Yeah the place to start thing was something that the OP said. I intended to put that into perspective by adding some ifs and buts. But yeah to be honest vatsim

Yeah the place to start thing was something that the OP said. I intended to put that into perspective by adding some ifs and buts. But yeah to be honest vatsim is not a good starting point at all. Totally agreed there. I just didn't want to sound negative. Especially because I don't think it's a negative thing at all. They're just people that are very serious about simming and there's nothing bad about that. And yeah controlling the plane is the first thing to learn. If you can't maintain altitude or a vector I'm sure they'll call you out just like a real ATC would. When I learned to fly the comms part would stress me out because it was distracting. So usually the instructor would handle it. I was lucky to learn at a controlled airport so I would spend the day between flights just listening. I even had an air band receiver in the car :)