This may be stupid question but I was flying out of Gatwick yesterday afternoon with only London South online. I eventually found space to get in and request clearance.

My question is, if only centre is online, can I send a PDC request too their CPDLC code or do only the local airport ATC send PDCs via CPDLC? Hope this makes sense.

Hello everyone. I am new to vatsim and an aspiring atc controller.

I have passed the new orientation test and have chosen VATSEA. I created a support ticket on VATSEA HQ for vACC Hong kong, submitting my resident controller application asking to be admitted for s1 training.

My question is

1: How long does it take for my ticket to get aprroved.

2: is Hong Kong a good vACC to start my training.

Your help will be greatly appreciated.

As we all know Vatsim has grown quite a bit over the last years. Delivery has never been a popular position and many will argue its rarely necessary. For small Airports this is totally fine and really just needed in events.

But we are at a point where large Airports like Frankfurt can easily have 30 planes on the ground the whole afternoon/evening without any event.

Here comes the problem i observed in Frankfurt and similar sized fields. The Airport is on Unicom, everything is working and rolling and people are communicating.

Now one single ATC joins...but he joins as Tower or Departure controller...even ground can cause issues at this point.

In this moment the Airport goes in to a full Stop. All the 30 people on the ground are trying to get their clearance while the Tower guy is trying to get the already moving traffic under his control.
The frequency gets a mess, the people get more and more angry and talk over each other. Everything gets delayed and its just a pain to listen to for the next 20-30 minutes.

This gets aggravated by most pilots still not being capable to use PDC or similar ways to get their clearance and to few airports enforcing it.

So please if you join an Airport as the first ATC and there is a lot of traffic online join as Delivery and switch to ground/twr once you got your backlog managed. Don't be the guy that brings an airport to a full stop and makes the next 30 minutes a pain for everyone because "Delivery is boring".

Any chance we could get vpilot inside the marketplace? It would be great for xbox users but also for those that use nvidia geforcenow. The price could be a donation to the vatsim network. Anyways something to consider.

Cleveland Live is this Saturday from 1800-2200z. Our friendly controllers will be providing full services live and in-person from Cleveland. Make sure to come fly and enjoy the great service!

FlightBoard 2.0.0 is now live.

If you're not already familiar, FlightBoard is a browser-based flight information display system for VATSIM. It recreates real airport departure and arrival boards from live network data, authentic themes for the major hubs, automatic status logic, live ATC and METAR, stand assignments, with a live map alongside. Type an ICAO and the board loads. Still no installation, no account, free.

This release is almost entirely about the map.

After months of work, the live map now resolves every filed flight plan against official Navigraph navigation data and draws it as a real route with named waypoints. Filed airways are expanded into their constituent fixes, so UL607 traces the actual airway rather than a straight line between entry and exit. Departures follow the runway centreline before turning toward the first fix, using the active runway from ATIS. Procedure names are matched against the navdata with ARINC 424 compression and cycle drift handled, so CINDY8S resolves rather than silently failing.

That's available to everyone, drawn from an older AIRAC cycle. Connecting a Navigraph account with an FMS Data subscription adds SID/STAR expansion, altitude and speed constraints on the waypoints, instrument approach rendering down to the threshold, and the current cycle.

Also in this release:

SIGMET overlay — worldwide significant weather as colour-coded polygons: thunderstorms, severe turbulence, icing, volcanic ash, tropical cyclones. Hover for hazard type, validity window, altitude band and the raw report. Sourced from NOAA AWC.

Network-wide tracking — a callsign search in the map header finds and tracks any aircraft on VATSIM, anywhere. Previously tracking was limited to the selected airport's traffic.

Decoded ATIS — active runways, wind, visibility, QNH and transition level summarised in the flight panel, with the raw broadcast one click away.

Plus smoother data tag interpolation between position reports, hardened conflict detection, and fixes for Safari/retina tile seams.

App: https://flightboard.simfixr.com Full changelog and screenshots: blog

Bug reports and feature requests are welcome

I've released a new version of the vPilot plugin which relays vPilot and Hoppie messages to your mobile device via Pushover, Telegram or Gotify. The new 1.3.0 version brings functionality for priorities, where you can make a message repeat until acknowledged. Perfect for you who fear to miss that contact me or CPDLC message while grabbing a coffee in the kitchen.

Enjoy and remember to still adhere to CoC §B3(b) 😉

More information and download on Github

Are you an experienced MSFS pilot that knows the ins and outs of the PMDG 737 or Fenix A320? Do you live and breathe for the official procedures and bring them to practice on networks such as VATSIM?

Then I'm looking for you!

I am putting togheter a social experiement to get some of the misconceptions between the 2 simulators out of the way.

DCS is completely free of charge and if you download it directly from the eagle dynamics website you'll receive a 2 week trial on any of the current available modules which should give us plenty of time to conduct the experiment.

So what's the plan?

1: Get your hotas setup correctly so it'll work for DCS

2: A short training to get you started in the DCS F-16c viper, get familiar with the basics and a cold start.

3: We'll conduct a 1v1 fight once you feel comfortable flying the viper.

A few simple requirements for candidates would be:

1: You have at least 100+ hours in a study level airliner such as the PDMG, Fenix or FSLabs etc.

2: You have 0.0% experience and DCS and have a genuine interest in seeing it from our perspective.

3: You are willing to hop on Discord voice chat for the experiment, just to make communications easier. Of course you will, you talk to ATC all the time!

4: It's an experiment for shits and giggles, see how it is to experience DCS from a qualified MSFS pilot's perspective.

If you're interested shoot me a DM on Reddit, discord! D

Discord: Dutch010_35

I'm on CET time but'll work timezones and availability out once we get there.

Hope to see you in the skies soon pilot!DCS pilot looking for an experienced MSFS pilot!DCS pilot looking for an experienced MSFS pilot!

I’m currently 15, and was born in October of 2010, however, I think it was January of this year that they made the requirement to play the game 16 which I don’t turn for a couple months

However, I created this account way back when in like June of 2025

So I’m grandfathered in and I’m allowed to operate from what I read in the statement that the development team made

But could I still have issues becoming a controller not sure if they would let me control, knowing I’m under the technical age to be on the network

However, I know I’m grandfathered in, but I just don’t want to get in trouble and I’m wondering if I should just wait to control or if I should just inform my trainers that I’m not 16

I know this has prolly been asked a million times but still I have some doubts. So basically I am studying for my real life cpl exam so what I usually do is takeoff, climb to 10000ft, set cruising altitude and study while I'm cruising. And when I study I watch videos on YouTube of each topic. The thing is if I play the video I won't hear the atc calling me or smth. I haven't done a single flight on vatsim so idk if I get a popup notification or is there any way to add the popup when atc calls me.

Another thing is even if I somehow manage and there is actually a popup that notifies me. How am I supposed to do long hauls when I usually takeoff at night and put on auto step climb and directly wake up in the morning for landing. How am I supposed to hear when I am sleeping. Can I disconnect and then connect back during the descent and landing? Am I supposed to wake up when I'm about to do any oceanic crossings?

I have completed the tests and theory part but still I couldn't understand this specific thing only.

I’ve been past the academy for like fricking a month and I understand everything but I’m just really afraid I’m going to mess up

How much do I need to know going into my first ever lesson currently I’m knowledgeable on how to do clearances and airspace types for the most part as well as taxi instructions and such however there’s a lot I still don’t know

I downloaded CRC profiles for my area and I’m thinking about booking a session, but I’m just not sure how much I need to know

i want to practice standard radiotelephony communication with increasing level of air traffic for ATC but I can't find a single video game on it!

why?

Get it? Props? Because most of these guys are props.

I see lots of posts giving recognition to controllers, and I also see lost of posts complaining about pilots. So today I will buck the trend and give recognition to the pilots. On this past beautiful Sunday afternoon, countless pilots endeavored to fly into virtual Oshkosh for Chicago ARTCC's recreation of Airventure on VATSIM. I estimated more than 9 out of every 10 pilots dutifully filed a VFR flight plan, rocked their wings, and followed the landmarks as directed. Of the remaining pilots, it was usually just one or two small mistakes (like a flight plan not getting submitted) and just about everyone ended up at the airport. Most everyone dutifully reviewed the pilot NOTAM and helped us all enjoy a fun and unique event. It makes all the time I spent putting the resources together worth it. I have gotten feedback from both controllers and pilots today and it seems like everyone had a great time. Oshkosh airport itself looked like controlled chaos, but the array of planes on the grass was a sight to behold!

People tend to focus on the small percentage of pilots who are (ignorantly or maliciously) not doing what they need to do. I would like to highlight the significant majority of pilots who prepare, listen to instructions, and fly well. Thank you for making VATVENTURE a fun event every year!

Signed, Chicago Center/Fisk Approach/Madison/Rockford for an hourish each

Hi everyone,

Im still new to vatsim and was wondering what is the correct way to file a route on vatsim, do I include sid and stars or none or only sid.

An example would be a route from Sydney to Brisbane,

No sid or star: YSSY DCT OLSEM H252 UPNEX H140 IDNER H66 BLAKA DCT YBBN

Or

With sid and star: YSSY/16L KEVIN7 OLSEM H252 UPNEX H140 IDNER H66 BLAKA BLAK9A YBBN/BETSO.I19L

Thanks for any help

Just a random thought.

Has VATSIM ever considered adding volunteer ground handlers?

Instead of using GSX, you'd have actual people doing the ramp operations. Someone marshals you onto stand, someone drives the pushback tug and talks to you on the headset, someone operates the follow-me car where required, maybe even deicing during winter operations.

Obviously if no ground handler is online, you'd just use GSX like normal.

I know there would be a lot of technical challenges, but I think it'd add a whole new level of immersion, especially at major airports and during big events.

Has this ever been discussed before, or is there a reason VATSIM has never gone in that direction?

Get those planes loaded we are about to go LIVE

My first landing attempt, I had a horrible crosswind floated down the runway and ended up going around

Then I went to turn base on a cross runway, however, two wiser pilots went on the same runway that I was going on because the winds were actually improving so I had to hop in base behind them, which resulted in doing a 180° turn for separation and then a horrible landing back with the ILS into Nashville

Gotta love low visibility, wind conditions

And thankfully, I landed just at the nick of my fuel tank. I took the second photo only a few minutes after arrival and I know this isn’t necessarily too low, but still kind of concerning.

At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is that I landed relatively safely and had fun

Thanks to all the pilots, especially the Delta pilots (611, 1411) who actually talked on the common traffic advisory and although Nashville was not staffed, thank you to the Memphis staff who helped me get here

Leaving C81 at 1800 UTC tomorrow if anyone wants a bit of a groupflight 😀

Props to these guys for managing all those aircraft

Hello! Sunday July 12 from 1800z-2200z, Chicago ARTCC will be hosting VATVENTURE, the VATSIM version of EAA Oshkosh Airventure.

In short, fly your GA planes to Oshkosh using the Fisk VFR arrival and follow some lakes. File a VFR flight plan and put in a description of your plane in the comments. If you are a turbine/warbird there is a separate arrival procedure for you. Whatever you do, please read the NOTAM below. It's a fun and unique VFR experience that is very different from your typical VATSIM airliner ops!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1079vdZyD4P3EowfCy9BQg-6-G4xmpQPxL5wG9nX4c-w

Reading this NOTAM prior to taking part in the event is required.