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TX-EcoDragon
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« Reply #7 on: November 27, 2006, 02:16:27 pm » |
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Yes, that is the best thing about VATSIM, use it correctly and it's another little bit of mental groundschool. . .loggable or meaningful to the FAA it may not be, but I'll tell you this much, it's the BEST way to start getting used to REAL WORLD radio procedures. More realistic than playing controller and pilot on the ground with your CFI (no aircraft workload and only one voice to try to understand), better than reading it in a book, better than those 200.00 communications "simulators", and it's free!. There are some areas where it's imperfect, such as the lack of enough controllers in some areas to have a different controller on station as Ground, Tower, Departure/Approach, Center etc, but if they are able most controllers will provide the services of those facilities, or at least center, approach and tower, and they will cover multiple airports, again, if they aren't too busy at their primary airport. It's more like flying at night on VATSIM, but it's quite good despite these issues.Regarding the types of operations, the pilot resource center spells it all out, but while many people on VATSIM only fly jets on IFR flight plans, that simply isn't a realistic simulation of real world ATC. In the real world there are VFR aircraft getting VFR advisories AKA flight following, there are people flying simulated instrument approaches with a safety pilot, there are people requesting airspace transitions on VFR flights, there are people doing a formation, and even in P-51s and warbirds, some people will scoff at you in a warbird or aerobatic mount, but the fact is, if you operate it properly, respectfully, and realistically they have no grounds to complain, but recognize that most of the time people in those aircraft don't do that. Some controllers may even be a little confused about this sort of stuff, but be respectful, reply to them via private text, and explain to them your intentions and that you know what you are doing, and they will be fine with it.Flying modern fighters, performing interception of other pilots (ie formationw ithout consent of both parties) etc falls outside what is permitted on VATSIM without being part of the special division which controls such actions. Really it's simple if you try to think about it like the real world. Three of us can, assuming we know the proper way to do it, fly in a formation, do aerobatics, all of that, but we must be aware of airspace, weather, and communications requirements. When I’ve gone in and done VFR practice instrument approaches controllers have often thanked me profusely for it, at first I didn’t really understand why, but most of them have never even done that, they had to learn how to do it, but most “pilots” on VATSIM aren’t using those services, and so the controllers never get to do it, not to mention the degree of realism and ambiance it provides, at least to real world pilots, to hear such operations being carried out on the radio. Again. . .it's a good way to start thinking about real world procedures, and dare I say it, with proper preparation (ie a CFI or mentor to guide you) it’s practically radio and procedure training. S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO
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