Is Scheduling ATC/Pilot time possible?

[rhodges 6]

Surely someone much smarter than I has already considered this and found it to be prohibitive for some reason, but I thought I would ask anyway.The two most frustrating things that happen in VatSim to me are first, to originate a flight plan and by the time I can connect, all departure airport ATC is gone. Even more frustrating is to fly for some time and just about the time I am entering the control space of my destination, all ATC there disconnects. To avoid the former, being that I am flying almost exclusively SimFlyer locations, I am preparing a catalog of flightplans to and from each of these airports so that minimum time is required to instigate such. If and when I complete this (Does take some time), I would be happy to share it if anybody is interested. Unfortunately, there is no way to speed things up in this way for destination points as the time frame is at the mercy of the length of the flight. Some of the time I gamble on how long the destination ATC has been online. At other times, I take a guess as to who may be online by the time I get there. (Bet some of the rest of you do the same thing)(ATC controllers, I realize the same thing is true in reverse. It must equally frustrate you to hang in there for two hours and then your expected flights seem to get eaten by an alien or something after you have been gracious enough to stay online for the reception of those pilots.)Is it reasonable and possible that some type of sheduling forum or other provision could be developed where ATC controllers and/or pilots for that matter could be able to post when they hoped to be on line, and possibly how long? Nothing in concrete, but at least when we thought we might be making ourselves available on VatSim. Such a presentation sure would have an impact on where I personally would file to and from in my flight plans. I'll bet if we pilots could do the same thing, it might have an impact on when controllers were available as well. For example, if I saw that ATC at KORD might be available at 1600Zand KMCO had planned to be online at 1800, it would be perfect for planning a flight from KORD to KMCO. An added plus would be that there would probably be more traffic involved between these points in such a situation (assuming pilots and controllers desire such).Just a suggestion for whatever it might be worth. What do you think, and don't make fun of an old retired CFI from long ago?Happy flying;RTH

[jc_150 3]

Hi RTHI posted a similar post to yours in January called "Duty times for controllers", and had a responsive reply from Martin. This relates to Europe and explains the controller booking system here. I don't know what part of the world you are in and if similar occurs there, but in Europe there is a very adequate controller booking system, which shows controllers booked for the week ahead and even I can get a flight plan together in that time lol. Think we should encourage controllers that we talk to online to use it and enhance the overall experiance. Hope this helpsJohn Calleja

[rhodges 6]

Good morning John, or probably afternoon at your location:I am located in West Virginia, USA. I am finding that there are some provisions already in service for scheduled booking for Pilots and/or Controllers. I looked at your EUROBOOK and see that Europe is somewhat like we across the pond in that some areas have booking provisions and some do not. Hopefully all VatSim websites will implement this service soon. Unfortunately, it appears that not many of us are taking advantage of these provisions where they are available. (Pilots and Controllers alike). Could be that many like myself were just ignorant relative to their availability. As an increasing number of us become more involved, hopefully that will change.Thanks for your information. Have a good dayRTH