ATC Communications

[fmmike]

I am new to PE. I have two questions. Are the controllers on PE RW controllers also? Not that it makes a difference if I'll use it, I'm just curious. Next question: I have flown a couple IFR flights. Why can I here the controller talk to other acft but I can't here the other acft pilot? This did confuse me the other day, I was hearing the controller talk to an acft (the controller had a bit of an accent and was hard to understand) I didn't hear a response from anyone so I thought he was talking to me. When I repeated the instruction he said that it was for someone else.

Thanks
Mike

[Keith Smith]

From the FAQ on our old site (need to get this on the new site):

Q. How do controllers handle all of the real world frequencies?
Obviously, it would not be a fiscal reality to mirror the real world staffing of northern and southern California, nor do we anticipate having the same traffic levels and patterns as our real world counterparts.

Our proprietary voice routing system allows a small number of controllers to maintain a listening watch over multiple frequencies at the same time, allowing a single controller to work multiple ground, tower, or approach/enroute facilities. We carefully monitor the traffic levels on any given frequency, and will bring on relief controllers to provide additional services at any 'hot spots' that are causing significant workloads.

The notion of a controller working multiple frequencies is not a new one. It's actually what happens on ground, tower, approach and enroute positions in the real world on a daily basis. Have you ever been taxiing to the active and heard the ground controller clear someone to land, yet you don't hear a reply from any aircraft? That's a typical example of frequencies being combined into a single position. In that example, a single controller was working the ground and tower frequencies. When the controller transmits, the message is broadcast on the tower AND ground frequencies, regardless of the context of the message. The pilots, of course, can only hear other pilots that are on the same frequency.

PilotEdge employs this same technique but takes it to the next level. We have individual positions that cover all of the delivery positions for a given area, another position to cover all of the ground roles, and another position to cover all of the towers. As needed, of course, additional controllers can log in and cover just a single tower if the traffic level warrants it.

Pilots have to swap frequencies to get from point 'A' to point 'B' and will talk to different controllers as they progress to their destination

Just like the real world example described above, on PilotEdge you will hear the controller making transmissions for other roles/positions, but you will only hear pilots who are on your frequency. The difference here is that rather than combining just tower/ground at one airport, we're combining multiple airports.

Does that mean you might transmit at the same time as another pilot, since you can't hear those other frequencies? Sure, but ATC will cope, just like they do in the real world. Again, if an airport starts becoming busy enough to warrant a dedicated controller, we will bring in one of our standby controllers and have them open up a dedicated position in fairly short order. Pilots need not do anything differently, or change their radio frequencies, the voice on the other end will simply change to another person, and pilots at the airport will no longer hear those 'combined' transmissions for other fields.

And here's a r/w video showing combined sectors in action in real life...notice you don't hear a single other pilot talking to the center controller?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_CNPPIdwbw

[fmmike]

Thanks Keith. What about the Controllers on PE. Are they also RW controllers?

Thanks
Mike

[Keith Smith]

Mike, sorry about that, I forgot to answer that one. We have a mix of active duty & retired controllers, as well as enthusiasts and unusually well-qualified ATC students who already have a pretty good idea about what's up.

[Keith Smith]

Btw, here's an excerpt from our September email newsletter that just went out a few days ago:

We're also planning on adding a 'background chatter' feature which will allow pilots to hear all of the pilots that are interacting with a given controller, rather than just the ones that are on the same frequency as the pilot. This optional feature will increase the amount of radio chatter that each pilot will experience during their flight, as well as reducing the occurrences where they only hear the controller's transmissions, but nothing from the other pilots.