Calum Stevens Posted May 11, 2015 at 09:07 AM Posted May 11, 2015 at 09:07 AM (edited) I was wondering, nearly every major European city is (at least a few times a week) well covered by ATC on Vatsim and has regular traffic in and out of it's airports (London, Dublin, Glasgow, Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Copenhagen... you get the picture). Also popular holiday destinations are more often than not covered and busy (Palma, Corfu, Canaries etc etc). Alas, France is always nearly deserted, void of stopping traffic and ATC. Particularly surprising is Paris, one of the biggest and busiest cities in Europe with several very busy airports (many of which covered by very good after-market scenery I might add) but I don't think I have EVER seen any form of ATC at Paris and indeed more often than not there isn't any people there. No real reason for asking this I've just always been curious why there is this apparent "blackout" of Paris and France on Vatsim. I would have thought Paris would be as popular a destination as any other in Europe. It certainly is in real life. Edited May 11, 2015 at 11:17 AM by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wygene Chong 1089621 Posted May 11, 2015 at 10:41 AM Posted May 11, 2015 at 10:41 AM I believe there is simply a lack of French VATSIM controllers, however, you can certainly find that Paris is still quite busy traffic-wise, particularly in the evenings in Europe. Controllers are online regularly and you can find their bookings at the VATFrance website: http://www.vatfrance.org/ Of note is their new Paris CDG Online Day, every Tuesday night starting this week! Wygene Chong C1 Controller | Iceland | Greenland | Faroe Islands VATSIM Scandinavia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandro Buscaglione Posted May 11, 2015 at 01:40 PM Posted May 11, 2015 at 01:40 PM This makes me think, Rome (and Italy) is online alot less than most of France and Paris. I don't recall France being short on ATCos but i could be wrong, maybe you just started noticing in a bad period? And just as Wygene said, they have a weekly event just on CDG. Alessandro Buscaglione VATITA Director ACCIT1 [email protected] --- [email protected] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calum Stevens Posted May 11, 2015 at 04:53 PM Author Posted May 11, 2015 at 04:53 PM Maybe Rome was a bad example. Certainly Vienna and lots in Eastern Europe. I honestly cant ever remember seeing Paris online, maybe once TWR at the most. But never Radar. SW of France does sometimes have Centre on I'll give you that. Not having a go, just surprised that it is clearly more spartan than other EU countries. Was just wondering why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Wachters Posted June 23, 2015 at 12:15 PM Posted June 23, 2015 at 12:15 PM This is probably the reason why they can't find new controllers: (from their website) The controller must be able to understand spoken French The controller must be able to answer in French by voice or by text (according to his preference) Erik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Wong Posted June 23, 2015 at 01:15 PM Posted June 23, 2015 at 01:15 PM For people who don't know it yet. Paris will be staffed every Tuesday. Do you want your Virtual Airline to become an official partner on VATSIM or to participate in the VAA Program? Visit https://www.vatsim.net/pilots/virtual-airlines Tim Wong Director of Virtual Airline Relations VATSIM.net Virtual Airlines and Special Operations Administration Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastien Bartosz Posted June 23, 2015 at 10:11 PM Posted June 23, 2015 at 10:11 PM This is probably the reason why they can't find new controllers: (from their website) The controller must be able to understand spoken French The controller must be able to answer in French by voice or by text (according to his preference) Erik But Erik, the same thing applies for VATSIM Germany, or Switzerland, no? Aren't their training docomeents in German and Swiss German respectively? Same thing with VATSIM Poland etc. I do agree that the language restriction doesn't help, but I don't think it is THE problem. If anything, it may be a language barrier. More people are proned to speak english in Germany, Eastern Europe, etc. than people in "Latin" Europe - Real world! So inevitably that goes for VATSIM too! It may be demographics, too: Having lived in France and been a part of the French flight-sim community, I found that the flight-sim population was a lot older, as opposed to other countries where simmers seem to be younger. And maybe the "older" folks simply aren't interested in ATC. I really don't know to be honest. However, I think Calum - who has been a member for 3 1/2 months, hasn't had enough time to really get a good idea yet. Those are my 0.02$ New York ARTCC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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