I get the feeling that the VATSIM crowd would not appreciate me sticking to 250 knots @ 6000 feet during the cruise, and then slowing down nice and early (and at my own discretion) during the final approach 

2 hours ago, lambourne said:

I tend to avoid London / southern UK because the VATSIM controllers there have a longstanding habit of trying to control far too many aircraft at once so you can't get a word in edgeways. They open up centres covering multiple busy airports with no ground or tower coverage, resulting in 20+ pilots fighting for radio airtime. I assume it's something they do to show off to each other but it makes the whole experience so much worse.

Odd take. Having flown in these areas on VATSIM, 99% of the time its flight simmers not having a clue what they’re doing taking up the frequency time. Unsure of the last time you flew in South UK, but London Control is now split quite a bit and some only provide coverage above FLxxx.

54 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

I get the feeling that the VATSIM crowd would not appreciate me sticking to 250 knots @ 6000 feet during the cruise, and then slowing down nice and early (and at my own discretion) during the final approach 

Ask the controller and they’ll usually accommodate. Just don’t have any peculiar requests at a busy event. 

2 hours ago, MikeV1 said:

Odd take. Having flown in these areas on VATSIM, 99% of the time its flight simmers not having a clue what they’re doing taking up the frequency time. Unsure of the last time you flew in South UK, but London Control is now split quite a bit and some only provide coverage above FLxxx.

agreed. its normally new pilots that cannot follow instructions , land on the wrong runways or cannot speak/understand english well enough which causes the controllers to disconnect in pure frustration.

you need to be able to read back instructions and follow them quickly to fly in London airspace at busy times.  Ive banged on about a specific learner server for years to combat this issue, it would help everyone in the long term

Vatsim is ridiculously good.  Flying out of a busy airport with controller positions well-staffed is... Well, I can't believe that good of an approximation exists on home computers.  I was flabbergasted the first time I had that experience on the network. 

The problem of course is that airports aren't always staffed (especially if you fly at odd hours).  I find I prefer a sim flight on Vatsim even if it's uncontrolled though, rather than the programs that can't perform the basics like vectoring correctly.  I'd rather self-vector and negotiate traffic deconfliction with other real people on a ctaf freq than wait for the ATC program to screw it up yet again.  

Can't recommend the network enough for IFR simming.  Even VFR at controlled airports is great.

On 3/3/2026 at 1:55 AM, Dave_YVR said:

 Vatsim will be a night and day difference and improvement. There is simply no comparison except in coverage. It all comes down to finding a route or pairing that has the coverage which for the most part isn't that difficult or rare.

Planning flights with a maximum of possible ATC coverage is fairly easy in europe as almost all FIRs use the VATSIM booking system.
You can find booked ATC sessions here: https://vatsim-radar.com/events or here: https://vatsim-radar.com/bookings or here: https://statsim.net/atc/?tables=true&tables=true
Unfortunately, UK ATC doesn't use the official booking system but their own calendar over here: https://cts.vatsim.uk/bookings/calendar.php

The lack of ATC bookings outside of Europe (I only see a few US east coast airports and rarely TNCM, VHHH, South Korea and Japan) on the booked ATC sessions) is the only reason why I don't fly long range and/or short range in other parts of the world outside of Europe. It just misses the point of flying online on VATSIM when there's a high risk of ending up alone on 122.8 upon arrival.
Would love to take A350s, and 757s around the world but I have absolutely 0 intention to buy an addon aircraft too big for smaller european airports as there's just no motivation to plan a LR flight, take the 10-12hr journey just to be completely alone at destination.

On 3/3/2026 at 1:54 PM, willy647 said:

Besides Vatsim, there is also IVAO, which I prefer. Both have their plusses ans minuses.

Fair hint, was going to point out to IVAO too.
I've been an IVAO member for my first online flying years but switched to VATSIM about 10 years ago.
What keeps me on VATSIM and not wanting to go back to IVAO is the fact that it feels like too many people are online on IVAO not to have contact to other humans, but rather just collect hours and badges and sht.
You don't get such things on VATSIM. On IVAO, I've seen people being online constantly and trying to get as many awards and badges as they possibly can.
Have seen pilots with 1000s of hours but were unable to fly a simple heading, maintain an altitude and ruining everyone elses experience.
Among ATCs, "world tour" pilots were feared and infamous because the majority of them were lacking those very basic skills.
When in the process of finding a new world tour by the WT department of IVAO, everyone hoped that no airport in your FIR got selected.
Even had ATC colleagues logging off prior a bunch of WT pilots entering your sector.

Some find that entertaining but it's just not my type of online flying and not my type of experience I want to get, therefore, VATSIM fits perfectly to my needs.

I will say though that IVAO has a great training program. Getting the respective certifications is well curated with training tours and the possibilities to do test runs for the actual checkrides.

I did my PPL and plan to do my CPL there as well in April when I have more time to fly. Vatsim has something similar but the problem is that it is build in live modules that require an actual teacher and a set date to attend the class. If you miss one it can take ages until the course if offered again. It took me almost 2 years until I all my modules together, and I could now do my exam, but I feel demotivated by the long process and fear that I have forgotten most of the stuff again.

At IVAO you can work at your own pace and learn all that stuff within days if you want to and then take the exam.

Used Vatsim in the old days (flying and controlling) but haven't looked into it since MSFS2020 came out...

11 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

I get the feeling that the VATSIM crowd would not appreciate me sticking to 250 knots @ 6000 feet during the cruise, and then slowing down nice and early (and at my own discretion) during the final approach 

My last flight the ATC told me to go left. I decided going right made more sense. I may get banned. 🤣

I used VATSIM and IVAO when I was younger. Now I am older and try to avoid things that are straining me too much. BATC is a comfortable and either immersing substitute for "living people" ATC.  The only con is that the BATC GUI is permanently flickering on my 4K Display. 

On 3/3/2026 at 8:27 PM, Matt Webb said:

 

Biggest problem I have in VATSIM is when controllers give 3+ commands all stringed together.  Even writing them down quick enough to read back is hard.

 

That’s very realistic 😂