So Navigraph provides us with what I assume are the real world briefing documents for each airport in the “TAXI” charts. My question is, are those things relevant when you are flying in a controlled airport in VATSIM and should I take the time to read and follow them? Do controllers have to learn and enforce them before they are rated for a certain airport? Or the only relevant briefing is the one on the respective division page?
There is no easy answer to that question. I have tried exercising these on VATSIM and been told by some controllers they dont apply, yet others have said yes. KMEM and the extensive “RED ZONE” occupied by FEDEX is a good example. The whole RED ZONE is a non-movement area, meaning that it is OCTA.
My suggestion is to use them as a guide, but don’t expect ATCOs to replicate them.
The short answer is “it depends”. It depends on the division, the airport and sometimes the controller. Some will follow these to the letter, including temporary taxiway closures which wouldn’t be reflected in simulator scenery, others will ignore the real world flows and do whatever is best for the traffic at the time.
Some things from the airport briefing are relevant but you don’t have to go through the wall of text every time you plan a flight.
The MSFS2024 default flight planner allows to view Lufthansa LIDO charts and in these charts, you find one set of Airport Operational Information per airport. There’s everything notable you should know about this airport:
I go through them before the first time I fly to this specific airport and take notes using the “Company NOTAMS” feature of PFPX. This shrinks it down to a few lines for every airport I fly to (rarely a bit more like in Zürich) and I’ll get those company NOTAMS automatically with every flight I plan using PFPX.
I also take notes of other airport specific things in here, like scenery limitations, things worth considering when flying on VATSIM, etc.:
The absence of company NOTAMS is one of many reasons why I still must use PFPX and can’t make the switch to simBrief.