This ATC thing being necessary reminds me of a situation towards the end of my career…
In a final meeting with a trainee (after several years of training) when we were telling him, basically, “you’re done” (yes it sucks) his exasperated response was, “…this whole thing [ATC] is so chaotic and disorganized!..”. When he left the room myself and my boss turned to each other with astonished looks on our faces…Uh, yeah, your job is to organize things. You didn’t figure that out already?
The trainees previous life was more academic (he had an advanced degree in something…I forget, maybe geology?). This job was not. But it paid better.
Anyway, up to a certain level you don’t really need ATC. However, when you are ‘adjusting’ flights a1,000 miles from their landing point so it all ‘works out’ the system is likely beyond that level. Dunno, I may be biased. There was some fashion of drama every day, multiple times a day, depending on airline schedules, weather, etc.
Depended a lot on where you were at too; Corn field Regional vs Enroute/Big City Approach/Tower.
I of course don’t know how it works in a combat zone with little to no civilian traffic. But even in a heavy 90s war there were less maneuvering objects flying around than in a typical city served by Class B airports. The airplanes all had GPS, many had radar and some had Link16. So I think they could sort themselves out. In a much more rudimentary way, we were doing this during COVID when some towers were closed. We’d just say “you go then I go”. Certainly not as safe as positive control but doable in a low density environment.
I enjoy it, in the same way that one prefers clickable cockpits and cold starts. Improves the immersion.
Funny, are those male and female controllers the original? I kind of feel that they are, the voices so familiar. Both seem perfect for the role. The lady seems somewhat PO’d , all business. I wonder if they realize that they’ve been immortalized?
On the other hand, I usually leave MP PvE on hot start from the ramp, allowing deceased pilots a less stressful return to battle.
Where do you do your MP activity @chipwich? It’s been years since I’ve taken BMS online. And yes the voice actors nailed the tone perfectly. Even the “Welcome Back” lacks the warmth of the actual words.
I received an “orbit for sequencing” directive late in an assisted approach recently.
The tower had sequenced my wingman ahead of me. I began a right standard rate turn and got to about 270 degrees into it, when the tower gave vectors to final. I completed the approach, landing behind my wingman, but it felt a little cramped, no doubt due to his/her perfect aviating, and mine sub par. Looking at this screenshot, I see that my FPM is a little long and to the right of centerline. At least I’m on speed and glideslope, judging by VASI and the AoA indicators. Seemed hot at the time.
Looks great to me. Everyone rolls fast to the end so being tight isn’t such a problem. Funny though. I have ATC and magic subtitles in VR without that separate window. It’s true that they don’t persist so I have to look up and left and read within a couple of seconds.
Been a minute (the phraseology isn’t correct IIRC - not much control there) but, yeah, it’s a thing. Normally proceeded by a “…sheet, this aint’ working out”.
It’s not horrible (lotsa variables) down low, say, below FL180, though you have less airspace, but in the enroute world, yikes. It’s a cluster-pluck; passenger liners take up a LOT of airspace if you have to ‘spin them’ at FL330+, for a few reasons.
I’ve thought more than a few times about doing an ATC script for DCS but it really is a huge task to do it ‘right’. I’ve already finished, or close enough, one huge task [DEPLOYED] and don’t fancy another. And the threat of ED doing ATC dampens my enthusiasm even more.
Doing it for one location isn’t, maybe, as bad. But creating a general solution? Ick. And you’d never get all the correct data to make it '‘realistic’ to any given location. ED won’t either as a lot of these controlled areas change constantly, on a daily basis, due to weather (even the sun setting - ask Phoenix Approach), etc.
I’ve added a ‘thing’ to give you traffic calls; clear you for approach (Instrument and visual), minus the separation bits (so you’re not really clear). But dont plan to go further; sorta like a bare bones flight following service.
I was sitting on the jump seat one night going into SLC from DEN in a B752 with a headset on one ear so that I could listen to the approach. The captain was PF and the FO was working the radios. ATC asked if they had the field, which was answered something to the effect of not yet. Approach then instructed the crew to fly a DME arc for whatever runway that was in use that night. The captain said, “tell them that we have the field”, to which the FO complied. I certainly couldn’t see it, but fortunately it did come into view about 10 seconds later. The capt chuckled and mumbled something about it was about to become nothing but elbows and aholes in here if we had to fly a DME arc.
Myself and Jimmy (think that was his name), both freshly minted controllers, were working a low altitude sector one evening, I was the RADAR side, he was my assistant [in this case] when a GA comes along and…I can’t remember why we did this (was decades ago) we decided we’d use an arc (it was on the approach) to get him in and such. This was before GPS; we’d lose him on RADAR due to terrain too…but we had skills
Mind you we’d both just spent months doing this kind of stuff in the ‘lab’ (screening process) with OUT RADAR - it was non-RADAR or manual control. Well, nobody in the real world really uses that stuff (the screen thought it was harder cos you had to do everything ‘in your head’; pencil & paper, radio, map and a clock. That was it.
I recall this because the pilot’s (single engine something, don’t recall) response was, '…uh, a what? ", followed by, “heck, why not, never done that before”. Little different at 180 knots than in your story.
Supervisor wanders over and…I guess he overheard me…shaking his head, “you gave him an ARRRRC?..dang rookies…you’ll forget all that junk soon enough”.
And I didn’t use one that much over the next 30+ years, unless they asked for it.
I still recall my first jump seat ride (long before they canceled that bit) and the ‘holy cow’ that dude’s coming RIGHT AT US!" moment.
I didn’t say that exactly…something like, 'wow, they look a lot closer from up here", or something. The other jet was of course 2,000 (before RVSM) feet below us but at distance, and with 1,000 knots of closure…made an impression.
, all business. I wonder if they realize that they’ve been immortalized?
