The Creation of a Network-Wide Booking System...

[Daniel Kormendy]

Hello, my name is Daniel Kormendy.  I just wanted to say point out that Steven Perry initially created this idea by asking about this in the vNAS community discord.

 

The idea is to create a booking system where controllers would book times they would connect and stay connected, or it could be as simple as being able to show the .break color or notification to pilot-clients so pilot's would know when controller's are closing soon.

 

This idea would benefit controllers and pilots in many ways...

 

- If a VATSIM-wide booking system was to be created, controllers wouldn't have to worry a lot about having no traffic because they booked a slot visible to pilots who can plan accordingly.

- Pilots would be able to see these bookings created by controllers and would allow pilots to hopefully gain more ATC coverage during their flights and help them choose where they want to fly depending on ATC coverage.

- If it was just as simple as the .break message alert showing on the pilot's side, pilot's who are transiting through FIR/ARTCC airspace and they notice that a controller connected on the position has .break on. Then that will allow the pilot to understand that they do not need to contact the controller because they are closing very soon. This system works very well with controllers currently because we know when controllers who type .break are closing soon and we shouldn't transfer radar identification to that controller anymore unless they say so.

 

Now on the contrary, some people may think, "We have a booking system on our website/discord/social media pages, why would a network-wide system be better than what we are currently using?"

I say that yes, you are right. Any type of booking system local with that facility would help out a lot, but from what I notice is that many of the pilots tend to utilize official VATSIM pages or websites that utilize the word VATSIM in their link. Like SimAware, "map.vatsim.net" or the pilot resource center "my.vatsim.net". I rarely see pilots use facility websites. (and btw this is solely IMO) If VATSIM were to create a network-wide booking system, this would allow more pilots and controllers to be able to see who is getting on when and who is getting off when. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lars Bergmann]

That booking system already exists: https://atc-bookings.vatsim.net/

It is on the individual Divisions/Sub-Divisions to add bookings to it if they so choose.

[Daniel Kormendy]

Oh sick!

I didn't realize that this was accessible, and to be honest, I didn't know that this even existed. Thanks for sharing.

[Andreas Fuchs]

ANYBODY can create and delete (their own) bookings here: https://statsim.net/atc/

[Lars Bergmann]

5 hours ago, Andreas Fuchs said:

ANYBODY can create and delete (their own) bookings here: https://statsim.net/atc/

Do you know if statsim publishes/enters bookings on the vatsim.net booking system or if they only publish them on VATBOOK?

[Andreas Fuchs]

2 hours ago, Lars Bergmann said:

Do you know if statsim publishes/enters bookings on the vatsim.net booking system or if they only publish them on VATBOOK?

Excellent question, I do not have an answer to it. I could try and book a station and find out. Let me see...

EDIT: I just tested it - bookings are made in the VATBOOK-database, great!

Edited January 11, 2023 at 10:30 PM by Andreas Fuchs

[Alistair Thomson]

I think the original postulate by the OP is underserved. He seems to have the opinion that he rarely sees pilots using facility websites, and I can't make sense of that statement. I don't know how anyone can tell whether or not a pilot is using, or can see, what other services a member makes use of, and I can't tell whether or not that indicates that the pilot has or has not got sufficient information regarding VATSIM ATC availability.

[Daniel Kormendy]

2 hours ago, Alistair Thomson said:

I think the original postulate by the OP is underserved. He seems to have the opinion that he rarely sees pilots using facility websites, and I can't make sense of that statement. I don't know how anyone can tell whether or not a pilot is using, or can see, what other services a member makes use of, and I can't tell whether or not that indicates that the pilot has or has not got sufficient information regarding VATSIM ATC availability.

You are correct, I have no idea what pilots are doing to prepare themselves for flights. However, from my previous experience, I have had friends who have had joined the network who are brand new to flight simulation who utilize official VATSIM pages instead of facility websites. The goal of my post was to continue an idea posted in the vNAS Community Discord server and I apologize that you believe that my opinion is rude in a way. But, I do assure you, I have no intentions of judging or expecting things from pilots; I'm just simply stating information that I have observed previously from novice VATISM pilots whom I know personally and that I'm also to open to feedback, like your response.

[Alistair Thomson]

11 hours ago, Daniel Kormendy said:

I apologize that you believe that my opinion is rude in a way

I think you misunderstood! I don't think you were rude at all, in fact I think you were really trying to contribute. My point was simply that you were using poor evidence to support your suggestion. Anyway, you now know that there are many ways ATCOs can inform pilots of their plans. There has been some discussion about the possibility of making that mandatory, but in a volunteer organisation, that simply doesn't "fly!" 🙂

[Daniel Kormendy]

@Alistair Thomson Glad we are on the same page, sorry about the confusion lol.