VATSIM Tutorial: Filing a Flightplan

Greetings and welcome to another one of our  special editions of Slant Alpha Adventures. Today we're going to be talking about filing your  VATSIM flight plan using the web-based interface. Now why are we talking about that right now?  Well, there's a pretty substantial change coming up to the network as of the time that I'm speaking  here and producing this video, which we'll talk about in just a moment. We're going to start  by going over some background information. What exactly is changing h

ere, when is it changing,  and why is it changing? We'll go over the basics, meaning what do I absolutely need to know  in order to accommodate this change. Third, we'll go over the ICAO equipment codes, and we'll  talk about how they're different than the single letter FAA code that you might be using up until  now. And then finally we'll go over some advanced stuff that you really don't need to know. But  there's sixteen different fields at the bottom of this flight plan page -- you don't need

to fill  them out, but you might be interested to know what goes in there. We'll talk about it and you  can decide whether or not you want to use that information. Okay, so what's exactly changing  here? Well starting really soon, it's no longer going to be possible to file a flight plan  directly from your Pilot Client app. The, uh, we're looking at vPilot here. And you've got  this little button here that says Flight Plan, and this popup window comes up, and you can  fill in the flight detail

s right there from the app. What's happening real soon is that this  Flight Plan button is going to redirect you to the web-based filing page. As a matter of fact, all  present and future clients once this change is fully enacted will redirect you to that web-based  filing page. Now note that if you're filing through Simbrief and other outside apps, nothing  is changing for you. What other outside apps even do it? Does Volanta do it? I have no idea. Sim  Tool Kit Pro, is that even still a thing?

I have no idea. But Simbrief being the the primary one,  if you file through Simbrief, nothing changes for you. You can still do that. When is this change  being enacted? Well if you're an X-Plane user, two years ago, haha. They took the, uh, they took  the in-app Flight Plan window away from xPilot in early 2022, maybe late 2021, I'm not sure exactly  when it was -- but about two years ago as of the time that I'm producing this tutorial. vPilot's is  going away days from now as I'm speaking no

w. So we're producing this tutorial just a few days  in advance of March 2022 -- 24, rather -- and that is when the next update to vPilot is going to take  away this Flight Plan window up here. If you're on Swift, which is the third Pilot Client, I have no  idea when that's changing. It may already have, or it may be soon, I don't know. Not too many use it,  but, it is a more cross-platform Pilot Client and eventually they're all going to redirect to the  web-based filing page, um, likewise. Now

, why is this change happening? I'll be honest, I'm kind of  disappointed about this. But I do understand the reasoning why, and I'll explain it in these terms.  So VATSIM's server infrastructure is maintained by a volunteer group of developers. The Pilot  Clients -- these three Pilot Clients, xPilot, vPilot, Swift -- are also maintained by different  groups of volunteer developers. So whenever VATSIM wants to make a change to the Flight Sim protocol  on the network, there's four different group

s of volunteer developers that have to be involved. And  as you can imagine getting four different groups of volunteers, who all have their own day jobs and  don't do any of this programming for VATSIM for a living, all have to get together and enact this  change at the same time. So from now on, once this change is enacted and once all of the clients just  simply direct to the web page, any future changes to the flight plan format can just be made on the  web page -- and they affect everybody e

qually at the same time, instantly, without having to do  all that coordination between people all over the world. So I get it. I don't like it, but,  I get it. Now before we go any further, this tutorial is going to assume you've already done  a handful of things. First of all, you've already decided what your callsign's going to be, and what  type of aircraft you're going to fly. Secondly, you know where you're starting, where you're  going, and how you're getting there. Third, you know how lo

ng it's going to take you to get  there, and therefore you know how much fuel it's going to take to load into your aircraft, to get  there with appropriate reserves. If you haven't done those things, pause the video, go figure that  stuff out. I'll meet you back here in a minute. Okay, so here we are at the VATSIM web-based  filing page. Now you'll notice in a lot of places it's referred to as the pre-filing page.  It's fine -- you can actually use this now while you're already connected to the

network. As long  as you're either parked -- or, if you're airborne, you can use it as long as you don't already  have a flight plan filed that is associated with that callsign. So it'll still be called the  pre-filing page in a lot of documentation. That's fine -- this is the page they're referring to.  The very first thing we're going to put in here is our callsign. Now, we just figured out what  our callsign was going to be, so that's already done. If you need some assistance figuring out  an

appropriate callsign for the type of operation that you're doing, I already have a tutorialon my VATSIM tutorials playlist that kind of goes over this. So you can pause this video, go watch this one,  and come back. One of the weird things, though, is that because we used to be filing all these  through the Pilot Client, the Pilot Client never asked us for the callsign, because it already  knew. You were already connected with it. It knew what your callsign was. Now, we're connecting  in one p

lace, and we're filing in another. And those callsigns have to match exactly, or else the  controller is going to say, "well you're asking for IFR clearance, I don't have a flight plan  on file for you." And you're going to be like, "I filed it already, I don't know why you don't  see it." This is probably the number one reason that that happens. Let's just say you're going  by a general aviation callsign. So you put in the registration -- and here, you put it in with  the hyphen, but when you c

onnected with the Pilot Client you didn't put the hyphen. You shouldn't  put the hyphen, but let's just assume that you accidentally did in one or the other. Those  callsigns don't match. It's not going to connect the flight plan with the callsign. So now that you  have to enter the callsign someplace separately, it's just a side note -- you have to make sure  that you get it exactly the same on this page that you do in your Pilot Client when you connect  to the network. Next thing we're going t

o do is talk about IFR or VFR. Hopefully by this point  you know what those are. If you don't, you need to back up a couple steps. However, one side note  to note here is that we also have what are called Yankee type flight plans and Zulu type flight  plans. Basically they start as one and then become the other, IFR versus VFR. Those are  not options here -- you're just going to connect, you're going to choose whichever one you're  starting as, and that's the way that'll work. For aircraft ty

pe, you have to make absolutely certain  that you're putting in a valid ICAO aircraft type code. How do you know? Well, here's what you do.  Here's the ICAO's web page. We'll go straight to the source; can't get it wrong if you go right to the  actual, real-world ICAO. This is very simple. You can search by the manufacturer name or the model, whatever you want to put in. If we type we're flying as a Piper Comanche, well, you  can just search through all the Pipers. Oh well, I didn't see it t

here. There we go -- so, we know that a  Comanche is a PA24; that's exactly what we should put in. So you can put any manufacturer and model in  here, you can narrow it down by number of engines, or whatever you want to do. But, use this  page if you're not certain of the exact aircraft type that goes in here. Actually let's back up a step, 'cuz we're going to go as Southwest 514 IFR and we're going to be in a Boeing 737-700. Weight  category, we never used to have to put this in. Now we do.

So, an extra step. However, nice thing about  this web page is, it's got a drop-down that tells exactly which category is which, based  on the aircraft's maximum takeoff weight (MTOW). So not the weight that you are today, but, the maximum  takeoff weight that the type of aircraft is rated for. Problem is, these are listed in kilograms, and  I'm a dumb yank. So let's talk about the weight categories in terms of Imperial units; that way us  dumb Americans can all understand them. All right, s

o your Light category is anything up to 15,500  pounds. That's going to be most of your single and twin engine general aviation aircraft. Okay, medium is anything more than fifteen-five but less than 300,000 pounds. Now, I've pictured a business jet here. However, even  your Regional Jets, and even some of your smaller airline categories -- a 737, an A320 -- are all  going to be in this medium weight category. Your Heavies? Anything 300,000 pounds or greater. That's  going to be your 767,

your 777, your 787, um, 747 clearly. I think Airbus makes a few Heavies, I'm  not really sure. Hah, I'm just kidding. I think -- I don't know the Airbuses that well, but I think  it's the 300, the 330, the 340, and the 350-series are all pretty much your Heavies. Check me on that,  though. The only exception is it's 300,000 pounds or more, except any that are designated as a Super.  Now, if we go back to the web page, you'll notice that the only Super that is lists here on the drop-down 

is the A380-800 series. However we know darn well that there are some legacy types that are also  considered Super, and that aren't in that drop-down. But they are still valid on VATSIM. And we  kind of figure if you're flying a Super, you know who you are. But anyway, in our case we're a 737-700.  That's going to be a medium. Equipment code? For now we're going to go with just the FAA code and we're  going to leave this transponder one blank. It says "Skip if you're using the FAA equipment

code." We're  going to use the single-letter FAA code for now. I already have a tutorial on my VATSIM Tutorials  playlist that goes over these. You can check this out if you need it. The single letter  specifies not only the navigation method, but, also whether you're RVSM-capable and what type  of transponder you have. All of that is contained in a single letter. And that's why, if you're going  to use that, you would then skip the second field for putting in your transponder type. If you

  want to use the new ICAO code rather than the FAA single-letter one, we'll come back to it, trust  me. For right now I'm just going to go with the FAA Lima code -- which means that we have a transponder  with Mode Charlie capability, and we are RNAV with GNSS, meaning we have some sort of  GPS associated with the navigation system. And, that we are capable of RVSM meaning that we can  fly this aircraft at Flight Level 290 and higher. And again, we're going to skip this one. We're going  to c

ome back to this one when we want to talk about the ICAO version of the equipment codes. Departure?  Well that's very easy. That's where you're starting from. Off-Block Time, well that's simply the  time that you're going to be pushing back from the gate or rolling from the ramp to begin your  flight. Now with the old Pilot Client pages, I don't think it was ever really clear what time -- what  departure time we were really putting in. And I believe that the tradition was generally to  put

in the Wheels-Up Time. My opinion is the Off- Block Time works better. Now a lot of times, unless  it's a really busy event, VATSIM controllers are not really looking at this anyway. So it's not  that super critical. However, in the case of the larger events, I do think that the Off-Block  Time is a little bit more useful. Because the Wheels-Up time assumes some things that you  as the pilot don't really have control over -- particularly in those busy events -- such as the taxi  time and taxi

delays. Whereas the Off-Block Time is a much more useful number to put in here, because  it indicates to the Air Traffic Control team what time do you expect to be ready to push and get  rolling. So we'll put that in there. Altitude, Cruise Altitude, yeah that's pretty simple. Air speed is in Knots; this is in Knots True Airspeed, not Indicated Airspeed, by the way. If you  don't know the difference -- probably a good time to pause the video and read up on that. But anyway,  what goes in he

re -- and this is typical of this, the same as the, uh, this hasn't changed. So what goes  in here is the True Airspeed of the aircraft that you're going to be flying. Arrival? That's your  destination. Just another way of saying the same thing. Alternate, again -- that's the airport that you're going to plan fuel enough to divert to. This doesn't mean that you  have to divert to that airport, if for some reason you can't make it into your primary destination.  This just indicates an airport t

hat you've done appropriate fuel planning for. But once you get  airborne, if you need to divert, then you're not limited to just what you've listed as your filed  alternate. Enroute time, that's just hours and minutes that you plan to be airborne. And then  fuel endurance, again hours and minutes that you have on board in terms of available fuel. Route  Details is fairly simple -- in the case of this flight, fairly standard routing. {...} Q419 to  JFK, and then the ROBUC3. So there we go. W

e are then going to skip down past these sixteen fields; we're  going to come back to that. These are the advanced fields, which we're going to talk about. These are  all optional. But I'm going to direct you to the bottom line here -- the Remarks field, and the Voice  Rules. The Voice Rules, there's three options -- Voice, Receive Voice, and Text Only. Most time, most  folks on VATSIM are going to be selected under Voice. And that means that you're talking over  the Air Traffic Control freque

ncy and you're hearing the controller talk to you. There  are some folks who -- they don't have a microphone, or they're not allowed to speak because of the  noise level in the household, or whatever. So they can hear in their headset the controller talking  to them, but when they respond, they have to do so via text. That means you can receive voice  but you're not able to transmit back via voice. If you're not capable of it, for hardware  limitations or personal limitations, and you have to tr

ansmit and receive ATC instructions via  text, this is how you would choose that. The remarks code, there's going to be a lot of additional  information that should go in there depending on some things that we put in the equipment code and  the transponder code in terms of the ICAO format. However, this is also something where -- like --  your livestream link can go if you want it to, livestream link or Virtual Airline  link. Or -- actually, one that I'm going to show you here -- RTF is the pr

oper way to  specify a callsign for an airline that is either not well known, or no longer  operating, or is fictional. A depressing example -- "PAA." Most folks who really know  aviation know that "PAA" is Pan-American Airways. And Pan-American was one that -- they  had one of the more unique call signs -- was "Clipper." But for the younger folks who  are on the network that might not know the history of Pan-American might not know  the history of the callsign. This is a way you can specif

y that "Clipper" is the appropriate  callsign for what you've listed up at the top there. Anyway, at that point you're done.  Everything else here is optional. Go ahead and hit the button. All right; let's circle back now and talk  about the ICAO equipment codes. Earlier we spoke of the single-letter FAA version which specifies  both the navigation and the transponder type that you have on board your aircraft. The ICAO  equipment codes are much more descriptive in terms of the different types

of equipment and the  different types of capabilities -- not only of your navigation and your transponder, but also of your  radio communications; your voice communications. So we're going to go over that now. So first of  all, the equipment -- the first of those two fields is going to cover both your communication and  your navigation capabilities. In terms of your COM radios, the letter V indicates that you have your  regular standard aviation VOF, er VHF rather, COM radios. That's the radio

s that operate in the band of 118  to 136 mHz, the normal aviation communication range. Why do I have this in purple? We'll come back  to that. The letter Y is the same as the above but with 8.33 kHz spacing in between channels.  What do we mean by that? Well in the US we're not really using these just yet. But outside of  the US there's a lot of places where we've had to compress the number of channels that are available  in the COM range to avoid saturation. So they've spaced these instead of

by 25 kHz -- which is what  they do in the US, over there in the red -- 118.0, 118.025, 118.050 and so forth -- we've now spaced them by  8.33 kHz and that's what you're seeing there in the green column, which then translates to the ones circled in blue. There's a lot more detail that goes into that, but that's the basics of it. If your  aircraft is equipped with an HF radio, that would be mostly used for for traveling long distances  over oceans or other areas where it's a long distance betwee

n transceivers. Because HF radios  have much greater of a range, but they're also much more staticy -- they're much more difficult and  labor-intensive to listen to for that entire length of time. So they're not used except for  very long range operations. And they operate in the 3,000 to 30,000 kHz range rather than the 118  to 136 mHz range. So if your aircraft has an HF radio you can indicate that with the letter H.  In terms of NAV radios, your D indicates that you have a DME receiver; your

F indicates that you have  an Automatic Direction Finder or an ADF receiver; letter O indicates that you have a VOR receiver --  again, it's in purple. Why? We'll come back to it. And then the letter L indicates that you have an  ILS receiver. Again, purple. We'll come back to it. In terms of your RNAV capability -- we've got the letter  I which indicates an inertial nav or an inertial reference system. We've got the letter G which  indicates GNSS -- that's basically the same thing as saying

that it's GPS-equipped. Letter B in the case  that your aircraft is LPV capable. What's that mean? That means that your RNAV receiver is precise  enough that it can give you lateral and vertical guidance on an approach. Only the most modern and  precise versions of your inertial nav systems or GPS systems are able to do that, and you indicate  that capability with the letter B there. The letter R here means that you have a system that  meets some sort of Performance Based Navigation standards

-- and, oh boy, is THAT a topic. We're going  to come back to that one. And then the letter Z means some sort of other RNAV capability that isn't specified by one of these letters already. Again the red ones, kind of like the purple ones,  we're going to come back to. But that basically means that we've got more information that we're  going to have to put into these later fields -- which, as I mentioned, are optional on VATSIM. Now  two more quick codes to go over. One is if you are capable

of operating in RVSM airspace, which  is between Flight Level 290 and Flight Level 410, then you put a W. And again, if you aren't  sure what RVSM is, I kind of cover it in the FAA equipment code tutorial, if you want to go check  that out and then come back to us here. But basically, more-or-less if you're capable of flying  at Flight Level 290 or higher, you go ahead and put a W there. There's more to it than that  in the real world, but in terms of VATSIM that's a simple enough definition.

And then if you put  an S now we're coming back to those purple ones there. If you put a letter S there it's basically  the same thing as saying I got the V, I got the O, I got the L. You just put the S instead, and  you can omit putting those other letters in there. All right, let's talk transponder codes.  There's three main types of transponders, which we'll review here real quick for you. The Mode  A is the transponder that's got that four-digit code that you have to dial in to identify you

rself.  So it's a four-digit code, and they're encoded in three bits, meaning that only the digits 0 through 7 are possible. So that's Mode A. If your transponder has that  four-digit code that you have to dial in, that's Mode A. If you have that plus the ability to report  your altitude to Air Traffic Control, that's Mode C -- Mode Charlie, AKA Squawk Altitude. They're  telling you to activate your altitude reporting mode, so that's your mode Charlie. And then the  third type -- more modern

type -- is your Mode S. That's a newer type of transponder that's able to  identify you digitally, in a method that doesn't require you to put in a code. And it also has the  capability of reporting other information to Air Traffic Controllers -- telemetry information,  such as your heading, your speed, your vertical descent or climb rate. So, just basically,  a more modern and more capable system. It's not fully simulated on VATSIM yet, but,  most of your modern airliners -- and actually, eve

n many of your modern general aviation planes -- are now  Mode S transponder equipped. So commonly on VATSIM the codes that you would see in the transponder  surveillance equipment type would be C, which would be your Mode C -- Pilot Clients include this  functionality, so even if a Mode C transponder is not modeled in your aircraft, you technically have  it on VATSIM by virtue of the Pilot Client itself that simulates the Mode C functionality. You could put an S here; that would indicate tha

t you have a Mode S transponder, and this assumes  a Mode S transponder that has the capability of reporting your aircraft ID and the altitude. Some  of them don't have it, but those are not terribly common. And then L is your Mode S with some extended  squitter -- and I'm not even going to go into what an extended squitter and advanced surveillance is -- but again, we're at the point now where most modern airliners do have this equipment. So most of the time you're going to put an L there if

you're a modern airliner. Less common  codes are exactly what I was just saying, which is that these are the letters that represent that  you have Mode S but you don't have aircraft ID or you don't have altitude reporting. You've  got one or the other, or you'd have neither, blah blah blah. Those letters are really not that common,  but there they are in case you want to dive into them. All right now let's get into the last part  here. We've got sixteen fields at the bottom of this flight p

lan page that we haven't really talked  about. They're completely optional -- you don't have to put a darn thing in any of these. However, I  know there's going to be a handful of you out there that really want to know what's supposed to  go in there, just in case. "I want to do it exactly perfectly." So we're going to dive into that here.  All right -- first let's talk Performance-Based Navigation. We talked about this in just a few  light terms earlier. But it's the idea that in terms of t

he FAA you're either RNAV capable  or you're not -- but in reality, as the systems get better and more capable, there's not one- size-fits-all in terms of what what your RNAV- capable aircraft can or can't do. So this is now  a much more specific way of describing your aircraft and avionics capabilities. And this is  the web page that I used as a reference for the information here. Now most common avionics packages  for aircraft flown on VATSIM are certified B2, C2, and D2. If you want the det

ails of what all that  translates to, you can go ahead and hit that link up there. I'll put it in the video description  for you as well. But it basically indicates that your aircraft is capable of flying an RNAV  SID and an RNAV STAR. Additionally the S1, if you put that, indicates that you're able to do a  GPS approach with LNAV minimums. And S2 indicates that you're able to do an RNAV GPS approach with  LNAV and VNAV minimums. I'm going to show you the difference. In some charts it's specif

ic as to what  the minimums are, depending on what your aircraft is capable of. So it's important that you know  what your aircraft's capable of, in terms of providing that vertical guidance -- and therefore  you know what minimums are appropriate for you to use for that approach. And then finally  a T1 indicates that your aircraft is capable of performing an approach that includes one of those  curved approach paths, defined by what they call Radius-to-Fix or RF legs. All right. The second 

field is is marked NAV and it simply refers to other navigation capability. Here's the reference  link that you can use for the information on this page. This RNAV example shows that you are  RNAV D1 E2 A1. And what that means is that during the departure phase you're able to meet RNAV  1 specification; during the enroute phase, for whatever reason, your equipment's not as  precise and can only meet RNAV 2 specifications; but then in the approach phase you are once again able  to meet RNAV 1 sp

ecifications, during your arrival. This situation is not really common anymore, but  here's the code that you'd use in case you would want to specify that. Next is a field called  DAT. This is data communication capabilities, and here's the page that we use to come up  with this information for you. It refers to the very specific type of text capability that  your aircraft might have. If you have a Future Air Navigation System, this is what they call Controller Pilot Data Link Communications o

r CPDLC. If you are able to receive a Pre-Departure  clearance via your ACARS system, then you can put that. Or if you must receive your clearance by  voice, you can put that. And what you do is you put a number before each indicating your order of  preference; how do you prefer your clearance. If you want the CPDLC first priority, but you would  also be willing to accept it via ACARS as a backup plan, then you can put 1 FANS 2 PDC and that  specifies your preference in that regard. Next is t

he field marked SUR. This is other surveillance  capabilities. Here's another web link to where some of this information is. And it allows you to  specify whether your Mode S transmits only -- whether it sends your position to Air  Traffic Control, or can it also receive positions from other aircraft around you. And then it also  indicates which specific radio and data band your S transponder communicates on. No one's looking at  this on VATSIM. It is perfectly acceptable to leave this blank

. DOF is very simply Date of Filing. Well, look at  that. It's going to automatically fill itself in. So, you know what? Leave it alone. The next field's marked  REG. That is your aircraft registration. Now, if you're flying general aviation, usually the callsign  and the registration are going to be the same -- you're just going to use the tail number of the plane  as your callsign. However, it's also possible that you'll file your general aviation flight through a  filing service like For

eflight, and you get a callsign of FFT (NOTE: oops! FFL) and your flight number, or FlightPlan.com and you get a flight plan that's assigned to you in terms of a DotCom callsign -- DCM and your randomly assigned flight number. So in that case, or the case of a commercial air carrier  where you have a carrier ID and flight number as your callsign, you might want to put the plane's tail  number in this REG field. Go ahead; knock yourself out. SEL -- okay, all right, all right, Well, that is yo

ur  Selective Calling, AKA your SELCAL. This is really not that pertinent to you unless you're  crossing an ocean. If you look at some of our Flight Sim Association Pilot Briefing Webinars  that we've done for the Cross The Pond event, we go into a little bit more of a detailed description  of about how SELCAL works. I'm going to give you the real quick version here. So again, I  apologize for the pace -- it's a lot to cover. But the other briefings are maybe potentially good  resources for yo

u, if you really want to understand SELCAL. Okay --- over the ocean you're using HF radios  which operate in the 3,000 to 30,000 kHz range, instead of your regular VHF radios. Why is that?  Because they've got much longer range. But they've got terrible sound quality, and a lot of times  you're listening to constant static -- waiting for a voice buried in that static to be calling  you. So in order to make it easier to use those radios there's a paging system called SELCAL or  Selective Callin

g. It's used to alert pilots that the controller needs to contact them. It is enacted  with a set of two tones -- two pairs of two tones actually -- that are designated with letter pairs.  so you have AB-CD, for the sake of an example. They use sixteen different letters --  Alpha through Sierra, but they don't use India, November, or Oscar. And each letter can only appear  once in the code. Then within each pair, the tones are simultaneous. So AB is basically the same as  BA. So for that reas

on they always just list it as alphabetically. Now on VATSIM you really only  need this if you're crossing oceanic airspace. If you're not, you can leave this blank, generally  speaking. You can make up a code -- as long as it's a valid code. But during bigger events such as Cross  The Pond, a SELCAL code will be assigned to you. So you do have to use that. When you do, the  SELCAL code that you list in your flight plan has to match the one that you entered when you  connected with your Pilo

t Client. You've got to put the same code in twice -- once when you connect, once  when you file. Just like your callsign, it's got to match exactly. All right -- the next field is marked  simply CODE. This is your Mode S identification code. It's basically like a MAC address of your  Mode S transponder. We said it's a digital means of identifying yourself. In the real world, it would  be on the box somewhere. VATSIM, no one cares -- just leave it blank. RVR -- this is an interesting one. 

This stands for Runway Visual Range, and it's the same RVR that would appear in a METAR in case  there's very low visibility. And then there's an RVR value that indicates exactly how many feet  down the runway were observable during the most recent METAR observation. It might be in feet,  might be in meters -- depending on the location. Now, certain real-world companies don't allow their  crews to accept an approach clearance if the RVR is below a certain level, even if it's above the minimum

s. So let's say the RVR is 800 meters, but the minimums are 600 meters. So it's legal. But, your company says you can't accept an approach that's any less than 900 meters. Well, this would be the field  that you would specify that value, if it applied to you. Now, on VATSIM, there's nobody enforcing  this. So unless you're really strictly operating under the SOP of a real-world company that  you're emulating the flight of, you can pretty much ignore this. OPR -- this stands for Operator and

  it's basically just the name of the company that you're flying for. And again, similar to what  we did earlier with the RTF -- the Radio Telephony -- really it's going to correspond with the ICAO  identifier that you used at the beginning of your callsign. But sometimes it is helpful  to fill this in -- if it's a company that's not universally known, or it's no longer in operation, or it's fictional. But again the RTF -- what you call that flight over the radio -- may not be the name  of the

operator. So sometimes you might have to specify both. Next is PER, Performance. And this  means an approach performance category. This is the approach category that's used on your  instrument approach procedure to determine which set of minimums you should be following. So this  should be relatively familiar to you, if you are used to looking at those instrument approach  procedures and the various categories of minimums. So there's nothing new here -- this is just where  you can specify in

your flight plan which of these categories you're going to fall under, in terms  of your aircraft's Vref speed. RALT -- this is another interesting one and I will confess  that I'm not real knowledgeable on this. But this refers to your Enroute Alternate. And this is  about ETOPS planning. And this is -- again, I don't fly a lot of long-hauls; I don't do much trans-oceanic  flying except for on the Cross The Pond events. But this really refers to your Extended Twinjet  Operations Performance

Standards planning -- ETOPS planning. It's a set of requirements that you have  to meet when you're crossing large distances devoid of safe landing areas, such as oceans. And part  of that requirement is that you plan for enroute diversion sites that are within a certain number  of minutes of your route as you go. And they have various categories of ETOPS certification -- ETOPS  60 or 120 or 180 and so forth. So this would allow you to specify RALT, slash, the ICAO of one or more  airports tha

t you would plan to divert to if you encountered some sort of an emergency or lost  an engine while you were over the ocean. TALT -- this is another one that's really interesting in  terms of emergency planning that we don't tend to think about much on VATSIM. But it's Takeoff  Alternate. And if you had a situation where you're taking off from an airport where the weather is  really, really bad, you want to plan ahead for what happens if I pass V1 and I have to go airborne --  but I've got so

me sort of safety-critical issue that I need an immediate return to the airport, but  the weather at my airport was bad enough that I was legal to take off but I'm not legal to land!  Well, this is where you might specify a Takeoff Alternate -- a very nearby airport that's got runways  of sufficient length that you can land safely, and, that has weather sufficient for you to make  that approach and land safely. So this is where you would specify your Takeoff Alternate in the event that you're

departing from somewhere where there's really, really bad weather. ORGN? Well, this is not the origin that you're taking off from; we covered that in the top part of the  flight plan. This is your flight plan Originator. It indicates where the flight plan was filed from. On  VATSIM, really, that could mean something like Simbrief. But if you're filling out the flight plan by hand, just leave it blank. Getting down to the last last couple here. Your COM, this is your  Other Communication Cap

ability. Again, here's a web link to where I came up with the information  that goes in this field. You really don't need to put these into VATSIM. There are codes E1 through  E3 and codes J1 through J7 which specify exactly which type of CPDLC or ACARS your aircraft is  equipped with. If you really really want to know that information you can go look it up. But on  VATSIM, no one's looking at it. Finally, your EET -- your estimated entry time. This is the estimated  time in terms of Zulu t

hat the aircraft is going to cross into each new control facility. Filing  services like Simbrief is going to automatically include these. We've taken a snip here from our  BWI to Boston plan, and we see right here that the estimated time to enter the New York ARTCC  is 0018 Zulu, and then the estimated time to enter Boston ARTCC's airspace is 0028 Zulu. So your Simbrief and your other onine online planning tools are automatically going to include these. You don't  need to calculate them by ha

nd and put them in -- nobody on VATSIM is looking at these. Well, friends,  that's going to conclude our tutorial on the web-based flight plan filing on the VATSIM network. So  we hope you found it useful; maybe even learned a thing or two. But if you have any questions about  anything that you saw or heard, go ahead and leave those right down there in the comments, or find  us over on the Slant Alpha Adventures Discord server or any of our social media outlets. We  hope to hear you and see you

in the VATSIM sky sometime soon -- but in the meantime, be healthy and  safe in all your own travels and adventures. Take care.