VATSIM

[JALU3]

OK . . . I am stopping NavyField for a while . . . long lance is overpowered . . . gonna take a break

Going to try VATSIM. Anyone else on?
Looking to train up to tower at KSAN . . . I understand there is a knowledge grind of a couple weeks/months to get to tower rating.

[SUBMAN1]

Link me

[Ubergeek87]

I just got my Tower rating at Minneapolis about a month ago, though I haven't controlled on the actual vatsim network yet (I need someone else on to watch me the first few times).

Tower rating isn't terribly hard to get, it took me 4 or 5 2+ hour sweatbox sessions, which might take longer for you since LA is much busier. For the most part its just learning the basics of phraseology, reading METAR, choosing active runways, and just getting comfortable with the radar client.

Vatsim main site (http://www.vatsim.net)
Vatusa (http://www.vatusa.net)

[JALU3]

Tower rating isn't terribly hard to get, it took me 4 or 5 2+ hour sweatbox sessions, which might take longer for you since LA is much busier. For the most part its just learning the basics of phraseology, reading METAR, choosing active runways, and just getting comfortable with the radar client.

Vatsim main site (http://www.vatsim.net)
Vatusa (http://www.vatusa.net)

On the training did you have a mentor with you? Or did you learn through experience, and then test to get the rating?

[Ubergeek87]

You'll have an instructor and/or mentor there to walk you through the lessons and answer questions. Then when they think you know the information well enough and you're able to do everything with a somewhat fast speed in sweatbox, they will assign you the Student 1 exam which will clear you to control on the vatsim network under supervision, until they say you can control alone. My instructor was really helpful and stuck around after my exam to go over the questions I got wrong. They want you know what you're doing and be confident in that before you're released onto vatsim.

If you are interested HERE (http://www.minniecenter.org/policies/vZMP_ATCSTM_rev1.pdf) (pdf) is ZMP's training guidlines so you can get a rough idea of what you can expect each lesson. It will probably be slightly different for ZLA though. Section 3 has the student 1 syllabus.

[PeriscopeDepth]

When I was a religious flight simmer, I really did enjoy flying on VATSIM. Especially when it got busy and controllers were there throughout the flight.

PD