Hi,
are there any guides anywhere to help new simmers navigating between the ramps and runways? I’ve had a search but can’t find anything. TIA!
I use LittleNavmap for this when not using the taxi ribbon option but there are issues with taxi way naming. The whole taxiing process in the sim is hugely unrealistic so I tend to just plan my own route with LNM.
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ATC ground should give you clear directions on what taxiways to use to get to your runway. I don’t know if default ATC is doing it since I use third party package but I would imagine it should. From there you just follow the taxiway signs. You could get an airport charts the US ones are pretty available or get yourself a navigraph subscription that has all those charts in one nicely wrapped package that actually shows your position on the chart.
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Always get the airport chart if you intend to taxi properly
Use the built in guidance to get to RW assigned by game. That is the easiest way, ATC will always give you the taxiways to use to get there, having the path on the ground makes it a whole lot easier, that is unless you download the airport map and study it well. Those are also available on Skyvector for each airport in their database. NOTE: They do not have every airport in the world, mostly USA and some limited other places. I do not know of a good place to get charts for the European - Eastern Asia area of the world. I like to look at what I am planning on paper, and so I usually print off the ones I think will be important, or leave the PDF open and click on it when needed. I have download extensive database of locations, and you can use Navigraph for a fee.
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It’s currently not possible to taxi properly in the sim. There are no hand offs between ground and tower when you have to cross runways and taxi ways are not named correctly in the DRM locked airports so can’t be fixed by a Navigraph subscription, and let’s not even start on how bad the ATC taxiway routing can be in some cases. It will all be fixed eventually but at the moment it’s better to make your own way.
From my experience, we do not usually handoff to Tower for a runway crossing. Ground control will usually manage the crossing.
I hedge because there are a few airports where Tower can own the taxiways leading into a runway or between close parallels. But in this instance, you’d handoff to Tower and stay there.
Ex:
Tower: United 123, exit left on D5, stay with me, cleared to cross runway 32L, ground .75 on the other side.
Ex.
Ground: united 321, taxi runway 32R. Continue on D, left turn D1, hold short 32L, monitor Tower 119.0.
Thanks for the clarification. I’ve definitely seen some vids on youtube at major airports where they hand off to tower and back to ground for active runway crossings. However, in either case wouldn’t you still need clearance to cross an active runway from whichever authority owns the territory, which doesn’t yet happen in sim?
Oh it does happen, hence “usually.”
I also caution that my flight experience is wholly within the US. There are differences around the world that I’ve not trained on.
Your observation regarding the sim’s runway crossing is accurate. However, that’s because it seems to have been copy/pasted over from FSX, which itself was a duct taped version of FS2004 ATC.
At that time in the US, ATC procedures were different. If given “taxi D, cross 32L, hold short 32R, monitor tower”, that was our clearance to cross.
The onus would have been on ground or tower to cancel crossing clearance with “hold short 32L for traffic on short final.”
MSFS would have been accurate in the way runway crossings were issued at the time the ATC was coded.
Around 2010ish there were some procedure changes - elimination of the runway clearance “taxi into position and hold” phraseology in favor of ICAO’s “line up and wait.”
There were a number of runway incursions, some closer than others, and the time was ripe to make a change. Along with “line up and wait” came read back of all hold shorts as well as active runway crossings. We still include a reminder for the rule change in the ATIS today - “all aircraft read back all hold short instructions. Advise on initial contact you have information [letter]”
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