Hello IFC, I’ve decided to take a break from flying and try doing ATC! of course I got to start in the training server, because 1 I’m not allowed to do it in the expert server and 2 I’m not allowed to do it in the expert server.
Got a few questions before I go
Got any tips? Gonna need them.
Can someone tell me how the ranking works? Like, how to get up to the expert server.
Thanks, and hope to see you there!
BTW, if this isn’t the right topic, feel free to switch it
Hey there! Here are some things that help me when I control.
Use Flightradar24 to see which runways are being used and how traffic is arriving
See if you can find the ATIS on liveatc.net (does not work for all airports)
Make the airport work for you (maybe use one runway for patterns and one for landings if there are a lot of both, or one for landings and one for takeoffs).
I personally try to avoid landings on intersecting runways unless approach is in the picture.
Hope this helped!
I think something less textbook that people have not mentioned here yet is about controlling on the training server. Unfortunately, there is no way to really enforce your instructions (such as reports on the Expert server) when you start of controlling on the training server. Because of this, there will be people spamming your frequency, people not following your instructions, and people doing crazy things like taxiing through one another. Unfortunately, it is the “training” server, training pilots for the expert server, so there isn’t anything you can do. Following ATC instructions seems to be optional. This is extremely annoying and you will get frustrated at times. The reason I am saying this is that this could cause a new controller to stop controlling instantly. Another thing is reading the ATC manual from cover to cover (at least up to section 4). All IFATC (Expert Server ATC) have read and know the manual very well. After you meet the requirements that @AviationChampion mentioned, and you feel you want to dedicate your time to joining IFATC, having trainings and a tracking thread are also very useful tools. I wish you the best of luck and feel free to PM me if you have any ATC related questions.