I recently visited the new Udvar-Hazy Air and Space museum near Dulles airport at Washington, DC. At the museum they have a simulated ATC demonstration loop depicting the screen of a controller bringing aircraft into KEWR, and the audio communications between the controller and the pilots. Everything was as MSFS had led me to expect, except for one thing: The controller and the pilots all spoke like that speed-speaker guy who once appeared on FedEx TV commercials (i.e., very, very rapidly -- as if radio time cost a million dollars a minute or something).You folks who are RW pilots probably already are aware of this, and while flying FS9, I've often had it in the back of my mind that RW ATC probably doesn't take as much time to get the message across as FS9 ATC does, considering the volume of traffic that must be handled at a major airport. And it's clear, too, that if FS9 used the rapid-fire style illustrated in the Udvar-Hazy demo, none of us inexperienced virtual pilots would ever be able to make sense of it.Even so, it surprised me just how fast the instructions were blurted out and repeated. In particular, the instruction to "turn right to heading ____, descend to ______, intercept localizer for runway _____, contact tower on _______" went by so fast (about 2-3 seconds for the entire instruction) that I could only ever catch one of the numbers.For those of you who fly/control with VATSIM, do you take your time like FS9, or try to emulate the machine gun speed like what I heard at the museum, or something in between? And is RW ATC also like this at less-busy airports?

Check out www.atcmonitor.com for a real-time audio feed (well 5 minute delay).Enjoy!

It is not always that bad....but....Reminds me of a story of a Louisiana pilot who was flying in the busy New York airspace.The controllers gave a rapid fire clearance to him-in his best southern drawl he said back "y'all hear how fast I can talk"?The annoyed controller responded back "yes". The pilot then said-"well that's about how fast I (ahh) can write-did y'all just say anything real important?"The controller came back in a normal pace.... :-)Geofa

When released EditVoicepack 3.1 will be able to accelerate the voices without any significent loss of quality - and more importently without making it sound like Donald Duck controlling the tower.It does indeed give a significent improvements in ATC's ability to handle heavy traffic, and it makes it easier to communicate with ATC as there will be longer breaks in the ATC communication.

Hello All,As a real world pilot who has listened to ATC in many different lands, (now that could be a great article if I put my mind to it), I have to admit, sometimes, the jargon, dialect and speed just does in the message. Just like pilots also like to 'modify' their responses from the norm, ATC sometimes either comes across garbled, too fast, or as just plain noise.Many pilots when starting out find it difficult to ask a second time, as perhaps it may seem they weren't listening, don't understand the jargon or perhaps might look stupid. Not a good thing to do.Even with the hours I have accumulated, I will reply, Say again, please, and a few times have HAD to repeat it more than a few times.In my opinion its lots more important to 'get' the message, than to look stupid or inept . . . of course, the ultimate stupid is a mid air or a incident. I was always told that I would 'get it' in time. And I did, to a degree, but some of these whiz kid controllers who rattle it off like a Thompson sub machine gun, get asked a few more times . . to "Say it again Sam" Oh, and some pilots are just as bad . . . it seems there is a small war going on at times on who can speak faster, and more non-intelligentable than the next guy.Saying all that, I have to point out that I have the higest respect for ATC people, because they have a multi level, stress-filled job which hold great responsibility if they make a single mistake. I have one friend who came close to really loosing it while working Chicago Center after a 'deal' which fortunately did not end up in loss of life, but just 'came close'. Mike, my friend, who really has ice water in his blood, almost gave up his future in ATC because of the responsibility of 'all those unknowing folks in the air'.A good air traffic controller saves lives every single day he is working . . . quite a responsibility.BestClay

FS ATC is kind of slow speaking, but the loop you heard sounds like it's a busy day. If they have a lot of traffic and little time, they'll go of like the old Micromachines comercial guy from the early 90s. Here in Spokane, they're pretty lax and talk at a some what normal pace. If it's really slow, like 1pm-4pm at Spokane International, sometimes chatter starts getting transmitted (i.e. "So, is Frontier flying into Spokane now? And why are they using Horizon as their callsign?")The big problem with that quick speed is the tendancy for things to be misheard or to miss parts of it bringing you to say, "Say again," and now you tie up the line. But this is also why they don't ussually like non professional airline pilots in busy airspace.----------------------------------------------------------------John S. MorganReal World: KGEG, UND Aerospace Spokane Satillite, Private 130+ hrs.Virtual: MSFS 2004"There is a feeling about an airport that no other piece of ground can have. No matter what the name of the country on whose land it lies, an airport is a place you can see and touch that leads to a reality that can only be thought and felt." - The Bridge Across Forever: A Love Story by Richard Bach

"For those of you who fly/control with VATSIM, do you takeyour time like FS9, or try to emulate the machine gun speedlike what I heard at the museum, or something in between? And is RW ATC also like this at less-busy airports?"I personally have very seldom, if ever, heard "speedy" transmissions like that on Vatsim. Given the fact that there is a mixture of experience ranging from newbies to people that probably have thousands of hours flying/controlling on-line there is no real need for a controller to have that sort of tempo. Having said that, I can imagine that hectic situations, such as fly-ins, where ATC not only need to talk to pilots but also type to other pilots and coordinate with other controllers can lead to high stress-levels and resulting speed-talk. From your question I

<....not only need to talk to pilots but also type to other pilots....>It's really unbelievable that in modern times during on-line flying ATC messages must still be typed. Why not stick to audio only? No unrealistic typers anymore.Paddy.

Because you have to know how to do ATC. Most people don't have a licence or haven't got the knownledge to do ATC correctly. By the way FS ATC also uses terms that don't exsist in real world. It's slow and robotic, in real world for sure there are people speaking way to fast but mostly you know which information you have to expect and listen very specificly for that information. If everyone could just start to speak away without knowing the rules and the correct terms it would most probably end in a huge chaos. As a rw pilot it can be real anti-training because all the faulty messages you have to deal with.cheers,:-beerchugClaudio

OK, Claudio. Considering this viewpoint, I can agree with you.Paddy.

I had a related experience lately. Was returning back from a flight oop north (as we say in the UK). Got a FIS from Coventry and the lady sounded like she was chairing a cattle auction! I managed to make out "centre line" and "2500 feet". First of all I did the usual trick of claiming "Say again, readability three". This didn't wash with this controller, she drew a melencholy breath that read "bloody amatures". Anyway after a couple of attempts I managed to get that I was crossing the extended centre line of R25 and that a Lear was inbound at 2500', request that I maintain 3000'. I think she was glad to pass me on a few miles later...lol.

Real world experiences vary greatly. Keep in mind that you were listening to a loop of transmissions from a busy commerical airport servicing mostly professional airline pilots. After you get used to it you begin to anticipate what the controller will say and simply pick out the relevant data such as altitudes and headings. So in your case you had two groups of highly trained people speaking and responding to each using a limited set of expected phrases.For a pilot in training it's another story as you're not used to the phrases nor when to expect them. When I got my ticket I used a software product called Comm1 to practice the most common radio calls a VFR pilot would encounter. I also had the benefit of training at controlled field so I *had* to communicate with ATC just to leave the parking area. Since there was a lot of training going on the controllers were used to student pilots and would, under most circumstances, slow down their speech or give more verbous instructions. In fact if you ever feel overwhelmed in the real world just tell the controller you're a student--even if you're not!A lot of people who train in more remote areas rarely visit a controlled field (although you must a few times to get your ticket in the US). If you listen on the radio you can often tell who they are. Training under ATC control was the best thing I did to overcome any jitters.If you're really interest (and live in the US) I'd recommend picking up an air-band scanner at Radio Shack (about $150) and just listening to whatever active frequencies are nearby. You never know when you'll hear a real gem. ;)