I see the frustration. I have lived it. The interface for IFATC is a little cludgy. Work a few hours on the trainingn server to see the steps they have to take. Just to give landing clearance. It is not ideal… maybe you have worked it. If so let’s focus on small immediate steps to improve it.
This can all be solved with stricter enforcement of the rules within the controlled airspace. There would be far fewer “excuses” and “mistakes” made if pilots not listening to ATC instructions, not observing and maintaining the established traffic flow(i.e. cutting/not maintaining spacing), taking off 20 miles away from the manned airfield just to land with ATC, deliberately have a fuel emergency to land ASAP, etc were more fearful of IFATC and were sent back to the training server. Let them make most of their mistakes there, it’s what it’s there for. As of now they know for the most part, all they’ll get is a slap on the wrist, so the saga continues. How does this relate to the main topic? If you had a little less traffic, but pilots who know what they were doing and were alert to their surroundings and instructions and made it a point to not make a mistake, would it not be easier on your workload. Would it not be easier to at least try to incorporate what real world procedures you could? Make Expert Server Great Again!
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Hmmm, I think this near enough answers a question I’ve had in my mind for months. I thought opening up multiple positions for each thing (i.e. 2 X ground, 2 X tower etc) was supposed to reduce this problem, but it makes sense that realistic procedures cannot always be followed considering the amount of ‘expert’ server pilots that act like amateurs. Kudos to ATC as always for doing a typically fantastic job with the tools they have!
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Everybody loves rl procedures, but with unrealistic amounts of traffic in a short time it’s just not to handle. In that case, all runways open and go for it.
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Are you aware that IFATC are required to pass a written and practical examinations? We don’t just spend “a few hours on the training server” and then magically get promoted :). If you ever feel there is something a controller could improve upon, feel free to message them and, who knows, you might even learn that what they do could be better than you originally thought.
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As said a few other times, another reason why some of these other frequencies/procedures do not exist is that some pilots are not as experienced as others, and may be able to behave themselves or properly execute such procedures.
For the waypoints, I suggest you check out fpltoif.com, where you can find the coordinates (How to Input GPS Coordinates to your FPL) for missing waypoints.
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Hey guys, I would like to chip in having controlled a fair amount ^^ Hear me out too.
While I was by no means the most effective controller on expert, when controlling even on smaller airports, the amount of traffic is actually very high.
This is not to say that controllers arn’t ready to handle these traffics, but that it is also a rather unrealistic amount of traffic. While some pilots in expert simulate their passenger boarding, most pilots would jump on, spend 15mins keying in routes, start their engine and ask for pushback.
When you multiply the amount of pilots who does that, the messages flood in real fast and a controller may break this realistic procedures that some people demand ^^ All so you dont have to wait 20-30mins stuck on a taxiway. If you are the minority that say you don’t mind waiting, that’s really nice of you =D
So now that we’ve established what pilots often do, how many pilots often do it, we can add a third factor where the messages queue up once you send it. There is no radio discipline in IF, while some users do patiently wait (god bless xD), many dont.
I believe these are a huge number of factors that contributes to the stress of an IFATC controller due to the design of the game itself but that isn’t to be blamed.
Ultimately, these IFATC peeps provides the ATC services that pilots want, but may not always have the liberty to follow RW procedures, otherwise the airport would be really full.
I hope it make sense ^^ Tyfys.
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I agree with this but my home airport KSJC doesn’t get as much traffic as say EGLL, KLAX, or KJFK.
It shouldn’t hurt controllers to follow the standard procedures for KSJC in IF as in real life.
Heck, when KSJC gets featured in a few days, most will be heading over to KLAX.
It shouldn’t hurt for those at KSJC to be able to fly realistically, do the right loop, and continue on.
It will get a fair amount of traffic. Additional I’m a person with a real life and IFATC. Sometimes I just jump in and start controlling without reading what the rl procedure is, just to provide service to the pilots.
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When it is in the schedule it usually gets a fair amount of traffic
It gets a fair amount of traffic but it doesn’t get a crazy amount of traffic like EGLL, KJFK, or KLAX.
It shouldn’t be too much to the point where we will have to start flying unrealistically.
If I know the rl procedures, I’m pretty sure that 98% don’t know them. This make it very difficult to stick to the procedures.
I agree it’s a lot of fun, but it’s very tricky to apply this to IF and even in traffic, we’ll purely use all runways available
Ik that
And that is why we have departures and approach control. They can vector the pilots correctly.
Understand, but unfortunately that’s not the case everytime.
I can assure you, that we hardly try to give you a great experience :)
See you in the skies
Hopefully traffic at KSJC is easy to manage enough to the point where flying realistically can be a thing.
Fingers crossed…
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For anyone that thinks IFATC don’t try to use real procedures… live approach at PHOG right now with the help of ForeFlight. :)
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Yes, definitely is fun to use the realistic procedures! Just saying that sometimes we might be unable to do so.
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You can expect realistic procedures during tomorrow’s FNF.
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Forgive me for stating the obvious - IF isn’t real! And when you have pilots flying in from all angles wanting their own runways what’s a man (or woman) gotta do? Try to accommodate. Expert or not, everyone is paying for this experience so I don’t think we can get superior on each other. Last thing we need is infinite flight fascism. Having said that we all have our own favourite airports and would love the proper approach. I would love to be able to vector people to the correct approach to Madeira or Gibraltar, or even London City rw09 but it isn’t possible. We gotta go with the flow. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
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I do love that Madeira approach though. ❤️
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