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Started by Richard Toshney, Oct 17, 2016 19:53

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Richard Toshney (1512)

Hi all,

Just thought I'd say hi as a new pilot.  I have flown with other VA's before but really wanted to do more short hops, particularly with turboprops.  Found this place and along with it my 2 favourite add on aircraft of all time, the JS41 and the Dash 8.

First flight logged, hopefully many more to come,

:)
Cheers,
Rich

Chris Liu (1001)

Welcome aboard Richard! I hope you'll enjoy many flights with us, if you need anything, just ask here in the forums.

Chris Hulme (1003)

Welcome to Intercity!

Richard Toshney (1512)

Thanks for the welcome guys   :)

Benjamin Hall (1007)

Welcome to Intercity Richard.


This is a fantastic community with plenty of real flying. A utopia for propheads.

James Rish (1558)

 Hello. I just started as well, and messed up my last name on the joining part. Anyways , I was wondering if you use a standard VATSIM callsign, as opposed to the flight number (I guess mine would be something like IC558), Intercity 558 or something like that? Something like the controllers do for most of those major carriers? Other than that, I don't know what my callsign is, other than what I already have on VATSIM.  Also, do you guys kinda fly in a quasi-formation, if possible or convenient,  or a sort of line on the events thing?

Chris Liu (1001)

#6
Welcome aboard James! We can correct your surname if you let us know what it should be.

As regards callsigns, here's an extract from the Getting Started guide that shows when you first login to our main website:
Quote6) If you're connecting to a multiplayer network, use the following details where required:
ICAO identification code: ICX           IATA identifier: IA           Radio callsign: Intercity
You should use the flight number as your callsign (if the flight number is already in use, you should use your four digit pilot ID instead). For online flying, set simulator time to match reality.
We don't fly formation as that is the restricted to VFR and registered Special Ops on VATSIM, but we do have multiplayer online events which are posted in http://viaintercity.com/forums/events-and-charters/ and also appear in the ACARS newsfeed.

Hope this answers all your questions.

Graham Bannister (1171)

Welcome aboard Richard.

AS the self appointed lover of the J41 ;D hope to see more of your flights in her.
Such a dream to fly..

You are going to enjoy this company of "prop-heads". A great bunch of guys.

James Rish (1558)

Quote from: Chris Liu on Apr 20, 2017 14:43
Welcome aboard James! We can correct your surname if you let us know what it should be.
Hope this answers all your questions.

Thanks, Chris.  My last name is Rish, if you can change the "jim" part to that, that would be great. I notice that the members list has everyone's names there. I'm glad you're able to do it that way rather than re-registering again.
   Thanks, again.

James Rish (1558)

Quote from: Chris Liu on Apr 20, 2017 14:43
Quote6) If you're connecting to a multiplayer network, use the following details where required:
ICAO identification code: ICX           IATA identifier: IA           Radio callsign: Intercity
You should use the flight number as your callsign (if the flight number is already in use, you should use your four digit pilot ID instead). For online flying, set simulator time to match reality.

Dear Chris, also what I was asking is more about VATSIM and the actual callsigns that show up for everyone, for example, such as what you see here with everybody presently online:  http://www.vattastic.com
    My permanent callsign is RCK1487, like you know is whatever it was when you actually join VATSIM, and I can't change that. However, VATSIM or Squawkbox (I don't know what you mainly use) has the drop down where you can add a callsign that you stick with which, in this case, would be the permanent Intercity name that everyone would recognize you when you're online. I see the ACARS goes by whatever the flight number is as the callsign that is entered in ACARS when you actually fly. I was just talking about for whenever you get online with VATSIM for any reason and you wanted to show up in the Intercity plane and registered pilot as opposed to the VATSIM default account, again in my case is RCK1487 (?)

Thanks again for the help.    regards;  Jim   

James Rish (1558)

 Also Chris, the reason I asked is because how the VATSIM controllers get to know you and certainly do know you if you have something like SWA or UAL as your callsign and for something like SWA475,  ATC might say something like "Southwest 475, turn left heading 274° (or whatever)", or UAL274 - "United 274, climb to flight level 280, proceed direct to Volney (int. or whatever)", and so forth. So, I guess they pretty much recognize Intercity that way by now with the ICAO? No doubt all of VATSIM simply recognizes these guys for example just from  callsign BAW,  http://http://www.bavirtual.co.uk/
and VATSIM just automatically knows who they are.

James Rish (1558)

 Speaking of which, awhile back on VATSIM, I remember the controllers talking to these guys known as Catfish. I guess it was out in western U.S., I can't remember, it's just that when I satarted all of this, I was really happy to do the PORTE THREE departure out of KSFO using the dual RMI gauge instead of GPS to the PORTE int. and trying to make it to 10,000 ft. or whatever the minimum is. Anyways, these guys would constantly go something like "Catfish 120, descend and maintain 4000, etc."  or Catfish 450, cleared to land , rwy. 28 left", and such. I still don't know who these guys are but I used to hear them online constantly. 

Chris Liu (1001)

#12
I'm a little confused James, there's no permanent callsign you get when first registering with VATSIM that you have to stick with, although some pilot clients (vPilot, Squawkbox etc) provide a list of your recently used ones. VATSIM issue a 6 or 7 digit CID used to logon, this allows a different callsign every time you fly, indeed that's what most users do. Some prefer using the same callsign every flight so their friends can spot them easier although these are typically aircraft registrations.

Controllers know callsigns for the popular ICAO airline prefixes e.g. BAW (Speedbird), EZY (easyJet), BMA(Midland), EXS (Channex) etc. As pilots make the initial radio calls, controllers will generally repeat whatever callsign/handle you use; to assist them you can add CS/INTERCITY or OPR/INTERCITY to your flightplan comments.

Less common codes can be looked up at places like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airline_codes . You mentioned ESX(Catfish) which is EuroSkyLink and RCX(Service Centre).

Intercity callsigns work just like reality, based off the flight number. This assists controllers in knowing where you're going, i.e. if they've seen ICX212 before they'll know it's probably going from Doncaster to Edinburgh. There's a few virtual airlines that give each pilot their own personal callsign to use online but that's not realistic. If you see an ICX code in the skies you'll know it's one of us, but you'll have to bring up the flight databox to see exactly who  :)

Here's a small part of my official VATSIM stats to show you some of the many callsigns I've flown under:

James Rish (1558)

 Thanks alot Chris. That helps alot. I see you know in deatail who "Catfish" is as well.