Has ATC forgotten me?

ATC
#1

Hey guys.

I usually fly in and out of busy airports on th expert server. I understand that the ATC could be busy and I can see that. But sometimes I have been vectored really far. Sometimes, I get vectored back in when they realize. Other times, I just get lost. I don’t want to bombard them as I don’t want to be ghosted. Nor do I want to be forgotten about. What should I do? This has resulted in me flying miles away from the field, and a lot of go around. It is also sometimes just a big vectoring. Sometimes, they forget about me on the holding patterns as well.

2 Likes
#2

It can be very easy to assume ATC has forgotten you, but that’s usually not the case. If there vectoring you far it just means they want seperation, they want you to be behind a certain aircraft ,etc. But in a case ATC does forgot you, just resend your intention once. That’s what I’ll do.

9 Likes
#3

I understands as I do ATC on training too, but sometimes I’m not sure and there seem to be no planes. But then when I send, they sometimes warn about ghosting or check forum.

#4

Is this a frequent problem? The controller on the other side may have connectivity problems or lag. I too do ATC Operations on the training server, and from time to time I lag and have connectivity problems.

1 Like
#5

Not super frequent but not rare either

#6

Without concrete situations and images, it’s hard to say what’s going on. We don’t have a specific thing to look at. Certain things, like flying into the main FNF hub with 100 others are self explanatory, but there’s no way to analyse a generality.

Most of the time people think I’ve forgotten about them, I haven’t. There are any number of reasons why you might be sent away from the cone. The other day, I was working a single-runway field. Well, someone has to continue on downwind when there’s four guys arriving at the same time. Not everyone can intercept the localizer at the same time. I’ve also had people call in at FL340 30 miles out. Well, they’re not going anywhere near the cone for a while. Sometimes people take off from a Field next door and think they’re automatically first in line…and, no, they’re not. [i.e. taking off from Tijuana with a line for San Diego 30-deep and heading straight for the cone; 5 guys who’ve been waiting 30 minutes aren’t making 360s]

None of these may apply to you, but that’s the point. We have no idea what situation you were in, as we have nothing to go off of.

10 Likes
#7

image
F5362DD9-25BA-4401-81A5-7DDF0651E272.jpg1536×2048 541 KB

This is an example when I got lost in the shuffle. Thanks to @BluePanda900 for sorting it out. But I can’t tell the difference between these and just busy. I got lost in the shuffle as it was FNF in this one. I can’t find any more right now but I will post more if needed. I’m just scarred to be ghosted. I would just like some suggestions on how to deal with these situations without bothering ATC and/or being ghosted.

1 Like
#8

Only 1 time atc has actually forgot me, they said I’m sorry once they realised, I was flying out of a region lol back when we had those.

I was worried my throttle was gonna cut soon.

2 Likes
#9

You shouldn’t be scared of getting ghosted. Just follow the ATC instructions and you will be fine. Don’t spam the controller with the “with you” message. Keep in mind that IFATC uses ghosting as a last resort. It’s not something we wanna do. If you truly think that ATC forgot about you, I would suggest looking at other traffic around you and see how they were getting vectored around. That will usually tell you what to expect.

2 Likes
#10

To add to what Tim B had said, pilots can expect shorter flying distance to the airport when the inbound traffic is minimal. But when it gets higher, the circling radius increases proportionally to allow proper sequencing and separation. At the same time, there are always planes on ground to be sent into the air. The tower may ask the approach to hold the inbound traffic for a while for him to give clearance to the planes to take off when the queue gets too long. You may be told to hold or vectored to a far VOR if there’s no place in the ground to accommodate inbound planes.

Have enough fuel and be considerate of the brilliant works of controllers that why they do what they are doing.

3 Likes
#11

I got ghosted a couple weeks ago, because the ATC forgot me. And I hit standbys every 5 min. Once I was 100 miles away from the airport. And as IFATC is totally broken and they are never in the wrong of course the ghosting was kept. Quite rediculous. I was vectored when I was around 25 miles out, and was sent into the ocean while everyone else was in a holding pattern. I know how it feels, I wasn’t even spamming. If this happens I guess you should just turn back to the airport and request frequency change, or contact tower.

1 Like
#13

Not helping the situations, use check-in’s

I think a mod will sort it out for you if you have enough proof…

Maybe you are at like 36000 feet when you called inbound? Your flight plan doesn’t mean everything, there’s multiple things going on. If you hate it? Go back to casual

Do NOT do that, I will assure you WILL be called an idiot on the IFATC chat and you may also risk of getting GHOSTED.

If you have any issues dm the controller and I think all of us here at IFATC will be happy to sort it out for you.

11 Likes
#14

I just want to comment on this…

As a controller we need to have proof and give warnings before ghosting. In my opinion it often takes more time to gather all of the proof rather than working around the plane or finding a way to get him to land. I have already had situations where pilots get mad because I ghosted them but it’s not like you think. All of the controllers communicate together and for every ghosting I have multiple screenshots (and often videos). If there is no proof or if it’s wrong the ghosting is removed and we get into trouble. Yes we IFATC can get removed (obviously if it’s abused)

Also I want to add that you’re reaction or what you think is best is a kind of behaviour I hate! Spamming the frequency every five minutes is ridiculous. If he’s still sending you out maybe think a bit. Why is he doing that…? Am I following a plane…? Depending on how long ago it was maybe you were “unknown” to atc. He can’t do anything in that situation.

2 Likes
#15

If there are any complaints or assumptions about the why, how, what, when, and who of ATC, then there must be either recordings…or at the very least screenshots of such. It is important to understand that IFATC is volunteer…and yes with that “great power comes great responsibility” concept… Bottom line is if you really have an issue and/or concern with an ATC controller…speak to them directly and communicate your concerns to support directly first.

#16

All controllers would agree with Matthew here. Try doing this and you’ll find yourself back at TS for the next 7 days.

6 Likes
#17

When you do that your only building a case against yourself. Sending standby every 5 minutes (I’m sure it was more like every 45 seconds to a minute) serves nothing. Your only making the controllers job harder with all the useless noise.

No, please do not do that. That’s not even the correct use of check-in.

The Check In feature serves two primary functions on Infinite Flight:

  • Requesting Flight Following from the FIRST radar controller the pilot contacts when they have an acceptable flight plan.
  • Advising a radar controller that they are on your frequency AFTER BEING SWITCHED by a pervious radar controller.
#18

So, did you get your answer?
If this happens, you can ‘check-in’ with the radar controller.

The instruction below from Tyler on check-in does not mention this, but the check-in instruction can be used to ‘remind the controller that you are there’. Be very careful not to abuse this though! The radar frequency can get very busy, and the last thing we need is ‘check-in spam’.

And…don’t be scared you’re being ghosted. I hear this often lately, but believe it or not, IFATCs are not on some sort of mission to ghost people.

2 Likes
#20

Happened to me at YSSY(Sydney) once. Went to cross Runway 34L I think it was to taxi to parking. I asked if I could cross the Runway 34L to the ATC and he/she told me to hold short. So I did until the plane exited the Runway which had just landed and also when there was nobody on final. I asked him again 10 mins. later because I thought he forgot me and I get a “Check ATC Help Pages” Reply. Was pretty confused and I thought of making a topic about it but then just left it. Also, incase you were wondering, my connection was great at the time.

EDIT : I ended up leaving after 20 mins. He kept on telling me to “Check ATC Help Pages” and “Please don’t send duplicate messages” everytime I asked to cross the runway which was every 5 mins. That was probably the worst experience I’ve had on the Expert Server.

#21

…so you made your screenshots and followed the procedure and sent a direct message to the controller. Good stuff.

Now, before we drift off topic further…I believe the query of @flyme2bluemoon was answered? If so, I suggest we close this case…

#22

Yeah, I did a screenshot of the controller’s name(Still have it as well) but wasn’t too sure if I should ask him why he told me that because I thought he would forget about it since there were a lot of people at Sydney that day.

Anyway, we can take this to a further PM to discuss what happened if you want.