Date: 31 Dec 2002 VATSIM Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) Issued by Kyprianos Biris (810309), 31-Dec-2002 12:55 UTC __________________________________________________________________________ This is a Region *NoticeToAirMen* to all 19,210 members of VATSIM Europe Region NEW INFORMATION : 1 - Happy new year From VATSIM Europe Region we wish you a happy 2003 and blue skies ! We are the No.1 Region in VATSIM, you the users made it so in 2002 with your participation and we THANK YOU for this. 2 - Irish Flight Sim Design Announces Scenery IFSD has announced that they are nearing release of their scenery project covering all of Ireland. The first release will include Dublin, Howth, Carnmore Airport and Belfast docks. Enjoy flying the Shannon Flight Information Region and the Ireland VACC looks forward to providing atc services at Dublin (EIDW), Shannon (EINN), and Cork (EICK). Irish Flightsim Design Team website http://www.ifsd.ie/ 3 - Unattended connections & Suspensions We would like to remind you that unattended connections lead to disconnections and in most cases at least a 24 hour suspension. Please read carefully VATSIM Code of Conduct, A.9 and Code of Regulations , Article VI, From http://vatsim.net -> Documents. Not replying to a call by a Supervisor after 30 minutes is considered by VATSIM as "unattended connection" (user out of cockpit !). Also presence or flight into controlled airspace with unattended cockpits may be terminated (the connection) immediatly much earlier from the 30 minutes SquawkBox or ProCrontroller "Autoreconnect" *will* cause suspension since its the only way to terminate the connection. ATC OBServers who are continuously logging in beyond 30 minutes *not* for training reasons will be asked to disconnect. Unattended radar screens will be treated as above (unattended cockpits). All of the above is *NOT* for airspace or apron "cleaning" but for *maintenance of servers' bandwidth consumption*. The bandwidth we all use is *donated* by other members of this community. Please do not forget this ;-) 4- Dutch VACC - Changes in early 2003 at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (EHAM) At 20 FEB 2003, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol will start using a new runway, to be designated 36L/18R. Due to poor visibility from the control tower (a second TWR being built at this moment), the runway will initially be used during nighttime hours only when traffic volumes are low. As a result of the new runway, the two existing parallel runways 01L/19R and 01R/19L will be renamed 36C/18C and 36R/18L respectively. Somewehere halfway June, when the additional control tower is ready, the new runway will be used in daytime hours as well and will become Schiphol's most frequently used landing/departure runway. The runway, including the new taxiways, can already be downloaded for various addons including NL2000 from www.avsim.com. Many procedures will change and some will be added, including new RNAV transitions to be used for runways 18R and 06. Charts will be ready for download at least a couple of weeks before the new procedures take effect via the Dutch VACC website, http://www.dutchvacc.nl 5 - Bulgaria vACC forming up Still unofficial vACC of EUD, Bulgaria commenced operations in Sofia LBSF. Hristo & Assen will be manning ATC positions often and welcome you all to visit them in the Southeastern tip of the Balkans. ----------------------------------------------------------- OLD USEFULL INFORMATION : 6 - Usefull sites / freeware tools -> FSUIPC - the No1 usefull file for online flights http://www.schiratti.com/dowson/ -> ServInfo - Online traffic display http://avsim.com/hangar/utils/servinfo/ NEW version coming up soon with exciting MAP & weather display -> WhazzUp - Online traffic display http://www.schiratti.com/ -> Updated NAV Databases from http://www.navdata.at/ -> FSBuild http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/alstoer1/ -> AVG - Freeware Antivirus http://www.grisoft.com/ -> Freeware Firewall http://www.sygate.com/ -> AdAware - Freeware cleaner for spy DLLs http://www.lavasoft.nu/ 7 - UIR ATC VATSIM Europe Division set new online airspace sectors called UIR ATCs into effect on November 7th 2002, as agreed to by the majority of all its vACC staff members. Europe's joint Upper Information Regions (UIRs) ATC will also be known as "UIR ATC". The whole of Europe Division has been split in five parts (Identifiers: N, E, S, W & M). Each UIR ATC, when online, will be controlling all air traffic flying in airspace above FL245 and belonging to one of the five sectors. Once a local CTR comes online, all local upper level traffic will be transfered over to the CTR (the same way its been functioning until today). For more detailed information on UIR ATC you can check out EUD's updated policy page from http://vatsim-eur.org/ Both WhazzUp http://www.schiratti.com/ and ServInfo http://avsim.com/hangar/utils/servinfo/ have been updated to recognize and display the UIR ATC positions. *Make sure you download the latest.* Once online in VATSIM Europe's skies, you can now contact any of the five EURx_V_FSS stations when flying above FL245. "_V" is for voice service, "x" is the sector identifier and "_FSS" will be used until VATSIM server code in future version will allow _CTR radar ranges close to 1500 Nm. Although the suffix looks like one of "Flight Servise Station", the UIR ATC will be providing "Radar Control" and not "Advisory" service. 8 - ATIS Lines To ATCOs : Please try to maintain your ATIS to a maximum of *4 LINES* Soon this will become VATSIM policy and you'd better start geting used to it It is a measure to help reduce network strain caused by big ATIS messages and also it has been noted that many pilots dissregard lower lines of ATIS since since they necesitate SquawkBox window to be dragged larger (lower) in order to read them. 9 - RogerWilco & Firewalls Please pay attention to your RogerWilco setup and firewall combination. It has been found that many firewalls cause trouble to RogerWilco setups and other RogerWilco users in same voice room. Do not forget to set up your RogerWilco for *SLOW MODEM* since it has also been proven that this setting makes RogerWilco perform better in relation to other multiple users in the same voice room. 10 - Flight Plan prefile VATSIM network now offers you the ability to prefile your flightplan via your browser *before* you connect on line to fly. Once you connect with SquawkBox the the flight plan automatically gets attached to your ID and you do not need to send one via SquawkBox. To file one visit -> http://www.vatsim.net/ -> Let's Go fly! -> File Flightplan. Read *carefully* the information on that page. Aircraft selection on SB (via FP submit) bust be done before connection for other CSL users to see you correctly. 11 - ID Maintenance Do not forget to keep your membership details up to date. All you need is there if you visit http://vatsim.net -> ID Changes 12 - Security of configuration files If ever asked, DO NOT send the configuration files of Procontroller or SquawkBox (pcsb.ini , squawkbox.ini) to anyone. On the contrary, if ever asked so, please REPORT this to your Division staff. DO NOT ever give your password to anyone, not even VATSIM staff, they do not need it. 13 - Official news and announcements Don't forget that official VATSIM news come out from the Simflight newgroups. Just go to news://news.simflight.com and subscribe your newsreader (emailer) to *vatsim-eur* newsgroup. Over there you can also ask for help by other members and get replies to your questions regarding online flights & ATC in VATSIM Europe Region. 14 - New software on their way The new Radar Client, ASRC, to replace ProController very soon has a webpage where you can preview it and discuss issues in its forum. ASRC will be EXCLUSIVE to VATSIM controllers ONLY. Its a whole new system along with server FSD code and NOT just a radar client software. For more details visit http://www.asrc.info/ where Mike Evans and David Hendleman , the developers, have all the information available to public. The new SquawkBox3 has a webpage. You can discuss questions about it in the forum with developer Joel De Young. For more details visit http://www.squawkbox.ca/ Happy new year. Respectfully, Kyprianos Biris, VATEUR1 VATSIM Europe Region Director