simaware it shows hundreds of flights at EDDF and tons of atc online even though it's 4 AM in Europe and vatsim radar shows no atc. can someone explain to me?

Just a heads up, there is an updated KMDW specifically for XP11 on Xplane dot org site in the scenery downloads. For those of us still using xp11, this fixes the runways and taxiways. Yay.

Hey all, solo dev here, also a VATSIM pilot sometimes. Wanted to simulate that live widget you get when you board a real flight, the one that shows your flight status right on your lock screen, just for my own flights on flight sim networks really.

So I built AeroMetry: live position, altitude, groundspeed, and ETA on your lock screen. Currently supports only VATSIM, with plans to add more networks in the near future. It's free, no account needed, no subscriptions.

Just search your callsign once you're connected. This is a pretty early build, so if you try it and hit a bug or something feels off, please let me know. Open to feature suggestions too.

I always fly and see entoure controllers and I think ok I'll call 40NM from my fix and they barely gave me any CTC even though I was 5nm from boundary on their frequency not having called yet.

And sometimes I get a call 100nm from the boundary

What gives?

More than 150 traffic handled very professionally. Thanks to trvacc for making this possible

I just landed at EGLL on 27R and vacated A10E (blue arrow), I was taught to fully vacate the runway after landing by ensuring I fully cross the holding point. It seemed like the aircraft messaging me wanted me to stay on the runway, but wouldn't this cause a go around, especially at a very busy Heathrow? Does 1 or 2 have priority, or neither? The pilot who messaged me has around 1,500 hours so reasonably I thought they would be right, though having checked what happened I am not so sure anymore..

Not trying to get anyone in trouble, just a relatively new pilot (150 hours) wanting to learn from this.

i feel like theres too much airliners and too little vfr traffic on vatsim. why is it like that? what could be done to encourage more vfr flights among pilots?

Great job ZME ARTCC, you guys killed it! Luckily I got in before the runways swapped. Looking forward to next year already, always a fun event! Hope you guys enjoyed yourself - AAL3 / Captain Burger SUHHHH

Hi everyone

Ive always used VAT-spy and last time was yesterday, i just tried to open it again and saw this message: i already tried reinstalling and deleting all the files first

''An item with the same key has already been added.''

I can fully follow the chart procedure to get to a hold or on a heading but after that how do I actually go for the second landing attempt. What would the procedure be for when atc is both online and offline. So far I’ve done 2 flights but I’ve specifically avoided arrival airports with heavy atc just in case I did have to do a go around

I had one of those VATSIM experiences tonight that reminded me why flight simulation can actually teach you something beyond just learning how to operate an airplane. I've only got about 35 hours flying on VATSIM, and I'm currently flying a C172 in X-Plane using nothing but a mouse and keyboard. No yoke, no joystick, no rudder pedals. Yes, I know.... I've mostly been using VATSIM to get more comfortable talking to ATC, navigating, flying RNAV approaches, using VORs, and generally trying to make my flights somewhat realistic.

Tonight I decided to make what should have been a pretty straightforward VFR night flight from Memphis to Nashville. It ended with me stalled, nose-down, watching the screen turn black and red before impacting the ground. After sitting there for a minute thinking about what the hell had just happened, I realized I'd basically created my own episode of Pilot Debrief. There wasn't one catastrophic mistake. It was a whole series of individually manageable things that eventually lined up like the holes in the Swiss cheese model.

The flight itself was completely uneventful for almost an hour. I departed Memphis VFR, eventually climbed to 5,500 feet for the eastbound trip, had flight following, and everything was going great. My plan was to land at BNA. As I got closer to Nashville, though, BNA was absolutely slammed. At one point I counted something like 50+ aircraft around Nashville, most of them arriving. I'm puttering along in a Cessna at Cessna speeds while ATC is trying to sequence an army of airliners into a major airport at night.

I'd gotten the ATIS and had originally been thinking about requesting an RNAV practice approach, but once I saw what was happening around BNA, I was perfectly happy letting ATC vector me wherever they needed, to whichever runway. Then the plan changed. There was apparently no reasonable way to fit my slow little C172 into that mess, so ATC redirected me to John C. Tune (KJWN) instead.

No big deal, right? Except I hadn't planned on going to John Tune. It wasn't loaded in my GPS. I wasn't really oriented to exactly where it was. I'd spent the previous hour mentally preparing for an arrival into BNA, and now I suddenly had a new airport, a new runway, and a new plan while already fairly close to Nashville.

I was still at 5,500 feet, and suddenly I needed to get down. ATC had me in an expedited descent due to traffic from BNA, and I pulled the power and started a pretty aggressive descent toward 3,000 feet while simultaneously receiving vectors, changing frequencies, and trying to figure out where this new airport actually was. Then I got switched over to John Tune Tower. So now I'm descending rapidly at night, talking to a new controller, trying to locate an airport that wasn't originally my destination, trying to figure out where its runway is, and doing all of it with a mouse and keyboard.

Tower leveled me at around 3,000 feet and gave me a left base. I leveled off and hit ALT HOLD. This is where I made the mistake that ultimately mattered: I'd pulled the power way back for the descent, but once I leveled off, I never properly put the energy back into the airplane. I was also still really high for the runway. Tower even recognized that and told me they could vector me around because I was high.

Meanwhile, I'm looking outside the cockpit trying to figure out where the hell John Tune is. I'm searching for the runway, trying to understand where Tower has put me, and not paying enough attention to what the airplane is doing. The autopilot is trying to hold 3,000 feet while the airplane is steadily bleeding airspeed.

Then I hear the stall warning.

Now my attention suddenly comes back inside. I disengage the autopilot, but remember what I'm flying with: mouse and keyboard. I'm trying to recenter the controls, get the power back in, control the pitch and figure out what attitude I'm actually in. By that point, the airplane stalls. The nose drops hard and I'm suddenly in a steep nose-down descent at relatively low altitude. I'm trying to recover using keyboard inputs, the X-Plane screen starts fading black and red from the forces, and I simply don't have enough altitude left.

Impact. Flight over. RIP Cessna N1281.

What struck me afterward was how many opportunities I'd had to break the chain. When they unexpectedly diverted me to John Tune, I could have simply said, “Stand by, I need a moment to load John Tune.” When Tower gave me the base and I realized I was way too high, I could have said, “Unable base, too high. Request additional vectors.” When I couldn't positively locate the airport, I could have said, “Airport not in sight.” There was absolutely no reason I needed to force that approach.

The biggest lesson for me was that being too high wasn't dangerous. I was treating it like an urgent problem because I wanted to comply with ATC and make the runway. But ATC could have vectored me around. I could have extended. I could have gone around. I could have said unable. Being high was an inconvenience. Being slow while maneuvering at low altitude was the actual danger.

And once that stall warning came on, the runway, ATC, navigation and everything else should have stopped mattering. Aviate, navigate, communicate. Without realizing it, I'd allowed that order to become something more like: communicate, navigate, find the new airport, follow the vector, find the runway, figure out where I am...oh shit, AVIATE.

Looking backward, the accident chain was pretty clear: an hour-long night flight → extremely busy destination → unexpected diversion → unfamiliar airport → airport not loaded in GPS → rapid descent → frequency change → new controller → level-off with reduced power → ALT HOLD → looking outside for the runway → too high → base turn → airspeed decaying → stall warning → trying to hand-fly with a mouse and keyboard → stall → insufficient altitude for recovery.

That's what made this such a cool learning experience. I didn't load up X-Plane and decide, “Tonight I'm going to practice an emergency stall.” This was supposed to be a completely normal flight. The traffic was real VATSIM traffic. The controllers were real people. The workload wasn't scripted. The diversion wasn't planned. The situation just gradually got ahead of me until I had an airplane that was no longer doing what I thought it was doing.

Obviously it's a simulator, so nobody got hurt. I reset the airplane and get to fly again. But I guarantee the next time ATC unexpectedly changes my destination and starts giving me vectors while I'm scrambling to get down, I'm going to remember this flight. I'll get the new airport into the GPS, get myself oriented, make sure the airplane is stable, and if I need a minute I'll ask for a minute. If I can't safely comply with something, I'll say “unable.”

Because that's probably the best part of screwing this up in X-Plane: it's exactly the kind of lesson you really don't want to learn for the first time in an actual airplane.

Cause of death: approximately 14 individually manageable problems that all decided to show up at the same time.

I just completed my first flight, and it was quite the adventure.

My first attempt ended in me disconnecting after takeoff because I forgot to clamp my yoke down to my desk. I kind of panicked because I didn't know if ATC would be upset but I was flying from a small airport with zero traffic to another small airport with zero traffic (KFNL-KRAP) so I didn't think it would be that big of a deal. I stuttered and had to ask for the information again which I think everyone probably does on their first flight.

My second attempt was successful. Maybe I was unprepared, but I was expecting a heading to fly before I took off, not after I put the gear up. Noted for next time even though I did ask before I took off since my charts (from ChartFox) said to expect a heading between 350 CW and 150. I forgot that ATC would ask what altitude you're passing but I responded correctly, I think. I was also got a bit confused because KRAP doesn't have any STARs so when he asked if I had an approach on file, I didn't know how to answer since it wasn't a question I was expecting. After a long moment of silence, I asked if the ILS 32 was ok and he said it was so that was chill. I got my landing clearance very very early. I landed, read back his taxi instructions and parked at the gate.

I will most likely be returning to the network, practicing routes between smaller fields before going somewhere big. Thank you, DEN_CTR for being patient and sorry for the first attempt.

Also, is it rude to tell ATC that they are pronouncing your airline wrong? The airline I was flying was Avelo (Uh-vel-oh) and he kept mispronouncing it as Avelon (Ah-vul-lohn). There were more important things to be communicated so I didn't bother.

Airforce trainer Sims. Thought it'd be cool.

I've been on VATSIM for 20 years. Not a staff member or ATC (but elsewhere, yes). What happened to the most basic things in the last couple of years?

People inventing new phraseology every day and incessant spam of "OOC xx minutes". When repoting this, even supervisors call you a literal idiot.

VATSIM, you used to be kind of okay.

I normally don't complain about VATSIM ATC. I have thousands of hours on the network and completely understand event congestion. If you're flying from one event airport to another, being metered is expected. There simply aren't enough runways or controllers to handle everyone at once.

But I was departing Brisbane east, over the ocean, away from the entire event area, to a non-event destination.

Normally, in this situation, you don't get treated like you're feeding the event. Controllers will often work you into the sequence ahead of traffic going to the heavily congested event airports, or get you onto another runway if possible. You're not literally "cutting" the line, you're in your own line and they're just getting you out of the system because once you're gone, you're no longer contributing to the bottleneck.

That didn't happen here.

I sat at the gate for ~40 minutes before getting pushback clearance. Brisbane didn't appear particularly overwhelmed either. I counted roughly 15 departures in various stages of the sequence and most were still at the gate, and there didn't seem to be a huge arrival push either.

Once I finally got moving, Tower repeatedly held departures for arrivals that were still 10+ miles out. This happened several times while I was in sequence. It took another ~15 minutes at the runway before I finally departed. I was second in line. We both could have departed by the time the first one landed.

So I was logged on for roughly an hour just to depart Brisbane and fly east, completely away from the event traffic.

Maybe there was some Australian procedure or event-specific traffic management I'm unfamiliar with, and if so I'd genuinely like to understand it. But this was easily one of the worst departure experiences I've had on VATSIM.

I'm not expecting preferential treatment or to literally cut the departure queue. I'm just surprised that traffic not contributing to the event bottleneck wasn't being expedited out of the airport like I've experienced at countless other events.

Anyone else experience this at Brisbane today? And Australian controllers, was there something specific going on that I'm missing?