Vatsim VFR flight guide (being revised,don’t use just yet)

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Ok so I see that people need a vatsim guide…well I have one ready…let’s begin

Step one:
Spawn in at your airport of choice (this guide will use KBOS and KATL but any airport can work)

Step two: connect vpilot and connect to delivery or ground or Tower (whatever is being staffed)
Step three: let’s assume tower and ground are online. Grab the atis and the letter and call up for clearance (here’s how you do it)

Aircraft: November Tango 88 requesting VFR to Alanta,advise we have information Bravo

ATC: Boston ground,November tango 88,cleared VFR to Alanta international airport. Fly runway heading,maintain 6000,departure is (whatever they are using),squawk 3955

As a pilot,you should read that back

If you do the read back correct,you get your taxi instructions and you hold

Takeoff for a VFR craft is easy since you maintain the runway heading til you get permission to do your navigation. Now let’s get to the hard part…picking a good route

Rule of thumb for a VFR flight departing from the coast on vatsim is to follow beach’s…you have your GPS and landmarks but scenery is great…

Also huge tip: Avoid class B airspaces when you can,unless it’s for departing or arriving…you don’t need to enter it unless it’s your only route

Landing is quite easy

Pilot: November tango 88 requesting Visual approach on (runway)
ATC: (callsign) cleared for visual approach on (runway)

ATC; (callsign) cleared for landing on (runway)

After you land,contact ground for taxi instructions and boom…you finished

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Thanks I’ve been looking to try VATSIM for VFR, since I know that but I don’t know IFR at all. But I’m not sure how popular VFR flying is at VATSIM? I feel like I’d be “in the way”.

What I am still unclear about when to contact what: I’m at an uncontrolled field in class G, but the area is under control by a high level controller. Do I contact them for my local movements? Do I only contact them when airborne for flight info? Who do I talk to for local movements? Etc …

What I would find most interesting is flying VFR mostly in class G but crossing CTR’s and perhaps departing or arriving in a controlled airport. IRL I don’t talk to ATC so frequently, so if it’s realistic (with actual - European - phraseology) that would be very, very useful.

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You contact them when you leave the class G airspace so…for example if Albuquerque center is online and your doing a Sedona to Phoniex VFR flight…you contact ATC after you fly out of the class G airspace like for example 5-10 NM miles out…

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I normally fly North americia and Never Europe

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If this is a guide for VFR - visual approach is incorrect. Visual approach is an IFR approach type for you to essentially continue clear of clouds. Landing on VFR in the real world - at towered airports you typically grab the ATIS, call tower, report position and as for landing type (full stop, touch and goes etc). They then instruct you on pattern entry for the runway in use (left/right downwind, base, straight in, etc.)

Also - VFR ‘cleared’ to an airport is incorrect - you’d typically request flight following performing a VFR flight, which isn’t ‘clearing’. Real world your maintaining your own visual reference route, where ATC is just going to provide advisories on traffic. It’s still up to you to see and avoid and get yourself from point A to point B. There is no actual route in the ATC system except they know what airport your going to. I’d recommend looking up YT vids on IRL flights and just apply that to vatsim or your network of choice. IE: Vatsim most of the time only center is on, so you’d be calling center for clearance, taxi, takeoff, flight following and landing etc, vs the appropriate IRL frequencies.

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PilotEdge has all this kind of stuff documented on their website.

It would apply to Vatsim as well, worth the read.

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Forgot this was available to folks without memberships as well - lot of good reading on their site with the proper transcripts ect.

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As a ATC trainee on vatsim,instructors don’t care

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Normally tower is online for some minor fields much more than usual

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Pls add some infos,

that this guide is maybe only US depended. On other countries different rules are applied. On other side more things are missing here…

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I would make several corrections:

Aircraft: November Tango 88 requesting VFR to Alanta,advise we have information Bravo

You have to say: who you are calling, who you are, where you are, what you want, and with what information (if relevant).

I would just say: “Boston ground, Skyhawk 123 Alpha Bravo, at north ramp, VFR to Atlanta, with Bravo”. No need to say November, better to say your aircraft type because controllers will ask for it anyway. Drop any superfluous words for brevity. Throw in a “ready to taxi” if you are indeed ready for taxi instructions. Say “VFR closed traffic” instead of “VFR to Atlanta” if you want to stay in the pattern. Or say in plain language “VFR closed traffic, looking for 3 touch and go’s then a full stop” or whatever you want to do. I would not do this at a class B like Boston though!

You read back everything they give you. You follow the taxi instructions. You switch to tower when advised to. You would then say: “Boston tower, skyhawk 123 alpha bravo, holding short runway 27”. I believe it’s fine to say “ready for departure” but also not really required, they’ll know what you want when you say you’re holding short.

Once airborn, stay in contact and follow instructions until outside of class B, C, or D airspace when the controller says “squawk vfr, frequency change approved”. Then you’re free to monitor 122.8 and chill.

Pilot: November tango 88 requesting Visual approach on (runway)

Incorrect for VFR. Remember you’re VFR, so you need to specify who you are, where you are, what you want, and the ATIS information. And a “visual approach” is an IFR approach procedure, not VFR. Not the right phraseology here.

On arrival at your destination airport, about 10 miles out (or whenever required depending on airspace!) contact tower. If it’s Atlanta, you’d say “Atlanta tower, Skyhawk 123 alpha bravo, 10 miles to the east, two thousand five hundred, inbound full stop with Delta.” They’ll give you instructions to enter the pattern.

There’s way more to know obviously. But this post isn’t really right.

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Real sorry for the mistakes,wrote this at 12am my time so I might need to revise a few things

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Do VATSIM users at other regions use the phraseology from that region, or is there a common “VATSIM” phraseology that is used everywhere?

The FAA stuff differs a lot from what we do in Europe (which I believe is mostly standard ICAO). I’d probably unlearn stuff I need to know if I used that :smiley:

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Phraseology depends on the organization. For north americia,the FAA has rules for phraseology

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Does this mean there is nobody available for Clearance, Approach, Tower, Ground etc.

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Correct,

Keep in mind, at a towered airport center can give you all the required clearances if the individual services are not online (top down model).

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Check out map.vatsim.net and at the bottom of the map click “ATC” to see what is online and where.

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Yes,

nobody is taking money for that services, all is up to free time they have and want spent on Servers.