I'm going to play devil's advocate and share my 2 cents.

The last time I connected to VATSIM was on January 9th, 2021. I have since "retired" due to burnout and what I'm about to explain. To put it simple: This hobby was starting to feel like a minimum wage job.

The network has been going more into this whole "realism" direction especially the last few years. I miss the days where I could actually have fun controlling and helping pilots out when they had no idea what they were doing. It seems we reached the point where we try to hold controllers to the highest standard possible, but of course pilots aren't, and I think we are trying to be too realistic to the point where we are making it so new pilots have to go through some kind of test to satisfy our realism needs. I know the argument will be made where "I have fun doing things ultra realistic" and such, but I'll say in m opinion it's at the point where I'm not having fun because of it. There needs to be more of a focus on actually helping the pilots at the time they need it instead of just going straight to "oh lets just put them through the same training us controllers go through" which to me when I left was getting insane too. (I couldn't stand sweatbox sessions where they give you 50 something planes at once while if you controlled on a random afternoon you got 15ish)

Another thing too is if we're going to force pilots to go through some kind of testing to satisfy these realism needs, we should enforce live weather, and current time while we're at it. Nothing stopping me from spawning in at a controlled field with LIFR conditions, 100KT wind and an altimeter of 2980. Nothing stopping me using scenery that would be accurate as of 1980.

It is these frustrations with they way the network has gone towards to make me forget controlling, the pilots were not the issue, it was the this mindset that made it not fun.

I check back in another couple months.

Hello VATUSA community. One thing I have noticed throughout VATUSA is controller remarks along the lines of "Services limited due to realistic vERAM Simulation." As a FE, I was wondering what services were being limited based of using vERAM.

VATSIM COC requires that pilot's not squawk standby.

COC A.B.4 - "Except while on the ground prior to making initial contact with ATC or upon request of ATC, a pilot should not squawk standby. A pilot should not squawk standby while flying to his destination, even when there is no appropriate Enroute air traffic control available."

I dont normally chime in on these posts but I will this time.

I have been part of VATSIM for almost 2 years and have gained over 1400 hours as a controller. I don't have this many hours because it's a hobby, but is just something entertaining.

I can see the whole realsim arguement while also see the whole "video game" arguement. Like in most things, there is a middle. There are some realism things that are hard to emulate, such as runway/taxiway closures, weather, navigation data. And there are things that are hard to impliment in a video game, like no phraesology, lack of ratings, and such.

I get why people strive for realism, but what do you do if a pilot doesn't want to run real world weather? In that case, why do you close taxyways and runways for that matter? Is it because there are construction crews in the sim? If so that is an addon I never heard of. Navigation data is not a requirement, but recomendation on VATSIM. VATSIM is free and only requires a client and a simulator. That's it.

I do believe there should be a standard as a controller. I believe phraesology should be about 75 to 80 percent correct generally. There are some people who want to work just events or no events at all, which is why I believe very high training standards are not a great idea. It should take a year to get a C1, in my opinion.

Anyways, thats just my 2 and a half cents.

I can understand extra words in transmissions. But take your new VATSIM pilot who doesn't read much if any prior to logging on to the network, may not use charts, or has old navdata, and some people want them to be able to understand taxi instructions like "Runway 15L, taxi via NB NE WW." Sometimes long transmissions like "Runway 15L, turn left the first taxi way then proceed ahead to pass 8 taxiways then hold position."