Without audio and text visibility it's impossible to tell what the root cause of the problem was and we don't have the pilot's side of the story either. I'm only going on 9.5 years and about 5,000 hours on the Vatsim network (worldwide) and my perception is that it's a tiny minority who cause issues (of whatever type), it's not always of their doing yet they get the blame anyway. It isn't just pilots with badly tuned mic's, low skill levels and abysmal communication abilities.

I've also been on VATSIM for more than ten years and I've gotten my fair share of being shouted at by controllers that I don't respond to their radio calls. Almost every time the thruth is I've never heard a single word from them since the voice servers have been acting up. Not to mention controllers using the wrong callsign!

I've also been on VATSIM for more than ten years and I've gotten my fair share of being shouted at by controllers that I don't respond to their radio calls. Almost every time the thruth is I've never heard a single word from them since the voice servers have been acting up. Not to mention controllers using the wrong callsign!

 

I've been pinged by a SUP twice, one time I accidentally fell asleep and flew through a Canadian ctr airspace and one other time I disregarded a contact me DURING A TAKEOFF ROLL from ORD tower, both times they left me alone after a quick statement. 

Without audio and text visibility it's impossible to tell what the root cause of the problem was and we don't have the pilot's side of the story either. I'm only going on 9.5 years and about 5,000 hours on the Vatsim network (worldwide) and my perception is that it's a tiny minority who cause issues (of whatever type), it's not always of their doing yet they get the blame anyway. It isn't just pilots with badly tuned mic's, low skill levels and abysmal communication abilities.

 

Well, given that it's a timelapse, audio would be quite difficult.  Based on that scatter, though, I'm really not sure what else you can deduce from it.  The fact that there was no CA during all of that shows you that I had my bases covered and didn't issue the instructions to avoid a collision.  As such, that was all resequencing.

 

Looking at the rest of the video, you can very easily see that I was putting people where they needed to be for the approaches (mixed ILS and VIS if people requested/reported).  Add to that the fact that it's literally impossible for us to run an event into DCA when we're in south ops because a good number of times I'll give someone their final pre-approach descent with "descend and maintain 4000, report the river in sight," and get something to the effect of "will report the field in sight."  I then restate it with more explicit direction in "report the Potomac River in sight," and usually still get "right, will report the field in sight," and occasionally some question as to why I'm asking them to do that when the field is behind them.

 

Never mind the fact that the River Visual Runway 19 approach is stated in the ATIS (that I get a reported code for about 10% of the time - when I'm feeder anyway), the first approach controller told them if they didn't report the ATIS, and it's a free chart online.  "Golly, I guess I should've looked at the charts" never seems to have crossed most of their minds.

 

To add insult to injury, you can't autoland on it, so the number of go arounds is ridiculous.  Granted, it's a tough approach.  I get that, but during a busy event is not the time to try and learn it.

 

 

 

...in any case, it doesn't matter if you want to be an apologist, or you demand more of the pilot group, my main point was that controlling on VATSIM affords less time to do other normal controller tasks.  You have to spend a ton of time continuously monitoring these guys because they have a proven record of needing the extra attention.

 

 

Please don't generalise like that. It is very small minority of pilots on Vatsim who cause problems but your post suggests it is the majority. It isn't.

 

Can't speak for all controllers, but I am one at CZYZ FIR and the majority I get are text only people who can't follow instructions, or voice people who also can't follow instructions.  I'm with Kyle.