Hey y'all,
Big thing I wanted to address that I've seen recently is many people misinterpreting: pattern operations, terminology, and etiquette. This has has mostly came from people who are active controllers on the network. These mishaps are usually exhibited during major events and OTS'.
Misconception 1: Pattern Altitude and distance..
Kind of an obvious one, Props 1000 AGL Jets 1500 AGL and lateral spacing on the downwind half mile to a mile for props and a 1.5+ for the jets.
Misconception 2: Speed
Unless your military and clearly operate as it, speed <200 under the bravo or within 4nm and 2500AGL of the airport. Bravos allow 250 under 10, but don't be that guy if your doing pattern work.
Misconception 3: The Option
Y'all know the option clears you for everything hence why it's called the option. One problem I've witnessed though is use of the "stop-and-go" procedure. From a RW perspective the only time we implement that is to practice short-field take offs and landings and out of saftey we use full length to practice those. The tower has final say to not allow any of those options you can chose from for any reason. I've witnessed people intentionally messing with people a lot recently by stop-and-going to mess the controllers spacing up because he didn't say it was "unavailable".. key word there. Unless you want to get killed or get a letter in the mail from the FAA RW, you let tower know out of courtesy you will be doing it so they can plan accordingly. While this is VATSIM, I know the real reason why y'all are doing it and it needs to stop now. All it does is ruin the experience for others and makes you selfish. Whats the point of having tower online to keep people separated when people won't let them do their job which includes CONTROLLING the folks they have? Novel Idea.
Misconception 4: Operating around/under the shelvs
We tend to notice where the confines of our airspace is when someone is near it, that's a great thing and shows your scan is working. People tend to forget that its purpose is to separate controlled and uncontrolled aircraft. The arrivals and I am willing to bet money your vector diagrams are designed to keep people in this protected airspace. While this doesn't mean its required you keep them in it 100% of the time, it will allow you to not have to worry about the planes outside of the airspace. Its very legal to fly under the shelves and it's the only logical way most VFR planes can get around these air spaces. The approaches are also designed to keep people in the protected airspace. If you are running into an issue where arrivals are running into people below the bravo/charlie.. they are probably too low for the intercept. That being said pilots need to ensure they are honoring the altitudes CORRECTLY. Some altitudes are inclusive and others are not.
People have gotten very rude and the wrong ideas of what it means to be a controller on this network recently. I've been here for 11+ years and its ridiculous to see. Stop trying to screw each other over and push tin the way it's meant to be push and have fun doing it! Just cause someone decided to mess with you on your OTS doesn't make it right for you to continue the trend.
Thanks
Ethan
Works Cited: Real World pilot, CFI, 7 years of flying, 7110, blah blah
