Nice job, man.  Enjoy it.   

Quote from: Rick Rump on March 10, 2017, 07:49:58 AM

I actually did a little experiment the other night. I only sent contact me requests to immediately necessary (landing in or nearby), so overflights were the target here.
In 90 minutes I only had 1 out of 4 contact me on their own volition. Low sample size but the lack of people paying attention when on a long flight is one issue.
Add to that when I do send s contact me, I get a PM 20% of the time saying "roger" or "ok" -- yet the contact me says do not respond via PM.  Reading comprehension :/

That rate get's even worse when you work "overflight, USA" (ZMP being one of them). There have been days in the past were I will plug in for 3 hours, a literally only talk to 4 airplanes. Those 4 airplanes are the only ones that called me on their own, the rest flew right across the sky without talking.

Exactly right...  Try working Alaska!  I've had guys go the full 500 miles across, give or take a few miles, that don't even think to call me, until I send them a request.

While it is officially our responsibility to send contact requests, I feel like I send quite a few too many, and some pilot participation in keeping the airspace running as intended would be much appreciated.

Just my humble take on things. 

So I have a question? If vatsim is made to make flight sim more realistic. Why is Push and Start at pilots own discretion in the USA. I am a pilot in real life and this has always been a question of mine. Now I know this is probably so that ground controllers are not overloaded but here is my proposal. What if a ramp control position was made. This would be a position that only had discretion of aircraft requesting push and start and would require less training than ground. Idk just an idea but would love to see it happen one day!

All of the above are very correct...  On busy days (especially events), many airports do operate using either a 'Ground Metering' controller, or some kind of controller that covers the ramps, and pushbacks.  For example, if you take a look at PANC (Ted Stevens Anchorage Intl. Airport), you see taxiway K is right off the A ramps, so people push right onto an active taxiway.  Therefore, ground sometimes controls pushing back aircraft to prevent issues there.

I always knew you were destined for greatness...  Congratulations, and the best of luck to you, Freddie.

Nice!  Thanks Daniel!

Hi there!

Great post.  I'll definitely be sending it over to many of my S1 "trainee" friends. 

You did reference that you're working in New York.  Many airports, specifically in New York, have climbs as part of their departures...  As I haven't used them many times, I can't generate a "teaching" reply, however I will remind those reading that these climbs do exist, and should generally be included in a clearance, if at all possible. 

Just my note.  Thanks!