With the IF world tour going on and the utter chaos going on at airports, can you ATC folks please let us know when you’re leaving?! I got instructions to extend downwind at PHX and then ATC just disappeared. Every plane in the airspace made a mad dash to the closest runway. Unicom was nonstop. Then when I landed, I had no idea ground was active. Listening to unicom, planes were announcing they were crossing the runway so I also announced I was crossing the runway and got a violation. Just let us know “hey you’re on an active airport, contact ground” or “tower is closing in 1 min” that way we can prepare ourselves. We can’t talk to you if we don’t know you’re there
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Happened in portland yeaterday, tower suddenly was gone for 2 minutes without warning, then out of no where he came back
Hello, when you are on Unicom and then ATC comes online, a notification will show in the top right of the screen. It will also automatically tune you to the frequency.
Thats the thing, it didn’t
Then try to appeal it and say you didn’t know. Maybe it will get removed.
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@Lij_Endrias, do you know the controller’s name?
Forgotten on the downwind is such a classic thing even irl
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IFATC have a command for “Attention all Aircraft, (insert Station here) is closing in 5 minutes.” Or 2, or 1 minute, even. Since these World Tour Airport are featured, more Controllers will likely staff them minutes after. Remember IFATC are volunteers. Regarding your violation, you can always contact the Controller directly or the appeals team. You can also check in the Radio panel for any Active frequencies. I also recommend, (on another device) opening a tracker like Inflight to check for any ATC that are online.
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I guess what I’m trying to say is, Controllers don’t have a command like “There’s ground Online” or “There is Tower”. While controllers can hand you off to the next controller, workload for that Controller will increase significantly at featured Airports. As @NICHOLAS_PACE said, appealing your Violation is your best option here 
Yeah he’s not removing it so I’ll appeal it
Only appeals can remove the violation, the controller can only provide insight as to what they saw during the incident. In a case like this, just remember that it’s always your responsibility to maintain awareness. Not saying the violation was therefore entirely your fault or that it won’t get overturned, but this sort of thing definitely could have been prevented by looking at the map and seeing the green text at the airport, indicating that there is ATC active.
Like I said, not saying the mistake is entirely yours, but it’s always good to be aware. Some things that I do to maintain awareness is to always know if there is just one controller on tower and ground, or two. I also try to find out how long the frequencies have been open. IFATC have a minimum control time, so if a frequency has just been opened, I won’t worry about it closing. However, if a frequency has been opened for 2 hours, I’m on guard in case it shuts down. Another good thing to remember is that real world events can suddenly stop a controller from being active. Perhaps WiFi or data issues, a child needs help, some sort of emergency, anything really. Most ATC do give an announcement that they will be closing, so my guess is that this one was sudden for external reasons.
All of this is just to say that we as pilots have tools at our disposal so that we can be aware of the situation, and that we should always give ATC actions the benefit of the doubt, just as we want them to give us the benefit of the doubt.
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