Regarding Oceanic Clearances

[Michael Flemming Hansen]

HI,

I have a couple of questions regarding oceanic clearances.
The first one is very straight out. Will we be able to request clearances via ACARS/CPDLC?
Right now, HOPPIE's has a simple CPDLC tool that I know many controllers refrain from using  (rightfully) because it doesn't connect with Euroscope or similar, regarding Squawk assignment, etc. But that shouldn't be as much of a problem for Oceanic, since there is no radar coverage and hence, no squawk. I have tried making a rudimentary script for giving oceanic clearances through that tool.

The second is more of an observation. I have noticed that both the new Fenix and FBW A320's for MSFS doesn't have neither route or exit point in the Oceanic Clearance ACARS menu. This seems to also be the case in a video from 2013 of one of the SAS A340-300 flight (SK925) from EKCH to KIAD (Just Planes), that they only have the station they are asking (Reykjavik, for example), flight number, entry point, estimated arrival at entry point, flight level and mach number in the request (the same as the FBW and Fenix). So, my question really is: Will we be able to request clearances the same way on Vatsim?

Personally, it seem to make good sense to me. By only providing the entry point (and of course, having a flight plan filed with the actual route), the Oceanic controller is more free to assign a route. Also, say that the nat track's has changed so that Gunpa now is the entry point for NatV instead of NatW, the controller can still assign the NatV route, even though NatW was filed. Or a random route connected to Gunpa. 
(Keep in mind that I don't know if this is actually the case in real life. It just seems to make sense to me).

Cheers in the skies,

Michael

Edited August 11, 2022 at 01:47 PM by Michael Flemming Hansen
too many thumbs.

[Torben Andersen]

Perhaps other controllers more current on oceanic control will comment on this. I was oceanic controller in VATSIM Scandinavia (Iceland Radio) some years ago. At that time CPDLC was not very much used, but it had nothing to do with squawk assignment. Oceanic procedure request you to maintain present squawk until 30 min after passing the oceanic entry point and then set squawk 2000. As squawk setting is linked to the transponder the oceanic controller has not much use of it - he has no radar to trig the transponder for an answer.

Oceanic clearences request a route, which AFAIK must consists of an entry point, a reporting point for each 10 degree longitude (unless very far north, where other rules apply) and an exit point. The route can be utilizing the NAT track system, but can also use "random track" i.e. waypoints choosen by the pilot/company - typically used by SAS as their shortest routes to the US takes them north of the NAT tracks. It is not normally the controller who assigns a random route. The route of choice even with the NAT is yours, but due to the heavy amount of traffic in certains areas of the North Atlantic, the oceanic controller may suggest a different NAT track due to congestion. Otherwise you might get delays or not favorible flight levels assigned to you.

As for Just Planes videos, they unfortunately rarely show all the details on the oceanic clearence - I haven't seen the one they mention, but I have a couple others (one of which is a SAS A330 from ESSA to KEWR), but they lacks in the details on this subject.

Now, these are my experiences from more than 5 years ago, when I was Oceanic controller, but things might have changes.

[Michael Flemming Hansen]

Hello Torben and thank you for your answer.

That is true. Some details are left out, but you seem him punch in the details on the MCDU and press "send" and get a response from Reykjavik. This does also correlate with how the Fenix and FBW are built. We can, if course send some info in the free text window, but not much.

Cheers,

Michael

[Tobias Dammers]

On 8/11/2022 at 3:45 PM, Michael Flemming Hansen said:

Right now, HOPPIE's has a simple CPDLC tool that I know many controllers refrain from using  (rightfully) because it doesn't connect with Euroscope or similar, regarding Squawk assignment, etc.

Hoppie's ACARS system is used extensively by domestic controllers in Europe, both for PDC and enroute CPDLC, and I'm pretty sure it does integrate with Euroscope, including squawk assignment and all that, so that is not the reason. Maybe there is no good support for oceanic clearances specifically, or maybe there aren't enough aircraft models that support them?

[Andreas Fuchs]

The question is whether there's appropriate integration into Euroscope that provides the correct format for Oceanic clearances.