So I recently saw a post asking about what motives there are to get to grade 5 and that had me thinking, what real motives are there? Except having the cool color and making the rest of us jealous.
I propose we have more “casual” ATC chatter. When you listen to ATC, they all don’t repeat the exact same way. When you’re on an Infinite Flight Approach Frequency, the controller may say:
ATC: “United 9624, Turn right heading 130”
Pilot: “Turn right heading 130, United 9624”
However if the pilot has reached a certain grade, they could say:
ATC: “United 9624, Turn right heading 130”
Pilot: "Right heading 130, United 9624’
Of course this is just one example there are many more. This would do many things,
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It would allow us as the pilots to add our own personal preferences or allow us to be more realistic with what we as the pilot might say IRL.
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It could give us a reason to work on getting grade 4 or grade 5! I mean who wouldn’t want to have more control of how they personally respond to ATC?
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In some cases it may help ATC move along quicker and more efficiently. Whenever a frequency is really busy, a lot of times the text at the top of the screen doesn’t match up on what the voice is saying. If we were (as in the example above) to take out the word “Turn,” and that occurred 4 or 5 times (which is very likely even if only one pilot cuts out the word 'Turn") That would save almost an entire line of ATC in the end!
Now here’s the question, where could we alter the ATC responses? I suggest we could make so when you click on your profile, it has another tab which says “ATC Commands” or something along the lines of that. When you click on it it will have a list of all of the current standard ATC commands. From there you could click on one, and it would give you different options you could replace it with.
For instance,
“Turn Right heading [Insert Heading Here], {Callsign}”
Then you would click on this and it would have options below it such as
"Right heading [Insert Heading Here], {Callsign}
You would then select this as the new option, and then press a button saying “OK” to confirm it.
Let’s say for instance you needed to be Grade 5 to access this, but you’re only grade 4. The button saying “OK” need to confirm this, would be gray (Like Pre-Global if you needed to purchase an aircraft) and unpressable saying “You must be grade 5 to have access to this!”
Just imagine it’s the crack of dawn at KLAX and you’re just ready to contact Socal Approach after your long haul from Sydnee. All of the other pilots (Flying from KSFO) are saying “Socal Approach Delta 111, with you” While you get to say, “Socal Approach Good Morning, Qantas 9624 Heavy, with you” I mean what’s not to love about that?
I hope you enjoyed this feature request! I made a list below so the entire community can pitch in and request more ATC terms we could use!
| “Default Command” | New Command | Grade Needed to access | User who added this Command |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turn Right/Left heading [Insert Heading Here], {Callsign} | Right/Left heading [Insert Heading Here], {Callsign} | Grade 4 | @KIND9624 |
| [Airport Approach service] {Callsign}, with you | [Airport Approach Service] Good Morning/Day/Evening, {Callsign} with you | Grade 5 | @KIND9624 |