Your point is well taken, unfortunately, there’s no way (currently) to separate the wheat from the chaff, so-to-speak. There are some that are ‘training’ and looking to improve, and then there are those who are just, um, let’s say ‘there’. They’re not looking to improve either ATC or piloting skills.
I agree entirely on the monotony of the “fly Expert” replies, but unfortunately, that’s what we have. We can beg and plead. Create tutorials. Point out when pilots or ATC make mistakes in a constructive way [rant threads never do any good (speaking of others, not this one)] all we want. The problem is that the small percentage who want to genuinely improve is vastly outnumbered by those that simply don’t care.
I, personally, like long, technical discussions of rules and regs, and how we can make the sim as near as possible to RWA (while still recognizing we have to make concessions, because you can’t expect everyone who can download an app to have a PPL or know the handbooks front-to-back; KNUC will still be a haven for A388s). But, though I like those discussions, I’m in a very tiny, tiny minority.
With the current setup, we simply don’t have a way to transfer knowledge to those that have no desire to receive it. Perhaps if there were a true training server, instead of simply a casual 2.0, we could separate those that seek to improve from the others, but we then return to the fact that not everyone in the app is on the forum, etc. How do you communicate? We have a cache of tutorials, but no one actually checks them when told to check help. You can only lead them as far as they’re willing to start moving their own legs, and many simply don’t. I assume the end result to your “check safety” or “check sequence” or something similar would be any different to the current result to “check help”, which is to get mad but do absolutely nothing to find what you did wrong and make the same mistake next time. [Check Help with a sublist (e.g. Remaining in Pattern, approach speed, pattern legs, etc.) has already been shot down as not an option.]
As a side note (directed to the general), I always see people talking about grades. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again for good measure:
Grades are meaningless.
I vectored two pilots yesterday on Expert with around 43000 XP, and they were flawless. It could very well have been their first session with active approach on Expert.
I also could list off about 20 grade 5s with hundreds of thousands of XP that I know by memory that have no idea what they’re doing and will never know. Because they have no inclination to do so. They will do the wrong things in perpetuity because they have no interest in learning. They’re not “better” because they’re grade 5 than the grade 3 that really wants to learn and really wants to know and improve upon their mistakes.
I would love to see the obsession with grades abate here. They’re utterly meaningless.
But like you, I would also love a way to communicate effectively with those that do want to learn, but I can’t offer up any solutions other than things that have already been shot down in the past.
Your point about the “training environment is where…” is well taken. We just don’t have that environment. We are left with Casual 2.0 for the moment.