I understand that there is a HUGE majority of “pilots” who do not fly in the real world. In that case, I encourage the use of this app/simulator (whatever you prefer to call it) to help you get an IDEA of what it is like in the real world. But there is still the problem with pilots who are on the Advanced server who SHOULD NOT be just because of their radio work. Pilots should understand HOW and WHEN to use the radio, because there are a lot of pilots who just make our job as ATC exponentially harder. Please consider these couple things next time you go flying! :)
**1).**First thing I want to say to you “Advanced Pilots,” please realize that when the airport is busy ATC will usually create certain runways for departures and arrivals so when you do not get your desired run way please understand this is to minimize any traffic hazards such as collisions to reduce the chaos and bring order to our airspace. If you don’t get the desired runway you want, so what you will be parking at the same airport anyway regardless which runway you use to land. And for departing traffic, you can always get back on your course when your in the air. However if the airport is not busy I usually let pilots go wherever they want. I do like getting into a fight with a pilot because I’m sending him to a certain runway and he keeps requesting HIS preferred runway.
2). Please be patient and AVOID SENDING DUPLICATE MESSAGES. It clogs up our dialog box and it’s just plain annoying. We have a an indicator that tells us when you guys request something and we will get to it after we are finished what we are doing with other aircraft, I promise you it doesn’t take that long.
3). REQUEST TAKEOFF WHEN FIRST IN LINE. We do this in the real world literally we contact tower when we are actually ready and the first ones in line to take off! when you request for take off and your not the first person in line it once again just takes up space in our dialog box and most likely (if you are me) I will ignore you until you are the first person in line to focus on other traffic
4). CHANGE FREQUENCY TO THE NEAREST UNICOM WHEN APPROVED A FREQUENCY CHANGE. If you stay on our frequency then it clogs up our flight strips and creates a mess on our screen. it takes 2 taps to hit the BACK button and then to select another FREQUENCY
5.) Please be sure to IDENTIFY WHAT YOU ARE ACTUALLY DOING. There are plenty of times where I have people say “so and so ready for take off runway whatever remaining in the pattern” and then they depart or vice versa.
6.) Also, I see many pilots who DO NOT UNDERSTAND AN AIRPORTS TRAFFIC PATTERN. The best way I can put it is, after you takeoff LEFT TRAFFIC means make left turns RIGHT TRAFFIC means make right turns. The traffic pattern is always in relation to the runway’s heading.
these are the 6 things I think happen the most to us controllers on Live and this never happens in real life. People want to make this simulator as real as possible, yet I feel like the most unrealistic part about this simulator is the WAY the radio is used because there are A LOT of people out there who do not know how to work it. FDS has created, what I think, to be the most realistic mobile flight sim out there because of this pilot to atc in-game interaction between users but the way some users work the radios is just not right. Please add anything to this if you have something and lets make IF Live a more friendly radio environment for ATC
P.S I’m an actual pilot in real life not ATC so my apologies if anything is wrong in this little rant. if so please feel free to edit. I go to school for aviation so my training is more “up in the clouds” so to speak. :D
Traffic Pattern Example