Japan: Spring 2016 [May 7th and 8th]

May 5th and 6th, 2018
elgaton
Posts: 105
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2015 10:43 am

Re: Japan: Spring 2016 [May 7th and 8th]

Postby elgaton » Mon Dec 28, 2015 12:45 am

Actually, I was asking which one of the two... I'll write about both.

As you (and others) probably know, SIDs and STARs are established routes that a controller will assign to departing (resp. arriving) aircraft (*). This makes departing and arriving planes not flying into each other and reduces the workload on both pilots and controllers.
(*) There's an exception - SIDs and STARs are not assigned for so-called "VFR flights". I won't discuss them here for simplicity.
In OpenRadar, those procedures - as well as other graphical elements - are stored in one or more .xml files in <OpenRadar directory>/data/routes/<ICAO> where ICAO is the ICAO code of the airport.

In the rest of this post, I will refer to the procedures for LEBL (Barcellona) that were created for one of the previous editions of the Festival.
  • Download the OpenRadar file from here, rename it to LEBL.xml and put it in <OpenRadar directory>/data/routes/LEBL.
  • Also download aeronautical charts for LEBL (they contain the same information that is encoded in the OpenRadar file, only with more details and in a format suitable for viewing). Most countries make them freely available: in the case of LEBL, you can find them here (get all the PDFs in the SID and STAR sections).

ATC phraseology
While controlling an airport on the FlightGear multiplayer server, (s)he needs to choose the runways in use (the runways which will be used by planes). The general rule is the following one: planes take off and land into the wind, as this makes takeoffs and landings easier for the pilot. There are a couple of exceptions to this:
  • in some cases, other factors (like surrounding mountains or noise abatement reasons) limit runway use. Such factors are usually listed in the airport charts. As an exercise, download all the documentation for LEBL from the link I gave you above; one of the charts should contain a paragraph detailing runway use. Try to find it;
  • some airplanes (especially big ones, like the Concorde) might require a minimum runway length. If you're dealing with big planes, avoid having them use a short runway.

To choose the runways in use, look at the top right part of the OpenRadar window. Under the time/METAR (weather report) you should find the runway manager - some rows, one for each runway, with four checkboxes each:
Image
For each row, the first two checkboxes ("Start / SID") will mark a runway as being used for takeoffs and enable the display of SIDs in OpenRadar; the third and fourth ones ("Land / STAR") will do the same for - respectively - landings and STARs. The image above (taken from the FlightGear wiki and referred to EDDF), for example, shows that:
  • runway 18 is being used for takeoffs, but its SIDs are not displayed;
  • runway 25C is being used for takeoffs and its SIDs are shown on the screen;
  • runway 25L is being used for landings and its STARs are shown on the screen;
  • runway 25R is being used for landings, but its STARs are not displayed;
  • runways 07C, 07L, 07R, 36 are not being used at the time.
OpenRadar conveniently retrieves the latest weather from the internet, calculates how the wind would influence a departure/arrival on each runway and displays it via the small bar immediately to the right of the four checkboxes. The text over the bar states the intensity of the wind (in kt = knots) and whether its direction is favourable with respect to the runway (white if it's good = the plane will land/take off into the wind, red otherwise); the bar states whether how much the wind can be tolerated by an airplane (it's green if the wind blows at a low speed and changes to yellow and then to red if such speed becomes medium or high).
In this case, the ATC correctly chose the runways "heading into the wind" (where the wind component is written in white).

Once the runways are chosen, it's time to assign the appropriate SID to each departing aircraft. The correct SID depends on:
  • the departure runway;
  • the destination airport (different SIDs lead to different directions).
Determining the SID to use is up to you. The procedure is assigned during delivery (the process where the pilot files a flight plan before starting the engines). The phraseology used by the controller is:
<Aircraft callsign>, you're cleared to <destination> via the <SID name> departure...
STAR assignments follow the same criteria, except for the fact that they are (obviously!) assigned during the approach and with the following phraseology:
<Aircraft callsign>, cleared for the <STAR name> arrival
(For more details about phraseology, read the ATC Tutorial on the wiki - it has detailed explanations as well as videos with closed captions).
In both cases, to select the SID/STAR in OpenRadar, middle-click on the flight strip for the aircraft in question, then, from the editing box that appears, choose the runway and the SID/STAR.

(I'll discuss creating OpenRadar files tomorrow as it's already quite late).

Octal450
Posts: 2184
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2015 2:47 am

Re: Japan: Spring 2016 [May 7th and 8th]

Postby Octal450 » Tue Jan 19, 2016 4:46 pm

Hello gentlemen, I am able to provide ATC if it is needed, I have quite a bit of experience with ATC and OpenRadar if that helps.

Cheers!

ATC411

Octal450
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Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2015 2:47 am

Re: Japan: Spring 2016 [May 7th and 8th]

Postby Octal450 » Tue Feb 16, 2016 3:53 am

Be advised, that both Oscar6662 and I will be ATC at RJTT. We did reach this agreement. Maybe you can edit the post? :?: :?:

elgaton
Posts: 105
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2015 10:43 am

Re: Japan: Spring 2016 [May 7th and 8th]

Postby elgaton » Tue Feb 16, 2016 8:31 am

Doing it now on Curtis' forum.

Octal450
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Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2015 2:47 am

Re: Japan: Spring 2016 [May 7th and 8th]

Postby Octal450 » Tue Feb 16, 2016 2:26 pm

What do you mean? Should I post over there?

elgaton
Posts: 105
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2015 10:43 am

Re: Japan: Spring 2016 [May 7th and 8th]

Postby elgaton » Tue Feb 16, 2016 3:02 pm

I meant "I'm editing the first post of the corresponding thread on Curtis' forum to reflect that you'll be ATCing at Haneda as well" (I can't do this here as only the thread starter - IAHM-COL - or an administrator can do so). I forgot to do so yesterday evening, but it's done now.

Octal450
Posts: 2184
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2015 2:47 am

Re: Japan: Spring 2016 [May 7th and 8th]

Postby Octal450 » Tue Feb 16, 2016 4:51 pm

OK that is fine.

Cheers!

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J Maverick 16
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Re: Japan: Spring 2016 [May 7th and 8th]

Postby J Maverick 16 » Wed Feb 17, 2016 5:16 pm

Any volunteers for a little layout update for Misawa AB in Japan?
My main PC is currently unusable so I can't use WED nor FGFS on that one so I'm using the iMac but can't get WED working on it.
Regards, Mav
Breakin' the sound barrier every day!

Scenery designer, basic livery maker, aircraft developer (current project: F-16).
Using Thrustmaster FCS Flight Pack.
Follow me also on Instagram & Twitter @j_maverick16, Google+ and YouTube.

oscar6662
Posts: 246
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2015 4:49 pm

Re: Japan: Spring 2016 [May 7th and 8th]

Postby oscar6662 » Wed Feb 17, 2016 7:12 pm

Hey people I am making the openradr file for RJTT if anyone is doing the same advise me and we can work in a team!
[url]Image[/url]

Octal450
Posts: 2184
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2015 2:47 am

Re: Japan: Spring 2016 [May 7th and 8th]

Postby Octal450 » Wed Feb 17, 2016 8:51 pm

oscar6662 wrote:Hey people I am making the openradr file for RJTT if anyone is doing the same advise me and we can work in a team!


I can help if you want, come to my workshop.


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