INFORMATION MIKE: ATC

Mark Those Strips!

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 00:37:52 GMT

Greetings, ATC fans. Today we're talking flight strips.

What are flight strips you ask? A flight strip (more properly known as a "flight progress strip") is a strip of paper used by air traffic controllers to (you guessed it...) track a flight's progress along its route. You can read more about flight strips in this nice entry in the Wikipedia.

While paper flight strips in little plastic holders are being increasingly replaced by interactive computer-based strips, there are those who argue that paper still has a role to play in complex work environments like air traffic control facilities. Back in 2002, writer Malcom Gladwell explored this idea in a fascinating article about The Social Life of Paper.

Meanwhile, in the world of virtual air traffic control, we find ourselves presented with an interesting hybrid: a high-tech computer simulation of low-tech paper flight strips.

Both of the ATC clients for Vatsim controllers, ASRC 1.2 and VRC 1.1, include digital simulations of paper flight strip bays. Strips auto-fill with information from filed flight plans (just like real paper strips coming out of a printer), and controllers can add, edit, and delete information using the keyboard and mouse. IVAO's IvAc client has similar functionality.

Flight strips were beyond the scope of the new multiplayer Tower Controller feature in Flight Simulator X. That said, we fully expected innovative members of the community to improve on the basic ATC functionality we included, and it's already happening.

I was looking around FS-Multiplayer the other night when I came across "Strip Bay Manager," a stand-alone Flash-based application created by Mark "Wicked Penguin" Rossmore that you can use when controlling in an FSX multiplayer session. Each virtual flight strip features 19 text fields that you can use in any way you want, and the whole bay is very customizable.

Sure, you could just take notes on a pad of paper or make your own paper flight strips, but sometimes a simulation is more fun to use than the real thing. And, the digital version saves trees. You can download Strip Bay Manager from the FS-MP.com Misc. Downloads page. While you're there, explore the main site. FS-MP is quickly becoming an FSX multiplayer community that takes realism seriously, but also knows how to have fun. Controllers use the default FSX Tower Controller feature. Combined with Strip Bay Manager, the experience is on its way to becoming something pretty amazing. And you thought paper was passe...

When Controllers Save the Day

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 01:14:48 GMT

Bruce Williams passed along a story he heard on NPR's "Morning Edition" this morning regarding air traffic controllers assisting pilots in trouble. The link to the recording and summary article is worth passing along.

Each year the National Air Traffic Controllers Association salutes the best examples of air traffic controllers who display extraordinary skill, dedication, and focus to ensure safety in critical situations with its "Archie League Medal of Safety" awards. The award is named for the first air traffic controller, and this year NATCA is honoring 10 controllers from around the country who were involved in nine different flight assists, or "saves." They are:

Alaskan Region – Jonathan Eisenmayer, Fairbanks Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT)
Central Region – Chris Thigpen, Kansas City Air Route Traffic Control Center
Eastern Region – Bernie Nelson, Richmond, Va., ATCT
Great Lakes Region – David Murphy and Yasemin Parker, Champaign, Ill., ATCT and Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON)
New England Region – Stephen Schmalz, Boston Center
Northwest Mountain Region – Ivy Sylvain, Seattle TRACON
Southern Region– J.D. Smith, Pensacola TRACON
Southwest Region – Borden Byrd, Dallas-Fort Worth TRACON
Western Pacific Region – Michael Darling, Los Angeles (LAX) Tower

You can read about the award and listen to recordings of all the "saves" on the NATCA Web site.

A NEW AND IMPROVED Tower Observer hack for Free Flight!

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 08:38:02 GMT

Those of you who read my post yesterday regarding getting the multiplayer control tower to work in Free Flight to observe AI traffic will be pleased to know (especially if you tried it and had no luck) that there's a much better way.

Jon Patch encountered a bug that relocates you to 0 lat./0 long. when you select the tower cab. I thought that bug was history, so I'm a little confused. But...while there's a work around, it's all moot because I did a little poking around the Avsim forums and discovered that a few resourceful folks had come up with an even better method...months ago! Proof once again that our users often know more about some areas of the product than some of us do.

I just updated yesterday's post with the improved method, so if you're interested, check it out.

No promises, but if there's enough interest in this unsupported Tower Observer functionality in Free Flight, then maybe we'll consider making it a robust feature in FS11. If you try it out, let me know what you think!

If you already changed your fsx.cfg file based on my suggestion yesterday, you can leave it as is (you'll always see the tower cabs listed on the Select Aircraft screen, which is not particularly useful or neccessary with the new method). I suggest however that you go back to the file and delete what you added:

Open fsx.cfg with a text editor like Notepad. The file is located in C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\FSX where <user> is the user name you logged into Windows with. (On Vista, it's in C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX)
In the [Main] section of the fsx.cfg file, delete the "ControlTower" entry that you added from the "User Objects" line:

     [Main]
     User Objects=Airplane, Helicopter, ControlTower

   3. Save the fsx.cfg file.
Sorry for any confusion this may have caused! Remember, there's no need to modify your fsx.cfg file at all with the new method (see my January 31st post).

Listening In... (A Tower Observer hack for Free Flight)

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:01:59 GMT

Let's begin with a sad tale to set the stage.

Many years ago, when I was in my early twenties, I was just as passionate about aviation as I am now...but far dumber when it came to dealing with women. Late one night I drove to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to pick up my girlfriend at the time. She was returning from a week-long trip to the east coast, and I knew she'd be ecstatic if I met her at the gate. This was back in the days when non-ticketed passengers could walk right up to the jetway door to wave goodbye, or to welcome weary travelers back home with a hug as soon as they got off the plane.

Romantic times, those. And I was a romantic. But I was also an aviation geek, and no trip to an airport was a good use of my time without a little indulgence. So my plan to meet my girlfriend at the gate also involved listening to Seattle Tower on my airband radio in the car on the way there. I figured that I'd hear her plane receive landing clearance, and that she'd be mighty impressed when I told her I heard her flight arrive on the radio. Mistake number one.

I left the house a good half hour before her plane was due to arrive, listening to the aircraft I could see descending on final above the freeway along the way. It was a busy night, and there were lots of planes on frequency taking off and landing. Not her plane though.

I arrived at the airport with time to spare, and headed into the parking garage. A few minutes later I parked in our usual spot right by the elevator. Her flight was due to land in a few minutes, so I decided I'd just sit in the car and listen for it on the radio.

I sat...and I listened. For thirty minutes. Mistake number two.

Eventually, I was startled by a knock at the window. It was a woman who looked remarkably like my girlfriend. Overloaded with bags that looked remarkably like my girlfriend's bags.

I spent most of the ride home sheepishly revealing the intricacies of air traffic control to her, explaining how every plane that takes off or lands has to talk to the tower, how I was listening to that frequency from the second I left the house, how impossible it was that I missed her arrival. She listened quietly, then finally spoke when I had finished my monologue:

"We were 45 minutes early."

"Oh."

What's a guy to say at a moment like that? Certainly not the words that came out of my mouth next:

"I'm really sorry. I had it all planned out to meet you at the gate. I was going to buy you flowers...."

Mistake number three. Three strikes and you're out.

I've learned a lot over the years, I'm glad to say. There's the lesson about always making it seem that your hobby really isn't as important as your relationship, and the one about never mentioning something you were going to do. Then, there's the far more important lesson that if listening to air traffic control communications is fun, it's even better from inside the control tower.

Anyone with even a passing interest in air traffic control who sees the new Tower Controller feature in FSX multiplayer loves it. Its functionality is not as deep as a Vatsim or IVAO client like ASRC, VRC, or IvAc, but it wasn't intended to be. I designed much of the feature, and for a first stab at giving users a new role to take on in Flight Simulator, I think we succeeded. Whenever I demo it to people, their eyes light up as they imagine all the possibilities.

Then, they invariably all ask the same question:

"Can I get in the tower in Free Flight and just watch the AI aircraft?"

Officially, no. We originally had a "Tower Observer" role, but realized that users would expect a very rich experience that we couldn't deliver on given other priorities. Such a feature would be dependent on AI traffic for there to be anything to see, and AI traffic could be turned off. It would be dependent on the user or auto-tune functionality tuning to the right frequency for there to be anything to hear. And it would need a simpler UI than what's in the multiplayer tower. Additionally, we guessed that once users saw it they might want to actually control the AI traffic. We knew we couldn't deliver on all this, so we decided to cut the observer feature and just focus on a multiplayer tower experience for FSX.

Unofficially, yes! All that said, here's the good news. There's a simple method that enables you to sit in the virtual control tower at an airport in Free Flight and listen to the AI controllers do their things and watch all the action out the window and on the radar. It's unsupported functionality, but it does work in the Deluxe version of FSX, which includes the Tower Controller feature in multiplayer. (Thanks to some folks on the Avsim forums for figuring this out! I had another method, but this one is much simpler and puts the tower cab in the right location.)

To use the tower cab in Free Fight (if you have FSX Deluxe):

On the left side of the main Flight Simulator screen, click Multiplayer.
Sign in (either a Gamespy session or a LAN session will work) and click the Sign In button.
Click the Host a Session button.
Click Next.
On the Session Conditions screen, in the "Select Role" drop-down list, select "Air Traffic Controller."
Change the location, weather, time, and/or season as desired.
Click the Save Flight button.
Enter a Title (e.g. "Seattle Tower") and an optional description, and click OK.
Click the Back button multiple times to back out of multiplayer.
On the left side of the main Flight Simulator screen, click Free Flight.
Go to Free Flight, click the Load Flight button, and load the flight you just saved.

Voila, you'll be in the tower just like in multiplayer, but in Free Flight! You'll have to create a flight from the Multiplayer screens like this every time you want to go to a new airport (since just changing location once your in the tower puts the tower on the ground at the new location). Better yet, go into Multiplayer as per the above instructions and save a bunch of "in the tower" flight files at all your favorite locations.

Whenever you want to observe from a tower, all you'll have to do is load one of your saved flight files. Note that you can load one of these flights from the main Free Flight screen, or via the Flights menu in the sim itself.

Once in the tower, you can tune the radios, listen in to the AI controllers and pilots, and watch the action out the window and on the radar display. For details about using the Tower Control features, see the "Acting As a Tower Controller" article in the Multiplayer section of the Learning Center.

Be sure to crank up the traffic sliders on the Traffic tab of the Display Settings screen so you have something to see and hear:

On the Options menu, point to Settings, and then click Display.
Click the Traffic tab.

There you have it. Now you can hang out in the control tower at your favorite airport for hours. It's pretty cool, especially with Real-world weather and the AI traffic cranked all the way up if your machine can handle it. And the best part? It's a simulation. You don't have to worry about an uptight supervisor wondering why you're still there, and you don't have to worry about remembering to get out of the car and walk to the gate.

I'll warn you though: it's addicting. If you ever get yelled at for being late to dinner because you had to watch just one more landing, don't blame me. And be sure to bring flowers.