FSAirSync is a network for people who want to fly together. These rules keep that working for everyone. They apply wherever you can reach others: on the frequencies, in the VA channels and in the simulator.
Flying here means you have accepted them.
1. How we treat each other
This is a hobby, not a job. Everyone here flies voluntarily, in their spare time, with wildly different experience. A friendly tone is not a nicety, it is the condition for people coming back.
Beginners are welcome, explicitly. Everyone made their first radio call once and got everything wrong doing it. If you can help, help briefly and without lecturing; if you have no patience, stay quiet. Showing someone up is not help.
Not everyone flies as seriously as you do. One plans for two hours and flies by the chart, the next takes off on a whim and just wants to fly circuits. Both are fine. Anyone who thinks their own standard is the measure for everybody is mistaken — as long as the rules under point 3 are kept, the rest is none of your business.
No harassment. Do not tail people, do not keep addressing someone who does not want it, do not follow anyone across channels.
2. On text and voice
No hate speech. This is the line where nothing is negotiated. Racist, antisemitic, sexist, anti-queer or anti-disability remarks lead to removal — the first time, without a warning. The same goes for incitement and for glorifying National Socialism or any other tyranny.
This is not a matter of taste. A single sentence of that kind on a frequency drives away more people than months of good work attract.
No insults, no threats, no piling on. Not as a joke either, and not with "I didn't mean it like that". On a frequency a dozen strangers are listening who do not know the context.
No sexual content, neither in text nor over voice. Teenagers fly here too.
No advertising and no spam. No recruiting for other networks, no sales offers, no repeated links. If you want to present your VA, do it in the VA directory, not on the aerodrome frequency.
No private data of others, no real names, no addresses, no screenshots of private conversations.
The frequency belongs to everyone. Keep it short, do not monopolise it, do not play music, no microphone tests during someone's final approach. You transmit with push-to-talk — a stuck or accidentally held key makes the channel useless for everyone.
Whoever is flying has priority. An approach, a departure or an emergency comes before any conversation. Small talk on the aerodrome frequency waits while someone is working — or moves to the VA channel.
Language: On aerodrome and country frequencies, the local language or English. If someone calls in English, they get an answer in English — otherwise they cannot understand you, and that is the whole point. What is spoken in a VA channel is up to the VA.
Recordings only if you say so. Streaming and recording are fine, but say so on the frequency. Not everyone wants to end up in a video unasked.
3. In the simulator
The guideline is simple: fly the way it is done for real. You do not need to know procedures by heart — it is enough to behave like someone who knows others are around.
On the ground
Do not taxi through other aircraft. This is the rule broken most often, and the one that destroys the illusion most thoroughly: driving through a waiting aircraft turns an airport into a video game. Waiting costs two minutes.
Use the taxiways, not the grass. Even when it would be quicker.
The runway is not a parking space and not a shortcut. You line up when you depart — and before that you check whether anyone is on approach or rolling.
Park at the gate if you have to step away. Not on the runway, not at the holding point. If you are gone for more than a couple of minutes, sign off; a paused aircraft drops out of the network anyway.
Push back and taxi in the usual direction. Taxiing against the flow blocks more than yourself.
In the air
No stunts over busy fields. Low passes over the runway, unannounced formation approaches, loops in the circuit — not where others are trying to land. On an empty field it is your own business.
Normal speeds. Below FL100 no faster than 250 knots, slower close in. Arriving in the circuit at 400 knots makes you unpredictable for everyone else.
Take your turn. If there is traffic on approach, join the queue instead of cutting in. First there, first down.
No deliberate ramming, no intercepts, no chasing other aircraft. That holds even when nothing breaks.
No slew on the network. The client takes you off the display while you do it anyway, because jumping positions look nonsensical to everyone else. Move yourself before you go visible.
Callsigns
Fly under what you are actually doing. An airline callsign with a matching aircraft is perfectly fine — real identifiers belong to everyone. What does not work is using the callsign of a VA you are not a member of; the system will not let you either.
No callsign that annoys others. No insults, no innuendo, no identifiers posing as air traffic control.
4. When something goes wrong
Report it instead of firing back. Someone behaving badly does not improve because you argue with them on the frequency — at that point both of you are the problem. A note to the moderators is enough.
Moderators may enter any channel, VA channels included. They are always visible while doing so and their entry is logged; there is no silent listening in.
What can happen, depending on severity: a word, a mute, removal from a channel, a temporary ban, permanent exclusion. For hate speech (point 2) it starts at the last one.
You can object. If you consider a decision wrong, say so; every measure is recorded in a way that can be reviewed.
5. These rules will change
We adjust the text when it turns out that something is missing or open to misreading. For changes to the substance you will be asked to accept them again before your next flight; corrected typos will not bother you.
Old versions stay readable so it remains clear what someone agreed to, and when.
The German version is authoritative. These rules are also published in other languages. Where the versions differ, the German text applies — a translation is meant to make things understandable, not to make new rules.