VATSIM Starter's Guide #2 - Planning Your First Flight

Choosing the right airport, aircraft, and the route is extremely important for a successful first flight. In this post, I will go through what aircraft to choose, where to start flying, and how to plan your first route. To get all caught up, read VATSIM Starter's Guide #1 - Download Software before reading this post.

Choosing Your Aircraft

First off, let's start with the aircraft. I recommend loading an aircraft that is simple and made by Laminar Research. I say this because, for some add-on aircraft (at least freeware), they often don't have a complete, 3D cockpit. Even if it does have a 3D cockpit, it might not be realistic or might have bugs with xSquawkbox. I recommend the Cessna 172 Skyhawk because it's easy to use, works with xSquawkbox, and is easy to fly.

Where to Start

Next, choose an airport. I recommend choosing an airport that is made for general aviation (a small airport) and has at most one controller, although I would start at an airport with only Unicom (the frequency for uncontrolled airports). Also, the airport should have some planes, but it shouldn't be empty. To be honest, I can't recommend specific airports because it really varies depending on the time of day, if an event is happening nearby, and much more. You can find a live map of all of the aircraft on VATSIM, including the air traffic controllers who are online at this link which can help you decide which airport to choose.

Planning Your Route

Now it's time to plan your route. There are a few options on what type of route.

The first route could be a short VFR flight around the airport, which could include a VFR circuit around the airport, or just a casual flight around the area. This requires only basic airport charts. That can be found on an iPad app (hint, hint, maybe an app review coming out soon!).

The second option is planning a VFR route from one airport to another. You can plan out the route using Flight Plan Database, although you don't have to have a flight plan at all, just the direction of departure. This, again, requires basic airport charts, and also I would recommend knowing how to program the departure and arrival airport into a GPS (G1000, G530, G430, or other GPS's in your aircraft), if your aircraft has one (or two!).

Before your first VATSIM flight, practice flying your first route with the aircraft you will fly over and over again (maybe two or three times). Ask questions in the comments and I'll try to answer! Also, sign up here if you want to be notified when more content comes out, and click this link to head to the third post of this series, explaining your first flight!