Friday 29 April 2016

Catching up and some news!

Good day!

I have been absent doing other things but I shall be trying to do more regular sessions now; you can now visit me on Saturdays and Sundays as a regular slot and I am on during the week late evenings most nights.

On Thursday the 21st of this month President Obama came to England, and what would you know he came in through Stansted, very cool!!

I am still looking to get the APP and TWR audio but due to legal issues in the UK surrounding the capturing of ATC messages it might be difficult. Here is the Standard's report on his arrival.

The London Stansted official Facebook page posted this picture for the event, to me it looks like he was debarking at the Business Centre, what do you think?

I was in my tower at the time, its a shame that I didn't know about it earlier I would have liked someone to try and simulate it real time, that would have been pretty neat.

FlightGear news

The event this weekend (Spring Festival) is being hosted around Asia and the Orient, I hope everyone is going to turn out for a fly! I will be in my tower as usual, so if you want a break from the high-traffic airways come to London and visit, I'll even get the kettle on.

In November TheJabberWocky group has another event lined up for early November, this event will be hosted in and around the UK. I have put my name forward to ATC in my tower for that event but I think they might want experts on for that event so I may have to sit out (I'll grab a remote AP somewhere else).

EGSS News

I have added a new webpage to my server where I will be uploading all the PDF files required for the airport. There are some there now, but I will be updating it with the more comprehensive versions. The link to that site is here.

I have an alteration to the route "ABBOT 1F" on my chart than the official one, this is just to clean up traffic above the airport and to make the turn into ABBOT holding/pattern easier. I shall now explain:
  • ABBOT 1F official takes from BPK direct to ADNAM(fix), ABBOT(fix).
  • ABBOT 1F modified take deom BPK to BKY to ADNAM(fix) ... and so on.
This means you do not have a hairpin right turn at ADNAM and I can keep that FL060 traffic away from approaches. 

Squawk Codes
As you know I do not always use these (and I will be more in the future, see below) but if you want that level of realism that feel free to say something like "with you, using squawk xxxx" or when making contact, if you mention a squawk code on contact I will then take it that you are using them and I'll do the same. Not everyone uses them or knows how, so I do not automatically assign them.

ATC Pie
I am looking at moving to ATCPie for my client software, it looks good but I have a few issues with it. When these are sorted out I will be using squawks more often .

Rant
I do not use direct vectoring for everything, I will use VOR's and fixes (if the pilot can see fixes) and I will route ALL inbound via the ABBOT approach (I rarely use CASEY as its the same as ABBOT with 5 degrees skew). I will also use LOREL but that simply ends up being an ABBOT approach once the AC has passed BKY.

There is a reason For this, when I started off I was direct vectoring EVERYONE to the runways, and once you have more than a couple of people coming in that way it becomes a mess, especially when you have a couple of outbounds too. I spent a lot of time learning and internalising the routes and so I will use them.

This does not mean I expect the pilots to know them too, if a pilot does know the route then tell me and all is great. If you do not know the route that's perfectly fine, I will just vector you on that route.

All in all I am trying to provide as much of a service as I am, if you are passing by I will update your FP for you. I'll check weather on your route if you ask, and outbounds get their route checked if they are unsure. Thats right, that extra 1 minute delay some people experience when they go somewhere I am unfamiliar with is down to me searching the exit points and planning your route for you.

Tips for new ATC
I am new too, and NONE of us are 100% perfect ATC. Bare this in mind.
  • Get the CAP documents from the CAA, these are great!
  • Give heading slightly early and add/subtract 1 degree to the heading for every mile you gave the heading in advance.
  • You are in control, but you are a service. Try to be helpful and treat pilots like valued customers, they are the nice guys!
  • Its not all about us, we are only there to help pilots play a flying game. We only see our screens and its easy to think of it as an ATC game, it is not its a flight simulator for which we are volunteers.
  • Pick one airport and "move in", make it yours and be proud of your reputation.
  • Direct vector EVERYTHING until you know your routes, and vector using chat as much as you can, this REALLY helps to reinforce learning.
  • When things get busy, take a breath, slow down, redirect someone across the map and back again if you have to. The "long way round" is better than an frustrated, stressed ATC. Planes take time to get from one place to another, this gives you time when you need it.
  • If you make a mistake, its OKAY, real ATC make mistakes all the time, no one will complain if you correct yourself, readout someone's callsign slightly wrong, or gave someone the wrong vector etc.
  • Listen to the pilots! Those guys really know their stuff.
  • And MOST importantly of all be consistent!! Even if you never use routes, SID, STAR or any procedures at all, have your own procedures in your head. Which VORs wil you use to route people into your active runway? pick them and stick to them, pilots will remember them next time.
Okay, its time for me to go now, I hope you guys found this post interesting and ill leave you with one more picture.


The end of a weekend shift at EGSS, one last inbound. (This display is showing the modification to ABBOT 1F which I mentioned earlier)

Thanks for visiting EGSS
Jay / Morlan (Stansted Approach/Tower)