So a few days ago, my discord group held a fly-in & out event at Hong Kong’s former airport - Kai Tak Airport with ATC active (G, T, D, A).
I don’t fly here that often, nor does my discord group but I am aware that there are several NOTAM rules at the airport.
There was one particular rule and it was that “flights between VHHH and VHHX are not permitted.” Despite that, I literally saw people rushing out of Hong Kong and immediately request approach to Kai Tak, which sort of disrupted my vectors for approach. Mind you that this was on the Expert Server.
If this happens, what does the ATC, who are familiar with the airport normally do? Do you not give them permission to land? Order them to divert to another airport or give them a warning for not following instructions?
What’s more I also saw someone in an X-cub and they started doing pattern work at Kai Tak even though it was clearly shown on the ATIS: “no pattern work & no light aircraft.” To my surprise, that person was an IFATC member and I was wondering if the ATC has the ability to issue a violation at another IFATC member. Has anyone ever done this before?
We are thinking about doing another event in the future so I just wanted to make sure.
Aircraft departing from VHHH should be instructed to divert to another airport by ATC, but if they refuse then they are reported for not following the NOTAM. Atis is an advisory service meaning that ATC can allow light aircraft and/or pattern if they wish even if it’s “no pattern work” and “no light aircraft accepted at this time” is in the atis.
If ATC is present or a supervisor is flying in the area, they will report people not following the NOTAMs. Some controllers might be more lenient than others and give warnings before reporting but since the NOTAMs are already published for everyone to see, people are expected to follow them without any excuses.
Are you sure that the person you saw in the X-cub was an actual IFATC member? No need to say their name publicly but I’m asking this because anyone can put on the IFATC tag in the sim, even people who don’t belong to IFATC. If you see an actual IFATC member, feel free to report this behavior to an IFATC moderator.
We as controllers on the ES have the ability to report anyone, including IFATC members. And yes, it has happened before where an IFATC member doesn’t fly appropriately and does not follow instructions, ending up reported. Everyone should be treated equally.
Just to add my two cents: if you privately reach out to the IFATC member who is controlling an airport and ask permission to fly some patterns and such, they will often let you or give you instructions on how to fit pattern work in with the current work load. Just because ATIS says something doesn’t mean the active ATC can’t make exceptions! I personally have done pattern work in a C-17 at KSEA during some busy hours, but because I reached out to the controller and it happened to be a departure heavy time, the controller had no problem letting me work patterns on the main landing runway! It made for a very fun time too!
Yes, I can confirm as there was the green tag on their profile. However, I won’t take any action against the user as this was only a minor concern in my opinion. The user also disconnected while they were flying on the right downwind so I’m assuming that they realized their mistake and left.
