What you guys all seem to be asking for -- discussion about communication, how to fly SIDs / STARs / Approaches, how to pilot a plane rather than program an FMC -- we have all of that on our site already. It's called the P4 rating. What we don't have is any compulsory reason anyone should take the P4. We could try to include it in the P1 course but why would we duplicate? Holding a P1 basically says you know (or have acknowledged, at least) how to connect to the network, that you aren't supposed to spawn on runways or taxiways, that you know how to figure out which controller you should be talking to, you have some idea how to handle it when your weather and/or scenery doesn't match everyone else's, and that you know you're not supposed to be chasing airliners with fighter jets. We can re-design our P1 to include the full gamut of IFR communication and procedure but then what purpose would the P4 serve?
What we lack -- and what has been discussed on this forum and VATSIM forums endlessly and without any change in status for at least eight years now -- is the ability to hold pilots accountable for any competency standards. What use is a P4 if no one takes it? Forget about VATSTAR -- look at the WORLDWIDE stats for the Pilot Training Division (http://ptd.vatsim.net/statistics). 387 pilots WORLDWIDE have a P4 rating. Even in the EXTREMELY optiistic hope that they are a subset of the 80,000 members who have been active in the last six months, that's less than half of one percent. If half of P4 holders are no longer active, then less than a QUARTER of a percent of active members have taken it.
Even for the P1, we're fighting a losing battle. PTD as a whole issued its 10,000th rating in February of 2017. We're now at 11,186. That's about 60 ratings per month. Based on the rate that new CID numbers are climbing, VATSIM gets around 2,500 new member registrations per month. That would mean less than three percent of new members enroll in a Pilot Rating. That assumes CID numbers are sequential; even if they're not, let's say the last digit is a checksum -- I have no idea. That's still 250 new registered members a month and 75% of them are not taking a Pilot Rating course.
We can do everything possible as far as outreach with our programs -- which as you all know, I passionately believe in, even if some of you think you could do it better. And if you can, then please, have at it -- I'm not in a competition. The more resources we have to improve pilot education on the network, the better -- and if someone comes up with better methods than ours, I'll certainly take note. But we are fighting a losing battle as long as it's completely voluntary. Until / unless VATSIM can come up with a plan to hold pilots accountable for a basic level of competency, this is what we will face at every FNO.
And I'm still a bit sour following the whole attempted vatstar "premium" subscription model, personally. The fact that those words are still on the site at all is potentially misleading to unknowing students.
For what it's worth, I agree with you. But at this point (seven months later), every reference to premium subscriptions SHOULD be gone off our website. If you see any I'm not seeing, by all means, email me screenshots, as I am as anxious as you to put that escapade behind us.
Robert,
I can tell you have the enthusiasm and dedication to help out pilots as a whole on the network, not that many people hold that trait so thank you in advance.
Unless something drastically changes up top in VATSIM where they require every new member to go through a P1 course, the voluntary participation will most likely be the same. So it got me thinking what can we do to get people interested in taking the course and bringing the numbers up?
I was browsing around your website and I saw this:
It looks like you have to go through P1, P2, P3 and so forth in that order right? I was looking around VATSIMs PTD website and see no mention of having to get their pilot ratings in that particular order. Why not allow students to pick what course suits them best? Some people come to VATSIM and only want to fly airliners, well then the IMHO P4 and P5 cater much more towards that realm. If I was a pilot who loved to fly VFR with the occasional IFR in my prop, then P2-P4 might be what I want. I know the pilot ratings were meant to be a little vague in what they cover because at the end of the day we do not know what a pilot is going to fly.
Also what I think would be cool to see is aircraft specific courses to some of the most popular add-ons available. This could have even a better benefit. Single pilot, in a airliner, using advanced RNAV procedures while trying to deal with ATC is no easy task. If there were courses available that taught how to fly a PMDG 737 into a FNO as a example the pilot probably would have a lot more time to focus on ATC and his charts while flying the airplane. I think pilots would get a kick out of flying around and showing off that they have a VATSIM officially issued B737 Type Rating.
Just some thoughts to think about!
Edit: Grammar
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