Same!!! I kinda knew someone like that,flew with them once…I was a arrogant 13 year old and they really helped me
I do love vatsim. Nothing like arriving to London and have dozens of planes departing and arriving, with ATC endlessly dishing out instructions. Of course there is a price to pay: my flights are no longer my own to design, it completely depends on ATC coverage. Still my only gripe is that hardly any controller fills out the “expected logoff time” even though it would be a great help
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Vatsim is close to real thing as it can be in terms of communication/procedures. The biggest difference is coverage - Not every part is covered although I mostly fly in and around Europe/UK which majority of the time is covered (especially evenings). I also do like flying in US and Canada as their procedures differ from standard UK/EU side.
All controllers on Vatsim undergo rigorous training in order to be granted with their ATC ratings, So 99.9% of time everything is done by the book. As a controller with approach/radar rating myself I must say I also do enjoy controlling on network. Basic airmanship of some pilots are questionable although I do try to help them out provided my workload is light.
So far my actual experience with Vatsim has been good. As a new pilot I am intimidated by the busy areas but have done a little IFR and VFR now. At some point I just realized I can no longer fly in public mode due to griefers etc. This has forced me to learn more about procedures and radio calls. I enjoy planning my flights more and in general find it to be much more immersive.
That said it really depends on where you are flying. My home area is Vancouver Lower Mainland and we have some great coverage up here at times. Very friendly and helpful to new pilots. I keep a note in my account that I am new and still learning. As long as you are trying to fly the aircraft correctly and understand the basics of what you are doing I don’t think anyone will generally be upset with those of us trying to learn or expand our skillset.
Everyone learns at their own pace though and some controllers get burnt out and start to really get upset when we make mistakes. I try not to take it personal though and soldier on. Nice to see some GA planes out there on Vatsim but they seem few and far between most of the time.
I do think donators should get a badge on their profile though. I am thankful my account works and we have Vatsim. Thanks to all the controllers and pilots that try and help others too!
I think most folks on Vatsim take that a little too serious. The ATC Operators mostly.
It’s quite intimidating for a novice to go there and have a nice flight.
I know all about 'listen to real world ATC and all that". But I find that if you don’t have a very patient ATC Controller, you are not going to be welome there.
Its simple, Vatsim is a realstic place and mistakes at a busy event can ruin flows, not them being too serious…
I never said I was at a busy airport…
Blockquote I think most folks on Vatsim take that a little too serious. The ATC Operators mostly.
It’s quite intimidating for a novice to go there and have a nice flight.
I think it depends on how you plan to get started on Vatsim. If as a newbie your plan is to start at a busy event with a plane you are not very familiar then yes, you can feel the environment intimidating and the experience will be bad.
If you start with a plane you know by heart in an area where you have ATC control but is not very busy then you will have a great start.
Some simple tips:
Doing circuits is often not the best way to start as you need to know the pattern terminology.
My recommendation is to do a simple A to B flight with your fav plane in an area with not a lot of traffic and for example a center controlling so you will have full ATC and your mistakes won’t cause trouble to others.
And don’t forget to put “New Vatsim Pilot” in your flight plane remarks in Vpilot if you are new, that gives ATC the hint that you are learning and most controllers will be very happy to help.
I’ve done thousands of flights in Vatsim and is an awesome experience for anyone that really likes to get immersed in flight simming.
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But even then you gotta be on your A GAME, No slacking
I will never forget my first flight on vatsim circa the year 2000 (aka how not to introduce yourself on the vatsim network). It was a FEDEX A300. I took off from a field and had way too much power and was struggling to keep the nose down. It was like I was recreating a space shuttle launch. At some point I pressed a button and managed to switch off both engines accidentally (engine cut?). I went from a space shuttle at 30,000 feet to a lawn dart heading straight for the ground (I was having massive control issues!). Somehow I had managed to disable my controller on the climb as well as I had zero control. I could hear the controller complaining to me but I never got even as far as my first radio call as I was crashing. The airborne part of my flight lasted about 2 minutes! I think the controller thought I was some crazy playing around. He had no idea that I was ‘seriously’ trying to fly lol… 
It was almost as scary as my first real life radio call at a busy GA airfield with multiple planes in the circuit on multiple runways. I messed up my call and had to transmit twice. I must have taken too long as the reply from the tower was ‘break break… pelican reported in the vicinity of the airfield on down wind.’ One of the scariest thing I have ever heard. The thought of slamming into a bigass bird up there was pretty unsettling.
Nowadays I prefer a more leisurely experience with atclive.net as background chatter but Vatsim is awesome.
Try again maybe?
Love VATSIM. Only drawback is that everyone seems to be obsessed with flying the A320 or the 737. It’s always refreshing when you hear somebody in a Cessna doing circuits or something similar.
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True, although VATSIM focuses mostly on large international airfields and you won’t see many small GA planes around those.
- You’ll spend most you time in a VFR hold a few nm from the airfield while you let all the big guys through
- Each touch&go costs you 100-200$ just for touching the runway. You might get away with low passes, but see point 1.
At least that’s how it looks in my country. Others might be different.
I know there are events focusing on GA traffic, but those are the minority.
I hear you. I think Pilotedge is way better for GA flying.
My favourite plane to fly on VATSIM is the ATR. It’s an airliner so it fits on a big airport but its also quite slow which means you will stay in VATSIM coverage for your whole flight. Unless it’s a busy VATSIM evening you will have to plan a pretty short flight if you want to stay in VATSIM coverage and fly a 737 in my experience.
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Personally, I don’t really care about recreating realistic routes. To avoid the boring cruise phase, I’m perfectly happy with a 30 min city hop in a A320 or even 747 
Just to keep me busy.
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I have like 8,000 hours on VATSIM now and a few on PilotEdge (I recently bought the $329 annual package). 98% of the time I fly light GA aircraft under VFR. While PilotEdge seems a bit different than it was when I tried it over 10 years ago I do still prefer using VATSIM for now.
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Don’t you get the impression you’re just bothering the controllers when flying GA? It’s a lot of work for them.
Not at all. It’s a break from the meta and many controllers appreciate it. They’ve even messaged me saying thanks for being different. What bothers controllers are incompetent pilots. I’ve flown into and out of many events in very slow aircraft and the controller doesn’t mind. Heck one time I took a Piper Cub into an event at Atlanta.
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We at thepilotclub.org do a weekly GA VFR flight on VATSIM Tuesdays 2000EDT (1700PDT).
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I mostly fly business jets and use whatever airport has ATC. Never once had any controller problems fitting me in.