Weekly Fly-In

[Patrik Hedström]

Welcome everybody to our new (approved by Cameron) weekly Fly-In, we will have a Fly-In every Sunday starting next Sunday. We will be using (if you want to fly online) VATISM or X-Flightserver.

 

Fly-In Location for Sunday the 6th of January: Cape-Town International Airport (FACT/CPT)

 

 

Oh and please don't forget to give me sugestions for future Fly-In's

Edited December 31, 2012 by Erik Winter

[Patrik Hedström]

I forgot scenry is available here.

 

FACT-Cape Town.zip

Edited December 30, 2012 by Erik Winter

[chris k]

Hrm, can Keith or lwilliams pipe in here? I think PE may be the better way to go vs Xflightserver. (as it's a far superior platform both in terms of speed, update fidelity, and audio quality)

 

Any "free for all days" planned?

Edited December 30, 2012 by chris k

[ryancz]

I would love pilotedge fly ins, but I don't have the money for pilotedge.

So a free day would be amazing.

[Patrik Hedström]

Hrm, can Keith or lwilliams pipe in here? I think PE may be the better way to go vs Xflightserver. (as it's a far superior platform both in terms of speed, update fidelity, and audio quality)

 

Any "free for all days" planned?

Sorry but what do you mean by "Any "free for all days" planned?"? And if you have a better free server I would be glad to use it just link me please!

[chris k]

PilotEdge is the best that they come.

 

Others are free, yes, but (1) lack the integrated voice unless there is a controller on, or (2) have no voice capability at all.

 

- CK.

[Patrik Hedström]

I would like to keep my Fly-In's free so could you please link me to the best FREE server?

[chris k]

VATSIM (No Voice unless there's a controller, text works)

IVAO (No Voice at all, text works)

Xflightserver (No Voice at all, text works)

NetFlight (No Voice at all)

 

Take your pick.

 

You do realize if you choose Xflight or Netflight, mot of us don't have accounts on those..... Hence, VATSIM would be my #1 choice due to the integrated VoIP capabilities. (Hard to type when both hands are on the controls, but I have a nice PTT voice key on my throttle I use all the time)  You could even contact the FSS associated with Cape Town and arrange an ATC for voice services if you'd like... Im sure they'd appreciate the traffic.

 

- CK.

Edited December 30, 2012 by chris k

[Patrik Hedström]

So VATISM it is...

[Keith Smith]

Ryan,

 

I see you're working towards your first solo, congrats. I'd actually be stunned if PE didn't help you towards your real flight training. PE costs $14.92/mth if you use the annual subscription option, or $4.95/mth and $2/hr if you use the hourly option. For someone doing flight training, it's usually perceived as being affordable, valuable and should SAVE you money on your flight training, if used correctly.

 

That aside, I understand the desire to have the fly-ins on a free server. PE isn't the place for that. I also think mass fly-ins don't mix well with ATC if the participants aren't already comfortable with ATC procedures from hours of practice under less crowded conditions. In other words, if you're just getting started, a fly-in is a sure fire way to ensure that you have a terrible experience with ATC. If it's just a casual "no ATC" group flight on a multiplayer server, that works fine, but if you add in ATC, it falls apart fairly quickly.

 

VATSIM with no ATC and TeamSpeak for voice would probably be your best bet.

Edited December 31, 2012 by Keith Smith

[chris k]

No Worries Keith, and thanks for the note.

 

Basically, it was just for a "free for all - come as you are - with VOIP" I think Erik is after. (not any True ATC); and I agree, you don't want to dilute the branding youve built.

 

Again, VATSIM is my suggestion. I'm sure the controllers in any area are happy to receive a gaggle of birds in their nest for a fly-in.

 

- CK.

[ryancz]

Ryan,

 

I see you're working towards your first solo, congrats. I'd actually be stunned if PE didn't help you towards your real flight training. PE costs $14.92/mth if you use the annual subscription option, or $4.95/mth and $2/hr if you use the hourly option. For someone doing flight training, it's usually perceived as being affordable, valuable and should SAVE you money on your flight training, if used correctly.

I have looked at it, but even with the discounts my insrtuctor gives me, I have decided to hold off on flying PE.

I did the demo, but wasn't as captivated as I thought I would be. I don't know if I just don't like the area, or if there was something that I didn't like, but I just didn't see enough benefit.

I still think of it as a great tool and am not saying it doesn't help, but it's not for me.

 

However, I haven't gone to a towered airport yet, only CTAF, but I'm good at that.

I might come back if I have trouble at a tower.

 

Thanks, Ryan

 

 

Now, back on topic.

What about teamspeak?

What limits are there with that approach? (no pun intended)

[Keith Smith]

Chris,

 

VATSIM controllers will be very happy to have the traffic, IF the traffic wants to participate with ATC. If this is more of a social/casual gathering, OR if not all of the pilots are familiar with ATC interaction, then it's going to get hairy.

Limits with teamspeak:

- no frequency dialing, it's room-based

- becomes a chatroom environment very quickly (not necessarily a bad thing, really depends on what everyone is looking for with the fly-in)

- can be hard to juggle between the real radio and TS (if you're flying with ATC).

 

As long as everyone's on the same page, though, it can work fine.

 

Thanks for the feedback, Ryan. Most student pilots struggle with radio, even on CTAF, but it sounds like you have it under control for now. Very good!

[Keith Smith]

A simple solution, I forgot to mention, is that if it's decided that ATC is not a desirable feature, then simply use a non-towered departure and arrival field. That solves a lot of problems instantly. Stay in Class E/G airspace throughout the flight and chat way on TS....should work great for a fun fly-in/fly-out.

[chris k]

Hi Keith

 

We were planning on doing FACT South Africa as the first one...

 

I think that's well clear of SOCAL? =)

 

- Ck.

[scubajuan_new]

VATSIM (No Voice unless there's a controller, text works)

IVAO (No Voice at all, text works)

Xflightserver (No Voice at all, text works)

NetFlight (No Voice at all)

 

 

IVAO has TeamSpeax which works for audio, or it used to work. I had issues using this with mac osx 10.8. What I do when flying on IVAO is use a pc as a radio and chart viewer. I know is very awkward and cumbersome, but so far is the only way I can keep flying on IVAO with radio, text is fine but complicated to reply specially in the final stages of approach and landing. 

ATC is a desirable feature for sure. I am not a controller neither on IVAO or VATSIM (well just in training) but I am sure that if we contact one of their division staff and request assistance, there will be some either ATC trainees or staff members that will be eager to assist. I know that they can't just set up shop in a random airfield, needs to be within their division, sometimes they can for special events but they also need to coordinate with the respective division.

 

One other thing that is important to coordinate is the time of the flyin, we are spread around the globe and what may be convenient for some might be impossible for others. I know there is an important crowd frequent to this web site that live in Australia and beyond I am in Europe, another important bunch in this community is in the Americas. At least some of us need to work some times and have other responsibilities, like change dippers and put our copilots to bed. And setting up the alarm to get up at 4 am for a no show flyin is not fun.

 

One more thought... It would also be nice to have the opportunity to check out some of the awesome freeware sceneries that are featured here, and payware like KILM, Oahu, NORCAL, etc. Although not all of us enjoy them all, so something like New Zealand pro, YPAD, YSSY, NZCH, KSEA, CYTZ which we can all download from the file section here would be great.

 

Looking forward for a X-Pilot/Aviation flyin ...

Edited December 31, 2012 by scubajuan_new

[Patrik Hedström]

We will visit as many aiports as we can, but none with PAYWARE ONLY scenery's availeble as I want the maximum of people to be able to attend the Fly-In's.

[chris k]

Erm, just because someone doesn't have a payware airport doesn't make XP crash or anything. Half your users will still be on XP9 too, with a completely different terrain elevation mesh. I supppose you would allow them, but deny others?

The whole point is "come with what you got"

Anyways most of the payware sceneries have equivalent freeware as well (klax ksfo cyvr kjfk kord eham etc...) so I don't think that'd be an issue.

[scubajuan_new]

Totally agree Chris, and abut the different mesh is ok, as long as we stay away from Lukla, for us xp10 users would make it extra challenging to say the least, or perhaps would be a good opportunity to learn to fly a helicopter,  that's the only way to land safely there hehe.

[Patrik Hedström]

Good point.

[Ryan M.]

Why is this in the screenshot forum.............?

[Patrik Hedström]

Because I ask Cameron if I could and he said yes (-.-)...and because what do you do after the Fly-In? You post pic's of it...

[Ryan M.]

On a different forum. You don't put fly in notices in the screenshots without posting any screenshots. Is it that hard?

[Patrik Hedström]

Look rj I asked Cameron if I could start the thread in the "Screenshot" forum and he said YES so I do not care what you think, I just listened to the boss.

[Jordan P.]

I think we should have a forum for discussing it and one that is only used for casual talk about it what do you guys think.