Ready for Departure?

[Sky King]

In Tower! 3D Pro (T3P), I have noticed that when an aircraft completes taxying to the active runway, there is no call from the aircraft to the Tower saying they are ready for departure (i.e. Lindburg Tower, American 1234 ready for departure runway 27). And note, in the US, the term departure is used by the aircraft not takeoff (see for instance https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/26006/when-should-a-pilot-use-the-word-takeoff/26011).

Am I missing something or is this the way the logic is programmed?

Thanks!

SK

[Avwriter]

It's just the way they made it.  My guess is that they are trying to keep the volume of radio traffic from becoming unmanageable, since they did not simulate multiple frequencies in the game, as would be the case in real life.  Otherwise, we would never get a word in edgewise.

[futureboy]

1 hour ago, Avwriter said:

Otherwise, we would never get a word in edgewise.

I agree. There are other games that will not let you speak or send commands if someone else (pilot/tower/ground) is speaking.  It is nice to be able to speak or send commands in succession without having to wait for the pilot to stop speaking.

[winsaudi]

Seriously? Of course it is how it is programmed, how else could it be? And then someone thinks it is a good feature to be able to send commands while a pilot is still on the RT? Is this a wind up? 

[Sky King]

38 minutes ago, winsaudi said:

Seriously? Of course it is how it is programmed, how else could it be? And then someone thinks it is a good feature to be able to send commands while a pilot is still on the RT? Is this a wind up? 

First of all, you probably are not a pilot in real life. I am. So don't criticize when an educated person asks a question to make sure the software is functioning as designed. If you took the time to read the link I posted you would see it is SOP to request departure clearance in the USA. So back back to the hole you crawled out of.

[futureboy]

7 hours ago, Sky King said:

saying they are ready for departure (i.e. Lindburg Tower, American 1234 ready for departure runway 27)

Perhaps a future feature where the status of the plane is displayed in the "strip' to indicate that the plane is ready for departure.

RickyJ

As far as sending commands while the pilot is still on the RT, I am sorry but I do not know what RT means, and could you explain "wind up"? Like when a pitcher is in the "wind up"? Or did you mean when some one is "down wind"?

If you compare real life where you have several controllers that are on several frequencies against a simulation where you are one or two (multiplayer) controllers in addition to the speed at which the real life controllers speak as opposed to the speed of the speech in the game, I think the game would become quite frustrating if you had to wait several minutes before you could tell a plane to hold position because other pilots were talking. If you are given six departures and two arrivals all at once, it can take a while for the game to announce all of them.

[Russellfire]

Futureboy

RT means radio telephony or speaking on the radio. Well, it does in the U.K. ?

Russell

[mikced76]

A nice feature I discovered yesterday was that you can increase the speed of the pilot voices (had not seen that feature before for some reason) :) Very nice to speed things up a bit when there is a lot going on. I just wish they would allow Ivona and other Text2Speech voices for some variation, if not in a patch then perhaps in a possible next Tower version. I am no programmer but coming from the Flight simulator world with various ATC programs it does not seem like a very difficult thing to add/allow.    

Mike

[winsaudi]

9 hours ago, Sky King said:

First of all, you probably are not a pilot in real life. I am.

What do you fly Sky King?

[futureboy]

4 hours ago, Russellfire said:

RT means radio telephony or speaking on the radio. Well, it does in the U.K.

Thanks Russell. I was thinking "Real Time" or "Real Traffic" or a typo RL "Real Life".
Sorry Wayne.

RickyJ

[Sky King]

Beech Musketeers, Sundowners, C-172/182.

[Russellfire]

8 hours ago, futureboy said:

Thanks Russell. I was thinking "Real Time" or "Real Traffic" or a typo RL "Real Life".
Sorry Wayne.

RickyJ

Pleasure to be of help ricky

Russell

[crbascott]

On May 11, 2017 at 4:36 PM, Sky King said:

First of all, you probably are not a pilot in real life. I am. So don't criticize when an educated person asks a question to make sure the software is functioning as designed. If you took the time to read the link I posted you would see it is SOP to request departure clearance in the USA. So back back to the hole you crawled out of.

What I have heard from ATC at the larger airports like LAX and DFW is ground instructs the pilot to monitor the tower's frequency as part of the taxi to runway instructions. So there is no request for departure in this case, tower initiates the next communication. 

[Harvester]

On 5/12/2017 at 1:56 AM, mikced76 said:

A nice feature I discovered yesterday was that you can increase the speed of the pilot voices (had not seen that feature before for some reason) :) Very nice to speed things up a bit when there is a lot going on. I just wish they would allow Ivona and other Text2Speech voices for some variation, if not in a patch then perhaps in a possible next Tower version. I am no programmer but coming from the Flight simulator world with various ATC programs it does not seem like a very difficult thing to add/allow.    

Mike

Just a quick note that we wondered about the use of other voices such as the ones provided by Ivona and what was found was that it is a Windows limitation.  You can see for yourself by trying to change the Windows TexttoSpeech voice .... the option just isn't there to pick anything other than official Windows voices.

 

BTW, I made a post about this a while back and I think I included the email I received back from Ivona explaining the limitation.

 

BTW #2,  The ATC programs that I'm aware of which are able to use Ivona voices are using their own voice engine.  (atcpro)

[Sky King]

12 hours ago, crbascott said:

What I have heard from ATC at the larger airports like LAX and DFW is ground instructs the pilot to monitor the tower's frequency as part of the taxi to runway instructions. So there is no request for departure in this case, tower initiates the next communication. 

You are most correct, whether that option is used or the Ready for Departure option is up to the folks in the Tower (at least in the USA). Also, in real life, some US airports have signs and taxiway markings to say Monitor Tower here on 123.45. I was going to suggest that there be an option for this but thought it may be too difficult to implement. Perhaps in Settings, a check box could be used for either option -- I think the logic is there since an aircraft needs to call for taxi after pushback.

Have a great weekend!

SK