Pilot Software
It is obvious you need a flight simulator to become a pilot on IVAO.
Most virtual pilots use Microsoft Flight Simulator or X-plane.
Throughout this manual we will use Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 (FS9.1) and Flight Simulator X since this is the most up-to-date version (at the moment this pages was written). The Flight Simulator is available for a reasonable price in most of the shops that sell game-software.
Step by step
Before you can fly online, you need to install all necessary software on your computer. The following chapter will explain you step by step what – and why - you need to install this software.
Note: When you download and install the new Pilot Client (IvAp) for FSX or Fs2004 the following steps are preformed automatically!
Download and install the IVAO Pilot client (IvAp)
You can find IvAp for FS 2004 or FSX on the following page: http://www.ivao.aero/softdev/ivap/
IvAp is the pilot client for IVAO. It has been developed by the Software Development team and can only be used on the IVAO-network. After the installation of the program, you will find a new menu item called “IVAO” in your flight simulator FS9 folder or in the addon menu in FSX.
When started, IvAp creates a “multi user session” in your flight simulator and connects to the IVAO network. By pressing the “
Download and install the MTL Dynamic Installer
The dynamic installer can be found on the following page: http://www.ivao.aero/softdev/mtl/
The MTL installer will install a library of aircraft liveries selected by yourself on your computer. These liveries are developed to consume as less as possible memory and resources when used.
When you participate in a simulation, IvAp only needs to know the type of the airplane in your neighbourhood, the airline it belongs to and its local position. Based on this information, the plane is loaded from your own computer and shown on the right place with the right colours.
The more MTL-files you have, the more accurate the other planes can be shown to you but it is not mandatory to download them all.
Download and install Teamspeak
Teamspeak is a freeware program used on IVAO for the voice communication between pilots and controllers.
The correct and IVAO adopted version comes automatically with the download of IvAp and can be installed immediately.
Still an adapted version suitable for IVAO can be downloaded from here: http://www.ivao.aero/network/so/
Before you can use Teamspeak, you need to adapt some settings. For this, please start Teamspeak and go to the “Settings” menu and select “Sound Input/output Settings”.
Select “Push to Talk” and press “Set”. A new window will appear asking you to “Press a key”. Now you should press a key that is not used in your flight simulator. As an example the “Scroll Lock” key was pressed. As of now, this is your “Push to talk”-key. Every time you want to say something to another pilot or controller, you need to press this key. Once you’ve made these changes, you can close Teamspeak. However, if you still cannot use voice communication, please consult the volume settings in Windows (or Linux) to verify whether the microphone is selected and the volume is set correctly.
Download and install FSUIPC.DLL
This dll-file is a special module, written by Peter Dowson (http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html), which makes it possible for the flight simulator to communicate with other programs. This module sends a lot of parameters of the planes (like speed, altitude, direction…) and the weather (like direction and speed of the wind, cloud levels, type of clouds…) to the installed add-on programs.
The IvAp installer includes a recent version of the FSUIPC DLL which can be installed together with IvAp (see Chapter 3). Since IvAp is released as freeware, PeterDowson has granted a key to register IvAp on FSUIPC. You don’t need to do anything, asIvAp registers automatically with FSUIPC. Also, if you have a registered version of FSUIPC,IvAp will automatically work with it.
Find more information about software used on IVAO network at: http://www.ivao.aero/network/so/
Flying online requires you to be connected to the Internet during your session (unsurprisingly so!). Please note that certain low-bandwidth connections such as GPRS might give less than optimal results, particularly for voice communication, with added delays and poor voice quality.
Note: Remember that the official forum where to ask for support about IvAp is the IVAO Forum.