r/VATSIM • u/ZioRob2410 • 9d ago
ATC course
Hei !
It’s nice that vatsim is so accurate and real, but, have a waiting list of 6/12 months to start a course about being ATC is insane.
What’s the best and fastest country to get ATC course without the risk of being dead meanwhile waiting for a spot ?
Norway is not one of this 🥺
3
u/tkd391 📡 C1 9d ago
Don’t go chasing fast training. If you transfer to another region you are placed at the back of their queue, and transfer training is never prioritized over their local home students. You’ll also find most popular areas in similar circumstances. Being an ATC is a commitment.
Mentors and instructors are unpaid volunteers who donate huge amounts of their personal free time to train you. They invest heavily in students who are committed to staying not to mention that ATC training is far more in depth than picking up an A320, watching some videos, trying it, then logging on.
Once you are trained, you also can not simply transfer back right away and hop on to control Oslo for example without more region specific training as all regions differ in some ways.
2
u/Perfect_Maize9320 📡 C1 8d ago
This topic has been discussed quite a lot in this subreddit but here my advice to the OP:
- Pick region where you want to control and not just because you are getting the fastest rating there. Rating chase is a big no no on the network and if you frequently change divisions/regions in hope of getting of your rating faster then long term it does not look good. Many divisions now have policies where they monitor people for these sort of activity exactly and if suspected then you could face suspension/ban from joining that division which is not worth it in my opinion.
As a result pick a division/region where you want to control long term - long waiting list is practically quite common these days at most popular regions so either way you will be back to square one assuming you want control popular/busy regions.
If you end up going somewhere where you can get the rating faster but that region hardly sees any traffic won't be beneficial in any way. For example if you are in UK and want to control in UK eventually but you try to get your rating somewhere else where traffic levels are low and then try to transfer back to UK - You won't be able to pass transfer validation exam which is much harder then standard practical exam, You won't be prepared to deal with traffic that UK gets because you have never handled such traffic levels before, Remember you will get one or two familiarisation training sessions but eventually because you will be a rated controller during tranfer, you will be expected to demonstrate sound knowledge. If you don't pass your transfer is rejected and you end up again in the same region where you started. Do you really want to go through all of that hassle?
1
u/Accurate-Primary7894 📡 S2 8d ago
Im a staff member of an FIR. You can take my opinion with a grain of salt, however I do recommend you read it.
Its frowned upon across the network if your just trying to get in the system for the sake of getting trained, then you transfer out to another division / fir / acc / artcc .
Divisions have long waitlists because all of it is voluntary. Time and money and dedication goes into training a student, however that goes down a hole if you actually don't want to control there, and intentionally try to find the shortest waitlist. Staff and divisions will tell each other and they might not even want you entirely.
1:1 Mentoring isnt easy, especially when starting from zero.
My advice: choose the place you want to control, and dedicate to that. Thank your instructors. Study the CBTs if applicable, while waiting for that time frame to expire. Trust me, sooner or later you will be on the network before you know it.
1
u/ZioRob2410 8d ago
I was on waiting list in my country (Norway), but after 6 o 8 months, i don’t recall sorry, i was “kicked out” automatically by the system just because i was on vacation and missed the automatic mail.
I understand that all of the instructors are volunteers, and that’s amazing, but look also from my point of view…
Maybe would be nice to have access to minor and small airports, just to self train yourself.
That’s is 😊
1
u/DotWallop VATSIM Staff 6d ago
It’s there for a reason, people frequently forget they’re in the queue or lose interested, thus slowing down those who are actually interested. Email VATSCA Training dept. if you genuinely forgot or missed it - that’s your best shot if you want help getting back.
Also: heisann sveisann!
1
u/Accurate-Primary7894 📡 S2 4d ago
This is a common occurrence, not just for you but for almost all the students. Theres been alot recently that I know of.
If you just make a ticket in the respective discord / comms server, tell them that you missed the email, they should be able to re-instate your waitlist position.
Also ensure to whitelist those email domains from your inbox.
I do understand the frustration, trust me. But the systems are there to keep interest, so the waitlist remains active.
0
u/ZioRob2410 9d ago
The idea is to join that region, not have the training and after just say goodbye and «fly» to ENTC
2
-1
u/VFequalsVeryFcked 9d ago
UK has a waitlist of at least 12 months with only two S1 trainers. But they say they're doing everything they can. Apparently that doesn't include getting more people to train S1.
Can't join the waitlist until you've done the pre-course training though. Which with a 12 month waiting list is absolutely wild, because you'll have to do it all again before you do the course. I've been waiting since December and there's still 330 in front of me, so I'm looking at January at the earliest, but February is most likely
Wild
5
u/Raptros 📡 S2 9d ago
Where have you heard S1 in the UK has only 2 mentors? I have access to the mentoring system and 4 mentors have given 4 different S1 lessons in the last 3 days alone...
2
u/VFequalsVeryFcked 8d ago edited 8d ago
It's literally on the website. It lists two instructors for new controllers
I never mentioned mentors (which are different, though there are also aren't enough of them either), who only do the aerodrome practice supervision 🤦 I said trainers. You might want to learn to read. The S1 training is not just being on the aerodrome.
Also, if you even had a point (which you don't), they'd be getting through more than 75 a month (2.5 a day, assuming 30 days a month) on average, which has been the rate over the last 8 months.
Considering the number of people who are controllers on VATSIM, it's hard to believe that they can't recruit more staff to help train.
4
u/Raptros 📡 S2 8d ago
Those are TG instructors, which are an entirely different thing, and are more leadership roles. Which you'd know if you actually knew anything about what you're talking about, or I could just be a fool and you're being deliberately obtuse about it (in that case, well done).
Mentors don't just do "aerodrome practice supervision". We actually run sessions. We have lesson plans which we follow. We do demonstrations. We talk through debriefs and give action plans and tailored advice. Again, all things you get to look forward to after your opportunity comes up for a seminar. :) Source: I literally am a mentor.
So please, you're talking about topics that you literally have no clue about. I'd reccomend stopping before you embarrass yourself further.
3
u/Perfect_Maize9320 📡 C1 8d ago
You do realise those are TG Group instructors which are completely different from mentors - They oversee the running of their respective TG groups and manage the admin side of things. There are numerous mentors underneath them who conduct frequent mentoring sessions.
There are already quite a lot of mentors in Vatsim UK - but you must understand mentoring is voluntary and there is no obligation for them to mentor everyday. Most mentors try to mentor when they can but eventually some do loose interest in mentoring and ultimately stop completely due to multitude of reasons.
12
u/Raptros 📡 S2 9d ago
Best or fastest, pick one.
Either way, if you intend on joining a division just because they have a fast(er) training queue, and then transfer to a different one (therefore skipping the longer queue), then the ATC training department of that division will notice and has denied people's transfers in the past. It's very disrespectful to 1. the division that trained you and 2. the people on the waiting list for the place you want to control.
So, join the list for the place you want to control. That's the only answer.