Hey guys, this is just something I’ve noticed a bit recently. I have seen a few planes spawn in with an incorrect callsign, and I’ll use my current session as an example. If a controller is open in Dublin, and you spawn in as a BA A320 with the callsign “Alaska 123”, you may not notice it. Then, you send “Dublin Ground, Alaska 123 ready for pushback with information Alpha”.
Oh shoot! You have the wrong callsign. You quickly change it to match your flight, Speedbird 456. That’s all fine. But then, what do you do after? A couple people might think “Well, I’m a different callsign, so I need to request again”. You don’t need to do this. Our flight progress strips keep track of your flight progress, no matter how many times your callsign changes. We can always check and see the callsign you used to pushback, just in case we are confused at all.
This isn’t bad or ghostable or anything, and I understand why it happens, but in busy situations it can help clear up a bit of the frequency clutter and annoyance. Thanks!
Ive done this twice but ive done atc on training and know it didn’t need a second request in my opinion even if your not good at atc or are not planning on being atc at least try it on training once so that you get an idea of how it looks when a pilot makes a request or multiple requests that are not needed to better help understand when you encounter actual atc
Changing the callsign after spawning causes another issue: on the replay the radar screen never gets updated. So to use Cameron’s example if you spawn at Alaska 123, then change to Speedbird 456 on the ATC’s replay the log will show Speedbird, but the radar will show Alaska.
Why is that a problem? If you end up being ghosted or have a question to the controller that requires looking back at the replay it’s really hard to find the aircraft, as the radar will have the incorrect callsign on the aircraft tag.
I feel like if that does happen that the controller should make a note of which user it is as well as the pilot should note that the callsign was changed and at what time so that that issue can be avoided giving a ghosting or reports
There’s no way the controller would know that. You only know after the fact, when you go look at the replay and realize you can’t find the A/C on the radar.
When a pilot calls in for pushback, taxi, etc then when they make their next call with a different callsign then it should be noted I feel like if you are paying attention you should be able to catch a callsign change
I have to be honest - that suggestion sounds like a joke when you consider everything a controller has to pay attention to during a session.
Even if that was feasible, the issue remains throughout the session, so if you spawn at JFK today, change your callsign and fly to YSSY, the replay on YSSY’s controllers will have the wrong callsign.
Yes sir! Even if there is no active atc on your origin and you spawn, change and fly… callsign will show incorrectly on the ATC replay for your destination airfield.
I see I didnt know it continued even to your destination but that is why I said the pilot needs to make a note of it as well however my statement of paying attention stands but I will correct myself I see it being an issue at really busy airports and at your destination but as far as correcting ghostings or reports the pilot should know who controlled at take off and landing so if he gets in trouble near his destination than he can communicate with both controllers to verify the callsign change