Events
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What are events ?
Events are group flights for the community to take part in, organised in advance. They are open to everybody, and can be arranged by anybody.
Prerequisites
Configure your multi-player settings
If you want to see other people within the simulator, you'll need Flight Simulator configured for "All Players" in the flight conditions settings, and you'll need to be connected to the same in-game server as the rest of your group. Check the notes for the event or invitation you are responding to, and failing that, ask in the Discord event voice channel.
Join Discord to talk to each other
If you want to listen to and talk to others in flight, you will need to join the Discord server. Discord is an application you can run alongside Microsoft Flight Simulator, and provides excellent live voice-chat and screen-sharing facilities for free.
Within Discord you will find an Events Forum, and an Events Voice Chat channel.
Where are events advertised?
Events are listed in the Discord server in the following locations:
The main place to find upcoming events is the "Events" section of the discord server - at the top of the left margin.
The "Events Forum" channel lists further information about each event - such as flight plans, and any helpful guidance.
How do I take part in an event?
All you need to do is arrive in the right place, at the right time, on the right multi-player server.
PLEASE read the event information to find out about the flight. Having 30 people ask "which server are we on?" gets really old, really quickly.
Rules
If joining the Discord server for voice communications during the flight, conversation must remain family friendly, respectful, and not stray into any subjects that may offend such as adult jokes, politics, religion, racism, drugs, or hate-speech.
Try to stay with the group if you're doing a group flight. If you find yourself 20 miles ahead of everybody else, it's no longer really a group flight.
Can I create my own events ?
Yes! In order to arrange events for the community, you just need to be a member of the Discord server - anybody can create events.
Pre-requisite - Two Factor Authentication
To create events in Discord, you must have multi-factor authentication configured on your Discord account. This is a rule set by Discord - not by us. To do this:
Click the cog next to your user name at the bottom left of the Discord application
Visit the "My Account" section
Follow the prompts to setup "Two Factor Authentication".
You will need a smartphone.
Create an Event in Discord
Click the "Events" link at the top of the left margin in Discord - this will show you a list of upcoming events (if there are any), and a button to create a new event - click it.
The "Create Event" form takes you through a number of questions:
Where is your event? - choose "Voice Channel", then choose the "events-chat" voice channel from the drop-down that appears.
What's your event about? - give your event a title, a date and time (local to you), a description, and a cover image. Notice that you can only have 1000 characters in the description - so see the section below about also creating a thread in the #event-info channel. You can find nice cover images at unsplash.com.
Create Event - finally, the form previews your event - click the "Create Event" button if you're happy with it.
Create a topic in the Events Channel in Discord
When you created the event (above), you were only allowed 1000 characters to describe your event - you may have wanted more, and might like to also upload images, or flight-plan files. To do so, create a topic in the Events channel in Discord - where you can upload flight plans, paste pictures, links to downloads, and any further information people might need.
Please prefix the title of your forum post with the date in YYYY-MM-DD format to help people find event topics easily.
Market Your Event
Just because the event is there doesn't mean people will necessarily see it. Feel free to tell others about the flight on social media platforms - if you need to direct them to VirtualFlight.Online, send them a link to Discord:
Hosting your Event
In good time before the start-time of your event, visit the Events Chat voice channel, and welcome people as they arrive - from here on in, you're the host. The way we run events has evolved over time - we've outlined some guidelines that help events run well below:
Starting an event
A few minutes before the arranged start-time of an event, it's always helpful if the host makes a quick announcement - reminding those present (some of which will be newcomers) who we are, what we do, how we go about doing it, and the behaviour we expect and encourage from everybody taking part.
If you're stuck for what to say or how to say it, here's an example:
Introduction
Welcome to this flight with VirtualFlight.Online! For those new to us, we're a community of flight simulation enthusiasts that meet up regularly to fly together - any of our members can organise group flights on times and days that suit themselves - so we encourage you to visit the website where you can find out how to do it (it's very easy).
Describe the flight (change as required)
Today we're flying from [origin] to [destination], with some touch-and go's along the way. If you've not seen it yet, there is a flight plan and route description in the Discord events-forum channel.
As described in the event notes, any aircraft that can cruise at 120 knots or faster will be good
We'll be stopping for a break at [rest-airport] for 10 minutes en-route for a comfort break
Set out the ground rules
Please keep all voice communication family-friendly
All talk about aircraft, aviation, simulators and so on is of course massively encouraged :)
Stay away from subjects that might divide or offend - so no politics, religion, sex, drugs, dirty jokes, etc
Please try to stay together as a group - if you find yourself ahead of the pack, perhaps fly circuits at the next waypoint
Please try to stick around at the final destination and watch others coming in - there's nothing so dispiriting as landing last at an empty airport.
Policing events
Although it's rare that we have to remind people of the rules while taking part in events, it does occasionally happen. A friendly "hey guys, come on, enough of that please" is usually enough. If there are no moderators present, and you feel you need to report anything, a private message to a moderator should be all that's needed. Your concerns will be heard.
Example Event Text
As noted above, here's an example description from a past flight using markdown syntax for an event - which you can modify, and paste into a new event thread.
Here's a quick primer on the markdown syntax that Discord understands:
Double **asterisks** around words make them bold
Single *asterisks* around words make them italic
On Sunday 28th August 2022 at 1900 UTC, we will host a group flight exploring the Los Nevados mountains in Columbia - departing from Satiago Vila, and finishing at El Eden.
**When**
Sunday 28th August 2022, 1900 UTC / 2000 BST
**Flight Plan**
There is no flightplan to download - just the notes below. Feel free to use navigation solutions at your disposal to make a plan, follow the notes, or follow the pack!
- SKGI Santiago Vila - departure
- SKIB Perales - touch and go
- SKGK Pajonales Airport - touch and go
- SKQU Mariquita - full stop - 5 minute break
- SKMZ La Nubia - touch and go
- SKPE Matecana - touch and go
- SKGO Santa Ana - touch and go
- SKAR El Eden - destination
Approx. 169nm
**Suggested Aircraft**
Any aircraft capable of 120 knots or more in cruise to complete the flight in a timely manner (we try to keep flights under 2 hours).
**Voice Communications**
To talk to fellow pilots during the flight, visit the VirtualFlight.Online discord server:
https://bit.ly/virtualflightonlinediscordserver
If you've never used Discord before, find out more here:
https://codex.virtualflight.online/community/discord
**Multiplayer Network**
If you want to see other aircraft within Microsoft Flight Simulator, make sure the following are configured:
1. You must have Multiplayer data switched on
2. You must select "All Players" in flight conditions
3. Choose the "SOUTH EAST ASIA" mutiplayer server
If you would like to see other aircraft while en-route, check out the Volanta app - available for free from https://volanta.app
https://virtualflight.online/transmitter
**Rules / Guidelines**
- If joining the Discord server for voice communications during the flight, conversation must remain family friendly, respectful, and not stray into any subjects that might offend such as adult jokes, politics, religion, racism, or hate-speech.
- Try to stay with the group! If the group is becoming stretched, loop back and join the rear of the group.
- Try to stay online until everybody has landed at the final airfield.