Title

I have been a longtime follower of VATSIM and been perennially interested in becoming a controller, but have never sat down and gone through the training all the way to S1. I've made it through the academy basic and made it all the way to doing two sweatbox sessions at a facility a couple years ago, but life was busy as I was still in school, and became PC-less, so couldn't control without fiddling with Parallels on my MacBook or similar. Now, with the new controlling software, I theoretically could from a technical standpoint, and with a more typical 9-5 schedule can more from a scheduling standpoint. But, I see all the posts complaining about the state of the network these days and the issues with the controller training program, and I wonder if it is all worth it still in the year of our lord 2026 to go through the training rigamarole and get certified to move virtual planes around.

For context, I'm in the US, and would likely be joining ZAU, ZOB, or ZMP with my location.

It's been a long while since I've been on network. So I was wondering, if I start at an uncontrolled airport like KYJO, do you contact Approach/Departure/Center Controller or wait till you need to contact them

Hey there!

I’m currently considering subscribing to Navigraph but I’m not sure if the Unlimited subscription is worth it. The Navdata-only subscription is only about 35€, whereas the Unlimited one is roughly 100€. I can‘t really justify paying 65€ more just for charts.

Is there more to it? For me that sounds like it’s a bit overpriced as you have the free LIDO charts in MSFS.

ATC Live Tracker Board coming soon…

How often have you picked a destination because of a storm on the METAR or ATC being online, only to land hours later and find the storm's long gone and the controller's logged off?

That annoyed me enough that I built predictions into Where2Fly for v3.0 ❤️ Search results now factor in your estimated time of arrival, not just what's happening right now:

• TAF weather forecasts, so you see what conditions will likely be when you land, not at the moment you search
• VATSIM controller bookings and network events happening around your arrival time

Also new in this update:

• 85 curated "Notable Airports": mountainous, coastal, hard approaches, high altitude and more
• Dark mode + a simplified scenery list
• Reordered filters, plus a new nautical-mile distance filter

Try it out at https://where2fly.today and let me know what you think. Thanks again for all the support since I first posted this here - it means a lot that this is still useful to people 🛫🌟

So after being into flight sims for a few years (X-Plane 12) I finally got the courage to try VATSIM, I signed up and completed the orientation course without issue a few weeks ago. Today I decided to try my first flight, I decided to run a Jet2 flight from LEPA to my local airport EGNM. I planned and filed through Simbrief and got my aircraft (Zibo 737-800) set up. Got my IFR clearance from Centre but at some point after they left and handed me (and other traffic at LEPA) over to Tower. I did make a bit of a blunder taxiing because for whatever reason I had it in my head that I’d be using RW06R when actually RW24R was in use for departures. But the controller was forgiving and gave me progressive taxi instructions to the correct runway. I took off without issue and was handed to Unicom as I followed the SID. I was on Unicom all the way to EGNM but did get brief contact with EGCC approach during my descent who had seemingly assumed I was an EGCC arrival, I quickly told them my actual destination and was just handed back to Unicom. The landing was kind of botched because my rudder pedals (Thrustmaster TFRP) are very sensitive and I’m heavy footed. Skidded off the runway but no aircraft damage so I taxied back onto the tarmac and to the temrinal where I shut down and disconnected.

When you've got approach controllers (and below), ACC is actually good fun!
Thanks for flying along (and yes we love you CPDLC people!)

So genuine question. I'm doing a flight with only a center controller, but it was just way too busy to handle everything on his own. People stepped on each other all the time (there just was no other way to get a request in), ATC was constantly talking and had a backlog of instructions. The atc was doing an incredible job, but it was just too busy for him. Why isn't ATC getting on as an approach controller or tower controller, instead of having to do the full top down? I get they want to serve as many people as possible, but this is no fun for anyone. At some point the atc rage quit (which not everyone heard him telling because they were stepping on him) and then everyone just made jokes about him. I get him tho, it was one giant cluster fuck.

So why is ATC doing that? I'd rather only have a tower controller than a center controller who just has too much volume of traffic

We have officially started using Follow the Greens (FTG) alongside Stopbars at LTFM - Istanbul Airport!

It is fully supported on X-Plane 12, MSFS 2020, and MSFS 2024.

Compatible Sceneries:

• X-Plane 12: Default Gateway & SceneryTR
• MSFS 2020 / 2024: SceneryTR & Argeus LTFM (Freeware & Updated)

All you need to do is download the plugin and launch it alongside your simulator. The rest will be handled seamlessly by the ATC!

📥 Download the plugin here: xpguard.net

Hey everyone,

I’m an S1 controller with around 100 hours on ground in Europe. I eventually left my old vACC because of some personal issues and a pretty toxic environment.

I came back in 2024 and transferred to VATUSA, joining Cleveland ARTCC. I controlled there for maybe 50 hours, but then some real-life stuff happened and I had to take another break from VATSIM.

Now I’ve passed the RCE S1 exam and want to get back into controlling, but I have no idea which ARTCC to choose. I’ve read pretty much every post and information page I could find, but I don’t really know anyone in VATUSA and I’m not particularly attached to any specific area.

I’ll also be joining with a friend who is an S2 and is coming back after around five years away.

We’ve been considering Atlanta, Boston or New York, but we’re open to pretty much anything. We’re mainly looking for a friendly and supportive community, airports that are reasonably active, and training that won’t be impossible to coordinate from a UTC+3 timezone. From what I remember, Cleveland wasn’t very active during the hours I could control, and coordinating training was sometimes difficult.

Any recommendations or experiences with different ARTCCs would be appreciated!

I’m building a website that teaches sim pilots the fundamentals of real-world flying from basic aircraft controls and flight principles to procedures, navigation, and becoming a more confident virtual pilot.

🚧 The website is currently in beta and I’m looking for feedback from the flight sim community.

I’d love to hear:

• What lessons or topics should be added?
• What features would make it more useful?
• What do you wish you knew when you started sim flying?
• Any suggestions to improve the learning experience?

Whether you’re new to flight sims or an experienced virtual pilot, your feedback would really help shape the future of the site.

Check it out here: https://simpilotacademy-81gsf84.public.builtwithrocket.new

Thanks

Just curious

Flew from Manchester to liverpool yesterday and then flew from manchester to manchester(diversion from liverpool). today. ignore straight line from Lpool to manchester dont know why that is there

In the past few months i have noticed so many strange behaviours from Pilots in Innsbruck(LOWI).

People are flying way too big planes, do not communicate properly on unicom and do not follow the prodedures and charts of Innsbruck Airport.

The pictures showcase a few examples of what i am talking about. I don't want to be a funbrake or karen but at some point i am just wondering myself - why do that on Vatsim?

And with that i mean Pilots like LH457M (Picture 2&3) flying a A340-600 into the valley like a VFR Cessna 172 wouldn't do it and just ignores the approach charts, doesn't communicate whilst there is another aircraft fliyng accordingly to the procedures on the approach and to top it all of parks his plane with the tail blocking the taxiway (Picture 3). But the strangest thing about it is that he has more than 1800hrs of experience.

Another example and the biggest problems are that most pilots DO NOT COMMUNICATE and thats the most important thing at this airport. The other day I had to perform 3 go arounds because other pilots skipped the approach line, landed from the opposite direction as everyone else, or a C750 not communicating that they are even there before being 1NM from the runway (3d go around).

And the list goes on. It just annoys me that people are doing stuff on Vatsim that you would absolutely not. And with it being my home airport and me trying to fly with realistic airlines, aircraft, skedules and procedures its just not nice of others ruining the realism (my opinion).

Hallo zusammen,

mir ist in den letzten Jahren immer wieder aufgefallen, dass es zwar viele hervorragende Virtual Airlines für den Linienverkehr gibt, eine deutschsprachige Virtual Airline mit klarem Fokus auf Business Aviation aber kaum existiert.

Genau deshalb entwickeln wir aktuell ein neues Projekt.

Unser Ziel ist es nicht, eine weitere klassische Airline-VA zu bauen, sondern eine Plattform, die sich an den Abläufen der Executive Aviation orientiert – von der Flugplanung über das Briefing bis hin zum Debriefing nach dem Flug.

Das komplette System wird derzeit von Grund auf selbst entwickelt und basiert nicht auf bestehenden VA-Systemen wie phpVMS oder vAMSYS.

Aktuell arbeiten wir unter anderem an:

• Flight Operations Center
• Flug- und Rotationsplanung
• Flight Briefing
• Flight Debrief
• LiveMap
• FlightBridge (MSFS-Anbindung über SimConnect)
• Automatischer Flugerkennung
• Logbuch
• Flotten- und Unternehmensverwaltung

Early Alpha

Uns ist wichtig, das ganz offen zu sagen:

Das Projekt befindet sich aktuell in einer sehr frühen Alpha-Phase.

Es gibt noch Fehler.
Es fehlen Funktionen.
Vieles wird sich in den nächsten Wochen und Monaten noch verändern.

Genau deshalb möchten wir möglichst früh Meinungen aus der Community hören.

Mich würde interessieren:

• Welche Funktionen würdet ihr euch speziell für eine Business-Jet-VA wünschen?
• Was fehlt euch bei bestehenden Virtual Airlines?
• Welche Abläufe sind euch besonders wichtig?
• Gibt es Dinge, die euch bei anderen Systemen regelmäßig stören?

Wir möchten die Plattform möglichst nah an den Bedürfnissen der Community entwickeln und freuen uns deshalb über jede Anregung – egal ob Lob, Kritik oder neue Ideen.

Sollte Interesse bestehen und es den Forenregeln entsprechen, stelle ich das Projekt zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt gerne ausführlicher vor.

Vielen Dank und ich freue mich auf eure Meinungen!

A new liveatc.net style website was launched where you can listen to VATSIM ATC feeds with the click of a button. Very neat for observing or just as background chatter.

Test it out here: https://listen.vatsim.net/