In telephony, so-called pause codes are used when a user takes his or her phone out of a network for a given duration, but so that it can still accept messages/voicemails. This is different to the blanket Do Not Disturb feature since that essentially prevents anything getting through. Each code denotes a different reason and estimated length for the inactivity, e.g. going on a lunch break for 30 mins, away from the desk for a meeting for an hour, too busy working on something major or time dependent to be disturbed, time indeterminate etc. I was thinking we might implement this at IF particularly for long-haul flights to give indications to ATC and fellow pilots as to how long its likely to be left unattended. Some I can think of are sleeping, studying/at work, eating, left running while at a different location. As to the time factor, it wouldn’t necessarily have to be compulsory, but when the time is getting close, the system could flash up an alert or make a sound that alerts the user to return to the device to either resume control or activate a new pause code. What do we think?
That’s a great idea for making the system more transparent and understandable to prevent issues due to misunderstandings. It also seems like it isn’t too hard to establish, so maybe the devs could pick this up!
Love the idea but does ATC really have time to read a message for every user who is afk?
Message? All I’m talking about is adding a symbol and a timecode to the ID tag.
Oh i thought it was supposed to tell them why they are away from their device? If it is just an eta of when they’ll be back then perfect.
The symbol would categorise the reason for being away from device. So for example sleeping would be 💤 or similar, eating would be 🍴 and so on. So mine would look like this:
theoneeyedtenor 💤 06:25
I guess i missed the code/symbol part of your request. Sorry for the confusion!
I belive theres already an indicator on our nametags that says “away for x minutes” and it shows it for ATC and any pilot who taps on the tag
For clarity, this is proposed as an improvement to this system. At present, the system tells you how long they’ve been away, but it doesn’t tell you at what point they’re likely to be back.
No bother :)
But my question is, how would you know what time youll be back? Not to mention, ATC doesnt really care what it is you are doing away from your phone, they just care that you are paying attention to it when needed, which is why the system is a simple “away for x minutes” thing.
I just think theres way more important things than this for the devs to work on or add. This is more of a user problem than it is an app problem.
If you dont have the time to fly or have access to your phone for at LEAST departure and arrival, i wouldnt fly.