They are not but it’s encouraged to know one’s limits no matter how experienced they are.
4 Likes
It is a good idea 💡 but I always did serve as many airports 🛄 as I could.
Wouldn’t it be a waste of thousands of beautiful airports in IF, if now it’s all going to be about hub airports?
As an IFATC you can now open any airport within your assigned region. That is nice. But it opens up another possibility, and that is that an IFATC can open an airport in his region that appears to have most inbounds, or traffic inbound in the next 1 or more hours.
By actively monitoring the traffic situation, the IFATC can ‘catch the pilot’ as he’s about the land. And it doesn’t always have to be the hub! That’s what I call a next level of service!
Obviously, the only way this is going to work if we stop our default ‘Ill just fly to the hub’ and the ‘I’ll just staff the hub’ behavior. And whether that is going to happen…
(Note: standard minimum airport staffing times still apply, so the new system does not allow us to hop airports, just to catch the inbound pilot.)
7 Likes
Yeah I mean they can’t do every single airport. That would take years for a sim that’s mostly limited to mobiles and tablets
1 Like
Hi Tyler, you also said earlier that instead of pilots following ATC around, now ATC would follow the pilots… 🤔
I’m trying to imagine this in practice. I love flying in New Zealand, and I know its always going to be a quieter country, but if we are to get a sustained ATC presense there (for example) what do pilots have to do, and how many of them are needed?
It would be difficult to justify starting a flight just in the hope that ATC will notice and come on duty…it seems a sort of chicken and egg situation.
That comment was actually to encourage members to join IFATC if they want to see greater staffing in specific areas. While you certainly don’t have to control every day (of course you want to fly too) you could join us, choose the Oceania region, and be that staffing you want to see in New Zealand.
As each region grows their presence you’ll see more traffic driven there. The pilots part in all this is simply to fly to those areas when you see them staffed to encourage the controller to open it again.
4 Likes
Excited to control whole africa. from top to the bottom 😍🥳
Ok, thanks Tyler, so it’s still really pilots following ATC then.
I’m starting to think that we might need a way to link up, communicate, and share plans for flights in advance in specific regions… 🤔
I can see the potential here for VA collaborations… (yes I’ll have to try and get Air New Zealand Virtual going one day!)… But initially it seems like an idea to advertise flight plans sort of…
I could make a thread say, and publish flight plans for Auckland - Christchurch - Nelson… Others could see it and plan the opposite routes, or a couple more regional legs… ATC sees it and a few of them say they will open the airports… The timings would be the tricky bit though…
This is honestly something that I’ve always looked forward to. Although the weekly schedules were good and the team did give a lot of variation, I think it is a good step forward to have this change as we can have more people in regions like Asia or the Middle East as nobody really flys there unless there is ATC. You would mostly see people around Europe and the Americas. Great job to the IF Team!
1 Like
This will be a big chance. I’m also excited for this.
Welp for sure changes will be a scary monent but, this one is exciting!
Really looking for it
Hello,
I have taken a nice break from Infinite Flight and I have decided to come back. I used to be a controller on the expert server and plan on working my way back to it. I do have a question though for anyone who knows more about this soon change. Will this continue to be just ATC controlled GND, TWR, APPR or will a Center controller be implemented as well?
1 Like
This applies to all ranks and control positions. Controllers are free to staff any airport or frequency within their assigned region at any time as long as they qualify for that particular frequency.
4 Likes
Also better IMO for everyone to have the chance to develop more in depth experience within regions, and to practice flying and controlling at the same airports over time. For example to utilise different approaches for different sized aircraft and be responsive to the need for runway switches for smaller planes.
Also local procedures such as circling visual departures to join fixes overhead due to high terrain (eg Queenstown)… These could be referred to in NOTAMs and over time we could learn to use them as in real life.
The big problem now I’ve found is that I feel compelled to jump in and fly out of /in to an airport that I have no idea about… (sometimes I don’t even know what country I’m in! 🤭)… Inevitably I find the same generic approach procedures…vectors to a massive line up for the ILS from 4000ft, again and again. Hopefully this new policy will lead to more effective and realistic aircraft operations!
1 Like
That is awesome! I really can’t wait to get back into this. I am sure you might remember me @Tyler_Shelton as a previous Controller a while back. My tag was Flare911 XD. Anyway I look forward to the updates. Currently flying on the Casual server to get the hours I need to hit that Grade 2 to start controlling. KMIA-KDFW Will hopefully catch some of you all in the skies soon!
3 Likes
I absolutely do! It’s awesome to see you back and we’ll look forward to welcoming you to the team again when you’re ready.
3 Likes
If that is implemented, will the hub airport disappear?
What will happen with FNF, now that we have no ATC schedule?
The FNF will still be on Friday and IFATC will be still controlling for the event
1 Like
Tyler can I ask a question about Oceanic Center frequencies…
Which regions have access to each oceanic center frequency or can any person of the Center position rank control any oceanic center frequency?
1 Like