Manual for Simon Bergner´s ATC Simulator v1.00

Index

1. Station Setup Screen1.1 TMA Selection1.2 Runway configuration setup1.3 Voicetest and selection1.4 Time selection1.5 Activate-button1.6 SID/STAR Selection Window

2. The Scope2.1 The Topbar

2.1.1 TTS Enable/Disable button2.1.2 Setupwindow and radarscope symbols2.1.3 Altitudefilter2.1.4 Iconbuttons and time

2.2 Flighstrip Window2.3 Aircraft symbol and datatag2.4 Distance measuring tool2.5 Working the scope

3. Communication3.1 Communicating with pilots

3.1.1 Controlling with text3.1.2 Controlling using voice

4. Controlling traffic4.1 Controlling departures4.2 Controlling arrivals

5. Key summary6. Command summary

6.1 Text commands6.2 Voice commands

I. Callsign pronunciation

1. Station Setup Screen

After starting the program you will see the window above. This is where you setup the simulator for this session. As you can see from the above picture there are five different fields highlighted:

● A : TMA Selection● B : Runwayconfiguration setup● C : Voicetest and selection● D : Time-selection● E : Activate-button

1.1 TMA Selection

Here you select the sector you wish to control. When you select a TMA from the list marked A you will see some info to the right of the list, namely the TMA Name and the creators name.

1.2 Runwayconfiguration setup

The Runwayconfig setup is located in the field marked B. For each Airport in the dropdown-list you must select both an active arrival runway and departure runway. You select a runway by clicking it in the dropdown-list.

1.3 Voicetest and selection

In the field marked C you can select which voices you want the pilots to use when communicating with you. To listen to a voice, click the voice in the list and then click the speakerbutton and you should hear the voice say "This is a test". To select a voice make sure the checkbox is checked.

1.4 Time selection

This is where you select the starting time for the simulation. As you can see in field D there is a textfield and two buttons. In the textbox you can enter any time, but do write it on the form XX:xx. If no aircraft will enter selected TMA within 60 minutes a messagebox will inform you of this and you can select another time. The two buttons are "RANDOM TIME" and "SYSTEM TIME". The "RANDOM TIME"-button when clicked, puts a random time into the textfield. "SYSTEM TIME"-button puts the current System Time into the textfield.

1.5 Activate-button

After all the above selections has been made you are ready to start the simulator. Hit the "ACTIVATE"-button marked E to get into the action.

1.6 SID/STAR Selection Window

SID = Standard Instrument Departure : A path flown by departing aircrafts if they have appropriate equipmentSTAR = Standard Terminal Arrival Route : A path flown by arriving aircrafts with the appropriate equipment

Some runways have more than one SID/STAR for some/all TMA handoff points. If this is the case the window above will appear and you are prompted to select which one to use for each handoff point. In Stockholm TMA, using runway 08 for departures will show the window above. The procedures in this case, AROS 1L and ROKNI 1R, ends at the same point but using AROS 1L will make pilots fly a left turn (or lima) procedure, that is the pilots will turn left after takeoff, while choosing ROKNI 1R will make pilots fly a right turn (or romeo) procedure. You will be prompted to choose a SID for every handoff point that has multiple procedures.

2. The Scope

The scope consists of three major parts, which can be viewed in the above picture:

● The Topbar, located at the top of the screen● The actual Radarscope● The Communication area located at the bottom of the screen

In this chapter we will focus on the Topbar and its functions, and the Radarscope and how to configure it. Information about the Communication area is found in Chapter 3.

2.1 The Topbar

All information not marked in the above picture doesn't have any actual function at this moment. It is just there for visual enhancement. Let us take a closer look at the functioning parts, starting with the button found under "Operating Modes" marked A.

2.1.1 TTS Enable/Disable button

This button toggles between the text displayed in the above picture "NORMAL" and the text "OFF". When indicating "NORMAL" the Text-To-Speech(TTS)-engine is activated which means that the pilots will use voice to communicate with you. When in "OFF"-mode the pilots will use text. Swap between the two by clicking the button.

2.1.2 Setupwindow and radarscope symbols

The button marked B in the Topbar-picture is displayed above. This button is used to bring up the Scope Setup Window shown below:

First look at the part called "Color Setup" marked A in the above picture. This part lets you configure which colors to use when drawing different objects on the scope. First select which object to change by clicking any of the buttons in the field marked A. Then set the wanted color in the field marked B. You set a color by either entering the values for the red (R), blue (B) and green (G) intensities in the textfields, or you can use the "+" and "-" buttons to change intensity of selected color (R,G or B). In the picture above we're about to change the color of the "TMA Boundary" object. The field between the "+" and "-" buttons are colored in the current selected color.

The area marked C called "Scope Setup" is where you select what objects to display on scope. In the picture above all objects have been selected. Select/deselect an object by clicking the appropriate button. In the picture below you can see what a VOR, NDB and FIX looks like at the scope with the IDs (codes) selected:

Exit the setup by either clicking "CLOSE" or anywhere on the radorscope.

2.1.3 Altitudefilter

In these textfields you may enter the altitudes where you want the aircrafts to be displayed on your scope. The number entered in the left field is the lower altitude from where aircrafts are displayed, that is if you enter "100" in the left textfield only aircrafts above FL100 (10000ft) will be drawn. The same formula is valid for the higher altitude value, the number entered times 100 gives the altitude from which the aircrafts is not displayed if above that altitude. To avoid confusion it is best left at the default setting "0" and "999".

2.1.4 Iconbuttons and time

The clock is selfexplanatory and from left to right the buttons are as follows:

● Exit simulator● Show information about simulator● Pause/Resume simulator● Speed up simulator (x10 real time), use only when no traffic in sector

2.2 Flightstrip Window

To access the flightstrip window press F5 and it will appear on the screen. First of all there are three colors that can appear on the flightstrips as shown above. The first type of flightstrip you will encounter is the grey one. This is the color of a flightstrip not yet accepted by you from other controller. When clicking/selecting a flightstrip it will become yellow and the white color is indicated when the flightstrip/aircraft is accepted but not selected.

The info shown on a flightstrip is as follows:

● A: Aircraft callsign● B: Aircrafttype● C: Current speed● D: Datacode, used when communicating wih other controllers● E: Estimated time of sectorentry, could be delayed● F: Indication if aircraft follows any standard procedure or expects vectors. Either SID, STAR or Vect● G: Current clearance given, first cleared altitude or flightlevel and last cleared speed● H: Entry-/exitpoint or current executed standard procedure● I: Flightplan, departure airport - arrival airport

When doubleclicking a flightstrip another window will appear, namely the Flight Information Window where you find some more information regarding the selected flight. F.i. if we were to doubleclick the flightstrip for "KFB480" we would see a window looking something like this:

2.3 Aircraft symbol and datatag

First we will look at the ordinary aircraft symbol and its datatag, before looking at some special cases that appear during simualtion. Here is an example of the ordinary aircraft symbol:

As you can see in the picture above the actual aircraft is drawn as a triangle. This is the way the aircraft will be drawn as long as it is under your control. When not under your control the aircraft is drawn as a square, and also in a different color but we will get back to this when looking at the special cases. For now let us look at the datatag, which is the three lines of text to the right of the aircraft symbol in the above picture.

The first line, indicated by A, will always display the callsign.

Second line, indicated by B, contains information about aircraft altitude. The number to the left of "+" is current flightlevel/altitude and the number to the right of "+" is cleared flightlevel/altitude. Also the "+" can turn into "-" if aircraft is descending and "=" if the aircraft is maintaining a certain flightlevel/altitude.

As we will see soon the third line is the one that changes the most, but in the ordinary datatag it displays the following information:

● C: Aircraft datacode● D: Aircraft groundspeed

Now let us look at some different possibilities for the datatag, starting with the datatags for a departing aircraft:

A shows the datatag before tower has handed it over to you which is done automatically when aircraft reaches a certain altitude. As you can see, the difference with the ordinary datatag is the color, which is green for aircrafts not controlled by you, and the fact that the aircraft symbol is a square instead of a triangle which also indicates that you don't have control of that aircraft. Also there is a "R" to the left on the third row. This indicates that a handover is in progress.

B1 and B2 alternates when you have initiated a handoff to areacontrol. As you can see the color is now darkred which is the color of someone awaiting confirmation of a handoff or handoff is accepted but not executed, in this case you awaiting areacontrol to accept handoff. The only difference here is that the speedindication is alternated with the ID of the controller to whom you sent your handoff request.

When areacontrol accepts handoff, as seen in image C, the color remains darkred but the third line will constantly display the "R" and to the right the ID of the accepting controller.

Finally when you've asked pilot to contact areacontrol, the datatag will turn into image D, indicating that you no longer have control of the aircraft (compare with image A). Instead of speed it displays the controller ID of the station now controlling aircraft.

Now let's take a quick look at the different datatags for an arriving aircraft to see the differences and equalities:

A1 and A2 are similiar to B1 and B2 in the departure datatags picture with the difference that now areacontrol is handing the aircraft off to you (H-ARR).

Image B indicates that you have initiated a handoff to tower controller.

In C the tower located at airport ESSA has accepted your handoff request, and in image D the tower at ESSA is now controlling the aircraft.

Last but not least we will look at a situtation you want to avoid if possible, namely the collision alert:

To avoid collision alerts make sure you keep at least 4nm or 1000ft separation between aircrafts.

2.4 Distance measuring tool

The distance measuring tool is accesed by pressing and holding down left mouse button while draging cursor to wanted position. As seen in the above picture we wanted to know the distance to BALVI from SAS555. At the first row we can read the distance which is 7nm in the picture. The second row is the heading to that point from startpoint selected, in this case it is heading 296. Because we placed the starting point at an aircraft we also got information in the third row (default is "---"). The third row is the time to arrival at selected point measured in minutes. In the picture we can see that SAS555 would need 1 minute to get to BALVI if it was heading there.

2.5 Working the scope

There are some more things worth mentioning that hasn´t been covered in previous sections regarding the scope. First, you can move the centerposition of the scope by doubleclicking the wanted centerposition. You can also zoom in and out by pressing F11 (zoom in) and F12 (zoom out). By combining Shift+F11/F12 you make a larger zoom each step. That should cover the basics around the scope, now let´s take a look at how to communicate with pilots and other ATC stations.

3. Communication

At the bottom of the scope you will find the communication area shown above. The area marked A is the field where you communicate with other pilots using text, called the Pilot-Comm field. Commands available will be discussed in Chapter 3.1.1 Controlling with text. The field marked B is an indicator for voicetransmission. When you issue a voicecommand by pressing Ctrl the indicator will turn red while Ctrl is held down indicating a transmission is being done. How to control using voice is discussed in Chapter 3.1.2 Controlling with voice. Finally the field marked C is the ATC-Comm field used when issuing or accepting handoff to/from other controllers. The only valid command in that field is "+" followed by the aircraft datacode found either on the flightstrip (see Chapter 2.2) or on the aircraft datatag (see Chapter 2.3).

3.1 Communicating with pilots

Communication with pilots can be done in two ways, either via textcommands transmitted through the Pilot-Comm field or via voicecommands spoken into a microphone. We will first take a look at the textcommands available and how you use text to control aircraft.

3.1.1 Controlling with text

All text commands are issued in the Pilot-Comm field. To place cursor in that field just tap CTRL and the cursor will appear. Before you can give any commands you must specify what aircraft you´re about to communicate with. This is done by entering the aircraft callsign into the Pilot-Comm field followed by a Space. Then you can enter as many commands you want seperated by spaces, and to transmit your commands press Enter. First let us look at all commands available before showing some typical ways to use these commands.

Command ExplanationKey shortcut

CC Contact control [if you want realism, add the actual freq after CC, compare CT] N/A

CT XXX.yy

Contact tower on frequency XXX.yy N/A

DM XXX,YYYYY

Descend and maintain Flightlevel XX(X), or altitude YYYY(Y) Downarrow

CM XXX,YYYYY

Climb and maintain Flightlevel XX(X), or altitude YYYY(Y) Uparrow

TL xxx Turn left heading xxx Leftarrow

TR xxx Turn right heading xxx Rightarrow

FH xxx Fly heading xxx. Pilot will turn the shortest way N/A

IS xxx Increase speed to xxx kts Pageup

RS xxx Reduce speed to xxx kts Pagedown

PD XXXXX

Proceed direct to Fixname/VOR/NDB N/A

CI XXX Cleared ILS approach runway XX(X) N/A

CV XXX Cleared visual approach runway XX(X) N/A

SH Report heading N/A

In the table above there is a Key shortcut specified for some commands. These can be used instead of actually typing

f.i. the letters CM. By pressing Uparrow these letters will be written automatically and you just have to enter the altitude/flightlevel.

Now let´s take a look at some example communications:

Entered command Actual interpretation

SAS2023 TL 200 CM 120 Scandinavian 2023 turn left heading 200, climb to flightlevel 120

BAW1544 PD ERK IS 270 Speedbird 1544 proceed direct to Erken, increase speed to 270

FIN453 CT 118.5 Finnair 453 contact tower 118.5

When entering a command perhaps you enter a command incorrectly and would like to change it before sending it using Enter. To get to the position where you want to change something you must use ALT+Leftarrow and ALT+Rightarrow since Leftarrow/Rightarrow alone is a shortcut-key for TL (turn left) and TR (turn right). If you have already sent an incorrect line you may bring up the last transmitted line by pressing "-". There will be some more examples in Chapter 4 where we discuss how to control traffic in more specific terms.

3.1.2 Controlling using voice

IMPORTANT! First of all you MUST run the Speech setup - Train profile. This can be found under Windows Control Panel - Speech. Within the tab "Speech Recognition" you will find a button labelled "Train Profile". You must complete at least the first setup to be able to use voice. If you don´t complete it, the result using Speech is very unpredictable. Make sure you only use the "Default Speech Profile". But, the more you train your profile the better the speech recognintion engine will become. Have also found that by using it within the ATC simulator it becomes better and better.

Ok, you have now completed some voice training. Now it is time to practice it in the real environment. You start a voice transmission by holding down the Ctrl-key (notice the red indicator light to the right of the pilot-comm field). You end it by releasing the button.

The first you must say is the callsign for the aircraft, f.i. "Scandinavian one one two nine" and then followed by the commands. This is a list of expected phrases that can be used while controlling (Words within () is optional):

General command Example communication Analogous textcmd

Turn left (heading) XXX "Turn left heading one two zero" TL 120

Go left (heading) XXX "Go left one two zero" TL 120

Turn right (heading) XXX "Turn right heading one two zero" TR 120

Go right (heading) XXX "Go right heading one two zero" TR 120

Fly (heading) XXX "Fly heading one zero zero" FH 100

Descend and maintain (flightlevel/altitude) XXX (feet)

"Descend and maintain two thousand five hundred feet"

DM 2500

Descend to (flightlevel/altitude) XXX (feet)

"Descend to flightlevel one two zero" DM 120

Climb and maintain (flightlevel/altitude) XXX (feet)

"Climb and maintain four thousand feet"

CM 4000

Climb to (flightlevel/altitude) XXX (feet)

"Climb to flightlevel one six zero" CM 160

Increase speed XXX (knots) "Increase speed two eight zero" IS 180

Reduce speed XXX (knots) "Reduce speed one eight zero" RS 180

Speed XXX (knots) "Speed two eight zero knots" N/A

Proceed direct to XXX "Proceed direct to Tebby" PD TEB

Go direct to XXX "Go direct to Erken" PD ERK

Cleared direct to XXX "Cleared direct to Hammar" PD HMR

Proceed to XXX "Proceed to Tebby" PD TEB

Contact (Stockholm) control (on) (XXX.xx)

"Contact Stockholm control" CC

Contact (Arlanda) tower (on) XXX.xx"Contact tower on one one eight decimal five"

CT 118.5

Cleared ILS approach (runway) XXx "Cleared ILS approach zero one left" CI 01L

Cleared visual approach (runway) XXx"Cleared visual approach runway two six"

CV 26

Say (present/current) heading "Say heading" SH

Report (present/current) heading "Report present heading" SH

At first the speechrecognition may seem like more trouble than fun but hang in there because it will be worth it when you start to direct traffic with fast and precise voicecommands just like the real controllers do!

4. Controlling traffic

This part is an illustrative guide about how you control an aircraft from the time you take over control until you hand it off to someone else. The guide is divided into two parts, Controlling departures and Controlling arrivals, since it differs some. First let´s see how to control aircrafts coming into your sector.

4.1 Controlling departures

There is no traffic under our control but, as you can see in the image above, a flightstrip has appeared and, as the color grey indicates, we have not yet accepted the handoff from tower. Just above the ATC-Comm field you can see a transmission sent to you from Tower asking you to accept handoff.

When clicking the grey flightstrip you inform tower that you accept the handoff. As you can see in the image above there is also a transmission sent to tower accepting handoff for KFB480.

The aircraft will check in with you after takeoff and then you´re in control. Let us command the aircraft to climb to FL120 and fly direct Nortel. This is easy, just issue the appropriate commands either using voice or text. The text command can look like this: "480 CM 120 PD NTL" (CM - Climb and maintain, PD - Proceed direct)

KFB480 is making a steady climb towards Nortel and, as the image above indicates, he has passed FL100 so we can initiate a handoff to the next controller by entering +802. The + indicates ATC to ATC communication and 802 is the aircraft datacode (which can be found either on the flightstrip or on the aircraft datatag).

While waiting for the next controller to accept, the flightinfo turns red. When an R comes up you can hand it over to the next controller by typing "480 CC" (CC - Contact Control). The controller will also accept the handoff by sending you a message through the ATC-Comm module.

After you handed the aircraft over it turns green. By pressing +802 again the datatag will disappear and you will only see the echo.

And there you have it, a successful handling of a departing aircraft! Now let´s take a look at how to guide an arriving aircraft safely to its destination.

Time to handle some arriving traffic. Our first arrival has appeared as seen in the image above, it´s Scandinavian 904 from Newark, New York. Accept the arrival by entering +141 in the ATC-Comm field.

4.2 Controlling arrivals

After accepting the aircraft turns magenta and checks in. Let´s clear it down to FL70 and give him heading 090 since there isn´t any other traffic in the area. Using textcommand: "904 DM 70 FH 090" (DM - Descend and maintain, FH - Fly Heading. You can also use TL - Turn Left heading 090).

After an additional command earlier, clearing SAS904 to altitude 2500ft, he´s now on the downwind leg for rwy 26 which is our selected landing runway.

Let´s clear him for approach: "904 FH 230 CI 26" (CI - Cleared Instrument approach rwy 26).

SAS904 is turning onto the localizer centerline, looks good. Initiate handoff to tower by entering +141 in the ATC-Comm field.

Tower accepted the aircraft. Let´s ask the pilot to contact tower now: "904 CT 118.5" (CT 118.5 - Contact Tower on 118 decimal 5)

SAS904 is now under tower-control expecting to land shortly, and that means our work is done.

5. Key summary

Here we will summarize the different keys used in the simulator.

Scope keys/General keys Pilot-Comm field keys

F1 Show About Box Leftarrow TL

F5 Show Flightstrip Window Rightarrow TR

(Shift+)F11 Scope (large) zoom in Uparrow CM

(Shift+)F12 Scope (large) zoom out Downarrow DM

CTRL [tapping]

Place textcursor in Pilot-Comm field

Pageup IS

CTRL [holding down]

Activate voicetransmission Pagedown RS

+Place textcursor in ATC-Comm field

ALT+Leftarrow

Move textcursor left

-Recall last command issued and put in Pilot-Comm

ALT+Rightarrow

Move textcursor right

6. Command summary

This part contains a summary of all commands, both text and voice, that can be issued to pilots. This is the same information found in previous chapters but here to make it easy to print only the commands.

6.1 Text commands

Command ExplanationKey shortcut

CCContact control [if you want realism, add the actual freq after CC, compare CT]

N/A

CT XXX.yy

Contact tower on frequency XXX.yy N/A

DM XXX,YYYYY

Descend and maintain Flightlevel XX(X), or altitude YYYY(Y) Downarrow

CM XXX,YYYYY

Climb and maintain Flightlevel XX(X), or altitude YYYY(Y) Uparrow

TL xxx Turn left heading xxx Leftarrow

TR xxx Turn right heading xxx Rightarrow

FH xxx Fly heading xxx. Pilot will turn the shortest way N/A

IS xxx Increase speed to xxx kts Pageup

RS xxx Reduce speed to xxx kts Pagedown

PD XXXXX

Proceed direct to Fixname/VOR/NDB N/A

CI XXX Cleared ILS approach runway XX(X) N/A

CV XXX Cleared visual approach runway XX(X) N/A

SH Report heading N/A

Go right (heading) XXX "Go right heading one two zero" TR 120

Fly (heading) XXX "Fly heading one zero zero" FH 100

Descend and maintain (flightlevel/altitude) XXX (feet)

"Descend and maintain two thousand five hundred feet"

DM 2500

Descend to (flightlevel/altitude) XXX (feet)

"Descend to flightlevel one two zero"

DM 120

Climb and maintain (flightlevel/altitude) XXX (feet)

"Climb and maintain four thousand feet"

CM 4000

Climb to (flightlevel/altitude) XXX (feet)

"Climb to flightlevel one six zero"

CM 160

Increase speed XXX (knots) "Increase speed two eight zero" IS 180

Reduce speed XXX (knots) "Reduce speed one eight zero" RS 180

Speed XXX (knots) "Speed two eight zero knots" N/A

Proceed direct to XXX "Proceed direct to Tebby" PD TEB

Go direct to XXX "Go direct to Erken" PD ERK

Cleared direct to XXX "Cleared direct to Hammar" PD HMR

Proceed to XXX "Proceed to Tebby" PD TEB

Contact (Stockholm) control (on) (XXX.xx)

"Contact Stockholm control" CC

Contact (Arlanda) tower (on) XXX.xx

"Contact tower on one one eight decimal five"

CT 118.5

Cleared ILS approach (runway) XXx

"Cleared ILS approach zero one left"

CI 01L

Cleared visual approach (runway) XXx

"Cleared visual approach runway two six"

CV 26

Say (present/current) heading "Say heading" SH

Report (present/current) heading "Report present heading" SH

6.2 Voice commands

General command Example communication Analogous textcmd

Turn left (heading) XXX"Turn left heading one two zero"

TL 120

Go left (heading) XXX "Go left one two zero" TL 120

Turn right (heading) XXX"Turn right heading one two zero"

TR 120

I. Callsign pronunciation

CODE Callsign Pronunciation

SAS Scandinavian"s k ae n d ih n ae v ih aa n"

BAW Speedbird "s p iy d b er d"

FIN Finnair "f ih n ae r"

AFR Air France "ae r f r aa n s"

SKX Skyexpress "s k y eh k s p r eh s"

DLH Lufthansa "l uw f t h aa n s aa"

SWR Swiss "s w iy s"

KFB Bluefinn "b l uw f ih n"

EXC Echo Express "eh k uw eh k s p r eh s"

THA Thai "t ay"

WIF Wideroe "v ih d eh r ow"

ELL Estonian "eh s t ow n iy aa n"

BTI Air Baltic "ae r b ao l t ih k"

AFL Aeroflot "ae r uh f l ao t"

PLK Pulkovo "p ah l k uh v uh"

KLM KLM "K L M"

AUA Austrian "ao s t r iy ah n"

SAB Estail "eh s t ey l"

LOT Lot "l ao t"

IRA Iranair "ih r aa n ae r"

VKG Viking "v ay k iy ng"

SNB Sterling "s t ah r l ih ng"

IBE Iberia "ay b eh r ih aa"

MAH Malev "m aa l eh v"

JKK Spanair "s p aa n ae r"

CSA CSA Lines "C S A l ay n s"

NVR Navigator "n ae v ih g ey t ao r"

BLX Bluescan "b l uw s k ae n"

DAN Maerskair "m ae r s k ae r"

CTN Croatia "k r uw ey zh aa"

ICE Iceair "ay s ae r"

ELL Luxair "l ah k s ae r"

TAP Air Portugal "ae r p ao r ch uh g aa l"

SWV Flying swede "f l ay ih ng s w iy d"

NDC Nordic "n ao r d ih k"

SRL Starline "s t aa r l ay n"

GWI German Wings"y ah r m ax n w ih ng s"

NAX Nor Shuttle "n ao r sh ah t l"

CCA Air China "ae r ch ay n ax"

AZA Alitalia "ax l ih t aa l iy ax"

JAT JAT "jh _ ey _ t iy"

GMI Germaina "y ah r m ey n ih ax"

AMC Air Malta "ae r m ao l t ax"

LIL Lithuania Air"l iy th uw ey n ih ax ae r"

FLY Flybird "f l ay b ah r d"

ADI Audeli "ao d ae l iy"

NRD Northrider "n ao r th r ay d r"

BGH Balkan Holidays"b aa l k ax n h ao l iy d ey s"