ATC niggles to fix

[Stuntie 0]

Two ATC issues that annoy me:1) channel flipping.Sometimes when you are flying right on the boundary line of two ATC zones you can get a stream of channel changes to and from the two zones - change to tower A, change to tower B, change to tower A, change to tower B etc. etc.At times it can get so bad with messages overwriting messages that you can loose ATC contact (happened to me just last night whilst flying Birmingham to Frankfurt).I believe the problem lies with fixed zones. If you fly right along the boundry you can flip from one to the other again and again as your position triggers each ATC zone in turn.A simple fix would be overlapped boundaries.Have an overlapp zone of say 5-10 miles.You hand over once they hit the outer edge leaving them 5-10 miles inside the next ATC zone and thus unlikely to flip straight back like on a non overlapped zone.2) Rumway takeoff selection.You can request another runway for landing, but not for take off.This gets annoying when you are trying to follow a tutorial, or wish to fly a particular SID or route that uses a particular runway.It would be nice to be able to ask for a particular runway (wind conditions permitting) rather than the vauge North East South West as currently used.I have set up weather to blow straight down the runway I want and still been given another one by Tower!)There is no option to change or cancel the take off allocation meaning you are stuck with what ATC gives you.An option to change runways would be good.

[Guest jrobert]

Another thing is once you've requested taxi-out instructions or permission to take-off, you can't change your mind and abort the request like you can when you request a landing clearance.Put another way: If you want to talk to ground again after you've requested to take off, you MUST take off, request to land, and then you'll be able to talk to groud.I would hope that this gets fixed in FSX.

[Guest EdrickV]

I agree about #1 though it's not>2) Rumway takeoff selection.>You can request another runway for landing, but not for take>off.>This gets annoying when you are trying to follow a tutorial,>or wish to fly a particular SID or route that uses a>particular runway.>It would be nice to be able to ask for a particular runway>(wind conditions permitting) rather than the vauge North East>South West as currently used.>I have set up weather to blow straight down the runway I want>and still been given another one by Tower!)>There is no option to change or cancel the take off allocation>meaning you are stuck with what ATC gives you.>An option to change runways would be good.You can do this in FS9, assuming there are multiple active runways that are available for takeoff. (If a runway is closed for takeoff or landing you can't choose it.) You have to request a different runway /before/ you acknowledge (aka read back) the taxi instructions ATC initially gives you. If an active runway is closed for takeoff, it will not show up in the "select another runway" list. Same goes for landing. Stock KSFO is a nice place to test this out because it has two sets of parallel runways so always has 2 active runways. Some AFCADs may close one for takeoff or landing, but the ones I've used do not do that. (My current AFCAD is based on a PAI one.)KDTW has 4 runways that can be active at the same time, (3L/R, 4L/R) but the PAI file for this airport will close two for takeoff and two for landing, and seems to close the other runways entirely. (9L/R)As an interesting side note, an airport with multiple active runways and multiple tower frequencies may use different frequencies for different runways. Don't know if it'll use multiple ground frequencies though.Edit: Being able to cancel out of a ground controller sequence (taxi for takeoff, taxi to park, taxi to gate) would be nice."Let me help you out. You're cleared to taxi any way you can to any runway you see."

[frantzy 4]

"Micro-vectors" are what turn me off to the default ATC the most....turn left 10 degrees, right 10, left 10, right 10, etc.

[Guest Surge]

Not half as bad as being vectored 50nm+ around the country side for finals and then when being cleared to intercept the localizer you're so far from the airport (> 20nm) that you can't even pick up the localizer signal. And then just as the runway comes into view ATC clears some little Piper to land before you, which takes 5 minutes to clear the runway causing you to do a go-around and back to another 50nm tour. It's a mess - I hope it gets fixed.Paul

[n4gix 4,947]

I keep the Traffic Toolbox handy for such times... I simply ZAP the little Piper (or whatever) from existence so I can land anyway... ;)

[scott967 62]

I always request an approach and transition, even if it is the same one ATC offers at first. Cuts down on the vectors. Normally ATC clears you direct to the transtion entry point. I like the RNAV approaches for ease in getting in.scott s..