Now I know that usually when players join and ATC comes online it would usually automatically connect but I think it would be a good idea to have an auto command that all aircraft can receive whether in the air or on the ground etc that informs them that frequencies are open.
example being:
“Attention all Aircraft London Heathrow Ground is now Open”
Same with Departure or Centre or Arrivals and Tower.
We have the closed message so people know but some people don’t realise frequencies are open.
It’s a weird one I know but in train server for example all aircraft will auto connect to tower when ground closes and then you have to contact them all individually to get them back onto Ground frequency.
It is not easy to decide in Air by the system to whom should you connect in case Approach and Tower came online together. Best is to just continue your flight until some controller joins and sends you an onguard which will get you an automated message to contact them.
For ground, when you are ready for pushback, just check the frequencies, if no one is there, start your pushback and meantime if someone joins, you will again get an onguard or routed on to their frequency.
Hello!! I believe that at the end of the day, it really is on the pilot to check if ATC is active especially when you’re getting close to an airport or preparing for pushback, since the control panel clearly shows open frequencies and you can see them pop up on the map. That said, I completely get where you’re coming from too, and I think a gentle alert system, kinda like the strobes light warning on taxiways, could be a nice middle ground. Maybe something like a subtle notification when you’re approaching controlled airspace, just to grab your attention without being intrusive, it would also save controllers time onguarding aircrafts in their airspace.
On the ground though, it already kinda works since the frequency tunes in automatically when it opens, so as long as pilots do their due diligence before pushing back, there shouldn’t be any major issues.