| How I
got started
Beginning in June, 2000, I started flying online for
Mountain Air, a virtual airline based in Denver,
Colorado, with additional hubs located in Juneau, Los
Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. Logically, I chose
the Salt Lake City hub, being my hometown and all. This
experience provides me with a new world of fun, but more
importantly also provides a new social avenue. My
newfound friends are in Arizona, California, Idaho,
Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, and well,
from all over the world, like Canada, Europe, Australia,
and South America. I have flown online with folks from
as young as age 10 and even up to age 77 (well, the
oldest I know of anyway). What an amazing world virtual
aviation provides! The interesting part: Most who
participate online are between the ages of 26 and 35.
I believe most would think this would not be the
case...., thus I fit in nicely since my age is right in
the median.
What opportunities are
there?
You can fly online as
both a pilot and/or an air traffic controller. The
typical setup for a pilot requires Microsoft Flight
Simulator 2002 (or 2000 or 98), in addition to a few 3rd
party downloads: 1)
SquawkBox, and 2)
FSUIPC. The air traffic controller need only
download
ASRC (Advanced Simulated Radar Client). In order to
utilize SquawkBox or ASRC, you must have a VATSIM PID or
CID (Pilot ID or Controller ID). You can obtain an ID by
going to
VATSIM's website and entering the option to "Join
Now". Registered pilots/controllers at VATSIM now exceed
38,000 worldwide members!!! The membership grows
by hundreds each week. Now what can you do as a pilot or
a controller? Read on....
As a Pilot
As a pilot, once you're
online you can choose to free fly or fly with an
airline. There are no requirements to do one or the
other. I have chosen to always fly as an airline. It
provides more realism, not to mention you meet more
people that way. In my pursuit of a good VA (virtual
airline), I came across
Mountain Air. Currently I'm serving as Mountain
Air's Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice
President. I recently received this "promotion" after
serving for a good deal of time as the Salt Lake City
Hub Chief. VAs provide various levels of realism from
training flights and ranking systems to logbooks and
regularly assigned routes... the works!
As an Air Traffic
Controller
As a controller, you
start at the ground level and work your way up. There
are 8 ratings: Observer, Student (1 and 3), Controller
(1 and 3), Instructor (1 and 3), and Supervisor.
Currently I'm assigned to the
Salt Lake ARTCC
(Air Route Traffic Control Center) as an Instructor 1.
I'm also serving as the Salt Lake City ARTCC Chief.
After reaching Student-3 rating, I received my voice
endorsement which allowed me to not only control
aircraft via text, but also using voice control
utilizing
Roger Wilco. What a blast! Literally, flight
simulation is becoming "as real as it gets."
For kicks, you can view
who is online at this very moment by
following this link. It shows you both pilots and
controllers within the 48 contiguous states.
Screenshots
Flight Simulator 2000
Image (350KB) - Picture from KGTF (Great Falls, MT)
- MTN111 - Paul Sames and MTN203 - Bill Brown are the
background taxiing to runway 3. I'm the one on the
runway, MTN199.
Pro Controller Image (317KB) of 2 aircraft around
the Salt Lake City area by the air traffic controller's
perspective.
What do you do now?
You join up of course!
It's an incredible experience for anyone who loves the
air like I do.... And if you need some tips, give me a
shout at . Happy Flying!
Websites to reference
VATSIM - for pilots
and controllers
VATUSA - for VATSIM
controllers who want to work the USA area
Mountain Air
Headquarters - for pilots |
