Beta program status

[Keith Smith]

As of 3/25, the beta nights are now Wednesday (socal) and Sunday (norcal) evenings, 6pm-9pm PDT.

EDIT: The program outlined in this post was overhauled on May 15, 2011, see subsequent posts for more info.

To help concentrate traffic, focus airports are published for each beta night, with the flight starting 1hr after the beta begins each evening. Pilots are encouraged to utilize the first hour of the beta for 'free flight', and then take part in the published focus flight at 7pm. The focus flight is designed to concentrate traffic, so pilots have other planes to see and hear. This generally makes the experience more enjoyable for all involved.

With the focus flight complete, pilots are encouraged to stay online during the beta (if their availability permits, of course) and continue doing free flight within the coverage area.

In short, the flow of each beta night will hopefully be:
- free flight
- focus flight
- free flight

I think this provides a good balance of flexibility, but also maximizes our traffic density at least once each session.

EDIT:

[lwilliams]

This seems to be a happy medium, Keith.

Soon my life will be back to normal and I will be able to participate.

Keep up the good work!


Lee

[sgabriel]

Looks like a great way to begin. I'm looking forward to joining you Sunday (3 Apr.).

Godspeed!

Scott

[conor1121]

I have only used this network once and it was awesome but unfortunately my parents are making me go to bed at 9:00PM EDT so I am unfortunately unable to do this. Hopefully we could get something worked out with this problem

[Keith Smith]

Conor, I am often online during the day mon-fri. Just monitor the web site for atc status.

Altermatively, wait until we launch the public service, with 15x7 availability.

Keith

[Keith Smith]

Up until recently, the beta night program on PE was configured as follows:
- free flight for one hour prior to the focus flight (for anyone that wanted to)
- focus flight from A to B at the designated starting time
- free flight after focus flight

This had some issues, though, namely that most people, quite understandably, weren't starting the A to B focus flight at the same time. This resulted in a massively spaced wagon trail. In many cases, each pilot may as well have been flying solo...because they weren't generally seeing or hearing anyone on their frequencies. The program was not working as intended.

The focus program now works as follows:
- the distinction between free flight and focus flight is gone
- there is no longer an 'A to B' focus flight, instead, there are a series of nominated airports (approximately 4 each night)
- pilots are encouraged to fly between, or at least somehow involve, any/some/all of the 4 airports during the evening. This results in a higher likelihood of seeing/hearing other traffic, even taking into account the highly staggered start times.

We tested this last night in norcal and had a great result.

I am going to ensure that I feature 1-2 larger airports in the list, capable of serving Part 121, or Part 135 turbojet/turboprop aircraft. This is to encourage greater VA participation.

[deanpca]

I am brand new to the program. I have not flown yet, but was parked on the ramp at SMF watching and listening. I am a real world pilot, so I am looking for the realism that your product advertises. I was immediately disappointed when I heard the following exchange between a pilot and ground control. Pilot: "exiting runway", Controller: "please state your destination", Pilot: "Terminal 9", Controller: "taxi to terminal 9". Now this is not the exact verbatim of the exchange, but I was disappointed that the ground controller was not specific in his routing instructions. At any real airport the controller would give very specific instructions about how the pilot should get to "terminal 9 (fictitious terminal, I don't remember the actual terminal name). For example, I fly out of KMYF in San Diego. My flying club is at Gibb's FBO. So, when I land on 28R and switch to ground the verbal exchange would be as follows: Pilot: "Cessna 27663 holding a Golf & Hotel, taxi to Gibb's. (indicating that I am at the intersection of taxiway H & G and my destination is Gibb's FBO), Controller: "Cessna 663, taxi to Gibb's via Hotel and Juliet.", Pilot: "Cessna 663, taxi to Gibb's via Hotel & Juliet." (my read-back to confirm that I have correctly understood the controller's instruction.). Now, I do understand that not all sim pilots are going to know the correct FAA verbiage, and that some leeway for new or inexperienced pilots must be allowed. But I do expect PE controllers to use FAA procedures and verbiage. This is what I am expecting from PilotEdge. I do understand that you/we are still in beta, but if realism is the hallmark, this is the kind of thing I would be looking for. For what it's worth, that's my two cents based on a very limited experience. I hope to be flying your sky's soon and have high hopes for this system. I hope to use PE to maintain my real world pilot skills and keep my radio skills up to par when I can't fly real world, so my expectations may be a little high compared to other users. Hope I don't start a flame war, this is just meant to be helpful criticism. Thanks.

[Keith Smith]

Dean,

Your critique is welcome here, it's not going to start a flame war. If it happened as you described, then you're right, the controller was in error. The taxi instructions should have included the specific taxiways to reach the terminal.

The one time you'll see a deviation from this is when the AFD doesn't show the terminal names/numbers. We haven't furnished the ground controllers with custom diagrams of each airport with the specific terminal numbers for ZLA/ZOA, so if the info isn't on the AFD (which is what we're using to get the job done), then we're somewhat in the blind.

That, and many pilots are using X-Plane, which, at many airports, still doesn't have accurate taxiways, so we do have to compromise.

Give the full system a chance...I think you'll be pleased with the phraseology from ATC outside of the regime of taxi operations.

[Daddy O]

The pilot you were listening to was me. I was actually not surprised at the sparse instructions since it was almost a straight shot from taxiway A11 to terminal B2. The full path would have been A11 to A to A10. I was actually aiming for taxiway A10, but a fully loaded CRJ200 only stops so fast.

As Kieth mentioned, there is frequently a big difference between the actual airport chart and the airport in Xplanes. There are actually a few of us working hard to resolve these discrepencies (see the thread on free scenery downloads.) Not only do we update the apt.dat file (the base airport layout, taxiways, tarmac, and signage) but the airport is accurately skinned with scenery. In the interest of maximum reality these scenery packs even include such features as; spawning inside of a hangar, terminal gates that are acurately labeled, rendering of FBOs and actual fuel locations, and even helicopter spawn points.

So welcome to PilotEdge. I think you will find it quite realistic and challenging.

[deanpca]

Keith and Daddy O,

Thanks for the response. I need to learn patience, the system is a work in progress, after all. I am definately excited to find a Virtual ATC that is specific to my home area (SoCal) and look forward to doing some flying here. Mostly I fly MSFS, but I dabble with X-plane. I am glad to see that you support both systems. One thing that I really like is that PilotEdge uses the ACTUAL frequencies that ATC uses. For real world pilots, this is a real plus. One area that I need to work on is my radio skills so I am a bit critical in this area. Hopefully I will be able to do a little flying in the San Diego area this Wednesday.

Thanks again, Dean