Tips, advice and Generalities
New to VATSIM and Flying?
Glad to have you. You should know that VATSIM, all V.A.'s and the NYARTCC (the Air Traffic control center that we operate within) require you to read nearly everything that has been written as far as getting started. At the very least you should read VATSIM's "Tips For New Pilots," at their Pilot Resource Center. Be sure to click the VATSIM 102a link.
Technically, the above is not a "Tip," it is a requirement. The NYFC is great for beginners, but don't expect a pass on the basics either. But here is a tip, print VATSIM 102a and read it when you are offline. It's great if you take the train or the bus somewhere.
NYFC would like to add:
Turn off collision detection
Turn off collisions in your flight sim options. As frustrating as it is sometimes to learn all this from scratch, the worst thing is to have another pilot accidentally slew through you and wreck your aircraft. Not to mention those that actually do start on the runway when you are landing, popping in front of you just in time to ruin 2 hours of flying. In MSFS go to "settings" and click on "Ignore crashes and damage." Okay sure, you might be a purist and say that is very unrealistic, remember that when you get destroyed on the ground by a 747 appearing at a General Aviation parking spot right next to you.
Start in a small plane.
If you really want to learn from scratch, and you just HAVE TO do it by going online, do it in one of our single engine aircraft. This will slow you down, give you time to think and keep you from zooming through JKF airspace at 1500 feet while trying to figure out your radio. Think about that for a minute- why would we say that? Because it happens a lot.
Plan the altitude you will level off at
One thing that is realistic, and helpful online as well, is to know just how high you want to go before getting into trouble. At Farmingdale (KFRG) the pattern altitude for non- turbojet aircraft is 1,100 feet MSL and you are under the JFK airspace until you reach 4,000 ft. That means if you are VFR, inbound to land, get to 1,100ft and then set up your pattern. If you are going to climb out of the pattern, don't climb higher than 3,900ft. You don't need ATC to tell you this; it is part of the airport standards and is the pilot's responsibility. If you are leaving the pattern and the airport, a climb to 3,000 is just fine until out from under JFK.
Speak briefly on the radio
"Brevity" is the key, not speed. Proper phraseology or "radio-speak" is not so much fast and reading everything back as it is short. The shortness comes from both pilot and controller knowing what is going to happen next in the "script." This gets complicated by the fact that some ATC controllers don't really know the proper way of things at times, but for the most part, a readback of "taxi to runway 19 via golf, winds 190 at 5, altimeter 30.10" is simply read back as "Taxi 19 via Golf." This will come in time. We'll work on it.
Equipment/Peripherals
A good first choice is a microphone and taking the time to get it working. Right off the bat that gets you more time to fly, since you can forget about typing. Really, your online flying life will change once you can speak to the controller.
Assign and use your buttons. A professional simulator based on a PC is only loggable if there is no mouse. Aim for the same thing in your house. The least amount of time used on the mouse the better. If you are buying a joystick or a yoke consider that the buttons on equipment can be assigned to do anything you want.
Gamer's keyboard. You need a keyboard anyway, try a Saitek with and external programmable number pad. That gives you more keys to program. I have the "B" side of my keypad controlling everything on my GPS.