Hello, when I fly offline I use FSHud.
The strange thing is that at international airports I get clearance from the tower instead of ground. This does not seem right to me? On Vatsim ground does this most of the time.
Ground should give IFR clearance normally should it not, if there is no clearance delivery?
Tower should be busy with the active runway.
Is there some reallife controller or somebody who can help in this discussion?
Gr.
Robert
For US airports with operating control towers, clearance delivery is the contact for your IFR clearance (VFR too at the class B airports). If they’re closed, the ground controller assumes that role. If ground is closed, then the tower will take on that role. It’s pretty common in some of the smaller facilities for one person to be handling all three positions. You can always tell because you’ll hear the controller clear someone for takeoff on the clearance delivery frequency.
If you’re departing a non-towered airport in the US (and I would reckon elsewhere) most operators call the overlying ATC facility once they’re holding short of their planned runway for an IFR clearance and a release to depart.
I defer to controllers in other parts of the world to explain how their systems work. I have seen videos where a local controller issues an IFR clearance to an aircraft as they’re holding short of the runway at a towered field, but I don’t know how that works nor where that tends to happen.