Oceanic Clearances?

[Andreas Elesky]

Hello All,
  I have a question regarding the Oceanic procedures.  There us a good document located at Vatsim.uk/pilots/uk which provides another link to the Oceanic procedure and ADSB implementation.  There is another link for prefiling you Oceanic Clearance, the question I have is the clearance link actually monitored?  There were active Oceanic controllers at the time.  I filled it out and hit submit and was told to stand by for my clearance which never happened.  Also, why do Oceanic controller have an active ACARS frequency on Hoppies Acars Network but don't respond to requests or position reports?  Don't get me wrong I do like the service and ATC being online, but why have all these features when nobody seems to be using them?

 

Thanks,

Andy

Edited May 1, 2021 at 03:55 PM by Andreas Elesky
Added to statement.

[Charan Kumar]

I am not trying to justify, just saying what I have seen happen and has happened to me. I ask on freq if there is no response on the ACARS, usually gets acknowledged and get a reply or controller takes care on freq. unlike events, when traffic is very few and with ADSB, there is hardly any active communication going on, so might only be a slip up. 
 

Similarly for the nattrack website, the page doesn’t auto refresh, so we refresh/monitor it, only when we see acft coming up on scopes. Remember we are not watching the world, just a few 100nm outside the gander airspace. Once we see the acft, we tend to refresh and check, but sometimes do forget that too. Also, so not many use it during non events, so the need to check it constantly is also less. Give us a ping and we will definitely take care of it. During CTP,  that was the only way it was handled. 

[Peter Toft]

Hello Andreas, 

To your question with the NATTRAK system, you can always drop the controller with a private message saying "Hey, I have submitted a clearence request via the website.". Then either the controller will issue the clearence or he will say that he is, for several reasons, unable to do the website clearence right now and that you should call him on voice/text for clearence. 

To your other thing, I never use acars when I control or fly across the Atlantic myself. Since the implementation of ADS-B coverage over the Atlantic on VATSIM, everything have become more simple i.e. there is no need for position reports, since ADS-B is satellite determining of the position of the aircraft. And in addition if you have SELCAL activated in your client and in your flight plan, you can turn down the volume of the controller and then he'll ping you if he needs to speak to you. 

All the best, 

[Andreas Elesky]

All,

Thanks for all the responses.  I just wanted to be sure that I haven't missed anything.  We have all these great tools, links, and procedures and it seems it is up to the individual controller or pilot and their preference.

 

Thank

Andreas

[Charan Kumar]

Indeed, they are all preferences, if not the flexibility some won't control or fly, so we take what we get 🙂

[Dimitrios Ntistis]

I assume that the web page for oceanic clearance is being used mainly for high volume of traffic days when voice comms are congested. On a normal day there are no more than 7-8 aircraft to cross the pond. Just practise your oceanic clearance communications by voice. Its fun for both you and ATC 🙃

[Peter Toft]

On 6/4/2021 at 8:53 AM, Dimitrios Ntistis said:

I assume that the web page for oceanic clearance is being used mainly for high volume of traffic days when voice comms are congested

Since ADS-B has been implemented over the oceanic, the voice is not as congested as when all pilots had to make position reports. In the increase of traffic that has been seen throughout the whole network, the oceanic is from time to time pretty cramped on normal week days aswell. 

But I fully agree to give it a go for a voice clearence - it's much more fun for both the controller and the pilot. 

[Andreas Fuchs]

Just now, Peter Toft said:

Since ADS-B has been implemented over the oceanic, the voice is not as congested as when all pilots had to make position reports. In the increase of traffic that has been seen throughout the whole network, the oceanic is from time to time pretty cramped on normal week days aswell. 

But I fully agree to give it a go for a voice clearence - it's much more fun for both the controller and the pilot. 

Outside events, most Oceanic controllers do not use natTRAK, so you will have enough opportunities to practice voice 🙂 Recently, more and more of those ATCOs have been implementing this piece of information in their controller information that you can access as a pilot.

[Dimitrios Ntistis]

23 hours ago, Peter Toft said:

Since ADS-B has been implemented over the oceanic, the voice is not as congested as when all pilots had to make position reports. In the increase of traffic that has been seen throughout the whole network, the oceanic is from time to time pretty cramped on normal week days aswell. 

But I fully agree to give it a go for a voice clearence - it's much more fun for both the controller and the pilot. 

Hey Peter! 
 

I was referring to sim flying!

[Michael Flemming Hansen]

The natTRAK page seems so empty to me. Has it been closed down? I can only see an index page with a home button and login option and that is it.

Also, it seems unclear to me whether we can submit oceanic clearances via acars/cpdlc?

Cheers,

Michael