don't mean to complain but...

[golfpilot]

last three flights- 15+ minutes to get IFR clearance filed with TEC routing, 5 minutes for clearance, and just now 10 minutes of waiting followed by a rage quit. I used to be able to call up ground and get a tec route clearance like I would in real life and be off the ground in less than 5 minutes. Now they want it filed, and wait for them to get a break in people flying with the approach controller until they have time to issue a clearance. Not real thrilled. Maybe its just coincidence but I wasn't have the problem (except during extreme peak times) before expansion. Is it time to get a dedicated clearance and ground controller? Right now the system is practically unusable during non work hours of the day.

[Kilstorm]

I haven't logged much time on PE and I am a happy member for two reasons, one is to have real professional ATC and second is to learn proper radio calls. Its the second part that took me to consider KASE as my base to "student" pilot at as I learned and practiced using the radio but I soon learned that what I thought was going to be a rather sleep airport, the controllers (GND and TWR) are being shared by many other services and that radio intimidation that I was hoping to get away from by going to a small Class D airport in the mountains left me with anxiety of making my radio calls in between a lot of other calls.

I like the OP am not wishing to complain but I do want to provide feedback from my viewpoint. Even at a busy airport for a new pilot, they can expect to have a bit of redundancy of radio call formats on each controllers freq. Dial in ground an you get a very common clear to taxi type call as a general. Over to tower and a very select few types of calls but when you are wanting to taxi and ready to key the mic and have been listening to many various instruction detailed radio calls from Clearances in San Fran to IFR Approaches in Salt Lake that simple radio call just to taxi, the feel of confidence seems to take a step back and you worry of "inconveniencing" the controller for such a simple request. I know in time I will overcome that feeling as I get better at my radio calls but think its important to state my take as being someone new to all this.

PE Controllers, Management and Software are all top notch and I do hope with this Expansion more pilots come as I returned to PE for this new coverage area myself but yes, with this new coverage there seems to be some edges that could be smoothed out in time and hopefully feedback like this will help in knowing members experiences.

[Keith Smith]

Hi Andrew,

Sorry to hear that. I checked in on the situation based on the timing of your post and it appears we were likely single controller at the time this occurred. We are making changes on our end to try and reduce the number of instances where we are single controller. Once a second controller is online handling clearance/ground/tower, things speed up quite a bit.

There are times during the week (during non-work hours) where we typically do have two controllers online rather than one. In fact, 60 seconds before you posted this message, a second controller came online (Shawn), and has been there for the last 3 1/2 hours.

I'd encourage you not to give up, we do make changes and we do listen. Reducing single controller ops is something that has been a goal for a while. We have recently made changes which will hopefully make that happen.

[Keith Smith]

Kilstorm,

You are right, in the real world you can fly out to a sleepy airport and have the controller pretty much to yourself. For that to happen, we'd need the same number of controllers who work the facilities as real life, which is 2-3 controller per facility. For ZLA to be staffed with it's 39 towered airports, we'd need 80-100 controllers online at the same time for a perfect, high fidelity simulation of the airspace. This is just for the tower controllers...add another 100-200 for the approach and center positions. You see where this is going The end result, btw, would be relative silence on every frequency. You would seldom hear another aircraft, or hear a controller issuing an instruction to anyone but you. That might be ok for learning the absolute basics, but not much more.

I do realize that it's somewhat a 'trial by fire' situation and that it's hard to get away from the busy radio....but it's still possible to learn what you need and become comfortable with the radio. Keep at it and you'll soon build your confidence, listening skills, and ability to transmit efficiently.

[golfpilot]

Keith,
I'm the furthest possible place from "giving up". Every time I have ever had any issue I feel like I can address it without (at least I think) upsetting anyone. What you are trying to accomplish through the program ANDthat you listen with open ears (eyes) is reason alone why I am going to continue to subscribe and recommend others as well.

I know you are opening a whole new expansion and such. Things will probably mellow out as the year goes too. It's just frustrating to sit there in front of my computer waiting to write down a clearance for 10-15 minutes. I don't mind waiting to fit in but I'm not interested in super bowl traffic waiting times.

Oh and the one clearance I did get quickly, I was left at an altitude enroute that would have ran me into a mountain had I not deviated from the clearance. Sure I should have said something earlier, sure that could happen in real life too, but 3 in a row.

End of my rant, I'll be on sometime tomorrow! Thank you

[ianwild]

Could Pilotedge model Pre Departure Clearances?

Maybe optionally via the client or Discord. A lot of air time is consumed reading and reading back IFR clearances. While many Pilotedge users are here to practice copying clearances, some of the Jet boys especially sound well versed on copying clearances and maybe don't need the practice on every flight. It would actually make it more realistic if they could get the clearance via text rather than over the air.

If it helped keep the cost of Pilotedge down it would be a winner for everyone. The annual payment for the expansion stung a bit this morning

Ian

[Keith Smith]

Yes, it's on the list. First we need an automated route processing system, then we'll need a way to issue the clearance. The former is harder than the latter.

Issuing IFR clearances is not taking that much time in the WUS Expansion area. They tend to be as filed with climb via SID instructions and dep freq can be skipped. The Socal TEC routes, if issued as full route clearances, take quite a bit more time. If I had to chose between PDC for ZLA vs WUS, I'd choose ZLA in terms of time saving.