American Airlines Virtual

Wayne Szot wrote: To boil it all down, for me it's a lack of confidence... and it was easier to say 'no charts' and not have to face that... perhaps I should have phrased it different... but as I said, I'm wanting to learn... just being on VATSIM for me was stressful enough in the beginning without having to figure out how to transition from a STAR to an approach plate (for example)... but now I'm comfortable enough with VATSIM that I'm wanting to venture out in to unknown territory with the help of ATC and risk failing

Good questions. Now this is where you can learn with us on line. We have a GFI on friday and/or sunday nights (check the calendar). Get signed up on Teamspeak and log in with us on Vatsim and we can help you, live, with our friendly voices and answer almost all your questions. Fly with us on the GFI and see how we "do it" plus we get to virtually meet and greet you.
Before any flight I make on or off line I get the charts from usally the FAA web site. They have the latest and up to date information and its FREE, wahoo! Vataware has it also plus lots of info on the airports.

When I fly a flight and make out a route the Sids and Stars of course don't connect directly, so I plan out a route which gets me close to the entry point. ATC will vector you where they want you to go if the route they want or need you to take.

Remember come on and join our GFI's. It really is easy to do.
Wayne

Murray, first off what reader are you talking about, curious please.
The questions you ask have answers that are contained in the volumes of the VATSIM handbook of which I am sure you have a copy already. Yes you file an IFR flight using the charts and the SID, if the airport has one, not all do. if there is no ATC online. check the wind direction for direction of takeoff. IF there is no traffic then you do not need to announce your intentions, if there is, then text only on 122.80, no voice (VATSIM). You file IFR you fly IFR. Landing at an airport using your flight plan and no ATC, follow your STAR. VATSIM ATC will pop on line unannounced at any moment to control your flight when they do come on line, this happens a lot when we fly the GFI from an uncontrolled airport.
I tell you an easy way to get your feet wet is to fly with us on the GFI's. We are on teamspeak and will help you out verbally. You can listen and follow what we say.
One thing about flying on line is they have no idea who you are or what you look like, so it is like a telemarketer call.
WLP

Hi all new commers to Vatsim flying.
When I decided to take the plunge into flying online with Vatsim, I was very apprehensive also.
I spent many hours just parked at a busy airport listening to all the communications going on between pilots and ATC.
I also spent a lot of time reading their pilot guides for new and experienced pilots. I think I read the first flight document about 20 times before I even connected to Vatsim.
All you have to do is put "Newbie obsurving proceedures" in the box and no one will worry you.
Intitally I made up my own routes which started with a SID and ended with a STAR, I made the transitions points the first and last points on the route. All of my routes in these flights went as direct as possible between these points but used a number of VORs along the way.
ATC will sometimes give you the SID or STAR and always give you the runway, if you are set up for a different runway and SID you can request these. If ATC are not too busy they will usually comply with your wishes.
I fly both FS9 and FSX and find FSNavigator and FSCommander essential tools as you can use them to see if there are any other aircraft in the area (around the airports or in the air). These have to be set up for monitoring on line traffic (an easy task). You can even use these to create your flight plan anthough I haven't manaded to do that with FSCommander yet.

Join the world of on line flying, you will enjoy it.

Wayne Szot wrote:so how do I program in the waypoints to the default FSX GPS device after I know which runway I'm going to use while at the gate?

If you want to manually change the default FSX routing. It is tediuos, but, open the edit a route screen in FSX after you create a route. It gives you options to delete and a few other things. You need to use the mouse to click on the waypoints you want added on the LITTLE map it opens up for you. Save it and give it a shorter name i.e. KDFWKLAX.pln. as it gives it a long name. You can load it in an FMC or GPS easier. Here is what I have done and still do. I have used Simroutes.com create-a-route screen where you type in all the waypoints you want to fly to and then save it from their screens and download it as what type of file you want to also i.e. FSX, FS9, LVLD, PMDG, so on and so forth. I also use FSCommander to build a flight and put in waypoints and it will save it as to what format I choose.
The FSX planner is limited in ease of use.
WLP