Sometimes when we control tower we have a traffic just holding short or taxing to the holding point, a feature for tower asking “confirm ready for departure” or… “Are you ready for departure” could significantly improve the traffic flow :)
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“Ready for departure” instead of “Ready for takeoff” according to real world regulations.
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Totally agree ‘Ready for departure’ sounds good
I forgot the ?, So for tower they can initiate the departure by asking. “Traffic X are you ready for departure?”
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Or “advice when ready for departure”.
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That’s what already happens now :)
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Personally, I feel it’s already too difficult for 90% of the pilots in IF - pretty much all of which don’t read these forums - to follow departure / ATC protocol.
Every 2 minutes someone is requesting takeoff from the gate or while taxiing and still minutes from the hold short line.
I’d like to see the takeoff request from aircraft read:
‘San Diego tower, N11345, at runway 27, ready for departure’
The tower should be able to respond (in addition to the already present ‘please only request takeoff when first in line’) with ‘only request takeoff clearance when AT the active runway’ … I think people request it when there is no one else around so technically they’re first in line.
In regards to your suggestion about being ready - no plane should really be sitting at the hold short line holding everyone up if they aren’t ready for takeoff. The tower should be monitoring ground traffic and jumping ahead to give takeoff clearance to a plane that’s approaching the hold short line and give them immediate clearance prior to them coming to a complete stop
Personally, I request takeoff clearance as I’m taxiing towards, and about 10 seconds from the hold short line (if no one else is in front me). This allows me to keep rolling if I get clearance and enter the runway without delay, or stop prior to the line if not given clearance. I also use the map as common sense to see if anyone is on short final etc and I’m obviously not getting immediate clearance, therefore I’ll just stop at the line and request
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“Contact tower when ready”…
acutally Mitch not bad at all…but what would kinda cool…just as the App can detect when you’re on the taxiway and give violations for taxiing too fast,maybe it can dectect when you’re at the hold short line and only then can you request “takeoff clearance”. Those behind of that aircraft CANNOT select an option to ask for clearance.
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Good idea - surely the app has that capability to detect that - it already gives you the warning message about inactive runways if you taxi near one, the same theory could be applied when you taxi to an active runway
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Tower could already give take off instruction without the pilot informing he or she is ready but then we don’t know the intention of staying in the pattern or leaving N E S or W.
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This would be good especially in the Playground Server because some pilots hold short of the runway waiting for takeoff, but I never get a request. Before you know it they takeoff without clearance.