> Vatsim is a great place to start if you're very serious about your radio protocol
> They expect you to know what you're doing.
These two statements are a little contradictory. Definitely VATSIM is not a place to start, they expect you to know how to operate in ATC and even just operating your plane is a significant hurdle in the beginning which you need to get over before going to 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 :)
> They expect you to know what you're doing.
These two statements are a little contradictory. Definitely VATSIM is not a place to start, they expect you to know how to operate in ATC and even just operating your plane is a significant hurdle in the beginning which you need to get over before going to VATSIM.