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:
- 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.
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 :)
I really like the images you've selected to use as part of your post. You may want to try however, separating them with a line in between your text. I think it would help the post look less crowded and keep the captions (caption in this case) from blending in with your paragraphs.
ReplyDeleteTons of information here. Too much, IMHO. Looks like a two-parter to me. That'll also allow you to build in some anticipation.
ReplyDeleteFurther, whenever you use a bulleted list (good idea, btw), make sure to use parallel verb or noun forms to begin each entry. See: http://writingmatters.typepad.com/blog/2008/10/how-and-why-to-make-your-lists-parallel-and-what-does-parallel-mean.html.
i like the informative, technical way you speak in your post, as this seems to be an informative and technically driven blog. i suggest you make your blog more accessible, as jeff and hanna said, by breaking up the text a bit more, possibly with more media.
ReplyDelete