IFATC giving unnecessary remarks

Hello,

Hope all is well! I don’t usually come on here and do this, though this time i felt i wanted to do so.
So i just departed KATL a couple of minutes ago. When i was handed to DEP, i requested a flight following to my destination, as i usually do. This is the part where i wanna make sure i did things correctly. Why? Well because the DEP controller started asking me to check the user guide for ATC intructions, then to procced to send: continue as filed.
I was confused, responsed normally and waited. Then the controller proceeds to send out the same demand to another pilot requesting the same as i did.
I thought to talk about this, because as pilots n-and as controllers, we wanna make the Expert server the best , as much as IFATC would want that as well.
That being said, i appreciated the effort and happy flying!

NH-77

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Also to add to this (and im sure I’ll be blurred because words are scary in 2025), what’s the point of contacting departure if they never give us altitude or vectors?! MAKE IT FUN AGAIN

Flight Following is for VFR flying only. If you are under IFR weather conditions (under 3 miles visibility) and/or going above 18,000ft at any point, you are not flying VFR, you are flying IFR. In which case you just need to “Check In” - ATC will respond with “Radar Contact” which approves your flight plan and gives you clearance to climb to your initial cruising altitude - if we need to intervene, we will. You probably received “Check User Guide” because the controller could clearly see you were not flying VFR.

We just let you fly your flight plan or whatever you plan to do - if we need to intervene (e.g. to avoid a conflict), we will.

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I get it, but sometimes its fun to get vectors to a point. I guess I’ll just go out and fly real airplanes if I want that haha

It’s unnecessary workload to give vectors to an aircraft that doesn’t necessarily need them. Especially given the fact that most of the time, departure is being controlled by the same controller who is also handling inbound traffic, which generally requires more attention.

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Yeah yeah, I know.

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Alright i understand thanks for clearing that up. I gotta add though these instructions are not easy to find, if they are even written somewhere. (I did check the guide and looked around)

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Have a read of the ATC Communication section of the flying guide - it details everything including common mistakes we see:

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I fully appreciate that departure control in Infinite Flight is probably not the most “realistic” - but it’s probably the way that works best for us with the tools we have. We don’t have things like “proceed direct to waypoint ___” so there’s that.

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Hi, IFATC radar controller here. I often open up departure frequencies, and my view of departure is purely as a frequency to deconflict traffic if necessary. Most of the time, aircraft have appropriately filed procedures, but in the case that they don’t, departure vectors are used. (a good example is parallel departures at SFO off 1L/1R. I use a lot of vectoring there when I control)

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Thank you for the responses. This was a mistake on my end now i’m aware, and now this has been cleared up for future DEP communications. But as i dove more into the instructions guide, i must point out and say again that this was really difficult to read and understand exactly of the communication should occur in a situation like this one. The DEP pilot to controller communication section didn’t really showcase this, and i was never aware of it before. Thanks again!

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Would like to add that technically FF is a valid way to establish contact for Infinite Flight purposes since there’s no clear definition on what is VFR and IFR in IF. Not saying you should ask for FF, it’s of course highly unrealistic and checking in is always better, easier and recommended when flying commercial. :slight_smile:

Essentially as you’re probably departing as a commercial airline most of the time(sorry to assume), you are simply checking in with departure like they do irl - of course the departure workload on IF isn’t as essential as irl, but I’ve had experiences where vectoring departing aircraft has been needed at certain places(CYYZ I’ve had a few times)

The mistake most pilots do is call for flight following after check in or not a VFR. Flight following is simply saying “keep an eye on me please”, whilst still visually being responsible for avoiding conflicts yourself :saluting_face:

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Hi @NH-77,

Thank you for posting on this subject. I was likely the departure controller based on your message timestamp.

You requested Flight Following, a VFR service, for an IFR flight. Flight following is a VFR advisory service primarily used in general aviation.

As an IFR flight, the only thing you’re required to do is check-in. Going forward, all you need to do is check-in.

I wish we had the ability to send a specific response vs the generic check user guide.

KATL (busiest airport in the world - irl, at least) has excellent arrival STARs and departure SIDs which deconflict arrivals from departures.

Some airports have departure procedures where a departure controller may issue vectors to your initial fix – However, KATL is not one of them.

If there is a conflict, departure will provide instruction to deconflict - most often, a stop altitude will be issued which allows arriving traffic to safely fly over departures.

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You can review more details here.

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Exactly and i would like to hear those words (my callsign right) then they give me a altitude to climb to eg DAL210 climb and maintain FL110 and then get handed over to center frequency and given my final climb altitude maybe FL400 and that would be so nice so that we could have more realism and that there arent much of this happening where we have center or depature…its very rare for me to see this happen

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Understand that it’s largely what happens IRL. But unfortunately, due to current constraints in Infinite Flight, we seldom see Departure + Center both open simulataneously unless there’s a busy airspace. Most IFATC members understandably prefer to open only when there’s traffic to control.

Regardless of traffic levels, the primary role of the Departure Controller is always to deconflict departures from arrivals to maintain seperation at all times. This also includes managing departure-departure seperation (ie airports with parallel runways).

In busy airspace, Departure Controllers already face high workloads, so altitude requests such as “requesting climb to FL320” can be distracting and burdensome.

That is why the baseline understanding is this: If your FPL already includes climb/cruise altitudes, pilots should only send altitude requests if you intend to deviate from your FPL. This is reinforced by the message “altitude requests not necessary” that controllers can send.

The reasoning behind this is because it’s assumed Dep/Center has reviewed your FPL and has accepted it. If the Dep/Center Controller doesn’t agree with your FPL, they are free to assign you vectors or altitudes as necessary for traffic avoidance.

It’s also worth noting that countless airports have no Departure frequency, so either Approach or Center take on the role of Departure in such cases.

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I agree and this is something I want to change. Departure should be a little more “hands on” as you get out of the terminal environment. Of course, sometimes you’ll get very little because the SID is doing it’s job but I do hope to make the departure experience a little more interactive with ATC’s ability to see your filed altitude and issue initial assignments. Appreciate the feedback!

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