Some pointers re. Ground ATC instructions!

ATC
1

Hey folks!

I was controlling ground at Sacramento during the Flash Flight this evening and there were a few repeating nuisances and errors from an ATC perspective that I thought I would bring up here!

1. Pushback Directions:

This is a new feature introduced in 24.4 and its clear that many pilots don’t understand the pushback directional commands correctly - see the image below - which demonstrates pushback paths from the gate shown in each direction:

IMG_0381
IMG_03811519×1007 134 KB

To explain the image a bit more:

  • If instructed to pushback, tail west - you want to end up with your aircraft facing east and vice versa.
  • If told to pushback, tail north, you want to end up with your aircraft facing south and vice versa.

There were several situations this evening where pilots pushed back facing the wrong direction - which created a few headaches.

I’ve also linked the Auto-Pushback tutorial below as this does also help explain it:

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2. Repeated Requests

I had several pilots repeatedly ask for pushback (even if there was an aircraft in the way) despite being told to hold position. Please do not do this - when it is as busy as it was tonight it is a waste of our time having to tell pilots to continue to hold position and to withhold from sending duplicate messages.

I realise that you may think that we have forgotten you - but rest assured we most likely haven’t. We have a reminder system which can be used on holding aircraft - and if you really think we have forgotten (say if the area around you is COMPLETELY CLEAR - its ok to ask again but only after at least a few minutes have passed).

  • On a slightly separate note regarding spawn locations - please do not spawn right next to the runway thinking you will get out quickly, you won’t - and it just creates an extra headache as we have to try and slot you in between planes who most likely have already switched to tower, and therefore cannot be told to give way to you. (maybe tower frequency should be able to give this command)

  • Also if you have been instructed to “contact tower when ready” in your taxi message, you do not need to request frequency change over to tower. Please pay attention this - if you ask for frequency change we will most likely tell you “you have already been instructed to change frequency”

There were a couple exceptions where I told an aircraft to stay on my frequency to easily facilitate a give way but then I handed them off to Tower once that was clear.

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3. Specific Taxi Instructions

If we give you a specific taxi path - follow it. Most of the time we will be giving the same taxi route to everyone going to a particular runway in order to optimise how the airport is run and to keep some taxiways clear for arriving aircraft. When some aircraft decide to take a parallel taxiway and end up blocking it, this just creates an extra headache for us.

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Final Thoughts:

Always remember to follow the ATC instructions, everyone. Particularly when it comes to specific pushback and taxi directions, it couldn’t be much simpler than it is. If you need clarification on anything, there is a wealth of information in the Community Tutorials section of this forum and of course the Official User Guide. You can also always reach out to us controllers privately if you have any queries about a specific procedure.

Thanks for reading - I know its a bit long, but hopefully its been helpful :)

Happy landings :)

45 Likes
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Well said I am an IFATC member for a few months now and still see these mistakes on the expert server it creates conflicts and issues that are a pain during a busy time during a flash flight, event, hub etc

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Even though I don’t think I’ve ever really done any of the bad things I’ll try to keep these tips in mind and follow them :)

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this is exactly why we need higher expert server requirements

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Thought I would bring up the relevance of the pushback directions part of this article again as it was a recurring issue at NZAA today.

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This really helps, thanks a lot for the thread :). I had bookmarked this. I actually had quite the same experience at JFK too.

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Awesome topic @BennyBoy_Alpha

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Thank you!

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I still really can’t understand how some can misinterpret tail to the [north, south, east, west]… it’s probably one of the most generic and easy to understand ATC instructions :joy:

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you could just click on the autopushback button on the atc comms screen, and it works, even if you didnt know

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This is true only if the Controller used the drag-and-pushback feature. I’d imagine most of the confusion comes when the Controller doesn’t.

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The problem with this feature atm is its a bit buggy - if someone has their engines on at the gate it doesn’t work.

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Shoutout to all of our IFATC controllers, stellar job all round.!! :tada:

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Just figured out the other day like “Drag & Taxi”… you can “Drag & Pushback!” While cardinal directions are simple sometimes takes a second to re-orient yourself especially if you are busy!

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Ok maybe I’m crazy but when I give pushback to west. has someone tail facing west. It’s happened a couple of times

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I’d like to add something here. If ATC gives a pilot a tail direction for pushback, and the pilot has auto-pushback turned on, the game will automatically give the pilot a pushback line.

Please correct me if I’m wrong.

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This is only if the ATC uses the drag and push feature. If ATC just use the instruction menu, it won’t generate a path.

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Even if they tell you “Face x”?

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Correct. ATC need to use the “drag and push” feature on the map for the path to appear.

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Didn’t know they had that ability. Thanks!