Pilot Remarks

[Guest d809dp]

Hi everyone... I've had a look through the archive but I can't find an answer to this.Is there anywhere I can get a pretty comprehensive summary of what belongs (and doesn't belong) in the Pilot Remarks section of the flight plan?I know there's /v/ and /t/ (although I'm not really sure what /t/ means) but then I also see a lot of people saying random things like, 'NEWBIE' (fair enough) and even totally 'unreal' stuff like 'Just getting a few hours in before the wife comes home!' :)Any help appreciated!Tom

[MikeB 0]

Tom,You can put anything in the remarks section that you think would be helpful to a controller handling your flight. The only restrictions are on political and/or inflammatory comments. The comment about the wife coming home isn't quite as 'unreal' as you may think. ;) What I would get from that is that here is a pilot that may be logging off before he finishes the flight. (Damn! The wife came home early. Got to go.) Don't laugh. It's happened. LOLThe ASRC radar client will pull the / codes out of the flight plan and mark the datatag with your voice capabilities. /v/ means transmit and receive voice, /t/ means text only, /r/ means you can receive voice but transmit text.Mike BromleyBoston ARTCCSenior Controller

[hopskip 253]

I often put my Callsign in if Im flying as my CTB callsign (As the callsign is "Dream Flight", CTB being Dream Flight is not immediatley obvious) I will often also put in remarks such as my Selcal code if Im flying oceanic (I use FSselcal a bit) or that Im flying PIC767 (which indicates I can do alot of fancy stuff like give proper waypoint estimates, offsett track, step climb and so on) I might also give info like if there is more than one crewmember (Sometimes I fly with a friend with two michrophones so sometimes a different person will answer etc) or if I have any special requirement (ie Step Climbing during long flights) sometimes I have too much to say so I remove the less important stuff (step climbs and extra crewmember) and only put the important stuff in there (Callsign=DreamFlight FSselcal=AE-QS PIC767)Also I see alot of misuse of the Suffix (next to aircraft selection) It should be L M or H for Light Medium and Heavy aircraft. Heavy aircraft should also append "heavy" to the end of their callsign. For instance with me in CTB725 in a 767-300 I will call as "DreamFlight seven two five heavy" Heavy aircraft are the 757, 767, 747, 777, A340, DC10, MD11, C5 etc. Anything larger than the 767 basically, but the 757 also (due to wingtip vortecies.)Of course getting it wrong doesnt matter that much, but its nice to add a bit more realism of course.

[Guest pagotan]

Maybe another important mention which can tremendously help the controllers is whether or not you have charts available.Michael

[MikeB 0]

Actually, the code after the aircraft type is an equipment suffix. It has nothing to do with the weight classification. There is however a prefix that is used for heavy ("Aircraft capable of takeoff weights of more than 255,000 pounds whether or not they are operating at this weight during a particular phase of flight.") aircraft. From FAA0 7110.65N 2-2-6, "... The TCAS indicator is "T/" and the heavy aircraft indicator is "H/". For aircraft that are both TCAS and heavy, the indicator is "B/". For B757, the indicator is "F/" and for B757 with TCAS, the indicator is "L/".".A list of the equipment suffixes can be found in FAA Order 7110.65N (Air Traffic Control) Chapter 2 (http://www2.faa.gov/atpubs/ATC/Chp2/atc0203.html#Tbl%202-3-3) and in the Aeronautical Information Manual Chapter 4 (http://www2.faa.gov/atpubs/AIM/Chap5/aim0501.html#@$D2d0webb).Mike BromleyBoston ARTCCSenior Controller

[Guest ovavp]

As a controller, I appreciate it when a pilot puts his/her airline name in the notes when flying for a VA. On the surface it might sound unnecessary but it can be very useful. I'll use an example to explain: From time to time in STL I get a pilot using SPA###. Now some of you know that SPA is actually Sandpiper Airlines. In this case, however, the VA is St Paul Airlines. Putting St Paul Airlines in the notes would enable me to use the correct callsign on voice, thereby avoiding any confusion.Brian WilberOzark VPKC ARTCC

[Vulcan 14]

TOM, you have had some excellent replies here which I will highlight and add a couple of others, all in line with the post that advised 'anything you think would useful to the controllers./v, /t/, etc have been explained and 'newbie' or 'student pilot' are self explanatory.The example of adding your callsign is a good one. Vatsim has a list of affiliated VAs along with their callsigns so all controllers *should* know them. However if that VA does very little Vatsim flying their callsign is probably going to be forgotten or may not be familiar to another Country so it is a good idea to add your callsign if flying for a VA. It also makes it easier on you the pilot to listen for a name rather than a bunch of letters and numbers.I fly for British Charter Airlines and although we have a reasonable presence on Vatsim we are not in the same league as say, American Airlines, or British Airways, so I always add my callsign if flying outside the UK."Charts on board" tells the controllers not only that you have the relevant ground, departure and arrival charts with you but you can actually use those charts to fly. So if you can't use them to fly don't put that comment in :-)Example.Say I am flying out of London Heathrow to Manchester (UK) and add "Charts on board". The controller at Heathrow knows that I can negotiate the Heathrow taxiways and block holdings and know the flight path of the various SIDs and can fly them.The Manchester controller knows the same for Manchester but also knows that should I declare a missed approach or he issues a 'go around' that I can fly that without being told what to do or how to fly the M/A. saves him a lot of work.One remark that has not been made and is associaited with the above is "unfamiliar with XXX" where 'XXXX' is the airport code.A prime example is London Heathrow again, or any large airport. You may have the charts and can fly the SID/STARs but it may have been a while since you visited that airport and are not sure of the taxiway layout. Or you may be flying/taxiing in the dark and have previously only been to this airport in daylight before.The "unfamiliar" alerts the controller that you may need assistance say on the ground. The remarks box is basically common sense and the more you fly the more obvious it becomes at what would be useful in there.HTH

[Mats_J 2]

Just to add to HTH's :-lol list, I mean Vulcan's list,I usually put in any special remark for the DEP and ARR airport scenery I have when making a flight. Actually it's more common that I enter "Default sceny" as most ATC has some scenery of preference (at least at the more active FIRs in Europe)It would be good to have some sort of ABRVs for these remarks as there is a limit for how many characters are transmitted to ATC.For SB3 this will be limited to 199 chars.Just my two,