A kind, and friendly request to ALL pilots

[Robbie Suwary]

Hello,

It deeply saddens me how rude pilots are on UNICOM. Last night I was departing Anchorage at around 10pm EST, and I was as usual doing my UNICOM announcements on voice and text. I know very well I am tricky to understand because of my disability. So to help, whenever I transmit ill type it as well. When I announced when I  announced that I was departing, I got some quite rude feedback asking if I was "high", or "drunk", can't remember the exact wording but. Not the first time sadly won't be the last. Now I'm not writing this to bad mouth anyone, but let me try to tell you a bit about me and how seriously I take flight simming. I have Cerebral Palsy , and because of my disability i can't fly in real life. So flight sim is my only way to get closer to my one and only dream. I'm a  3rd year Computer Science student, hoping to get simming closer to the real thing, but let me tell you people on UNICOM making fun of the way you talk is not very realistic at all. I'm the VP/CTO of Virtual Northwest Airlines, and hold my P1 rating (hope to get it upgraded one day) . I fly around usually as NWA1999 (sometimes others) .  Now I know everybody won't see this,  but I'm only here, just like all of you to fly and have fun! So everyone just please think before you talk, if you really want to talk about people there are a lot of free services to talk privately. Let's leave UNICOM for the aviation talk. 

 

Robbie 

[Mats Edvin Aaro]

I'm sorry you had this experience Robbie! This is definitely not up to the standards VATSIM holds. We accept all kinds of people, and we have an amazing community with people from all around the world, each with their own kinds of challenges and struggles. One of the points of VATSIM is to bring people together, unite them under a shared passion and have them forget about their struggles for a while.

Speaking from experience, sadly I agree with the fact that it probably won't be the last time this happens. However that does not mean you should accept it happening.

VATSIM has dedicated supervisors online mostly around the clock to help with issues like this. They can be called with he ".wallop" command in your pilot client like this: ".wallop I need help, someone is mocking my voice". The supervisors will do everything they can do help you.

In the case that there isn't any online, gather the evidence you need (preferably a voice recording with callsigns showing (if any client still supports that?)). NVIDIA's "Shadowplay" client allows you to record the last 15 minutes, and enables you to save the last 15 minutes with the tap of a button.

I hope you're gonna have a very good time on the network in the future, and if you need any help regarding this or anything else, please don't hesitate to contact me, for example via the email in my signature.

Have a good weekend 🙂

[Robbie Suwary]

Hello,

 

Yes I would have called a supervisor but, unfortunately I have no idea who said it. I think I figured out who said it, but I don't know for sure. I use vPilot (literally the only one nowadays for P3D LOL!) which doesn't support that. It's a feature that I believe we all need now that we have voice on UNICOM, to attempt to stop these pilots. I didn't know i was allowed to  record, will definitely do this next time (sadly) !

Thanks For the advice !

Robbie 

[Grant Williams]

Robbie,

Sorry to hear about your experience. Unfortunately, in my experience, most people do not consider who is behind the keyboard before they say or do rude things. The .wallop advice above is definitely something I would consider doing. People that act like that have no business being a part of this community.

If you ever want to fly with someone, let me know. I'd be happy to go up with you.

Grant

[Ross Carlson]

Hi Robbie,

I'm sorry to hear that you're still dealing with this.

You actually can see who is transmitting with vPilot. You need to open up the debugging console, which you can do with the ".debug" command. Then, whenever you're receiving audio, it will show a line in the debug console listing the callsigns of the user or users that are currently transmitting.

[Andrew Ogden]

6 hours ago, Robbie Suwary said:

Yes I would have called a supervisor but, unfortunately I have no idea who said it. I think I figured out who said it, but I don't know for sure. I use vPilot (literally the only one nowadays for P3D LOL!) which doesn't support that.

Hi Robbie!

I am very sorry to hear that this has happened to you 😞. I echo everything that has been mentioned in this thread.

Supervisors can actually (as far as I am aware?) see who is transmitting on any particular frequency. So even if you can't work it out, a .wallop might solve all your issues by catching the guy giving you trouble 🙂.

Cheers,

[nebojsa milosavljevic]

It is a sad thing to what is happening on UNICOM. I was afraid when UNICOM went to voice, something like this would happen.

My opinion.... UNICOM should only be in TEXT. At least there is written proof to what is happening.

nebojsa

[Andrew Ogden]

It makes me wonder how often CTAF frequencies in the real world are used in such a way...

[Andreas Fuchs]

Regularly.

[Matt Booker]

I'm sorry this has been your experience Robbie. 

I hope you can continue to enjoy the network knowing that Supervisors are just a .wallop away. 

All the best! 👍

 

Edited May 16, 2020 at 10:49 AM by Matt Booker

[Richard McDonald Woods]

How ignorant and uncaring some can be🤢

An additional point  is that you can add an appropriate comment in the vPilot Remarks to inform ATC.

Good luck with your flying,

Regards, Richard

[Trevor Hannant]

Sorry to hear about this Robbie.

As others have said, even if you don't know who it is at the time, send a wallop without making a fuss on frequency and a Supervisor can then tune in to hear it for themselves without the other parties knowing.  They can then get the necessary evidence and put a stop to it.

Keep flying on the network and don't let the sad little [mod: redacted] win through their utterly childish behaviour.

[Robbie Suwary]

23 hours ago, Ross Carlson said:

Hi Robbie,

I'm sorry to hear that you're still dealing with this.

You actually can see who is transmitting with vPilot. You need to open up the debugging console, which you can do with the ".debug" command. Then, whenever you're receiving audio, it will show a line in the debug console listing the callsigns of the user or users that are currently transmitting.

Thanks for the tip! Between that and the shadow play recording the last  10min as Mats suggested,  I should be able to get a supervisor to deal with them. 

[Robbie Suwary]

16 hours ago, nebojsa milosavljevic said:

It is a sad thing to what is happening on UNICOM. I was afraid when UNICOM went to voice, something like this would happen.

My opinion.... UNICOM should only be in TEXT. At least there is written proof to what is happening.

nebojsa

Yes, I sadly agree with you they should go back to text. As I said, I'm game to make flight sim as realistic as possible, but sadly if people are going to abuse the tools you give them to, quite frankly be id***s, then I'm sorry those tools should be taken away. Sad,  but it's the truth.  These guys are really destroying it for all of the good pilots, who just want to get the most out of VATSIM.  I was so scared when it initially went to voice, and still am, of this happening, but feeling a bit better now that I know there's ways of catching them. 

Robbie 

[Ross Carlson]

41 minutes ago, Robbie Suwary said:

I'm game to make flight sim as realistic as possible, but sadly if people are going to abuse the tools you give them to, quite frankly be id***s, then I'm sorry those tools should be taken away. Sad,  but it's the truth.

Those tools should be taken away from those that abuse them, not from everybody.

[Andreas Fuchs]

Exactly, otherwise the abusers will win and ruin it for everybody else by going back to text-UNICOM. That would suck big time.

[Robbie Suwary]

7 hours ago, Andreas Fuchs said:

Exactly, otherwise the abusers will win and ruin it for everybody else by going back to text-UNICOM. That would suck big time.

Yea your right, we cant let them win!   If only there was a better way of policing UNICOM. Maybe supervisors should just start randomly popping their heads in to UNICOM and listening? 

[Andreas Fuchs]

As long as it gets reported without delay, SUPs can listen in. And gather witnesses, this will strengthen your case.

[Robbie Suwary]

Just now, Andreas Fuchs said:

As long as it gets reported without delay, SUPs can listen in. And gather witnesses, this will strengthen your case.

Your  right

[Mats Edvin Aaro]

Yet again, I recommend people using NVIDIA Shadowplay with the "instant replay" function. If something happens while you are online, you can save the last X minutes with the click of a button. 🙂

[Leif Tufte]

.

Edited September 24, 2021 at 01:17 AM by Leif Tufte

[Mats Edvin Aaro]

8 hours ago, Leif Tufte said:

Defiantly goes between many things.  Often Unicom is a chat between other pilots.  Usually not, but it happens. 

Not that it should be, which this topic is a testament to. 

[Mike Lehkamp]

Unacceptable. Good for you Robbie relaying this to the people in charge here! 👍

Michael

[Ryan Austin]

Very sorry this happened. I believe I have controlled for you and flown near you at least a few times and I have never had any problems understanding your transmissions. 

Sadly, there will always be a few people who do not respect others in the community as they should - and we should all work together to report improper CTAF use, among other harassment on the network.

Ryan

 

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Hey, Robbie -- heard you during CalScream the other night.  A viewer on my livestream asked about you.  I gave him a rundown of who you are, what you stand for, etcetera.  I think it's hard because you stand out in an arena where you're doing your absolute best just to blend in.  But it gave me a chance to tell a little piece of your inspiring story (as much as I know, anyway), and of the couple others on the network in similar situations -- and I think the guy who initially asked did come away impressed and inspired.  I hope so, anyway.