Great Afternoon Skies

[Peter Grey]

Keith, What are your thoughts about this? IE is it part of a trend or is it from people being off for the holidays? Or maybe newbies that got a new sim for X-mas?

I'm not Keith, but this was the peak of what have been above average traffic levels for the last couple of weeks, which seems to be timed well with the holidays so that's what my money is on.

Does "pre-stacking" instructions have an impact on the controller's work load (positive or negative)?

Each controller has their own technique on how they handle busy traffic. Personally I like to use "pre-stacking" which increases the amount of time until I have to talk to that aircraft. Additionally, I increase the amount of reports I request from pilots. Each report is a "reminder" to get back to that pilot to issue the next set of instructions.

Another question. In real life, will there be times when a controller is too busy to allow things like Bravo transitions, multiple touch and go's, rating tests, or reading weather reports? Is this a tool that the PilotEdge controllers could use to lighten their work load during busy times? Could encouraging more use of "focus fields" help reduce ATC work load?

We can do this when busy but we really try not to. Unlike the real world we are here to provide a service to paid customers who are trying to practice these specific things with ATC interaction. If there is no other option we can revert to deny service (in the areas you bring up) but it's really a last resort.

Concentrating traffic to the focus fields actually increases our workload as we have more aircraft conflicts to resolve.

Our ideal answer is to bring more controllers online as traffic increases. This has a lag obviously and requires us to have controllers available. We were actually pretty good on getting the increased staffing yesterday but there were a couple of hours where we were behind. We do plan staffing based on historical traffic data, but this Sunday had traffic double to triple our normal average (on what is already our busiest day of the week).

If traffic like this continues we will obviously have more controllers on the schedule. We can scale our staffing up to real world levels if needed so it's nearly impossible to break the system with traffic.

Has any thought been given to using "pre-departure clearance(PDC)" or "abbreviated delivery clearance"?

Yes, however we are focused on the controller side of this right now. We have several tools that controllers use to reduce the time they need to issue a clearance. We just finished the implementation of one of these tools (an internal routing database that controllers use to look up routes). We don't currently plan to roll out the pilot side (PDC). Note we do use abbreviated clearances when the controller manual allows us to. That however requires pilots to file the correct route which is not a given.

I agree the traffic is great, but the staffing levels couldn't keep up when I was flying . The controllers were swamped. They were doing the best they could, but I couldn't get a word in on the radio that wasn't stepped on by another pilot on another frequency. Once in the air, I wasn't getting instructions in a timely manner, and I had to keep asking for things (like getting up to a safe altitude). Even that didn't go great because I couldn't get through on the frequency. Finally just cancelled IFR because I wasn't going to get my approach clearance in time.

The controller who worked your flight airborne wanted me to let you know that he is sorry that he wasn't able to provide the high level of service that you are used to. Simply put he had a ton of airplanes.

I was on for a good part of yesterday and had a great time working with a lot of traffic. We hope to see you all back in the virtual skies soon.

[Keith Smith]

wmburns,

xxx descend at pilot's discretion cross Seal Beach at and maintain 4,000. Depart Seal Beach heading 100.

If that's the phraseology you're hearing, please let me know. It should've just been "cross Seal Beach at and..."

Regarding my predictions for traffic levels, I sincerely I have no idea. I suspect they will drop off after the holidays a little bit, but we'll see. With winter being here, people in colder climates are likely to do more sim flying and less real world flying, so it's hard to say.

[cvenable]

I have to admit that I'm attracted to traffic volume and IMC like a moth to a flame. I jumped on twice yesterday mainly because I wanted to be in the fray with 20+ other planes to enjoy the chaos. The longer I had to wait for my clearance, the more I enjoyed how busy it was. I intentionally chose a route that would cross-cut as many other flight plans as possible. I thought about declaring an emergency just to muck up the works even more but I guess the holiday spirit was still lingering with me and I decided against it.

[N5344K]

I for one am really happy about the increased user counts- it means Keith & team continue to succeed and the rest of us will have access to this awesome system for years to come. I'm sure there are more than a few customers from the early days of PE who thought at that time, "Wow, this is a really awesome service, I hope they can make a go of it and build the business." Looks like that wish is coming true.