I don’t know how many times I tune into London Control and hear people stepping on people on the frequency. Quite frankly it is happening too many times now and I am starting to get really fed with it. Its not rocket science! Its pretty simple so let me show you the correct Frequency etiquette.
Listen to the Frequency. If you are just joining a frequency, wait 10 seconds to ensure nobody is speaking on the frequency. If somebody is speaking you wait. Expect a pilot to read back instructions if a controller has instructed that pilot. Then when that exchange is complete and there is a sufficient gap then pass your message.
When people step on each other all it does is annoy other pilots like myself and it also infuriates the controller who will in the end get soo fed up he will disconnect which spoils the whole experience.
I’ve heard ATCO loosing it over step ons. It is my opinion that it is not deliberate. I have done it and been told off. It happens in real life. How can any one pilot know when another station is going to press the PTT.
I agree that the RATEL is somewhat lacking, but it is not the main cause in my opinion.
IRL it happens all the time in busy sectors, especially now in summer. Some sectors will be at capacity and it just happens. Some controllers will then just call pilots up and issue instructions without them having checked in yet.
I would add: don’t take ages to actually read back an instruction. I can’t count how often I stepped on a pilots readback by repeating the instruction or by issuing another instruction to someone else after they hadn’t started responding for like 6 or 7 seconds.
And even if the frequency appears calm to you, try to be as quick as possible with your readback. There may be another time-critical instruction that ATC has to give in more or less the same moment, or maybe you don’t actually realize how busy ATC is because there is a lot of coordination happening in the background.
I think it’s also lack of knowledge what is expected of the pilot if he/she can not make contact with ATC.
Many pilots on Vatsim are not able to set up a holding pattern at their last cleared fix.
They freak out if they have to stay at 6000ft for more than 10 seconds on departure or they freak out if the TOD is approaching. What to do What to do???
They can relax, the controller will contact them eventually.
It is a common ‘issue’ in Australia where a ATC is controlling a number of sectors. The problem occurs when ATC converses with someone flying in Brisbane and is also controlling Melbourne. If l am in Melbourne airspace l hear the controller loud and clear, however l cannot hear the pilot operating in the Brisbane area.
The problem is that in some ARTCCs the controller becomes overwhelmed by traffic volume. Yesterday, I flew through the New York sector and there is no way you can wait 10 seconds for silence. There was a lot of stepped on traffic and the controller did a great job of sorting it out but he was way too busy handling everything in the sector from ground and clearance delivery to approach and landing clearances. It is not very realistic to expect one person to handle everything in a busy sector like New York.
Couldn’t we have a warning sound when we step on someone else’s transmission?
It happens in real life, too but on VATSIM the network latency systematically increases occurences. Even only 20ms of latency mean it is more frequent than in reality. It is not solvable with radio discipline. It happens to even the most cautious ATCs and pilots. It can really be annoying and it is often no one’s fault.
While not deployed widely the technology is there IRL. It could be implemented for VATSIM voice-over-ip (technically easier than IRL) and we could even say it is realistic.
This is something that is really annoying but also has to be expected, especially in a busy area. The issue is, that if you wait 10 seconds, someone else will speak, making you have to wait additional 10 seconds and so and so on. Conversely, when people can hear a gap, they seize the opportunity and begin to speak. Unfortunately, so do the other people wanting to speak and since you cannot hear that someone else is speaking, you have no way to know whether you stepped on someone else. Also, in these cases here, who is stepping on who?
I do agree that in the case where a readback is to be expected, you don’t start speaking, even though it takes a little while for the other part to read back. I have even stepped over the controller because there was a gap and when I decided to announce my presence, he happened to give an instruction to another pilot.
I think that these situations are unavoidable, because we cannot read each others minds.
The only way I can see that we can better avoid these situation, is if we get a little red lamp on v/xPilot that shows that we are stepping over someone, despite it being unrealistic.
The problem is that assumes one is looking at the VPilot window in the first place. When I’m making a transmission, I’m usually looking out the front windshield of the aircraft, especially if I’m hand-flying the plane.
In my opinion, the Real Problem is that the ATC covering several positions becomes overwhelmed and should be able to stop ATC to VFR traffic and smaller airports with the IFR traffic departing to report when in the air. The other option is to sign off.
