EDDF was brutal today

General Discussion Pilot Talk
1

Hi all,
traffic at EDDF was brutal this morning (at around 1000 Zulu). With no Center controllers online to pre-sort the flow, the whole burden rested on Arrival and Director to sort everything out. And it was just too much. In the real world you have capacity management with slot times allocated by Eurocontrol. In VATSIM everbody just heads into EDDF.

I guess that was not fun any more for the controlling colleagues, but pure stress. I was turned onto final hot and high. Automation did not like that, I was too late for a reversion to manual flight and would have needed to go around. I preferred to disconnect as the airport was overloaded anyway.

I remembered the discussion about an AI center controller doing some pre-assignments in US VATSIM airspace. I have no strong opinion about this, neither pro nor con, but today EDDF would have needed this.

Regards
Christian

2

To clarify, the auto instructions that are currently being tested in the USA are in no way AI ATC. It helps in a few areas while in flight, descent advisories, crossing restrictions, and arrival procedures. There is no separation, flow control, or other control instructions provided to pilots. It is essentially there to ensure pilots arrive into controlled airspace at the right altitudes & speeds so that terminal controllers receive the pilots in the right spot to being working the traffic.