Oakland ARTCC on VATSIM

About vZOA

The Oakland ARTCC on VATSIM strives to be one of the most professional and realistic ARTCCs in VATUSA, and controllers are expected to know and learn a significant amount of information. Our mission here is dedicated to the highest quality ATC services delivered with a sense of friendliness, individual pride, and ARTCC spirit. Our airspace covers the harrowing Bay Area airspace including San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, as well as challenging mountainous airports like Reno, Lake Tahoe, and Mammoth Lakes. We've got something for everybody!

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vZOA News and Announcements

Upcoming Events

GA TUESDAY: RENO (Group Flight)

JUNE 05, 2023 - 17:30 PDT

ZLA SUPPORT: ZLA LIVE

JUNE 09, 2023 - 17:00 PDT

ZOA LIVE 2023!!

JUNE 17, 2023 - 16:59 PDT

Current ZOA Flights 13

  • 7 San Francisco (SFO)
  • 1 Oakland (OAK)
  • 4 San Jose (SJC)
  • 1 Sacramento (SMF)
  • 0 Reno (RNO)
  • 0 Monterey (MRY)

ZOA Operations

Online Controllers

There are no controllers online.

Recent Promotions

May 27
Devin Payne passed the vZOA Major Tower (SFO) exam!
May 27
Faka'osi Latu passed the Orientation Quiz exam!
May 25
Devin Payne passed the vZOA Major Ground (SFO) exam!
May 22
Jackson Burow passed the vZOA Major Tower (SFO) exam!
May 15
Nelson Tieku passed the Orientation Quiz exam!

vZOA Top Controllers

Top Controller Monthly Time
Rohit Chadalavada "RC" - 1648173 67:30 hrs
Mathew Howard "MO" - 1600697 38:26 hrs
Brett Wells "BW" - 810036 31:48 hrs
Matthew Tedesco "MT" - 919571 27:03 hrs
David Hunt "DH" - 1614584 26:42 hrs
Top Facility Monthly Time
Norcal Approach 112:19 hrs
Oakland Center 91:15 hrs
San Francisco Ground 86:32 hrs
San Francisco Tower 77:46 hrs
Oakland Ground 57:13 hrs
Top Controller Weekly Time
David Hunt "DH" - 1614584 04:21 hrs
Brett Wells "BW" - 810036 03:34 hrs
Pete Wise "PW" - 1253925 02:18 hrs
Brandan Dadoun "BD" - 1329591 01:45 hrs
Ken Greim "KG" - 1652151 01:20 hrs
Top Facility Weekly Time
San Francisco Ground 05:10 hrs
Oakland Center 03:34 hrs
Oakland Tower 02:18 hrs
Norcal Approach 01:45 hrs
San Jose Ground 00:31 hrs
Top Controller All Time
Matthew Chicoine "MC" - 815543 3532:10 hrs
Brett Wells "BW" - 810036 2639:20 hrs
Dominic Nguyen "DN" - 1200795 2361:17 hrs
Michael Mund-Hoym "" - 1038942 2161:05 hrs
Nick Navarro "" - 1082318 2040:34 hrs
Top Facility All Time
Oakland Center 15031:17 hrs
Norcal Approach 12477:53 hrs
San Francisco Tower 5440:16 hrs
San Francisco Ground 4213:55 hrs
Oakland Ground 2228:51 hrs

Recent vZOA Feedback

Feedback for Brett Wells

Was very friendly and clear with instructions, by far my favorite controller in the Oakland airspace. Always very friendly and always clear on instruction.

  • Submitted by PAtrick Wolfe flying swa2558
  • |
  • ATC Position: OAK_CTR

Feedback for Michael Bonaga

The "Bingo on the Bay" event was great fun! It was a super neat way to get a good mix of GA and airliner traffic flitting about the same airspace, and not to have all of the GA traffic on top of each other going to the same places. Genius! My only critique is in the documentation for the event. There was WAY TOO MUCH of it, and it made it seem much more complex than it really was which might have scared some potential participants away. A simpler step-by-step -- (1) fill out this form anytime before or during the event, (2) type "/bingologin" to connect this Discord to your VATSIM account, (3) type "/bingocard" to generate your card, then (4) for each picture type "/bingopicture", select an image, then type a name (without spaces) to identify which landmark it is. That was all one had to do, but, the walls of text and multiple Google docs and Discord channels one had to navigate to boil it down to those four steps was a bit much. Hopefully with the process now ironed out a bit, the instructions can be simplified for next time! Cheers!

  • Submitted by Robert Shearman Jr flying N514DV
  • |
  • ATC Position: ZOA_TMU

Feedback for Gene Cao

Great job at the end of the Oakland event tonight! I counted 50 aircraft under your control at one point when all other controllers left you! Calm, helpful, organized.

  • Submitted by Dan Nicol flying Dmnic21
  • |
  • ATC Position: OAK_CTR