Hello, I haven’t used VATSIM much but want to do more flying on it and wanted to get it set up with 2024. After getting it set up I decided to just log on for a few to make sure everything was working. I use Vpilot to connect and when I clicked the connect button it asked me to enter a callsign along with a type code for the plane, which I did. I was flying the Piper Arrow IV from JF and entered the type code P28T which is what it shows as the correct code for this aircraft, however when I checked my flight with one of the third-party VATSIM flight trackers it showed my aircraft type as unknown.
Any ideas on what I might have done wrong so I can make sure people can see my aircraft type?
Thanks. So entering a type code would be good enough for the controllers to see my aircraft type even if I don’t file a flight plan when doing a VFR flight?
A good idea is to always file a flight plan, even for VFR flights. It needs only to have departure and destination airport, but enables controllers to assume control over the plane and get the bare minimum of information on the flight.
Happy flying -
As a note, US controllers do not receive VFR flight plans. This is due to US VFR flight plans being strictly used for search and rescue purposes. Controllers will input your information when you call in for services either way.
Ok, thanks for the info. We’re using Euroscope and if a flightplan isn’t filed, the workload increases, as you’ll need to fill one out on the fly. Then you’ll have to correlate the radar return with the flightplan and only then can you assume the tag on the plane. If a miniskule flightplan was made in advance by the pilot, the workload for the controller decreases immencely with only a little extra work by the pilot. AFAIK filling VFR flightplans IRL in Europe is not uncommon and needed when crossing an international border. But anyways - thanks for the info.
Torben
Filing a FP for VFR should not be required in Europe either (excluding specific local requirements).
Creating abbreviated flightplans in ES is easy and should be covered in S1 and S2 training, it’s not difficult once your understand it. Open dialogue with .am ASEL, enter type, dep/dest/zzzz as required, apply&close. F9 ASEL to assign squawk, done (yes, it is annoying that you can’t assign the code when creating the FP, but that’s unfortunately how it is for now).
I do come across controllers who struggles with this basic scope function every now and again, revealing some shortcomings in their respective training departments. This is the ES equivalent of writing on a blank flight strip, everyone should know how to do it.
Wether or not it is easy, it is an additional workload for an ATC - so why make atc responcible of filing a flight plan. The pilot is the one, who knows the data. He can file while still offline and with no pressure, while the atc might have his/her hand full at the time the VFR flight pops up. It is merely a question of courtesy to the atc, so he can do his/her job as easily as possible.
Well, as Torben says: there are cases where it is required. To quote SERA:
A flight plan shall be submitted prior to operating:
(1) any flight or portion thereof to be provided with air traffic control service;
(2) any IFR flight within advisory airspace;
(3) any flight within or into areas, or along routes designated by the competent authority, to facilitate the provision of flight information, alerting and search and rescue services;
(4) any flight within or into areas or along routes designated by the competent authority, to facilitate coordination with appropriate military units or with air traffic services units in adjacent States in order to avoid the possible need for interception for the purpose of identification;
(5) any flight across international borders, unless otherwise prescribed by the States concerned;
(6) any flight planned to operate at night, if leaving the vicinity of an aerodrome.
All of those, except for (2), apply to VFR flights in all of Europe and (5) is the only one where individual states can determine any exceptions (though (3) and (4) also only apply if the individual state implements such an area).
The important point, for VATSIM purposes, is (1): if you plan to get ATC services at any point during your flight, you need to file a flight plan - that, of course, includes flights where you are only departing from a controlled airport and don’t get any ATC services apart from the first 5 minutes of your flight.
ATC may of course create an abbreviated flight plan for you, but whether they are able to offer that service is workload-dependent and they are technically not required to offer it at all (hereabouts, controllers IRL are usually happy to do it, but other places may have different philosophies in that regard).
On top of that, here on VATSIM, vACCs have to balance training requirements and ease of access. Real world ATC training takes years of full-time learning and (in almost all cases) you will only be licensed for a single airport or a single sector group, so it should come as no surprise that in our hobby world, where people spend a fraction of that time learning and have to be able to do reasonably well at almost all positions within the vACC (or, if you read the TVCP a certain way: almost all positions within the division - but I digress), cutbacks are being made. And most of the time, those cutbacks affect procedures and situations that don’t occur very often on the network, so with the rarity of VFR on the network, a vACC may decide that it is easier to tell controllers to ask pilots to file a flight plan themselves if they haven’t done so than to teach them how to create/edit one on their own.
You misread 4001, that’s not what it says. All it says is that having ATC do it when you call up is an acceptable means of compliance. Any vACC saying otherwise either base that decision on rules specified in that country’s AIP, or they’re just inventing things. As a rule of thumb, you do not need to file a FP to fly VFR and receive a service on VATSIM.
The vACC I belong to (at least our corner of it) train their students to that level and you will never have issues flying there with no FP. Your point about the level of training confuses me, it’s a very simple thing to do once you’ve done it once or twice, it is easy to cover on sweatbox within a few minutes. Real world training takes ages, yes, but that’s because you need to work up experience, learning the core concepts and system functionality is not what makes it long.
My employer doesn’t even give us full access to flightplans, so at work I don’t even have the option to look up VFR plans, never mind using it for anything. Make a strip, say some stuff, next job.
I’m not saying filing one is bad, it’s a good move on the pilot’s part to do so. It should however not be claimed that it is required. It is, in general, not.
Edit: PS, for anyone who follows this discussion and happens to not know, “abbreviated flightplan” is legalese for writing down a callsign, type, from/to, and any other optional things on a flight progress strip. That’s all. Some ANSPs will enter this into a system, others will simply keep the strip or electronic equivalent for the legal required length of time as a record of the flight in case CAA/Investigations needs it at any point. The VATISM equivalent is to open a flightplanbox and enter the type, dep and/or dest, and optionally more details as required.