Happy Holidays, all...
Since the advent of more pilots wishing to follow more realistic flight paths, and particularly since the addition of the USA West hub, I have found it necessary to make a minor, but important, change to the general procedure of the TransGear events. This will also get us a little closer to real-world departure procedures as well.
* Once all aircraft are down, and during the 30-minute break, the controller who will be acting as Departure will confer with each pilot individually to verify whether they intend to use a SID path for departure. If not, the Departure controller will simply verify their intended direction of departure. If they are, the pilot and controller will compare that SID to the departure runway and figure out whether they can enter the SID from the first, or perhaps a later, waypoint.
* Once all pilots have been consulted, Departure and Tower will confer, and agree on an initial heading and altitude for each pilot as they are cleared for takeoff. That way, what the Tower gives them will be consistent with getting them on their way to the agreed SID entry point, before handing them over to Departure.
* As the time to leave arrives, all aircraft will get permission to push back and taxi to the hold-short line, as normal.
* Upon reaching the hold-short line, pilots will check in with Tower, who will go over their initial heading and altitude assignment BEFORE starting the process of clearing them for takeoff. They will also advise which frequency Departure is using (or else will advise "remain on this frequency for Departure"). The last thing Tower will say once giving these assigned headings, altitudes, and frequencies, is, "Advise when ready for departure."
* Now, the pilot has time to enter these altitude and heading assignments into their autopilot bugs, set their COM1 standby channel for Departure control, do their other control checks and set their flaps, BEFORE advising, "ready for departure."
* AT THAT POINT, finally, will Tower begin sequencing them through "hold short," "position and hold," and "clear for takeoff" as necessary.
Hopefully that all makes sense to everyone. The listed procedures online here have all been revised to reflect this minor adjustment.
Also, speaking of listed online procedures, the first draft of the USA West Route Planning and Flight Checklist has been published, and is ready for scrutiny, proofreading, comment, correction, and test-driving. Please let me know what you think. Additionally, in developing that checklist, I found a list of online flight planning resources that I've added to the Charts and Resources page, including national METAR database and all sorts of routing tools, sectional charts, and airport procedures. Look those over as well.
The Controllers' Handbook has gotten its needed rewrite, to reflect the use of SIDs and STARs, too. I've been very, very busy this week!
Feedback on any and all of the above is appreciated. Above all, have a great holiday (those of you who celebrate those sorts of ordeals, anyway), and I'll talk to you all very shortly about scheduling for TGA6!