New Pilot - Mixed experiences. Thoughts?

[AOTEAROA]

Hi all. I'm new to the Vatsim community and find this super exciting. I have done about 30 flights so far. However, the experience goes from fantastic to horrible. I can say 2 out of 10 are not pleasant.

Wonderful, all goes right; I can understand instructions and land safely.

Horrible: one-off controller throwing me many instructions simultaneously; I struggle with half and ask for clarity. Controller gets angry and, instead of repeating slowly, goes even faster, with additional comments like: “I have already told you”, which in my view, adds nothing to the comms and makes you more stressed about it. And consequently, you feel uncomfortable with him for the rest of the frequency.

Am I wrong to expect the controller to be a bit patient? I struggle when they mouth waypoints that they are used to, and I’m not—situations where I asked the spelling of it and they become hostil about my request.

My feeling at the end is that they think Im intentionally not understanding whilst I’m doing my best to understand the comms.

Any tips to deal with it? I would imagine everyday people are learning and at the same time I understand controllers may be stressed. Curious to know the experience from other new pilots. But don’t get me wrong, I believe majority of controllers are kind and supportive.

Thank you.

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Note the details of the controller you are working with, then find the website of the facility you were flying through at the time, and the link for "Leave Feedback."  Almost every VATSIM ATC facility has one.

Controllers can and will get frustrated when directions aren't followed or understood, but you're correct that (a) this is sometimes a result of their own delivery of the instruction and (b) it's never an excuse for them to berate or belittle you.

[Daniel Mckee]

I find some airports are more likely than others to be a bit tough and when I come across this I just ask them to text the instructions which is well within the rules. That way I have the text in front of me and can read back. It is also incumbent on the pilot to do the required training so that the pilot better understands the instructions. You say you are new to Vatsim (we all were once) so it may be a good idea to not fly in and out of busy airports until you get used to ATC. Just use one of the apps i.e. VATSpy to locate ATC that are not busy and I am sure that the ATC woud be thankful for the "business" Just remember without pilots the ATC guys would have nothing to do.

[Sebastian Crane]

Welcome, AOTEAROA! I too started flying on VATSIM very recently.

You mentioned that you are sometimes confused when ATC gives you multiple instructions at once. I can certainly relate to this experience, but I've found it much easier to copy the instructions since I learnt the format in which they're given. They'll usually come in a specific order, dependant on the type of request that you made. For instance, a request for IFR clearance will almost always be answered with 'CRAFT':

• Clearance ("Lufthansa 445, cleared to St. Athans")
• Route ("via the Compton VOR, then as filed.")
• Altitude ("Initial altitude 5000 feet.")
• Frequency ("Departure frequency is 125.6.")
• Transponder ("Squawk 4509.")

That's a lot of information to take on, but if you haven't already come across such conventions used by ATC, I would highly recommend learning them - it's so much easier when you know what's coming! Many real-world pilots produce their own blank forms to copy down each kind of ATC instruction neatly.

Furthermore, you also mentioned that you occasionally hear waypoints that you aren't familiar with. I would suggest you get familiar with the location of all the nav-aids and fixes that appear in the SIDs for your departure airport, STARs for your destination airport and any others in the vicinity of both airports. An exception to this might be if you are flying an aircraft without GPS or Distance Measuring Equipment (DME), as in that case you wouldn't be able to navigate to most fixes in-flight anyway. Obviously such a recommendation is no excuse for an air traffic controller to refuse to spell-out the waypoint, but as before, it really helps to be prepared!

Hope this helps and let me know if you have any further questions 😀

[Tobias Dammers]

On 10/23/2022 at 4:16 AM, AOTEAROA said:

Am I wrong to expect the controller to be a bit patient? I struggle when they mouth waypoints that they are used to, and I’m not—situations where I asked the spelling of it and they become hostil about my request.

It's a two-edged sword.

In principle, controllers are required to accommodate to their best abilities, and they can never become hostile or belittling, so in that sense, this is unacceptable.

OTOH, pilots are required to meet a certain baseline of competence, and plan their flights such that they meet their current competence level, and it is not a controller's job to teach you how to do these basic things.

Further, radio comms don't entirely follow the normal rules of spoken human conversation; some things that are efficient and functional in radio comms would be considered rude in normal conversations, and while "SAY AGAIN SLOWER" is a valid request to make, there comes a point when even the most patient controller out there will have to apply "firm controlling" to deal with you when you're struggling with the basics, especially when it gets busy and they can't afford to spend a dozen lengthy calls just to get you to read back an IFR clearance correctly.

On 10/23/2022 at 4:16 AM, AOTEAROA said:

Any tips to deal with it?

Lots, actually:

• As a beginner, avoid busy events and huge crowded airports. Find a nice medium-sized airport with a single runway, a simple ground layout, and straightforward procedures and airspace. If it's only controlled top-down by a Center controller, then that can be a blessing, but be aware that they will also be handling all the other traffic in their sector, so they may or may not have time to be patient with you. Flying out of, say, Edinburgh or Glasgow when a single controller is working all of Scottish Control with only 5 aircraft in their airspace, 4 of which are currently in cruise, means they're probably more than happy to hold your hand a little, whereas if you're flying out of Biggin Hill with 40 other flights in the London TMA and a single controller working the entire London FIR top-down, you better be on top of your game.
• Anticipate, stay ahead of things. This is absolutely essential on all 3 aspects of "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate". Never put yourself in a situation where you don't know what the aircraft is about to do or what you will need to do in order to keep it in the air ("aviate"), where you don't know where you are, where you are supposed to be, or where you're headed ("navigate"), or where you don't know what kind of calls you will be making and receiving next ("communicate"). On the "communicate" front, this means that you should memorize the usual order of communications for a typical flight, so that when ATC says something, you know roughly what they will say, and can execute and read back immediately. For longer instructions, such as IFR clearances or taxi routes, you should do your homework before requesting the clearance: pull up any relevant charts, make an informed guess at what the clearance will be, and write down your guess in shorthand, so that when you get the clearance, you just check the parts you guessed right and amend the (few) ones you didn't, and then you can read back immediately. Likewise, pull up the taxi chart before calling for taxi, find your location and the runway you will be going to, and figure out what the most likely route there would be.
• Listen to the frequency for a while before you make your request; often, there is other traffic on the airport, and your instructions will likely be similar to what they are getting. If everyone is sent out on the FUBAR1A SID out of runway 12, with an initial climb altitude of 6000 feet, then it's very likely that you will get the same departure.
• Practice your flight offline, to familiarize yourself with the airport, its ground layout, procedures, etc., and to make sure you fully understand what will be expected from you and how to achieve it in your aircraft of choice.
• Carefully read the charts and other available airport information. For example, many SIDs tell you the initial climb altitude, and your IFR clearance will not include it; knowing this beforehand avoids an unnecessary back-and-forth. Likewise, there may be standard taxi routes, and all sorts of other things you may want to know about the airport - e.g., EDDF has a system that tells you the direction in which L and N go, depending on runway usage, and if you know how that system works, you can more easily anticipate your taxi route.
• Make sure you get the ATIS, and read ALL OF IT, especially weather, active runways, any frequencies stated, and any special remarks. That stuff is there for a reason.
• Before departure, and during flight whenever you have a moment, scan the controller list in your pilot client, and note down the frequencies of controllers that you may need to contact down the line. E.g., if you're on the ground, and both TWR and APP are on, write down their frequencies, because you will need them later. It's also a good idea to guess the next frequency right after each successful handoff, and put it into NAV1 standby, so that when you're told to contact them, instead of frantically scribbling down the frequency, you just compare it to your standby, read it off, and then swap the frequencies and call in with the new controller (and if you guessed wrong, then chances are the correct frequency is on your kneepad, so you just mark that one, read it back, and then dial it into your NAV radio).
• When you receive a complex multi-part instruction that you didn't get entirely, instead of having the controller repeat the whole thing, read back the parts that you did get, and then ask specifically for the things you didn't catch (e.g. "SAY AGAIN FLIGHT LEVEL").
• Make sure your situational awareness is up to speed. It's easy to get lost when vectored, and just blindly dial the numbers they give you, but you should always have a good understanding of where you are in relation to the ground, your destination (runway), other traffic, your expected route, the procedure(s) you're currently flying, and magnetic North. This way, instructions are less likely to catch you by surprise - e.g., if you know that you're flying parallel to the destination runway, about 7000 feet above ground, and opposite the landing direction, with the runway to your left, then you know that the next instructions you will receive will include further descent (because 7000 feet AGL is too high to intercept an ILS), a turn towards the extended centerline (probably 90° left), another turn to intercept (probably about another 45° left, shortly after the 90° base turn), and then "cleared ILS", and you will know that these instructions will be time-critical. If you also keep a watch on other traffic nearby, you should even be able to predict with some accuracy when you will receive each of these instructions.
• Know your aircraft. The whole "communicate" aspect is stressful enough as it is when you're new to it, no need to make it even harder by struggling with "aviate" on top.
• Practice, practice, practice. Don't feel bad if a controller gets angry with you (even though they shouldn't); instead, do a "post-mortem"; analyze what went wrong and why, and learn from it.