Andrew Heath

You are in the system

Visiting can be difficult on VATSIM. I have some ideas on how to make the visiting controller experience easier. I'll share those ideas in the coming months as we dive into developing the system.

@Bahaeddine El-Zarif Yes

I think the A350 and B787 might already have this feature, not 100% sure though.

Agreed, I don't think the legacy networks do a bad job with ATC training, but there is a serious lack of standardization which results in the fundamentals sometimes getting overlooked. I am excited to work on the ATC side of things, I have a lot of great ideas to standardize the training experience. Unfortunately, the ATC training program development has taken a back-seat to resolving what I personally find to be a much larger issue in the community, and that is is pilot ability. From a training perspective, we have been working tirelessly to provide pilots with the tools they need to succeed in the online environment. Once we are satisfied with that, we will move on to creating a comprehensive and standardized ATC training experience. When we launch into our Invite-Only beta in a few months, we won't need the ATC training program fully developed because there is a wealth of very talented controllers itching to control pilots that know what they are doing. We will rely on those individuals to provide POSCON with ATC service while we work on developing a program that will eventually teach the next generation of controllers.

@Tom G. Yes, ATC will always defer to the real world METAR/TAF report to choose runway/airspace configurations - but the pilots don't necessarily have to be using that weather.

Well be getting back to the translators really soon - getting close to needing help again.

Many of you have "legacy" accounts that pre-date our HQ software, which means you registered via the forums only and are not completely in the system yet. Please make sure you register in HQ by visiting the following link: https://hq.poscon.net/register Use the same name and email as you used to register previously for the forums and the accounts will automatically merge. Also, if you attended FSExpo 2019, that email should be the same as you used when you signed the attendance sheet.

Codes are given to our testers to invite their friends and then later, those users can invite their friends. Its an attempt to get groups of people actively flying on the server.

@emas Yes, if you are a member of POSCON you can receive an invite code from any of our staff or testers (if they choose to give one to you). If you are at FSExpo and sign the attendance sheet, your name may be picked at random to be in the first phase.

@Tim S Tim you are of course on a watch list! ROFL Just kidding!

After a lot of thought and consideration, we have decided to add a throttled release plan to our roadmap which we are calling the "Invite-Only Beta" phase. This means that initially, POSCON will only be available to those individuals that have been given an invite code. This new managed plan allows us the flexibility to continue developing features while also rapidly responding to support issues. Roadmap to Release All times are subject to change! Release Phase Tester Description Operating Times ATC Coverage Number of Users NDA Required Timeline Closed Beta Testers are hand-picked by POSCON staff. 24/7 N/A 58 + Staff YES Currently Ongoing Invite-Only Beta Phase 1 Pilots: Require an invite code in order to participate. ATC: Hand-picked by POSCON staff. Schedule Limited Limited to areas selected by POSCON staff. 500-1000 NO Guaranteed by Q4 2019. Earlier release date is likely. Invite-Only Beta Phase 2 Pilots: Require an invite code in order to participate. ATC: Hand-picked by POSCON staff. Schedule Limited Limited to areas selected by POSCON staff. 1000-2000 NO Guaranteed by end of Q1 2020. Earlier release date is likely. Open Beta Pilots: Open ATC: Hand-picked by Division staff. 24/7 Limited to areas fully developed. Unlimited NO Guaranteed by Q2 2020. Release Everything open. 24/7 World Unlimited NO Approximately 1 year after Invite-Only Phase 1 release. Beta Details Who can participate? Users must possess a valid invite code in order to activate their account and become part of the beta. The following restrictions apply: Users must be at least 16 years of age or older. Users 13-15 years of age can participate only if POSCON has received hand-written parental consent. Users on any restricted or watch lists are prohibited from participating. How can you get an invite code? Initially, these codes will be distributed by our testing team and staff. We will also pick 50 people that stop by the FSExpo 2019 booth, and have registered for POSCON, to be part of the first Invite-Only beta. Winners will be emailed after FSExpo and receive a code when we release the first Invite-Only beta phase. Later, each person who is a member of the Invite-Beta will have an opportunity to invite their friends to the server. Will the Beta be open all the time, or will there be specific operating times? The POSCON Invite-Only Beta will not be open to the public 24 hours / 7 days a week; it will instead be open during specific operating times to ensure ATC and Moderator coverage as well as allow us to deploy changes without affecting user experience. As we become more comfortable with our progress and staffing, we will relax the schedule to include more operating times. Are the operating times fixed? No, the schedule will vary. On the 25th day of each month, POSCON will post an updated schedule to the public for the next month's operating times and featured ATC region. Will the Beta be "open world" or feature specific areas? It will be open world, but each month we will be focusing on a specific region in regards to ATC coverage. This does not mean that ATC will be restricted to controlling in the featured region of the month, it just means that we will ensure coverage in that region during the posted times. I want to be an ATC, can I sign up? No, ATC are hand-picked for all open beta phases. When will ATC open up to the public? ATC will open to the public when POSCON officially releases in 2020. Will ATC ratings transfer from legacy networks? Yes, a user's global rating will transfer from legacy networks for a period of 6 months after the official release of POSCON in 2020. Local certifications will be left up to the divisions and sub-divisions to decide whether they transfer or not. When will the Division Staff be selected and how will that work? POSCON will begin selecting Division staff the first few weeks after the Invite-Only beta release. Division staff will initially be appointed by POSCON staff, but later we plan to introduce a way for members to get involved in the selection process.

Hi Reuben, Our client will offer everything vERAM has to offer with some additional features that vERAM couldn't simulate due to limitations in the VATSIM infrastructure. These additional features include, but are not limited to, auto handoff, conflict probing, weather, and SUA activation - to name a few.

@Marc Sauer We emailed you

@Nicola Altafini Not sure - it is widely used throughout the FS community for various map apps, so it wouldn't surprise me if it were being used for IVAO. If you edit OSM, you not only helping POSCON, you are also helping other programs as well.

Hello all! For those of you wishing to help POSCON, I finally have something worth-while to ask of you. I am sure most of you are familiar with OpenStreetMap (OSM): https://www.openstreetmap.org/ We will be using a version of this map for our "web viewer" and I am requesting that each of you take a look at your home airport(s) and make sure that the gates, tarmacs, taxiways, and runways are all up-to-date and have no visible errors. If you want your airport to look correct on the POSCON map, it is important that you make the necessary edits on OSM. Every few months, we will download a new version of OSM and launch it on our own private tile server - these updates will include any changes you made. In order to edit OSM, you need an account with them. Below, I have attached what I classify as a "visible error" at KJFK: I went ahead and fixed the errors at KJFK on OSM and here is the revised version:

@Sven Sappa Already in the Clubs section

@Francesco Villi Hi, there is no UI designed for Italy at this time. We are only designing the United States UI for version 1.

@Tim S That is correct.

@Redouane Red Thanks for the offer, but we are actually not planning on injecting any sort of weather into the simulator.

Yes, MacOS, sorry. Not a programmer and don't use Apple, except for iPad ?

@Divya Patel That is correct

Zoom functionality, like IVAC2

@Nicola Altafini Yes, but not by the end-user. Multi-platform - Windows and iOS Same as Euroscope Kind of. You will have preference sets to adjust your display brightness, text size, etc. but each position will have different maps available to them. Positions are selected through a main menu prior to starting the client. It is looking like we will be utilizing an XML map format, similar to vSTARS and vERAM, but don't hold us to it just yet. There will be conversion tools provided from SCT/SCT2 to the new format.

@Tim S Short answer, yes.