List of centers

Hi I was flying around EDDF and had a very long center list including centers in UK (see attachment) not really relevant for a plane located near Frankfurt. Would it make sense to restrict the center list a bit more?
Thanks!!
Screenshot 2023-03-28 192816

It’s controllers technically within radio range whether they are relevant or not. To restrict the list, the radio range would need to be artificially reduced like it is with UNICOM. That could cause problems for very large sectors.

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It could be interesting, if the pilot could restrict the list by marking “uninteresting” controllers to be removed from the list (they could perhaps be moved to a separate list on a tab sheet). If new controllers pop up they naturally must be placed on the visible list. The pilot must actively choose to remove a controller from the list. But it is the pilots responcibility - and his alone - to manage the list(s). And a controller is always able to contact the pilot via text - and if he does, his positions should automatically be moved to the “visible atc” list.
However, firstly - this need a new/revised client, secondly it brings new problems into play. If it is advisable, I don’t know. Perhaps the pilots should rely more on listening to the radio and pay attention to which frequency is given to him by the controller during a handoff.

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It’d be great to filter and show only applicable ATC stations in the list, however, it’s not that simple. For starters, it would require some sort of global database with definitions of every airspace. Without this, the pilot client has no idea what ATC stations are relevant; approach and center airspace can become very complex with their sectorization and stratification splits.

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Not only a database of definitions of every airspace, but also how they might be bandboxed in various combinations depending on which controller positions are online. So, NO, I don’t think an automated filtering will work.
However, a manually managed list could work. I mean, flying from Copenhagen to Frankfurt, I can securely filter out any UK, Dutch, Belgian and French Center and even Munich CTRs (EDMM), reducing the list significantly.

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It’s really not that easy without additional data. Not even filtering by country because there are delegated airspaces (for example South-Western Germany is delegated to Switzerland). Maybe it could be sorted by distance.

A currently promising project for controller ↔ controlled sectors data is GitHub - lennycolton/vatglasses-data: Airport and sector data for the VATGlasses project. - it includes bandboxing and even RWY-configuration in the few cases where this makes a difference.

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Hello Sir,
Just for a quick suggest to you, i reccomend you to dont use the simulator plugin or windows to see which ATC is online but to use for example the VIPLOT/XPILOT side-list or also the list that you can find in Vatspy or SimAware.
Hope to have help you :slight_smile:

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I agree with Alex Bertuccioli.

When flying, I use vPilot’s controllers list to pre-plan my next connection. If I’m with my destination’s Centre, I put the Approach frequency in my Comms standby. When I switch to Approach, I put in Tower, etc. If I were flying from the UK to Germany, I might load France Centre or Eurocontrol in my standby. It avoids a lot of, “Please repeat the frequency…” calls.

Also, consider the need for universality from the developer’s perspective. While it might be easy to say “I’m flying in Germany, why do I see controllers in the UK?” Look at the size of Edmonton Centre - that one sector is larger than all of Europe.

I think you’re missing the point. We all try to stay ahead of the flight by inserting frequencies into the standby radio in advance. The problem is rather that “who is the next controller” can be hard to find amongst the many controllers on the vPilot’s list. And furthermore, when the list updates, it jumps to the top e.g. centers, while I’m trying to find the frequency for say the approach controller.
If handed over by a controller to the next, then it is vital to pay attention to the frequency given - and if you do, you don’t need the controller list for the frequency. But comming from uncontrolled airspace to controlled is different. One way to handle that, is to wait for the controller to send a “contact me” message, then I am given the frequency. But I’d rather contact him first. There I need the list. If I had an extra screen to show me vatspy or similar program, then the need for the vPilots list is not huge. But I use a hardware cockpit and don’t like to add more programs not from “the Real World of Flying” than I have to, to my screens. If Vatsim used the official RW frequencies, I could find them on the charts/aip, But as this is not the case, I have to rely to get them from the controller or from the vpilot list.
When this list looks like Marc’s screenshot it is a bit challenging - and the need for some way of simplifying it, would help.

regards

In complicated airspaces when coming from Unicom that’s really the best thing you can do.

Anyway I don’t know about the vPilot list. I thought this topic was about xPilot. There is an issue in Github asking for sorting options: [Feature Request] Different ATC sorting options · Issue #63 · xpilot-project/xpilot · GitHub

Marc doesn’t mention xPilot, however the same issue relates to the vPilot client.

regards