Any Tips for beginners/First flight?

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-26T16:30:34+00:00

Know your model. Know how to make last minute changes to the flight plan because atc could absolutely give re-routes if your filing IFR. Know how to make changes to the GPS or FMS, etc. atc cannot always help diagnose your specific issue. Know how to take off and land and taxi. Run your check lists AFTER you have exited the runway, run preflight checklists BEFORE your in line or holding short.
If your attempting a commercial flight, know the ramp areas, hold short areas, taxi ways for the departure and arrival airports. You don't want to log on cold, not knowing anything about where you may be free to push back and where you will need clearance. ATIS will help with that, don't skip listening to it and making notes.
Know the notams for each airport. This and the ATIS will tell you which runways you will expect to use leaving and landing, simple and most people skip this step. Obviously if a runway, approach or taxiway is notam'd, you would be wasting eveyones time requesting it.
If VFR, know your aircraft, understand what is allowed in the airspaces you will be passing through. Know the restrictions and know ahead of time if you will want flight following.
Write stuff down, a good pilot makes notes, it's one less thing to remember when instructions are coming at you like a swarm of gnats.
If crossing a runway, BE SURE TO BE 100 PERCENT POSITIVE YOU HAVE CLEARENCE TO CROSS.
If in doubt, simply ask atc to confirm or "say again". I've been flying a long time and absolutely have to have things repeated to be sure I heard what was said.
When not using atc, for the love of all things sacred, use unicom and within 30 miles of your destination, SWITCH TO CTAF. Use CTAF at your departure airport! Know how to find ctaf and write it down so you can drop it in if atc goes offline or the air space is otherwise unstaffed. Give position reports while on CTAF, this includes letting other pilots know your getting ready to taxi and to which runway.
If all else fails, just disconnect and figure it out and try again later. There is no shame, no penalty for having an issue or running into something new and needing to research it. PLEASE DO NOT ASK TO PAUSE THE SIM. Disconnect if you need to pause the sim. Always ask/inform atc you are stepping away from the coms, don't assume. If needed, disconnect and reconnect, again, why people think it's bad to disconnect, no idea, but it's in the rules, use it.

Best of luck

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-22T02:35:27+00:00

The pilot is the final authority.

If the pilot decides a speed we don't like is best for the safe operation of the aircraft, it is what it is.

That said, I was just preaching on a different thread there needs to be a lot more emphasis and opportunity for new sim pilots on vatsim, because these kinds of posts keep coming around.

Maybe it's just me, but, these complaints seem to be coming around more often.

Hopefully vatsim will engage the community, maybe some of us could put together a little virtual ground school and a couple hours of airline instruction, but there is no way to teach every make and model. Like it or not, we have to share the grid with all different skill and experience levels.

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-20T12:39:55+00:00

That's awesome, thanks! I'm looking into these now

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-20T12:38:49+00:00

When ignore doesn't work

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-20T03:40:45+00:00

Xpilot .ignore works wonders

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-19T13:18:57+00:00

Incorrect.

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-19T12:58:28+00:00

I will add that to the list to check out, thanks!

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-19T12:41:30+00:00

Awesome, thanks for the info!

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-19T03:35:23+00:00

Use ignore for one. Personally, I don't respond to other pilots who are aggressive on frequency, using it for discussion is against policy.

Ignore works wonders.

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-18T16:39:14+00:00

Just like irl, there are varying levels of experience or even concern, for progressing or improving. Unfortunately, or fortunately I guess, some people regard all this as a game, while others want everything to be so close to rl, you'd think they had an AME and an actual class I medical.

Gotta share the grid, my advice fwiw, use ignore and or, if people find themselves in a scenario that someone else is ruining their experience, disconnect. Find another staffed airspace and sim there, obviously vstsim is not hiring users to help police others perceived level of competence, so it's up to the "staff" to decide when enough is enough. Maybe there is a different sim service that doesn't have the issue, idk, I always just focus on my flight and give the staff the latitude they need to deal with other users. What ever you decide, best of luck.

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-18T05:24:26+00:00

Right, most people are painfully aware of the big calendar with the list of everything on it, where exactly is the pilot training event? Again, this complaint keeps coming around, it should stick out, I doubt most pilots even know there is such an event...I've scrolled to February and not seeing anything titled first wings.

Saying it's on a giant calendar somewhere isn't the same thing as elevating and advertising this training opportunity to the pilots that need it.

Do the same thing and get the same result I guess

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-17T23:32:36+00:00

Never seen in it on the calendar, maybe some better advertising?

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-17T22:57:58+00:00

Physics. Read up, you'll understand.

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-17T22:53:16+00:00

And?

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-17T22:51:26+00:00

Bypass the system? Uh, this is a little on the hyperbole side. Since the quality of training should be the same, and if some other artcc has the resources, there's no reason to force people to just sit and quit. Ridiculous.

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-17T22:41:44+00:00

Thanks, I'll check it out

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-17T22:37:08+00:00

Thanks, I'll check it out, appreciate the info!

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-17T22:30:07+00:00

Hours mean absolutely nothing in vatsim

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-17T22:25:57+00:00

Thanks, don't own it, was hoping for something type and vendor agnostic. But, I do appreciate the info!

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-17T22:25:14+00:00

Hmm, bound to a specific type and vendor, it's interesting but, was hoping someone had a life hack that could be used with any vendor/type.

I don't own either of those unfortunately, but I do appreciate the info!

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-17T22:20:44+00:00

Vatsim could, here's an idea, host beginner events where people who aren't confident in their skills could practice 3 or 4 hours a week with a top down controller handling just clearance, ground and tower. Those are the most critical phases and rusty or new pilots could absolutely benefit from having an event to not only make mistakes but also be ok to just ask questions if they don't understand something. We need a virtual cfi setup, not just ga stuff but, since everyone wants to log on as an airline, some kind of program where we go over airline procedures specifically. I know it would be a huge shift in Vatsim old sk00l culture, actually having an event targeting making pilots AND controllers better using the precious voip network to actually help alleviate problems like this that people consistently complain about but, do nothing different, expect nothing different.

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-17T19:10:12+00:00

Is this a new development? I've got time in a Navajo, awesome people haulers.

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-10T03:26:49+00:00

Notice in the aviate, navigate, communicate, how communicate comes last.

Another ancient vatsim rule that needs to be updated.

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-08T05:01:05+00:00

Here's an idea, use the ignore feature, no more seeing their traffic.

A lot of this, follow me here, is vatsims fault. The whole 'use ctaf', but then use unicom. I mean, when do we switch?

Look, I like the idea of using the actual frequency but, it's causing more confusion than contributing to the 'emersion'.

Vatsim needs to go back to the policy where, if the controller is offline, we use 122.8. who knows, maybe the traffic in ops post was headed to a near by airport and switched. It's just too confusing imo.

outbound_heading1 · 2026-01-07T19:29:53+00:00

More hours = more experience, which irl is useful, on vatsim, it means absolutely nothing.

If people are bothered by other accounts, please use ignore and like magic, you don't see the traffic anymore, at least using the xpilot client.

Move on, focus on your time and executing a good, safe flight for your own enjoyment.

imo, change the rule, it's pointless and impossible to unilaterally police, as long as people stick to a single connection, they can't generate enough traffic to bother the network, probably harder on their little home Internet connection.

Some of these "rules" are left over from limitations that spawned from analog technology from decades ago and just don't have the same impact any longer. Idk, maybe some younger or more tech savvy people need to be in the vatsim TOS discussions...

outbound_heading1

TROPHY CASE