Worldflight 2024 – VATSIM and me

One of my flight-simming goals for 2024 was to fly along with the SIMFEST UK team in their annual WorldFlight marathon stream. I’ve been following the SIMFEST team for a few years and find their mix of piloting expertise and general goofiness absolutely compelling viewing. It also makes me proud to support the incredible work they do to raise money for charity. WorldFlight is the highlight of the calendar for them and all the other simulation teams that take part (last year 12 fixed base simulators across the world), the best way to describe Worldflight is in their own words from the FAQ’s

WorldFlight is a group flight that flies around the world in 7 days. The event started in 1999, and over the past 22 years, it has raised over $1,000,000 for charities around the world. Each team raises money for their own charities by flying their simulator along the route. In addition to the teams, which comprise around 15 people each, anyone can fly along and join the unique event at any time of the day for 7 days.

That last part of the quote is the important part. Any flight simmer can fly along, however, it’s not a free-for-all, this is run on the VATSIM network, which means it’s controlled by ATC with real-world protocols and procedures. VATSIM is basically the closest you can get to flying a real airliner without actually doing it. So for me to fly along, I need to know how to fly on VATSIM.

“Cleared to what via who now?”

For those who don’t know what VATSIM (short for the Virtual Air Traffic Simulation Network) is, it’s a completely free online platform which allows virtual pilots, wherever they are in the world, to connect their flight simulators into one shared virtual world. VATSIM also simulates air traffic control in this virtual world, creating the ultimate as-real-as-it-gets experience for you, the virtual aviation enthusiast.

So with that, I needed to learn how to talk to ATC, I knew bits and bobs from my IRL experiences but overall was a complete newbie. Cue the “throw money at it approach” I bought 2 books that RW pilots use to work through them but as with a lot of good intentions, that then involved me actually reading and practising them as well as using the VATSIM online training. Of course that never really happened, life got in the way and overall I just didn’t dedicate the time needed to it. I genuinely thought the goal was dead in the water. 🪦

Enter TwoToneMurphy who in February announced he would be running an 11-week course teaching IFR flying and VATSIM communications using an off-network voice system that some of the amazing community members had put together including a functioning Euroscope for the controllers!

This gave us a place to do the comms, muck it up, make messes and generally feel our way around talking on the radio and following the charts etc without having to worry about annoying VATSIM controllers on the network or disturbing other simmers experiences.

This refocused me and made me think that actually achieving my goal for this year might be possible.

For now, I’ve bored you written enough and will leave it on a cliffhanger as to how the course goes and what came after! The next post will be in a couple of days.

Cheers

Gnome