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Messages - Bradley Grafelman

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46
General Discussion / Can't become atc
« on: April 12, 2014, 10:51:24 AM »
Quote from: Tom Williams
I have recently joined vatsim and I chose Vatusa as my region.
I went to the become an ATC page and filled the details, after I pressed verify information it just went to page sais
"Enter your VATSIM CID and password to begin the verification process"
and nothing to press

Is this what you see?

[img]http://i58.tinypic.com/2iv0cif.png\\\" border=\\\"0\\\" class=\\\"linked-image\\\" /]

47
Simple Insanity / The funniest things heard while controlling/flying
« on: April 04, 2014, 02:27:27 PM »
Quote from: Michael Mund-Hoym
A little off topic, but is LAX_TWR considered a procedural tower?
It is when I don't want to steal the... er, "fun"... and approve a PO for all of ZLA at any altitude.

48
Simple Insanity / April Fools! USA Division Changes
« on: April 01, 2014, 11:16:05 AM »
Quote from: Zachary Beard
You got me for two seconds. Two seconds of, "whaaa??"
He got me until I read the part about VATSIM actually establishing a revenue stream for the purposes of expansion. Obviously something that forward-thinking and exciting would never happen.

49
Simple Insanity / American Airlines To Phase Out Complimentary Cabin Pressurization
« on: March 06, 2014, 01:48:54 PM »
Wonder if SWA pioneered the way on that last bit with their recent loss of a complementary nose gear on select flights...

50
General Discussion / Headsets...?
« on: February 23, 2014, 09:12:14 PM »
I used a pair of Turtle Beach Ear Force Z6As for a while and loved 'em... right up until I went through two pairs due to breaking them. Apparently my big head was doing battle with a section of plastic in a certain area and won... twice.

I've since ordered a Logitech G930 and am giving it a go. So far, it seems like a nice headset... though I do miss one or two aspects from the Z6As. I liked the individual channel control on the Z6A since it allowed me to easily manage the volume of TeamSpeak and my controlling frequency. I think the G930 has more sound isolation qualities because I found myself needing to seriously ramp up the sidetone volume in order for it to "feel" right when I started talking.

51
The Control Room Floor / Want to Win Big at ZAU ARTCC?
« on: February 11, 2014, 01:32:13 PM »
Quote from: Ira Robinson
Tough for a VC to compete in something like this.  It means having to put in quite a large number of total hours each week.
Agreed! For example, to put in 30 hours towards the competition, you'd have to control at your home ARTCC for another 30 hours for a total of 60 hours.

However, I also agree that this is an awesome idea to spark activity in a new and creative way. (At least, it's new to me.)

EDIT: Then again, the VC policy doesn't specify a timeframe for the 50/50 requirement... so maybe you could just argue that it'll even itself out over the next few months or so?

52
The Flight Deck / KORD Question from a Red-Faced Newbie
« on: January 03, 2014, 10:43:44 AM »
Another example of why it's best to advise the controller early and openly if you're unable to do something or even have concerns that you'll be able to do it safely/successfully...

During low visibility (read: the SoCal low-level marine layer rolling in and swallowing the area), KSAN lands to the east (at least, it does when I'm controlling ) so that the ILS RWY 9 (chart here) can be used. Due to reasons I have yet to research and uncover, the default FSX scenery (and potentially others that cover KSAN) have an incorrect frequency for the ILS.

Just recently, I was vectoring a pilot onto final for that ILS and noticed he never made a turn to intercept it and just blew through it. Fortunately, I'd remember seeing this little gem from our website (link):

[!--quoteo--][div class=\\\'quotetop\\\']QUOTE [/div][div class=\\\'quotemain\\\'][!--quotec--]Caution:
Use 110.9 for the ILS RWY 9 frequency in Flight Simulator.[/quote]After a quick "XYZ123, ILS RWY 9 frequency 110.9, turn right heading 060 to reintercept", he intercepted and descended without issue, albeit a little too close to the FAF for comfort.

Had he spoken up earlier when I gave him the turn to intercept and mentioned "by the way, we're not receiving the localizer yet," we could have gotten him on the right frequency much sooner. It wasn't the pilot's fault he didn't have it - it's just an artifact of a dated flight simulator not being perfect and up-to-date.

53
The Flight Deck / KORD Question from a Red-Faced Newbie
« on: January 02, 2014, 05:34:46 PM »
Quote from: Robert Booker
I now know about checking to be sure that the airport I have in my computer is the airport reflected in the current charts before flying into the airspace.
I think this brings up a key point in the matter. This is not only a simulated world, but it's numerous disjointed simulated worlds all being rendered by our individual PCs and connected to a single network.

Now, you should certainly try to do your due diligence when it comes to using a product released many years ago and flying into airports having undergone recent major modifications. Having said that, yeah, I also think it should be expected of us controllers (in general - I haven't controlled in ZAU outside of the Oshkosh event) to try to accommodate these "sim-only" type issues as best we can.

My $.02.

54
Events / New Year's on the Beach
« on: January 02, 2014, 12:22:41 PM »
[img]http://laartcc.org/images/events/nWmYTI6VgC.jpg\\\" border=\\\"0\\\" class=\\\"linked-image\\\" /]

Mark your calendars! ZLA's first official event of 2014!

Escape the snow and frigid temps for a New Year's after-party on the sandy shores of Southern California! Los Angeles (LAX) and San Diego (SAN) will be fully staffed and ready to serve all of your winter beach-going needs!

Come join us in welcoming year 2014, ZLA style!

55
Simple Insanity / The funniest things heard while controlling/flying
« on: December 18, 2013, 04:34:51 PM »
Quote from: Mark Hubbert
XXX___ - Radio Check
AAL683 - READ you loud and clear
Reminds me of this oldie-but-goodie from the VATSIM forums:

[!--quoteo--][div class=\\\'quotetop\\\']QUOTE [/div][div class=\\\'quotemain\\\'][!--quotec--][07:57:21] [...]: Cairo tower good morning radio check with [...]
[07:57:29] HECC_CTR: [...], font is crisp and clear[/quote]

It also reminds me of the time a text-only pilot asked me to "say again." I paused, stared at my scope in disbelief for a few seconds, pressed the Up arrow key and Enter, and was met with a "roger."

56
General Discussion / Happy Birthday Don
« on: December 12, 2013, 12:54:16 PM »
I call "not it" on delivering this year's birthday spankings.

Otherwise... happy birthday, Don!

57
Simple Insanity / VATSIM Pilot or Real World Pilot... The Answer May Shock You...
« on: November 15, 2013, 04:57:15 PM »
What an amateur mistake! Why didn't he just try Ctrl+E??

 

58
The Control Room Floor / VFR Corridor KMSY New Orleans
« on: November 08, 2013, 04:46:18 PM »
Perhaps the controller was referring to the corridor shown here? Note that the slender rectangles of the Class B airspace allow you to fly NW or NE between 1000 ft and 2000 ft until you reach Lake Pontchartrain before turning on course.. all while not being inside Class B airspace (after climbing, of course, if departing from KMSY).

EDIT: Further supporting evidence: this flight claims to have utilized the "NEW ORLEANS VFR CORRIDOR" to fly westbound, and its route seems to follow the areas I mentioned above.

59
The Control Room Floor / "Descend Via"
« on: November 07, 2013, 11:19:45 AM »
Quote from: Adam Smith
I've interpreted it as you can only issue the "descend via" instructions if the STAR has hard altitudes, (line above and below) otherwise you descend them manually.
Quote from: Ryan Geckler
Yup. See the FRDMM2 arrival into DCA. That's a "descend via" arrival.

I'm going to strongly disagree with both of you on that point. Why must the altitude restriction be a hard restriction? Nothing in any FAA document states that, and that's certainly not the case with real-world controllers.

First example that comes to my mind would be the RIIVR2 into KLAX. You're saying you won't hear "Descend via the RIIVR Two arrival" on LiveATC (or in ZLA on VATSIM ) countless times every day simply because the RIIVR intersection doesn't have a hard altitude?

EDIT: And just in case you try to get sneaky and claim that RIIVR is still a "boxed" altitude limit, I'll still argue that "Descend via the BASET3 arrival" is perfectly fine as well despite the altitude restrictions at REEDR, DOWNE, etc.

EDIT2: After actually looking at the FRDMM2 arrival, I apparently misunderstand Ryan and/or both of you. My point was simply that a STAR could have zero "hard" altitudes and contain nothing but "at or above" altitudes and you'd still be able to use "descend via" with it. (Now, if the pilot acknowledges the instruction and never leaves his altitude, that's perfectly valid... he just probably won't get to land any time soon.)

60
The Control Room Floor / "Descend Via"
« on: November 06, 2013, 12:54:15 PM »
Quote from: Tim Farrell
Correct me if I am wrong, but my take on the descend via according to the 7110 is that if there is the word "expect"  on the STAR either rnav and non-rnav, a controller cannot use the phrase "descend via".
... until after issuing "cross SMFIX at 10,000" (which is in the examples in this thread so far). That is, unless you're referring to a STAR that does not just begin with an "expect to cross at.." with hard crossing restrictions afterwards?

Quote from: Tim Farrell
I am hearing "decsend via" a lot in Vatusa where technicaly, this is incorrect in most cases.
Any specific examples come to mind? To your point above, one example might be the VISTA2 arrival into KLAX.

With this STAR, saying "cross CYNDE at 12,000, then descend via the VISTA2 arrival" would be an example of an invalid instruction.

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