Hey guys,
I’m actually not a radar IFATC. But I was chatting with my buddy @JeppyG about his radar training. I learned that as a radar ATC you need to keep an eye of the terrain and avoid so called terrain busts if planes fly too low.
Cause we cannot see any terrain map on our ATC Control screen, I’m requesting to show at least the actual AGL of aircraft’s in the menu on the right side of the screen. You know? Where I can choose the different messages I can send to them I already see Speed and Altitude on the top, but not it’s AGL. Shouldn’t be this hard to implement and may help radar ATCs. 
Greetings! 
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Hey,
To help with terrain awareness, I would suggest using IFATC.org. Go to ‘Maps’ and put in your airport.
Also, for radar controllers, the ‘drag&vector’ feature allows us to see the altitude of any point on the map, so we can see if the path is clear.
If the current AGL altitude would be displayed in the side bar, and it gets too low, it would already be too late!
That’s why radar controllers will always have a good plan to guide the planes around the terrain.
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You can use drag and vector to see the terrain altitude underneath your finger, but it isn’t reliable. Utilizing approach plates and other resources is more reliable for planning. Since the aircraft is moving, knowing their current altitude AGL isn’t that helpful because they aren’t hovering. If we had helicopters that might be useful.
Planning for terrain before you open is simple. If you are unaware of the minimum safe altitudes while you are controlling, you didn’t plan enough prior. It would be a backup to a backup.
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