Openscope: Format of the pilot's callback

Created on 25 Nov 2018  路  4Comments  路  Source: openscope/openscope

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Issue Description

Currently when command is typed, a readback is as follows:

FIN1128, taxi to and hold short of runway 22R

This is unclear to the player is what is logged/said is a controller command or is it pilot's readback.

I believe it is instructed that when pilot receives an instruction from the controller, a readback is mandatory by first repeating the instruction and at the end the callsign of the aircraft.

If there is a log somewhere where we as players can investigate history, then I suggest one of the following:

1) Whatever is logged, is concidered both as a controller instruction and readback and whatever the pilot says, is a readback. Example:

TYPED: FIN1128 taxi 22R
LOGGED: FIN1128, taxi to and hold short runway 22R
SPEECH: Taxi to and hold short runway 22R, FIN1128

2) Concider everything logged and said as a pilot readback and modify all speech code accordingly. This I believe would be most clear for the players and there really is no need to echo what we as controllers have instructed.

TYPED: FIN1128 taxi 22R
LOGGED: Taxi to and hold short runway 22R, FIN1128
SPEECH: Taxi to and hold short runway 22R, FIN1128

discussion enhancement

Most helpful comment

I would lean toward a variation of option 1:
FIN1128: taxi to and hold short runway 22R

This way, the readback is still correct, with the callsign at the end, but we retain the advantage of being able to look back through the response history and quickly identify _which_ airplane had the red response because the callsigns are all lined up nicely. Or, look for what AAL123 read back-- if the callsigns were at the end of the lines (which vary in length), we would have a lot more trouble finding a particular callsign.

All 4 comments

As I stated before, I would get rid of this altogether. What I would do, is as follows:

  • Pilot instructed to taxi: CSA31NT TAXI 24
    -> Readback: "Taxiing to runway 24, CSA31NT"

  • Wait for defined taxi time (I would increase this from the current 3 sec to about 10 - 15 sec)
    -> After the time is up, plane appears on the map, and checks in with "Tower, CSA31NT holding short runway 24"

I feel like this would be the most realistic way to do this without making too many changes to the core behaviour, like showing taxiways. Of course, it would require a fix for the bug where increasing the taxi time causes the aircraft to appear away from the runway.

As an extension, it could also be nice to have the taxi time not set for a certain time, but dynamic. Maybe having a random time between 10 and 30 sec for each aircraft to make it more realistic, as the taxi time varies IRL as well. Or the option to specify taxi time in the airport file, and have the taxi time relevant to the airport...

@jakcharvat I'll just add what I already wrote on Slack in order to have everything at one place:

Did I understand you correctly you want to increase the taxi time?
That might work at a low-difficulty airport but at airports with much traffic where you have to sequence departures as well as arrivals on to 1 runway, such as EDDM for example, that would make sequencing really really hard

well many things are not realistic but it's hard to find a reasonable compromise between realism and playability, it's not realistic that aircraft line up even though they only got a taxi clearance, it's not realistic that you give taxi clearance at all as approach controller

Please note: this issue is not about taxiing and readback about holding short even though this was mentioned in the example above. This issue is about how we should log and how pilots should say things when entering commands.

I would lean toward a variation of option 1:
FIN1128: taxi to and hold short runway 22R

This way, the readback is still correct, with the callsign at the end, but we retain the advantage of being able to look back through the response history and quickly identify _which_ airplane had the red response because the callsigns are all lined up nicely. Or, look for what AAL123 read back-- if the callsigns were at the end of the lines (which vary in length), we would have a lot more trouble finding a particular callsign.

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