What do I do when no controller is present?

[Shaun Johnson 990762]

Hi I am a new pilot here at VATSIM. When flying in the early morning and no controller is present, what should we do-should we just go to an airport with a controller or should we just fly on our flightplan and land with traffic using our discretion?

[Rui Avelar Silva 835158]

Just say your intentions on UNICOM (122.80) and fly... if you enter an atc manned 'sector', i'm sure you will get a "Please contact me on freq xxx.xx" private message.

[Steven Rogers 901202]

Hi Shaun,

 

http://vatsim.net/prc will answer just about every question you could think to ask about starting on Vatsim, I suggest you read, re-read and the read again for good measure.

 

To answer your question, however, if there is no controller online, simply file your flight plan as normal (in case one does come on so they know what you are doing), goto your departure airport, remembering to log on off the runway and fly your flight announcing your intentions on the text-only unicom channel of 122.8.

 

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask.

[Steven Black 813373]

Remember to make sure your transponder is mode C too.

[Shaun Johnson 990762]

Thanks for the helpful hints-really appreciated!

[Eric Fraenkel-Gaffr� 890]

Hello.

 

Vatcan is looking at changing the "unicom" from 122.8 which is an american frequency to its real life Canadian countepart 126.7

 

If approved their will be a bit of a learning curve but eventually everybody uncontrolled in Canada shall tune 126.7

 

Of course VATCAN will make the appropriate change officially and advertise the change everywhere including in the US to allow everybody to learn of the change.

 

Eric.

VATCAN16.

[Steven Black 813373]

Seems to me this is unenforceable as no one polices the use of Unicom. With visiting pilots having just to know that 122.8 isn't the Unicom channel in Canada and not being told because by definition there is no ATC available at the time, it will only serve to add confusion. People will be communicating their reports on different frequencies.

 

What is the practice elsewhere in the VATSIM world? Are there other disctinctive frequencies? If not, why should VATCAN require unnecessary and unprecendented complication?

[Eric Fraenkel-Gaffr� 890]

It's Vatcan's job to make it so, by advertising it and making sure everybody is briefed on it.

 

There may be a bit of confusion at the begining but it'll work. It's the same people that come in and out of Canada all the time, and the same Canadians that fly around. It's funny, being able to have the whole world virtually at your disposition and people still mainly fly around where they reside anyway.

 

It's not such a big deal, their may be a bit of confusion at first but be realistic, how many people really talk on that unicom frequency and make proper pilots reports anyways!!

 

Recently I took upon to have one of Canada's aviation rule respected. Pilot should call ATC when reaching their [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igned level flight ( AIM 11.18 ). In the States they don,t care you call lelvelled. But here we do. It took a bit of time, but now 90% of all pilots flying through CZEG dont miss it. And I still ask for it from time to time and people learn. I have't had anybody complain. Isn't that VATSIM's primary goal?

 

VATCAN can have a bad habit of being like old people! Its doesn't like change! Change is good, especially change that will teach people that every country have their subtle differences and change that will make us come closer to real operations which is another of Vatsim's goal.

 

Eric

CZEG CHIEF

[Ruth McTighe 824054]

VATSAF (South Africa) have been using a dedicated unicom frequency for some time. It would be wroth asking themf or their experience. My concern is the same as others have mentioned - how will less experienced pilots know about the special frequency, especially as so many have problems grasping the use of unicom in the first place?

 

Ruth

[Keith Smith]

It's incorrect to say that 122.80 is 'the' real world UNICOM frequency in the USA. It's actually one of many. To simplify procedures, 122.80 is used on VATSIM as the UNICOM frequency. If individual regions want to roll their own, then is the next step to start following real world published UNICOM frequencies for each airport?

 

One other difference is that in the real world, the UNICOM is used to self-announce when flying into an uncontrolled field. On VATSIM, it has much broader use, since pilots fly in skies without ATC that would normally be staffed 24/7 in the real world. So...in the extreme case (and I'll admit it's an edge case, but hopefully it does make a point),if a plane is flying from Canada to the USA, and another plane is going from USA to Canada, it is possible that they could have an unexpected noise abatement issue (because planes make a lot of noise when they hit each other) as they would be self announcing on different frequencies.

 

I'm normally a fan of bring real world procedures to VATSIM...but this is one of those areas where real life and VATSIM are quite different.

 

All that aside, I agree that the bigger issue is likely to be communicating the information to pilots.

[Stephen Keskitalo 977981]

So...in the extreme case (and I'll admit it's an edge case, but hopefully it does make a point),if a plane is flying from Canada to the USA, and another plane is going from USA to Canada, it is possible that they could have an unexpected noise abatement issue (because planes make a lot of noise when they hit each other) as they would be self announcing on different frequencies.

 

This is actually a good point, if two pilots were on a collision course and both switched frequencies at the same time,

they would never know that the other was there unless one was able to see the other. Of course, "see and avoid"

does not work too well in IMC.

[Eric Fraenkel-Gaffr� 890]

Not a very realistic situation and not one that justifies renouncing it. Especially if other regions have that in place.

 

I guess we'll have our discussion within our members and staff and make our own decisions.

 

Eric.

VATCAN16

[Stephen Keskitalo 977981]

Not a very realistic situation and not one that justifies renouncing it. Especially if other regions have that in place.

 

I guess we'll have our discussion within our members and staff and make our own decisions.

 

Eric.

VATCAN16

 

Okay, just don't blame the Americans when we start slamming into you guys at the border.

[Dave Weese 817228]

I feel Vatcan should stick with 122.80, its been like this for ever. Everyone know about it. The major active airspace is with in a few miles of US airspace on 122.800 so you have lots of pilots taking off and coming in on the other freq.

 

Why fix it when its not broken, this is one place where not following the real world has to be done, if Vatsim gave away free world charts to every pilot then we could all use the local unicom as per charts but I can't see that happening.

 

Its just going to mess everyone up.

[Dave Weese 817228]

For those who have not seen the Vatcan forum, Canada's unicom will stay the same as the rest of Vatsim 122.800