I am fairly new to Vatsim (53h total time) and I have noticed that players often report themselves out of cockpit for x amount of time (and returned to cockpit) when monitoring UNICOM.
Personally I do not see the need for it, as I assume controllers do not monitor UNICOM for whether pilots are taking time out of the cockpit, and I certainly do not feel that I need to know if a player is taking a toilet break.
However, I thought I had better get a definitive answer; should I be reporting myself out of cockpit when on UNICOM?
It is actually specified in the code of conduct one should not do this. B3(b) If it becomes necessary to leave a pilot connection unattended, the account holder should disconnect from the network.
For quite some time I wonder if I’ve missed some sort of new official (but seemingly secret) guideline that advises pilots to announce their absense on 122.800…
I guess, it is some sort of herd effect: Pilots notice other pilots doing it, so they do it as well.
While flying under control by ATC it is, of course, mandatory to ask the controller for permission prior to leave the cockpit for any period of time.
I think you may be right. Whenever I see pilots do this I am always tempted to type back nobody cares! You ain’t so important that we can’t deal with you not being at your PC, but of course I don’t as that could be construed as bullying and a breach of rules. But I do think exactly that in my head when they do it.
