Hi,

 

I am wondering why there are no regularly online event days in the US? In Europe there are plenty of daily events and they're genuinely reliable and often online in contrast to the colleges in the.US. Why is that? Is there too less interest in controlling or is there just no time?

Because all ATCs on VATSIM are volunteers and nobody could guarantee that a certain position will be on in a certain period of time.

 

 

Because all ATCs on VATSIM are volunteers and nobody could guarantee that a certain position will be on in a certain period of time.

 

Then why does VATSIM Europe have so many events ?

The controllers there are all volunteers as well.

Then why does VATSIM Europe have so many events ?

The controllers there are all volunteers as well.

 Because they are just lucky to have people who agree to take on regular "shifts".

 

 

Because they are just lucky to have people who agrees to take on regular "shifts".

 

It is extremely difficult not to notice how much stronger ATC is in Europe and I do fly there more and more.  The coverage on IVAO is even stronger.  I think it may be just that flight sim is bigger there...perhaps people from all over the world sim there.  It also has quite a few more developed airports.  Maybe, with all the flyers there, ATC is just more interesting to do. 

I find in Europe aviation is much more popular than in the US. Than everyone wants to control busy airspaces like ZNY ZMA ZDC and others. As you go into the heartland the more unreliable it gets. You also find that in the US there are not many soon to become controllers and pilots using FS as a training tool. Europe also being a much smaller demographic you find that more controllers fall into the one of the ARTCC that are pretty tight together in the US you have a majority of ARTCC all over the country that you then need more people to properly schedule.

Agreed,

 

In the US most people want to control in airspaces at either West or East coasts but very few want to work in the mid-US. That's why every time I flew from LAX to JFK in the weekends soon after taking off from LAX ATC service is gone.

 

EU is a much better place to fly in.

 

Also, the chance to encounter a bad or arrogant ATC is much higher in the US than in EU.

Agreed,

 

In the US most people want to control in airspaces at either West or East coasts but very few want to work in the mid-US. That's why every time I flew from LAX to JFK in the weekends soon after taking off from LAX ATC service is gone.

 

EU is a much better place to fly in.

 

Also, the chance to encounter a bad or arrogant ATC is much higher in the US than in EU.

 

I would say most of the above comments aren't true. 

 

For example in NA there is a lot more coverage by Center controllers which covers far greater distance and number of airports while in Europe there is more coverage based on cities covering TWR and APP and very rare coverage above FL240. 

 

Check the VATUSA calendar there are regular events.   Not to mention the events VAs hold. 

 

The bad or arrogant controller?  Obviously you haven't flown in the busy London airspace.   I've heard more pilots getting cheeky comments from controllers there than anywhere.  And the pilots deserved the comments because they weren't replying or didn't know the "Euro" way of instructions. 

 

Yes on a nightly basis you'll have the staples of NYC, LAX, SFO, SEA, BOS, etc but you also have a good number of controllers on regularly at places like HOU, MEM, ORD, DEN, ATL. 

 

I love flying in Europe but I find i'm wayyyy more nervous flying there than in the US.  NA controllers are usually not super busy and have time to work with pilots who are having difficulty.  Unless its an event then you can understand the frustration of someone declaring an emergency or not understanding an instruction when their scope is full. 

 

Also the US work schedule is a tad more ridiculous than in Euro.  More laid back, more off time.  Tough for a NA controller to work 9 hours come home and then control for 4 hours.  I know a lot of Euro controllers are young like 17-24.  In the US the controllers are in their late 20's and older. 

Also, based the experience I had,  I think it's pretty intimidating for a new person who wants to be a controller   In the two sessions that I had before I bailed, I felt that I was chugging instead of sipping from the bottle.

 

It was extremely frustrating and demoralizing.