Goldmine

[sas550]

Yesterday I was flying a shorthopp in Sweden online and came across an ATC with really bad attitude. That lead me to wonder about IRL ATC attitudes.

Being a PPL holder I have some experience of IRL ATC and I've never came across such an attitude. Not even when I was flying VFR into Stockholm/Arlanda at night and turned final into the wrong rwy :oops:. The very proffessional ATC calmly just said : Sierra X-ray Victor hmm that's rwy 08 you're heading for.

Well I googled for attitudes and ATC. I didn't really find so much because I was stuck reading at a forum that showed to be a real goldmine with information from/for irl pilots.

I think you'll find a lot of interesting reading here.

http://www.pprune.org/forums/index.php

[Michael Carter]

I've run into a RW controller now and then who I guess was having a bad day, or was very busy and seemed rather short. But for the most part in the real world I've never experienced an attitude or rudeness.

[David Rogers]

I'm really surprised Anders as I can honestly say that I find the on-line Controllers from Sweden amongst the friendly on the networks. However I have come across a really bad attitude from a UK Controller. He was rude, arrogant, tried to sell me a web domain he no longer wanted, then handed me off to the wrong frequency! To be fair, I complained to him and he apologised. Don't mean to sound patronizing but he was pretty young and, well.... we all were once!

Just purely out of interest (and it is of course highly subjective), the friendliest / most helpful ATC I have experienced on-line, would probably be as follows:-

- Norwegian
- Swedish
- Finnish
- Lebanon (if you have never flown in the middle east you should, they are extremely welcoming and helpful to western flyers).
- Hungary
- ....and of course, the gent who mans EBBU_CTR (Brussels Centre) very regularly on VATSIM :)

Sorry I know this is biassed towards Europe - I don't really fly in North America but aim to change that very soon!