27 minutes ago, Fiorentoni said:

Sure, because that‘s what he said: „Let‘s exclude all deaf people, let‘s prohibit the use of text messages by law!“

Also by implying that all people can read deaf’s people text messages on VATSIM, you are excluding visually impaired or blind people. I‘m sure text only is a ‚terrrible experience‘ for those folks. I‘d prefer not to exclude folks because of disability. Wouldn‘t you?

As one way does not suit all abilities you have to permit and use several if you are to minimise discrimination.  Text to speech enables people with visual disabilities to access the information from text and most people with visual problems are set up to handle this.

21 hours ago, Langeveldt said:

IRL pilot here, a bit scared to touch VATSIM, more from the technical side, having a technical fault, a disconnect, and accidentally spawning somewhere I shouldn't.  Plus the idea of it only really being pointful where there are people controlling, and then they log off, puts me off a bit.

That's exactly why over on the VATSIM forums, I am proposing a centralised ATC booking system every year or so.
https://statsim.net/atc/ is a good source to know when european ATC is online, but unfortunately I haven't found something similar for Asia, Australia, Africa and the Americas 😞

14 minutes ago, harrry said:

As one way does not suit all abilities you have to permit and use several if you are to minimise discrimination.  Text to speech enables people with visual disabilities to access the information from text and most people with visual problems are set up to handle this.

Fair point. Still the OP did not say text messages should be banned, but rather that people should - if physically possible - use voice communication, because they make things easier for a lot of people.

10 hours ago, Bob Scott said:

The trick for catching an IFR clearance and reading it back is to know beforehand what to expect.  The clearance should come to you in the "CRAFT" format:

Clearance to XXXX
Route: as filed or ____________  R/V  SID/Trans ______.______
Altitude: initial____ expect XXX after 10 minutes
Frequency for departure control
Transponder squawk

When I get ready to call for a clearance, I have CRAFT laid out vertically as I did above on my kneeboard, and I will pre-fill the parts I already expect, like where I'm going, the route I filed/expect, and the altitude I filed, and then all I do is fill in the blanks or note changes as the controller reads the clearance.  Then I read it back in the same CRAFT format.

Practicing radio conversation offline with someone who's proficient helps a lot too.

Wow, that brings back memories for me. When I first started training for my PPL it was at Tucson Intl airport, so I had to learn a lot about radio comms right from the start compared to flying out of a small airport or one with only a Unicom.
 

My instructor gave me a prefilled sheet kind of like what you mentioned, albeit for VFR. It had a prefilled section for atis, clearance, ground, tower, etc. All I had to do is read off what my intentions were and fill in the blanks for read back. It was a great training tool which after 4 or 5 flights, I didn’t even need to use anymore. From that point on all I needed was a pen and my knee board to jot stuff down on.

On 5/28/2022 at 12:03 PM, SAS443 said:

VATSIM allows it. You don't like it, take it up with them. I don't fly in VR and have no problems with fellow text-only players.

Fly on pilots edge if you want to avoid text-players. 

Fly with aig if you are to shy to talk. What a stupid comment 

1 minute ago, DaWu said:

Fly with aig if you are to shy to talk. What a stupid comment 

He's right.  He doesn't have to use AIG. he can use VATSIM.  with text.  You aren't their bouncer.

On 5/29/2022 at 3:50 AM, cmpbellsjc said:

Wow, that brings back memories for me. When I first started training for my PPL it was at Tucson Intl airport, so I had to learn a lot about radio comms right from the start compared to flying out of a small airport or one with only a Unicom.
 

My instructor gave me a prefilled sheet kind of like what you mentioned, albeit for VFR. It had a prefilled section for atis, clearance, ground, tower, etc. All I had to do is read off what my intentions were and fill in the blanks for read back. It was a great training tool which after 4 or 5 flights, I didn’t even need to use anymore. From that point on all I needed was a pen and my knee board to jot stuff down on.

I was a student pilot in the South Florida , with one of the busiest air traffic areas in the world. I bought a $40 radio that got the aircraft band, and listened to KFLL Tower , for a couple of weeks. ON my first solo at KFLL, after 13 hours of dual, I was pretty comfortable talking to ATC. Just requires some study. 

23 minutes ago, DaWu said:

Fly with aig if you are to shy to talk. What a stupid comment 

I'm language proficiency 6/6 on my pilot radio operator certificate in both relevant languages within the FIR. I'm good.

 Oh, and I Still sport the "new on Vatsim please use text"-tag just to annoy VR "pilots" like you.

Edited May 30, 20224 yr by SAS443

5 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

I was a student pilot in the South Florida , with one of the busiest air traffic areas in the world. I bought a $40 radio that got the aircraft band, and listened to KFLL Tower , for a couple of weeks. ON my first solo at KFLL, after 13 hours of dual, I was pretty comfortable talking to ATC. Just requires some study. 

Not a bad idea, but hadn’t thought of it at the time. Back then, this was the late 80’s, I didn’t know about radios in that price range that would pick up ATC.

If I was new to it these days, I’d log on to LiveATC.net and listen for hours to get used to the lingo, verbiage and speed. After a while you get used to it and have a good idea of what they’re saying it going to say, as well as what the pilots are saying.

Speaking of which, learning to fly in a busy are like we did, really paid dividends by kind of being thrown into a really busy environment right at the start. When I had to do my long solo cross country flights, flying into busy airspace was a breeze as far as ATC comms went.