Frequency forwarding

[Philippe Debaty]

This is a feature request that I think would make Vatsim much more realistic to use: frequency forwarding. 

When there is only an ATC center operating in an area, it would be great if an airport Ground, Tower, Clearance frequencies were automatically forwarded to the center frequency. This way, the pilot would be able to look up the appropriate frequencies on the airport chart, then dial the proper frequency in their radio like in real life starting with ATIS (that part already works), Clearance delivery, then ground, then tower...

I mostly fly in VR, and as it is now, I have to take off my headset to look at vPilot client (because that's not visible in VR) and see what frequency is currently staffed. It would be much more immersive and realistic to look at the airport chart in VR and dial the appropriate frequency and have that be automatically forwarded to the available frequency in vPilot.

Thoughts?

[Ross Carlson]

This has been discussed among the developers many times over the years. It hasn't been done (yet) for several reasons. I would say that the primary reason is because there is no definitive way for the software to know which frequency to forward any given frequency to. When there's just one center controller, it's pretty easy, but when there are multiple center controllers, then the software needs to know which airport is handled by which center sector. Then you have to consider what happens when one controller is covering the whole center, then another controller comes online and the center is now split among two controllers. Then a third comes online. Then one of them logs off. Now throw app/dep sectors into the fray. You can see that it gets very complicated, very quickly.

I'm not saying it can't be done, just saying it's much more complicated than it may appear at first glance.

[William Teale]

Any idea why it can't be done using AFV? The client is perfectly capable, but at least for VATPAC our policy prohibits this. I speculate it has to do with not overloading the voice servers?

[Ross Carlson]

2 hours ago, William Teale said:

Any idea why it can't be done using AFV? The client is perfectly capable

Wouldn't the controller have to add every single frequency in their airspace to the list of frequencies they're transmitting/receiving on? This would be several dozen frequencies (maybe even over a hundred?) for a CTR controller working a large ARTCC/FIR by themselves. I believe it is due to server load that this is prohibited, but even if server load weren't an issue, it would still be quite an onerous task to light up all those frequencies and manage them (add/remove them) as other controllers come online or go offline. I think it would need to be automated in some way, which is what I was alluding to in my previous reply here.

Edited September 29, 2021 at 06:15 PM by Ross Carlson

[William Teale]

Yes, that is what I was picturing - although I hadn't quite considered the possible scale of the task. At least for my part of the world I doubt it would be a hundred frequencies, but it would still likely be more than you'd want to type in manually.

[Michael Flemming Hansen]

I really get the coolness factor of this, but in all honesty, it would also seem a little wierd for the center controller to hand over a plane to himself, just on another frequency.

I can only imagine a tired center controller, after a couple of hours:
"Easy123, contact me on 124.34, bye and hello again".

./Michael

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Yet at nighttime in the US it actually happens frequently in the real world.  On VATSIM one Center frequency unrealistically covers the entire ATRCC airspace.  In the real world as you traverse from one end of the space to another you might need to be switched to a closer transceiver in order to stay in contact, even on the overnight shift when both sectors are being handled by the same controller.

"[callsign], change to my frequency on [xxx.x]."

[Raul Ferraz]

Happens in Europe as well 😄