When on Lax tower I could here John Wayne Tower?

[ianbennett]

Hi,

During my flight yesterday when I landed at KLAX and was still on the tower Frq, I here the tower call an other aircraft and announce him self as Joh Wayne Tower. I suppose this was a mal function in the server or so, but still wanted to share this , have others experience this or not. Could it be normal?

I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank the controllers for there patients and efforts to get us all around safely and enoki the flight. Really this is a unmatched experience, as fare as I am concerned I can not imagine anymore flying offline or on an other network. Thank you, thank you and thank you and I Wich Pilotedge all the best succees.

Ian Bennett

[Keith Smith]

It's normal for operations on PilotEdge. You'll hear a single controller serving multiple roles. We have just one 'push to talk key' and we cover many positions, so this is a reality of the radio system. It's similar to what happens in real life, though (read below), just on a wider scale.

The controllers work many frequencies (in most cases), but you'll only hear pilots that are on the same frequency as you (this is why you won't hear the pilot's response in many cases).

This used to be explained in an FAQ on the old site, but that content didn't make it over to the new site. Here's an excerpt from that FAQ:

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.

[ianbennett]

Thanks for your answer very clear.

Cheers

Ian