Things To Do Before Attempting a VATSIM Flight

VATSIM
VATSIM is considered by many to be one of the most realistic forms of flight simulation online.  It not only brings together people wishing to fly to the most real degree imaginable, but also those who wish to work Air Traffic Control.  After joining their website they have an couple of pages devoted to introducing new members with a lot of advice on what to do before actually attempting a flight within their community.  My Dad who flies for Virtual British Airways but not with VATSIM, has given me a much more in-depth look at their requirements:

Requirements

• Basics of Flight: Taxiing, takeoff, landing.
• Know the plane inside and out, and its procedures for both turning on and turning off the entire plane.
• Understand how to use the Autopilot.
• Understand Air Traffic Control (ATC): How to use the radio, what to say and when to say it (because instead of clicking a response to an automated computer in the game I will be conversing with an actual person in charge of directing all the planes in his/her airspace).
• ILS(Instrument Landing System) landing needs to be understood and perfected.
• IFR(Instrument Flight Rules) needs to be understood in case of awful weather.

These are pretty much basics I need to understand to fly with VATSIM and qualify to join The Virtual Navy or the VUSN.  The first of those links does not require VATSIM experience, but I still need to know basics regardless before I can even start training.  Either way I will be finishing most of my solo training by the start of November.

What I want to avoid happening with VATSIM.

Why Say All this Now? 

In my Introduction I did a poor job of explaining and outlining what would be required to join VATSIM, this may have lead to a misunderstanding as to why my posts did not seem to have any connection to each other, other than "they're all about flying in a simulator".  I will be adding a link to this post in my introduction, and hopefully this will help shed some light as to what I have been aiming to do all along.  As time progresses I'm sure you will notice my posts being less random as I start to fly with online airlines and hopefully a Virtual Navy.  I have been considering flying for an airline for practice or as a replacement for VATSIM instead  if I decide to do so I am considering flying for Virtual Lufthansa.  Many of these decisions I will be making by the end of next weekend, so keep an eye out.

 

Currently?  Practicing How To Land

As you may have noticed in my photos, I am practicing my landings with the F-14D Tomcat (another one of my personal favorites).  I have only successfully landed it 3 times now. I have a lot of difficulty landing jets in general still so you will be seeing a lot of photos of a lot of different jets and maybe a video of attempted landings as well.  I hope you enjoy!

P.S. The crashes will be included as well of course :)

First VATSIM Experience

I just downloaded Squawkbox which is a chat and connection program used by VATSIM to conduct air traffic control online between pilots and other players directing the pilots from air traffic control.  VATSIM's website and my Dad highly recommended hopping online and listening to the communication between players to get a feel for what I'm up against.  It took a while for me to get an idea of how to work the program, but I finally got the feel for it, tuned my plane's radio to the channel for Chicago Center and listened to the air traffic surrounding the Chicago airspace.

 Screenshot of my entire desktop with Squawkbox windows open (yes I do have dual monitors)

It was amazingly realistic!  If you have ever flown with United (because they allow you to do this most often compared to other airlines) and listened to the air traffic with the headphones and radio you have at your seat, it sounds exactly like this...a little more busy granted as there's more going on in the real world than on VATSIM, but the communication was the same nonetheless.  The experience was a little intimidating at first, but I think I can manage it.  Also I've decided to use this blog as a log a bit more than I have been.  This has come from outside advice and so you know what's going on whenever new pictures are posted, which will happen often as I take screenshots almost everytime I fly and the album is directly connected to Flight Simulator X's screenshot folder.  Cheers.

Cutting Loose!

After constantly practicing how to fly the Boeing 737, and how to use all the technology inside of its cockpit, I took it upon myself to just have a little fun in my all time favorite plane, the Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX!  This gal is fast and agile for a World War II Piston Engined aircraft, and has been my favorite plane since I was just a little kid watching movies such as The Battle of Britain.  All my life I have never been able to get enough of the Spitfire, and one day during the summer I found a download for Microsoft Flight Simulator X to fly this amazing bird.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

I know this isn't a part of my training as my blog intends, but I wanted to share with the readers (which I guess is really just Jeff) how I came to love flying airplanes as much as I do, and the multitude of photos I took should help explain this.  I am personally a lover of flying fast and low, a fighter jock if you will. And you'll get a taste of this from the images that I took in the two scenarios, one just flying on a gorgeous day, the other above and in the midst of very thick fog.  My landing in the second was atrocious but that's because I wanted to nab a shot of it for you guys.  I hope you like it, cause I know I certainly did.

While looking at the images of my Spitfire among the clouds, this poem came to mind, please think of it as you go through the pictures:

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

John Gillespie Magee, Jr's Spitfire

A Father Teaches His Son

Last night I got onto Skype with my Dad, who has been flying virtual airliners for well over a year or 2 by now and has even been flying for a virtual British Airways.  Needless to say his experience and knowledge about these planes and the procedures behind flying them are much greater than my own.  Using Skype though he was able to show me his computer monitor and walk me through almost every inch of flying an airliner from La Guardia International airport in New York City, to Reagan International in Washington DC.  He talked me through every procedure he would go through on a routine flight, and most importantly taught me how to use the Air Traffic Control and ILS system.
Everyone that just read that is probably thinking "What the hell is he on about?"  Well to break it down...


Air Traffic Control is basically a large group of people in control towers that stay in touch with the pilot over the radio, and most importantly tell you where to go during takeoff and landing, making sure you don't fly into other jets.


ILS System on the other hand is system built into the plane that allows it to connect to a radio signature from every different runway.  Using it during your approach to the runway while landing will line your plane up with
 the runway perfectly so that you only have to take control at the last and most crucial portion...touching down.

I tried my own flight today by using a program my Dad also showed me called VRoute which uses the actual flight plans that airlines use to different destinations all over the globe.  I put in the origin and destination for a flight that I take to visit my grandparents in Massachusetts (the picture above shows the flight path) and voila!  I can follow the exact same flight path that I take in the real world.  The flight was amazing, and landing has become a whole lot easier, and a whole lot harder on account of the fact that I have to grow accustomed to the new instruments and working with the people in air traffic control.  I have put up images of the flight over on right bar which are connected to my Picasa  account which will be posting all screen shots I take, whether they're related to a post or not, so keep an eye out for more popping up all the time.

Learning the Autopilot

After spending a large amount of time studying the ins and outs of the cockpits of airliners such as the Boeing 737 and the CRJ700, I have finally been taking them out for test flights across lake Michigan; taking off from O'Hare and landing in Detroit.  These have been very short 25 minute flights, and have allowed me to toy around with the autopilot systems, and GPS on the planes.

Now I plan to study Air Traffic Control, and the vocabulary necessary to communicate and coordinate with other simulators who are controlling air traffic for other airports.

What I find most enjoyable about this game is how you can upload areas that exist from all over the globe, and as long as you have an internet connection you can make sure that the weather in the game is the same as the weather we are currently experiencing, so the images below are the conditions from Tuesday, October 19 at approximately 2:00 PM

Taking off from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

Flying over Chicago at 11,500 feet en route to Detroit.

What is a Flight Simulator?

Well, before I get into detail what it is I'm going to do, let me first tell you what a flight simulator is.

My F-14D Tomcat flying over fog-laden mountains in Japan.

Since man has invented video games there have been flight simulators.  Originally it was a couple green lines, an altimeter, and a speedometer.  Now that computers have advanced, simulators have left the gaming community, and the real ones are much more professional, even used today by airlines for their reality.  They simulate the interior of the cockpit in the 3rd dimension, and in Microsoft Flight Simulator X all of the "bells and whistles" within a planes cockpit are operational, either from shortcuts on your keyboard, or you can move them on the screen with your mouse.

The level of realism is astonishing, you may as well be in the actual plane, though I quote my father saying "If you were to make the ultimate flight simulator, you'd end up making an airplane."  My history with these programs goes back to when I was first introduced to them at 4 years old on an MS DOS run Macintosh computer.  Ever since then my skill while flying has grown considerably, and now I want to take it to the next level by joining a flight simulator community known as VATSIM (Virtual Air Traffic Simulator).  This is where all professional level virtual pilots come to test their skills at what could be considered the real deal, whether they are actual pilots are just civilian enthusiasts.

So now we come to the purpose of my blog,  I have just joined this community, and will be putting my flying skills to their ultimate test, as I practice routine flights, and air traffic control systems.  The ultimate goal being to join a virtual Navy, and pass their training courses in order to join a squadron at the most professional level I can reach without actually joining (which I can't physically because I'm too tall to pilot actual jet fighters).  So please sit back, buckle your seat belts, turn off all electronics and place your trays in the upright and locked position.  Thank you!

How I plan to go about practicing for VATSIM