¶ Connecting as observer
Connecting as an observer gives future vATCOs and VATSIM pilots a chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at how virtual air traffic control works and how vATCOs operate across different airports.
¶ Pre-requisites
To connect as an observer, you first need to install and set up a couple of things. Here follow the guides you should follow to make sure you have everything ready:
¶ How to connect as observer
- Launch Euroscope and, when prompted, open
italy - TOPSKY.prf. - On the top menu bar, click on OPEN SCT and then Open
- Browse to
C:/Users/*username*/AppData/Roaming/Euroscope/LIXX/ASR/ - If you want to observe an airport, browse to
ASR/GRP/and choose the correct area and the airport you would like to observe - If you want to observe an APP/CTR position, browse to
ASR/TOPSKY/, openTopsky.asrand move the view to the sector you would like to observe - Click Connect in the top left and insert your real name, CID (Certificate) and password
In the Callsign field make sure to insert your INITIALS_OBS, for example AP_OBS.
- Click Connect and click Yes on the pop-up window that will open
You are now connected as an observer.
¶ Setting up Euroscope to see airplanes on the radar scope
In order to see VATSIM traffic on the radar scope, we need to:
-
tell Euroscope where we want our visibility points to be. We can set up to 4 visibility points, using the command .vis1 LIXX vis2 LIXX and so on, LIXX being the ICAO code of the airport we want to set as visibility point.
-
correctly set the range in the Connect window, to see the same aircraft that the controller has in his view range. This can be done through the slider in the bottom of the window.
The range that should be set varies depending on the position you would like to observe. Below is reported a table with all the positions and the recommended ranges as per VATSIM CoC section C8.
¶
| POSITION | RANGE |
|---|---|
| DEL | 20NM |
| GND | 20NM |
| TWR | 50NM |
| APP/DEP | 150NM |
| CTR | 600NM |
The maximum range that can be set by an observer is 300NM.