ATCAssist - A New Application For Controllers

[Rob H - 811428]

VATPAC Operations Staff are proud to announce the release of ATC Assist, a new web application designed to support online ATC. ATC Assist brings together many of the various different sources of information that controllers need and presents them in a single, convenient browser interface. You can now have access to live weather, charts, runway distance information, navaid lookups and more from a single browser session rather than muddling through various books, printouts and websites. ATC Assist is designed to be an airport-centred assistant providing a collection of the most useful and useable information we could find in a single screen, all available at your fingertips.

 

Here's a small snapshot of ATCAssist's features:

 

Creating your ATIS

The 'ATIS Helper' section provides you with current VATSIM weather, along with a breakdown of runway lengths, headwinds and crosswinds. The 'Real Life ATIS' can also be referred to when creating your ATIS.

 

Aircraft Types

You need to recognise aircraft type in order to correctly assign an initial altitude, and to correctly assign a SID/STAR. For an unfamiliar aircraft type, use 'Aircraft Lookup' to determine JET or NON-JET.

 

Also, if you have an aircraft on short final that shows a type designator on the flight strip of J3, you can use 'Aircraft Lookup' ... "QF123, behind the arriving Cuby Acro Trainer, line up behind".

 

Assigning SIDs/STARs

The Procedures Lookup section allows you to quickly determine the appropriate SID/STAR to assign from the route a pilot has submitted, no matter what a pilot throws at you!

 

From a flightstrip displayed in ASRC you can use the first waypoint listed, or if that isn't given then the first airway listed, to select the correct SID. Even if the first waypoint given is halfway to Timbuktu, you can enter it and the system will try an find a connection (via an airway) back to a SID. If even that doesn't work, you at least know the direction to the first waypoint on the route, and can select a SID in the correct direction and then talk to the pilot about ammending their route.

 

For STARs you use the last waypoint/airway.

 

If you use Internet Explorer, then the ".am rte" details are placed in the copy buffer for you - you only need Ctrl-V in ASRC (not available in Mozilla ... you need to Ctrl-C yourself).

 

Issuing Clearance

"LAV023, cleared to DAAT via YWE planned route ..."

You can use 'Airline Lookup' to determine LAV is Aeropostal.

You can use 'Airport Lookup' to determine DAAT is Tamanrasset.

You can use 'Navaid Lookup' to determine YWE is Yarrowee.

"Aeropostal 023, cleared to Tamanrasset via Yarrowee planned route ..."

 

Charts

All the relevant AsA and local VATPAC documentation for your selected airport is available to view. You should never need to delve for a airport diagram again. "... taxi via C B10 S L A F B ..." should be all too easy.

 

Which Browser?

TWR/GND/DEL, only needing one airport, would be best to use IE, to utilise the ".am rte" copy buffer feature which streamlines multiple clearances.

 

APP/DEP/CTR may find it more useful to have multiple ATC Assist tabs open, one for each airport they are handling.

You can start using ATCAssist NOW at http://vatpac.org/assist/?pg=atcassist