Tom Gundy Posted December 9, 2019 at 01:20 PM Posted December 9, 2019 at 01:20 PM Hi all, Been using VatSim & X-Pilot now for about one month. I must say this is incredible and the ATC people are amazing and really make a huge difference to flying in the sim. Learning so much from them too. The question I have is there a place to get approximate times when certain airports & regions are most likely to have ATC manned comms? I've mainly flown out of London UK, which have good coverage evenings and weekends, but less activity during mornings etc. Is it better to use the time to match likely hood of ATC? ie moving around the world to match evenings/weekend times too, in line with the regular London activity. Huge thank you to all the ATC guys Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Fuchs Posted December 9, 2019 at 06:56 PM Posted December 9, 2019 at 06:56 PM (edited) Most places in the world should be online during their local evening times, probably between 1900 and 2200 local time. On top of it you can check VATBOOK for ATC bookings. Quite a few local VACC websites also hold this information. Edited December 10, 2019 at 02:50 PM by Guest Cheers, Andreas Member of VATSIM GermanyMy real flying on InstagramMy Twitch streams of VATSIM flights and ATC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Harrison Posted December 9, 2019 at 07:03 PM Posted December 9, 2019 at 07:03 PM Many controllers will book their sessions prior to doing them. There are various systems that can display the bookings. VATMAP is one. There are many more. VatMap seems to have heaps of UK bookings. Sean C1/O P3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Shearman Jr Posted December 9, 2019 at 07:09 PM Posted December 9, 2019 at 07:09 PM If you want a good predictor of when ATC will be online in a given region: https://www.vatsim.net/events Cheers, -R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Gundy Posted December 10, 2019 at 05:26 AM Author Posted December 10, 2019 at 05:26 AM Thanks all will check these out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew McCabe Posted December 10, 2019 at 09:13 AM Posted December 10, 2019 at 09:13 AM Have a look at Vroute at https://www.vroute.net/. It's free or you can pay a subscription for more functionality. If you find a route within the database and select it, there is a tab called "ATC Coverage" which gives an indication of the level of ATC coverage historically over the previous 4 weeks and also shows ATC bookings that are on the system Drew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobias Dammers Posted December 11, 2019 at 12:20 PM Posted December 11, 2019 at 12:20 PM My strategy: 1. Look for events. Event organizers usually do a very good job at keeping the promised ATC stations manned, so if you want to do a flight with full ATC coverage, this is your best bet. 2. West and Central Europe, especially the UK, Benelux, France and Germany, tend to have good coverage during the local evenings (typically between 1800-2200 UTC or so). UK is probably the busiest region on VATSIM, and you'll often see a handful of airports staffed throughout the day. 3. Check out vatsim maps, like https://vau.aero/fsmap/, see where controllers are currently online, how long they have been online, and whether there are any relevant ATC bookings. It's always possible that a controller closes shop shortly after you log on, but if they've just come online, they will usually be around for at least an hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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