Seamus McGinley Posted January 21, 2021 at 09:37 PM Posted January 21, 2021 at 09:37 PM (edited) Hi, If I am flying out of a small airfield with no ATC at it that is located near an International airport that has TWR/APP/GND/CTR online and this airfield is below their cover, as well as the main region Control is also controlling everything above these airports, who do I contact first? If I intended to stay within the circuit at this small airport and stay below the International airports airspace, would I still need to contact either the staffed airport or the region Control that’s online? thank you Edited January 21, 2021 at 09:44 PM by Seamus McGinley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cathal Boyce Posted January 21, 2021 at 11:42 PM Posted January 21, 2021 at 11:42 PM (edited) 2 hours ago, Seamus McGinley said: Hi, If I am flying out of a small airfield with no ATC at it that is located near an International airport that has TWR/APP/GND/CTR online and this airfield is below their cover, as well as the main region Control is also controlling everything above these airports, who do I contact first? If I intended to stay within the circuit at this small airport and stay below the International airports airspace, would I still need to contact either the staffed airport or the region Control that’s online? thank you Hi Seamus, I just happened to see your post and recognised you from flying out earlier. In the Dublin TMA, all airports are covered top-down by one of the Dublin Control sectors (EIDW_X_CTR). These can come online/offline every 30 minutes so it is confusing to keep up with. You can PM one of the controllers or call on voice to ask or double-check, voice is probably better. In this particular case, Weston is covered top-down for circuits as you asked, however, in an event controllers might be too busy to offer anything other than an "advisory" service. TL;DR Always best to ask before getting airborne, and ask one of the controllers if you're unsure! Edited January 21, 2021 at 11:47 PM by Cathal Boyce 1 Cathal Boyce ACCIRL1 | VATéir Director VATSIM Network Supervisor VATEUD Divisional Examiner (I3) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seamus McGinley Posted January 22, 2021 at 12:08 AM Author Posted January 22, 2021 at 12:08 AM (edited) 25 minutes ago, Cathal Boyce said: Hi Seamus, I just happened to see your post and recognised you from flying out earlier. In the Dublin TMA, all airports are covered top-down by one of the Dublin Control sectors (EIDW_X_CTR). These can come online/offline every 30 minutes so it is confusing to keep up with. You can PM one of the controllers or call on voice to ask or double-check, voice is probably better. In this particular case, Weston is covered top-down for circuits as you asked, however, in an event controllers might be too busy to offer anything other than an "advisory" service. TL;DR Always best to ask before getting airborne, and ask one of the controllers if you're unsure! Hi Cathal, what’re the chances haha!! Thanks very much! I never usually flew VFR on vatsim until I got MSFS but now since the scenery is 1:1 I’m getting really into it for practice but I’m not all that confident yet. I was just confused with so many services online I didn’t know who was most appropriate to tune into first and with a busy event on I didn’t want to be pestering controllers over chat lol. Had a few enjoyable flights thereafter! Thanks! Just one question, say if Dublin tower control was the only one online, or GND even, and no other controllers were online in the country, if I was to fly circuits at weston or possibly fly out west without entering Dublin’s SFC up zone, would I still be expected to contact TWR or would that be unnecessary since I’m below that airspace? I enjoy being on freq so if it was a case where unnecessary but allowed I’d probably use it. Thanks Cathal! Seamus Edited January 22, 2021 at 12:09 AM by Seamus McGinley 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cathal Boyce Posted January 22, 2021 at 12:18 AM Posted January 22, 2021 at 12:18 AM 1 minute ago, Seamus McGinley said: Hi Cathal, what’re the chances haha!! Thanks very much! I never usually flew VFR on vatsim until I got MSFS but now since the scenery is 1:1 I’m getting really into it for practice but I’m not all that confident yet. I was just confused with so many services online I didn’t know who was most appropriate to tune into first and with a busy event on I didn’t want to be pestering controllers over chat lol. Had a few enjoyable flights thereafter! Thanks! Just one question, say if Dublin tower control was the only one online, or GND even, and no other controllers were online in the country, if I was to fly circuits or possibly fly west without entering Dublin’s SFC up zone, would I still be expected to contact TWR or would that be unnecessary since I’m below that airspace? I enjoy being on freq so if it was a case where unnecessary but allowed I’d probably use it. Thanks Cathal! Seamus Good! Yeah, it was a bit crazy tonight for sure. Weston (EIWT) is its own airfield with its own TWR controller as you know. This means that the only controllers that will control aircraft in it are EIDW_X_CTR or EIWT_TWR. If you were to fly out you wouldn't need to contact EIDW_TWR/GND etc. as they have their own airspace, but as you seem to point at, if you needed to enter the zone you would call EIDW_TWR. Similarly, if you were doing circuits at Weston there is no need to call EIDW_TWR if they are the only ones online providing you stay clear of the Dublin zone. This is a good (but very confusing) VFR chart for the Dublin zone. 1 Cathal Boyce ACCIRL1 | VATéir Director VATSIM Network Supervisor VATEUD Divisional Examiner (I3) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seamus McGinley Posted January 22, 2021 at 12:59 AM Author Posted January 22, 2021 at 12:59 AM 39 minutes ago, Cathal Boyce said: Good! Yeah, it was a bit crazy tonight for sure. Weston (EIWT) is its own airfield with its own TWR controller as you know. This means that the only controllers that will control aircraft in it are EIDW_X_CTR or EIWT_TWR. If you were to fly out you wouldn't need to contact EIDW_TWR/GND etc. as they have their own airspace, but as you seem to point at, if you needed to enter the zone you would call EIDW_TWR. Similarly, if you were doing circuits at Weston there is no need to call EIDW_TWR if they are the only ones online providing you stay clear of the Dublin zone. This is a good (but very confusing) VFR chart for the Dublin zone. Great stuff thanks for clearing that up! I’ll have a bit of a study of that chart tomorrow to get my head around it. Cheers for the help Cathal! Seamus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cathal Boyce Posted January 22, 2021 at 01:05 AM Posted January 22, 2021 at 01:05 AM No worries Cathal Boyce ACCIRL1 | VATéir Director VATSIM Network Supervisor VATEUD Divisional Examiner (I3) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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