Joining VATSIM

To join VATSIM you must be at least 13 years old and must not have created a VATSIM account before. VATSIM will also ask for your full and correct first and last name.

To create your VATSIM account visit the sign up page here.

Once you have completed sign up it may take up to 24 hours for the VATSIM servers to catch up.

New Member Orientation Course

Once you have signed up you must read all the information in the New Member Orientation Course and complete a short exam. Information regarding this course should be sent to your email address or alternatively the exam can be found on myVATSIM. Once passing the exam your account will become active within one hour.

Pilot Clients

After you have signed up and completed the New Member Orientation Course, you must download an approved pilot client. These are as follows:

  • vPilot for FSX, P3D and MSFS
  • xPilot for X-Plane
  • swift for X-Plane, FSX, P3D and FlightGear

Next Steps

After completing these steps you should install model matching for your simulator which you can find out how to do here.

It is also essential you learn how to operate your aircraft to an appropriate level as described in the VATSIM Code of Conduct. This includes, but is not limited to:

  • Being able to enter and exit holds
  • Fly an assigned speed, altitude or heading
  • Approach to land, including both visual and instrument approaches
  • When IFR, fly a filed route and be able to fly to unplanned waypoints if required

It is worth noting that this is a minimum and it is often expected and required to be able to fly your aircraft to a high standard.

In order to learn and get used to radio communications it is recommended to connect to the network in ‘observer mode’. This ensures that your aircraft will not be seen by other users while you can still see and hear everyone else on the network.

If you wish to learn more about radio communications the following are recommended: