If you've ever wanted to take part in group flights within Microsoft Flight Simulator but didn't know where to start, you've come to the right place. VirtualFlight.Online was setup expressly to create a community of flight simulation enthusiasts to fly with. We host regular organised events, and lots of informal invitational flights too.

Where are flights advertised?

Events are listed in the VirtualFlight.Online Discord server (get a free invite) in the following locations:

• The events calendar (at the top of the left margin) lists the events in calendar order

• The #events-info channel often lists further information on each event as a discussion thread.

• Less formal "invitations" are listed in the #invitations channel.

How do I take part in a group flight?

• 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.

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. Discord server membership is by invitation - visit https://bit.ly/virtualflightonlinediscord to get a free invite.

Group Flight 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 find yourself 20 miles ahead of everybody else, it's no longer really a group flight.

• Try to stay online until everybody has landed at the final airfield. There's nothing quite so dispiriting as arriving at the end of a group flight to find many have already logged off.

Tips

• If you want to see other pilots on a map during a group flight, Transmitter is an excellent add-on for LittleNavMap - where all people running Transmitter appear as aircraft on the map both in LittleNavMap, and on the "Who's Online" page of the VirtualFlight.Online website.

How do I arrange group events?

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, you must have multi-factor authentication configured on your Discord account. This is a rule set by Discord - not by us. To do this:

1. Click the cog next to your user name at the bottom left of the Discord application

2. Visit the "My Account" section

3. Follow the prompts to setup "Two Factor Authentication". You will need a smartphone.

Creating 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:

1. Where is your event? - choose "Voice Channel", then choose the "events" voice channel from the drop-down that appears.

2. 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.

3. Create Event - finally, the form previews your event - click the "Create Event" button if you're happy with it.

Create a Thread in the #events-info Channel

When you created the event (above), you were only allowed 1000 characters to describe your event - you probably wanted a lot more, and might like to also upload images, or flight-plan files. To do so, create a thread in the events-info channel:

1. Create a thread - click on the "events-info" channel in the left margin of Discord, and click the + icon in the message-box at the bottom. Choose "Create Thread" from the list of options.

2. Title the thread - the new thread needs a title and a first message - title it the same as your event, and fill in the first message with the full written details about your flight. Example event text is given below - feel free to copy and amend in Notepad before copying and pasting into your thread.

3. Upload Files (optional) - within the new thread, add as many extra files as you wish - this could be images, flight plan files, or whatever else is useful to your event.

Market Your Event

Just because the event is there doesn't mean people will necessarily see it. Feel free to tell others both her and elsewhere about the flight. To get you started, here are the typical places we have marketed events in the past:

1. Post an Invite to everyone - on the day of the event, post an invitation in the #invitations channel, starting your message with the @everyone tag - think of it as a "call to arms" - tell everybody to look in the events-info channel for full details.

2. Post Elsewhere - feel free to post the event elsewhere - the example event text has all the links in it you might need. Typical locations you might share the flight are the Microsoft Flight Simulator forum, other Discord servers, Facebook Groups, and so on.

Host Your Event

In good time before the start-time of your event, go and hang out in the voice chat channel you specified in the event notes, and welcome people as they arrive - from here on in, you're the host - it's your show. Please keep the "family friendly" rule foremost in your mind throughout your event.

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 within LittleNavMap while en-route, check out the Transmitter app - available for free from:

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.