4 ms·

> A community of air traffic control roleplayers gets torn apart by a lawsuit, and the founders scatter, trying to pick up the pieces. it's kinda fascinating s

> A community of air traffic control roleplayers gets torn apart by a lawsuit, and the founders scatter, trying to pick up the pieces. it's kinda fascinating such a community exists

bobthepanda 5y ago
People like all sorts of things. There are various reasons to enjoy this but not actually become ATC: - its fairly common that people don’t want to ruin their hobby by making it their job - ATC requirements are pretty strict for application - US ATC is high stress and stagnant pay, and that combination means there is an ATC shortage which means that the employed ATCs are being worked very hard
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
dkarp 5y ago
For those interested, I think these are the main virtual ATC services: https://www.pilotedge.net https://www.pilotedge.net - paid service, used by student pilots https://www.vatsim.net https://www.vatsim.net - totally free with regional chapters all over the world. Have their own certification system for pilots and ATC. Both of these work for multiple different flight simulators and not just MS FS. They work through an in game plugin that connects to their servers. Both take things pretty seriously.
Mountain_Skies 5y ago
Many do it to get practice speaking English, which makes it mostly a win-win as players get to have controllers who take the game seriously and the controllers get to hone their language skills. It's only a problem if someone's accent is very heavy or they haven't achieved enough English skills yet to be able to communicate the basics of ATC but neither happens very often.
- mulmen 5y ago
  Sometimes I can tell where my ESL coworkers learned English based on phrasing and idioms. It would be interesting to come across someone who honed English skills with such a domain-specific application.
  - atatatat 5y ago
    Look up "do the needful". It's not a myth, just regional.
    - zeropoint46 5y ago
      Oh man this is a flashback to a previous job that I did not need.
    - gundmc 5y ago
      I've heard this phrase used by non-native English speakers, but are you suggesting it comes from practicing within a particular domain? If so, which?
      - atatatat 5y ago
        Garbage-tier S Pacific IT industry contractors.
      - dharmab 5y ago
        It's an old British English phrasing that is still used in many former British colonies. For example, India.
    - nerdponx 5y ago
      Also using "doubt" as synonymous with "question". There was a pretty interesting cluster of threads here on HN a while ago about English in business environments with lots of anecdotes about learning English in various "non-English" societies.
  - sanxiyn 5y ago

> A community of air traffic control roleplayers gets torn apart by a lawsuit, and the founders scatter, trying to pick up the pieces. it's kinda fascinating such a community exists

bobthepanda 5y ago

People like all sorts of things. There are various reasons to enjoy this but not actually become ATC: - its fairly common that people don’t want to ruin their hobby by making it their job - ATC requirements are pretty strict for application - US ATC is high stress and stagnant pay, and that combination means there is an ATC shortage which means that the employed ATCs are being worked very hard

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

dkarp 5y ago

For those interested, I think these are the main virtual ATC services: https://www.pilotedge.net https://www.pilotedge.net - paid service, used by student pilots https://www.vatsim.net https://www.vatsim.net - totally free with regional chapters all over the world. Have their own certification system for pilots and ATC. Both of these work for multiple different flight simulators and not just MS FS. They work through an in game plugin that connects to their servers. Both take things pretty seriously.

Mountain_Skies 5y ago

Many do it to get practice speaking English, which makes it mostly a win-win as players get to have controllers who take the game seriously and the controllers get to hone their language skills. It's only a problem if someone's accent is very heavy or they haven't achieved enough English skills yet to be able to communicate the basics of ATC but neither happens very often.

mulmen 5y ago
Sometimes I can tell where my ESL coworkers learned English based on phrasing and idioms. It would be interesting to come across someone who honed English skills with such a domain-specific application.
- atatatat 5y ago
  Look up "do the needful". It's not a myth, just regional.
  - zeropoint46 5y ago
    Oh man this is a flashback to a previous job that I did not need.
  - gundmc 5y ago
    I've heard this phrase used by non-native English speakers, but are you suggesting it comes from practicing within a particular domain? If so, which?
    - atatatat 5y ago
      Garbage-tier S Pacific IT industry contractors.
    - dharmab 5y ago
      It's an old British English phrasing that is still used in many former British colonies. For example, India.
  - nerdponx 5y ago
    Also using "doubt" as synonymous with "question". There was a pretty interesting cluster of threads here on HN a while ago about English in business environments with lots of anecdotes about learning English in various "non-English" societies.
- sanxiyn 5y ago