I just signed up the membership of VATSIM

I've flown with it several times. I find that when the ATC centers and such are actually manned, it can be the most realistic flying experience possible in FSim! However, that doesn't mean that they're always manned, so often times it can be rather boring flying alone!

Another issue that comes up a lot is frame rates (both from the other aircraft and the speed of your internet connection). When I do fly through heavy traffic patterns (or big events called a "fly-in"), I usually have no hope of keeping my fps at a usable rate!

However, I LOVE flying with real SID/STARS, getting put into hold patterns approaching crowded airports, listening to very realistic ATC as I'm making my way around in the skies, getting bounced around from well-trained-controller to well-trained-controller.

One thing though, you'll probably find flying with other people/controllers watching you is a pretty intimidating! I thought that I sounded/flew like a fool the first couple of times on VATSIM, but it does get better 😉 .

If you are feeling a bit worried about the ATC go to the controller section and download ASRC [Advaced Simulator Radar Client].Once that is done set it up and become an observer. I'd recommend observing the Manchester sector as it is often busy. If you have problems with setting it up I'll will gladly help you out.Otherwise there's not much more info I can give you.

As OG says, the first few times are intimidating but as you progress you will probably find that you may be flying online with Vatsim more than this you'll be on this forum.

the intimidating thing comes from the fact that I cannot pause to take a brake 😛 especially on on the approach, more than often I would forget the numbers coming along with the instructions, with AI ATC I can always ask for say-again, or pause to check the kneeboard.......but konwing the tower is watching me and waiting for my repeat and quick reaction can stress me out..... but after a while, nothing is hard

the online vatsim controllers are only a few dozens at a particular time, so I wonder how they cover thousands of airports all over the world. If I figured it right, you must have to choose only a few airports that are controlled by the vatsim controllers to fly from and to, other than these afew airports, the whole world is just a vacumn, coz once you load the sqwakBox the AIs are all gone......what a lonely world 🙄