New to ATC

ATC
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Hello guys, I’ve just recently subscribed to IF pro, been playing on the training server atc for just over a week with only 400 operations.

I have questions regarding staying on track with all the request, changing of the flight strips, and the positions of the aircraft. It seems like I always struggle to find where an aircraft is on the map due to the tiny text, also when there are multiple aircrafts making requests one after the other the flight strip reshuffles to a point where I have to scan through the list to find the aircraft that I’m trying to reply to while more requests are pouring in.

My questions are:
Do other beginners also have the same problems?
How do you remember where everybody is?
How do you remember who is still waiting for your instructions? (For example I’m on ground, multiple people requested for pushback, I made them hold position, now that the taxi way is clear I can’t figure out who’s waiting and I can’t find the text log in the mountain of new texts showing up)
How do you find text logs quickly when almost everything is in the same color?
Can you enlarge the text log window?
Or am I just over thinking it and have to just spend more time on the server?
Any tips for a beginner?

I have also been trying center lately, a problem I encounter is whenever another center frequency right beside me closes down suddenly a lot of people from outside my frequency will constantly tune into mine. So, do I just keep sending out frequency change approve messages?

Also when I get overwhelmed with the mess that I dug myself into, is it better to quit the session and leave everyone confused or is it better to stay on and figure it out even if it means I’m gonna be providing a horrible service?

Thanks for your patience and hopefully someone knows what I’m talking about.

And I’m gonna make it clear here that I’m on the training server and intend on being there (probably for good).

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Hello and welcome to the community ☺️

Please review here:

If you have any further questions then do let me know. Thank you and have a wonderful day!

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I think so, Take your time to familiarze with the UI first. So you can have a we say Happy Controling.

Actually i just doing a “Double Check” and doing zoom-out/in to make sure.

Usually at the message log, there is orange tick which indicates when the pilot request something, as you mentioned above just using a Common Sense if taxiway is clear after you holding position the aircraft just give him a Pushback Approved even he didn’t request.

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Sounds like you’ve controlled Heathrow, LA or JFK. All of which can be pretty hectic with a lot of people not even listening. It does eventually sort itself out but on occasion I’ve given up controlling Heathrow as there were too many people not even trying to listen to commands. Might be worth trying to control a smaller airport than those three.

Edit: welcome to the community btw!

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Hello, and welcome to the IFC! Hope you have a good time here with us :)

I’ll try to answer your questions as best as I can.

We all started somewhere. During the start of your Infinite Flight ATC career, if we want to call it like this, we all faced issues, problems or make mistakes. It’s perfectly normal! With practice, though, everything will be smoother day by day.

In my opinion, you just need to get used to the ATC interface and then, once you also familiarized yourself with the airspace you’re controlling, you will find it pretty easy to remember where everyone is. While controlling large portions of airspace, such as Centre, it may be hard to see everyone, but as I mentioned above, you’ll get used to it and remember where everyone is :)

Regarding this, there is a “Set Reminder” feature while doing ATC on IF. You can click on any aircraft and select the “Set Reminder” button, and from there, you can set a reminder which starts from 1 Minute to a high number of minutes (I genuinely forgot how much the maximum is, but it is between 10 and 30 minutes if I remember correctly). Once the timer has ended, the aircraft strip will flash, reminding you about the aircraft you had, for example, to push back after being told to Hold Position.

Personally, if I have to remember what I told the aircraft, I just click on them and then, on the right-hand side of the screen, it’ll open the command menu and at the bottom, you can see the text logs. Otherwise, scrolling through a lot of text without selecting a specific aircraft would be a pain.

I believe this is not possible, no.

Not overthinking, no. Just asking some questions, which are perfectly fine for a beginner!

In addition to the guide Daeng-E linked above, I’d say that my main tip is to practice as much as you can while familiarizing yourself with the ATC interface.

If someone is outside of your centre airspace, yes, then you need to issue FCAs (Frequency Change Approved) because they’re not part of your airspace anymore. If they do not switch/tune off of your frequency, it’s fine. Do not spam them with a lot of FCAs, just let them be. Unfortunately, since it’s not a handoff (so, like a “Contact Approach at XX.XXX”), people may forget to tune out of your frequency.

If you feel overwhelmed, just like what happens to the ES (Expert Server) controllers, it is better to leave the frequency to someone else. Nobody is forcing you to stay and stress yourself out. After all, if you control while you’re overwhelmed, you’ll provide a worse service than someone who is not. If, however, you decide to stay, it would be better to stay calm, and try and make and execute a plan, without panicking or anything like that.

Hope this message was helpful and answered most (if not all) of your questions! Let us know if you have any other ones.

Thanks, and have a good one!

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Good to know that that I can just approve push back, my problem with the message log is I find it hard finding specific messages on a tiny window, but I guess that more of a me problem.

I’m gonna re-read the manual a few more times and spend more time online, hopefully soon it won’t be so stressful

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Now that everyone is pointing it out, it does seem like I need to get use to where everything is on the interface, especially where each messages are, I spend too much time finding things.

And I didn’t notice that when you click on the strip it filters the messages to the specific aircraft.

Thanks for the reply, super informative, will log on for a few hours to try things out.

One more question if I may
What are the green and orange dots that are on the bottom right of the flight strip?

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I spend a lot of time on Dubai, surprisingly not too many people choose it, at this point I just focus on the ones that listen and want to have the full experience.

And thanks for the welcome, everyone seems to be very serious, which is a good thing but kind of intimidating trying to ask my first questions.

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If there is a green dot, that means the pilot is active. If there is an orange one, it means the pilot is inactive/away :)

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Welcome to the Infinite Flight Community (IFC). Looks like fellow IFATC members have answered your questions.

Once you have 500 operations (as well as grade 3 pilot status), I encourage you to submit an application to become an IFATC specialist, which provides the privilege of controlling on Expert Server.

There is a written exam as well as a practical which one must pass to become an IFATC Specialist. IFATC has a great raining program. Trainees are assigned a trainer who will conduct ATC training sessions on a private server with IFATC controllers as pilots.

Based on your questions and interest you have shown, I believe you’d be a perfect fit for IFATC.

We were all new at one point, once you get used to the user interface, it gets much easier.

Once again, welcome to IFC - look forward to seeing you around!

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Sounds like you have been controling major airports, I recommend less hectic airports. Good luck! :)
Btw welcome!

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Everyone is very helpful, already at 600 operations after taking in peoples suggestions, truly helpful community you all have here.

I will keep the IFATC option in mind, have to fly more but the atc side is just sucking me in, for now the training server is just perfect. Thanks!

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Yeah, I tried the bigger airports a couple of times and learned my lesson, will leave it for the people who’s actually trying to get into IFATC

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We actually discourage people who want to join IFATC from controlling busy airports on training server due to the amount of incompetent pilots.

Feel free to do it but it will not be a pleasant experience:)

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Good to know, I’m still trying to figure out when to log on and which airport to tune into for that perfect medium of having enough traffic for enrichment but not so much it attracts pilots who just want to fly amongst a huge crowd, it’s especially hard if I want to control ground/tower.

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