Yes, that's the thinking. When we do have 10-15 pilots online at a time, it's to everyone's benefit that they're within the same area, generating radio congestion.

 

That number will increase over time as we finally have some larger commercial organizations getting started with us in the relatively near future.

I took a good look today and I have to say that I thought the coverage area was pretty good. (But I'm probably biased...I fly almost exclusively SoCal for scenery reasons...so much to see!) In terms of ATC fun and activities, the SoCal area is dense with airports and there's a fair amount you can do at and between them. There are at least 7 major airports and lots of medium and small ones. There are TEC routes, VFR routes and scads of documentation over at ZLA. Also, beaches, islands mountains, valleys, cities. I just wish I had good scenery all the way up to Ventura Highway and Santa Barbara. Because of when I fly I rarely find any controllers on Vatsim so I'm probably going to end up joining (I live on the East Coast).

The best controlling (on VATSIM) I've ever done was at VNY. 6 or 7 planes all in the delta and all VFR, it was awesome.

Haha sorta random post^

 

I like the idea of the pilot edge for the hours of operation and the realistic procedures you actually have to change frequencies instead of staying on one for the entire flight. They also have realistic ai so even if there are only a few pilots the airspace is not empty.

 

Regards;

 

Fritz

I enjoy it because workload can get very high quickly. Especially with all the neat little TEC routes when flying my lancair I've never really experienced high pilot workload on vatsim (maybe twice over the years). Like you said, it's probably because you're on one freq most of the time... even during approaches you'll only go from center to approach, to tower and MAYBE ground on vatsim. Nothing against vatsim... it's what I did for many years until PE arrived (thank goodness!).

Vatpac is hosting their famous "panic stations", their first for this year, and it is Sydney! The event starts at 09:30 Zulu on 20th January.

 

Visit http://www.vatpac.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=894%3Apanic-stations-sydney-20-january-2013&catid=79%3Apanic-stations-flow&Itemid=174 if you wish to experience heavy traffic, holding, etc. as the name suggests, it truly is "panic stations".

That would make me panic... I've got no charts for AU and never flown there on vatsim

Easy Ryan, go to vatpac and in the menu select "pilot assist", enter the city pair going to Sydney and you are given the real world route plus links to real charts from the Air Services Australia website, everything at your fingertips.