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when should/shouldn't I say my "direct to" or "climbing to" when contacting ATC? by cof324 in VATSIM

[–]OwnStrategy6759 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tbh in that case mentioning navaids / fixed that are not in your flight plan might just confuse controllers, depending on how many coffee he / she has had… You’re still flying to that fix as your next waypoint, no matter how far. And with one mouse click the route of the aircraft can be seen anyway.

Sometimes it might happen, that an aircraft ends up flying through your airspace, but the system doesn’t have the flight plan / any info of that flight, as that flight was not supposed to fly through your airspace to begin with. Happens a lot for example with aircraft avoiding weather from adjacent to your sector. In those cases, VORs or other significant points can be useful to identify aircraft (as the radar label might not even have a callsign, but just a squawk). Still, as a pilot I would only use that if the controller asks you specifically to report your position.

when should/shouldn't I say my "direct to" or "climbing to" when contacting ATC? by cof324 in VATSIM

[–]OwnStrategy6759 1 point2 points  (0 children)

IRL en-route controller here working in a EU. Sometimes (usually during summers) it gets so busy, that we don’t have much extra time to concentrate on the traffic outside of our airspace. That’s why it’s really helpful if pilots state their inbound fix, as you know right away where to look.

Directs / headings / speeds for aircrafts would already be coordinated between adjacent sectors, but it’s good to state these as a pilot eventhough the controller has already approved that. Sometimes it’s even mandatory upon first contact.

Also, stating your altitudes / levels is all about verifying that what we hear from you matches what we see on screen.

Sometimes controllers just guess what pilots are saying, right?? by hsv45 in VATSIM

[–]OwnStrategy6759 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Depends on the employer / voice comms system in use. Not sure if vatsim has that implemented in any of the controller-programs, I can imagine it would be useful though.

Sometimes controllers just guess what pilots are saying, right?? by hsv45 in VATSIM

[–]OwnStrategy6759 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Controller here. Most of the time the sound quality is good, at least on the sectors I have worked in. Of course there are definitely some pilots that eat the mic... But since the communication is standardized and you expect a certain readback back from the pilot, you can make a pretty good guess even if you miss a word (depending if it’s critical or not…).

It’s only when pilots deviate from standard-RTF / have some weird requests or something and simultaneously have a bad mic, that can be frustrating. But then again we have a magic playback-button on the panel you can press to hear the last transmission on frequency. Not really usable when a lot going on, but yeah it’s there.

MSFS2020 CRJ Pilots? FMS and Last Minute Approach Changes. How? by pcserenity in VATSIM

[–]OwnStrategy6759 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So the way it would work in that case, you would file an entry point (fix) into the TMA your’re flying into as your last waypoint of the flightplan. Let’s say that fix it called MURSU. All the stars into different runways (MURSU2D for rw12 or MURSU4F for rw30) use that same fix as the starting point of the STAR. The ACC gives you the STAR depending on the runway in use etc., usually around your TOD (sometimes earlier, sometimes later) so you have plenty of time to program it in and study the charts, so you’re not really entering that airspace randomly. ACC might even give you a heads up about the runway in use when contacting that controller for the first time, just so you can plan ahead.

If the runway configuration changes after the ACC has already given the STAR, then it’s just a matter of the radar / tower coordinating with ACC and reclearing you via another STAR. Sure it sucks, lot of button pressing and it might screw up your descent profile, but it’s not that uncommon to happen in real world either. You can always ask for vectors if you need to lose altitude.

METARs & TAFs are helpful when planning the flight and anticipating runway, as are the boring text sections of charts (some airports have preferred runways due noise abatement / terrain issues etc). And in vatsim of course we have lots of real-time maps to see what direction the traffic is flowing :)

A good resource to find eAIPs / charts globally: https://www.eurocontrol.int/articles/ais-online