I posted this in another thread and was encouraged to start a new thread instead.
Content of original post:
Just a wild and ridiculous thought regarding the possibility of simulating high stress situations for trainees. As some of you know there is a world-wide online network of people using flightsims, flying around in a virtual world that is also populated by folks acting as ATC. The major networks actually have rather high standards regarding the training and seriousity (sp?) of the participants. The software is also of surprisingly high standard and not far from what is actually used. There are frequently so-called Flyins organized for major areas such as London, LAX and so on that usually generate large amounts of traffic.
There are obvious reasons why official training never can, or will, make use of such an environment but trainees can perhaps be pointed in that direction in their spare time, as opposed to playing WoW all night long
FYI, one such network is called Vatsim,
www.vatsim.net, there are others as well.
End of original post.
I was recently visiting the Stockholm ATCC and briefly mentioned that most of the features of the ATC control system are simulated as mentioned above. No one of the people I was chatting with had ever heard of such a thing and were surprised to hear about it. The same is true for the (not many) pilots I´ve had a chance to chat with during flights.
I would like to hear from you pros what your thoughts are in this matter. As I mentioned above, there are obvious issues that makes it hard to make official use of networks such as Vatsim but on the other hand we have an environment filled with a multitude of international "pilots" that often spend a lot of time flying online. I can think of scenarios where collaboration with the virtual ATCCs that organize flyins can perhaps be lucrative for both sides. I´m sure that pilots would be thrilled to speak to actual ATC (trainees) and I know that any trainee is likely to find handling multinational virtual pilots with varying skills more than a handful.
Anyone thinking that the virtual aviation world is just a bunch of kids playing around is dead wrong, and I´d encourage you to take a look at the websites of networks such as Vatsim or IVAO, the two biggest networks, to see the level of interest and seriousness that these guys and gals show towards both flying and controlling. Maybe some cooperation can be made that benefit both worlds?
www.vatsim.net
www.ivao.org
http://www.euroscope.hu/
Cheers!
