Startgrid Endless ATC (PC) Documentation

Startgrid Endless ATC (PC)

Endless ATC instructions (PC)

For detailed instructions, see the blog

Vectors to the ILS

Guide the planes safely the ILS, while maintaining 3 mile or 1000 feet separation. Planes fully established on the ILS will be handed off to the tower, and then your skill value will increase. Separation incidents cost skill points. The higher the skill value, the more planes you will have to control at a time. A high skill value also opens more runways. Planes should intercept the localizer at a 30-degree angle, with ILS mode enabled. Make sure that planes intercept the glideslope from below; see the altitude markers (blue circles) indicating 2000, 3000, and 4000 feet. Once on the localizer, maintain extra distance behind heavy planes to avoid go-arounds due to wake turbulence.

Handoffs

When a plane is established on the localizer, it can be handed off to the tower by pressing the H/O button. If you don’t hand them off, they will go to the tower automatically at 4 miles from touchdown, without any penalty. In real life, a plane is usually transferred to the tower as soon as it’s on the glideslope and has enough separation for a safe landing. For departures, the H/O button may be used when the plane is about to climb through the airspace ceiling, or a bit earlier if there is no other traffic nearby. If you don’t hand them off manually, they will transfer automatically when crossing the top of the airspace, without penalty. Handoffs are optional and plane separation remains the responsibility of the player until the planes leave the airspace.

Areas and weather

In the airspace, there are certain areas with an altitude/level restriction. Planes must fly at or above the displayed area altitude, otherwise, it’s a violation of the airspace: the skill value will drop and it will be counted as a separate incident. There is one exception: when an area has a name and that name matches a plane’s destination tag, the plane can enter that area without restrictions. Note that planes inbound to the main airport have an empty destination tag.
In the weather menu, you can enable wind, as well as clouds (thunderstorms) which are displayed as orange blocks. When planes fly through these clouds, it’s counted as a separate incident. Avoid these clouds with some margin; the resolution and update interval of the `weather radar’ is low. For simplicity, clouds can be avoided laterally only. The wind direction and speed settings apply to the surface. With increasing altitude, the wind speed increases and veers, especially near the surface. The wind displayed on the top of the sidebar is the wind at a height of 3000 feet. Note that the effect of wind in combination with thinner air can result in a large difference between ground speed and ground track versus the commanded (indicated) airspeed and heading when a plane is at a high altitude.

Parallel runways

3 NM/1000 feet separation rules apply until both planes are established on a different localizer. So, to avoid incidents, intercept the localizer with 1000 feet altitude difference between the planes, and make sure they intercept at a great distance from the runway (to avoid that one plane captures the glide before the other one is on the localizer).
Planes with ILS mode enabled will select the nearest runway. If you want to intercept the other ILS, then long-press the ILS button; the alternate ILS* mode is then enabled, and the plane will cross one localizer before intercepting the next one.

Settings

A realistic setting would be a radar sweep of 4.5 seconds and a pilot delay of about 3 seconds. Enabling sound mode 3′ (this will give speech output including readbacks) gives an idea of the amount of communication needed. The voices used are from the US and UK language packs from Windows (if they are installed). For extremely crowded airspaces, it’s probably better to select sound mode 1 (beeps only). Enable custom traffic to limit the amount of traffic to a more realistic level:cap’ limits the skill value (so it also limits the number of planes you have to control at a time), and flow’ lets you define a fixed rate of traffic (but if the flow is set at a higher level than the runway capacity allows, a star will appear indicating that traffic is delayed; to activate more runways you’ll have to increase the skill value first). Custom traffic disables thegame elements’ (high scores/goals) you have in a normal game, as it changes the game mechanics. If you want to set high scores again, start a new game, by selecting the current airport
in the airport menu.

Controls

Controlling the sim by mouse or touch is the easiest way. Most commands can be given by mouse buttons only, or by clicking on the sidebar buttons. Additionally, keyboard commands can be used. It’s even possible, although less intuitive, to play by keyboard only, by typing callsigns to select planes, and then typing the commands as listed below.

mouse

left-click – select plane, press, and drag to select the heading
right-click –  pan view cleared ILS if the left button is also pressed
scroll wheel – zoom, change altitude (or speed, if right button pressed), click to ‘OK’ or `H/O’
long-press DCT – select HOLD mode at the current position
long-press ILS –  select alternate ILS* mode (cross one localizer, intercept the next one)
double-click SID – direct to SID waypoint and set altitude to maximum
double-click altitude +/-  expedite climb/descend (increase vertical speed)

keyboard

ESC – pause, windowed mode
F1- F4 – simulation speed 1x-4x
F5-F8 – heading line 0m-3m
F9 –  lower skill value (custom traffic)
F10 –  increase skill value (custom traffic)
F11 –  hold key down to temporary speed up sim
F12 –  change runway configuration
Alt+Enter –  fullscreen mode
Ctrl+Q –  quit

Tab – select next blinking plane
PgUp –  increase altitude
PgDown – decrease altitude
Left –  heading left
Right – heading right
Up – increase speed
Down – decrease speed
Insert – ILS
Delete – DCT
Home – HOLD
End – expedite climb/descend
Enter – OK, confirm changes

plane commands, separated by spaces