Upon landing at a major airport, the MSFS ATC rattles off a rapid stream of taxi directions. Assuming that is similar to real-life instructions; how do you mentally process, remember and maneuver something like this O’Hare gem; “taxi to general aviation parking via taxiway Yankee 2 Yankee Golf Golf cross runway 28 center Golf Golf cross runway 28 right Golf Golf Victor 3 Bravo 3 Golf Golf Mike cross runway 27 Left Mike Delta cross runway 22 right Delta Charlie 3 Yankee Yankee”
On a busy airport you will get handed off to ground. You roll off the runway, cross the hold short line, stop and then call ground. You have you’re pen and the taxi diagram ready and you write down what they say. if you can’t repeat it all together you ask for the unclear parts. once you got everything, you look at your diagram and see if it makes sense. if not you ask ground again. the more often you fly into an airport the more often you know what to expect.
and one more thing: the more unfamiliar and complex the environment the more you will study the taxi diagram before landing and come up with an expected taxi routing. you assume which runway, which runway exit you’ll make and how to get there to your parking.
You should have a diagram of the said airport at hand, it’s a case of practice and experience when taking in fast data like this, it’s easier in the real World, like driving a car with muscle memory, the increased heart rate in a pressure situations helps (adrenaline pumping), something that isn’t easily achievable in a desktop sim. Once you hear the phonetic alphabet enough times that becomes a muscle memory thing. But don’t be too hard on yourself, simulation is a long way off the real thing, and daft as it seems, the real life situation is easier especially when it comes to taxiing the aircraft.
Before you land, you need to look at the airport diagram and familiarize yourself with what runway you are landing on, what taxiway that you will try to turn off on and look at where you want to go. From there you can get a decent picture of what taxiways you will be assigned. Then after you land and pull off of the runway get your notepad out to copy the taxi instructions. From there, all you need to do is look at which taxiway you are on and try to find the next 1 or 2 taxiways depending on if you need to figure out which way you will need turn. That is about it.
No I’m not joking thanks. The OP was asking how it is possible in real life, there are numerous differences compared to taxiing an aircraft in real life as opposed to taxiing in the sim, any sim for that matter. Realistic ATC directions help for once and the need to vacate the run way as quickly as possible in real life forces you to get it right as to not violate. If you are flying commercial airliners frequently, you know the taxi way to your companies terminal, this usually makes things a little more standard, and your second will be witting down the directions, although it’s expected for you as the first officer to be listening in to the com and know from experience where you are going. If you are GA, things are usually less busy as you are heading towards a quieter part of the airport. Again, it’s all about foresight planning and experience.
Thanks. It must be nerve racking knowing with all the other commotion going on. Add to that, sometimes you cannot even go to your “planned” gate/parking because of congestion or it’s still occupied. (Don’t know if the O’hare “penalty box” is still used as frequently now as it used to be. )
I had often thought as a passenger that the crew was getting taxi instructions one turn at a time by ground ATC. MSFS surprised me with the whole route spewed out at once.
Familiar airports will have familiar taxi patterns.
In some major airports, the tower controller may give you a preliminary taxi instruction before handing you off (e.g., exit right when able, taxi D cross 24R call ground on the other side). The pilot monitoring will tune ground and call them and ground will guide you further.
The important thing is to stop if you don’t know where to go, write down what you’re told to do, then read it back, then check the map to verify the route.
Don’t mean to cause you any stress here, but if communicating with ground and copying taxi instructions is a “pressure situation” then more practice and experience may be needed.
By the time you have your radio license you should be able to speak and understand ‘pilotese’ fluently. While I agree that there is a difference between a casual sim user and a professional pilot flying in and out of busy airports daily, @MobiFlight nailed the answer. Prepare before arrival. Write down the instructions. Confirm your ability or willingness to comply and a) read back and confirm b) ask for clarification or an alternative, read back and confirm.
I can atest that, other than where I am sitting, there is no significant difference between the stress level on the tarmac or on my sim. I may be overstating that a bit. MSFS ATC/Ground can actually cause more stress than real life communications. Although I seldom have an open beer in my hand when communicating from an actual aircraft.
Lol I have enough real time flight experience and hours behind me. It depends on how big and busy an airport is, obviously the OP in new to simming in this fashion, and being new I can understand their shock at the information that has to be taken in even on the ground. I’m only trying to put them at ease by saying that in the real world situation other senses take over and help you along, in the sim it’s different, you don’t have the same pressure that forces you to learn and take in the mistakes quicker. You don’t experience the pressure and so that effects of learning is slower. Give me a brake.
Taxiing an aircraft in the sim is as realistic as driving a truck in Truck simulator compared to a real truck fully loaded on a motorway. Good grief!
I was about to click the little heart when I saw these.
Hardly the way professionals communicate.
Your response was thoughtful and your intentions were sincere and appreciated. The rest was unnecessary.
how do you mentally process, remember and maneuver something like this O’Hare gem
Don’t mean to cause you any stress here, but if communicating with ground and copying taxi instructions is a “pressure situation” then more practice and experience may be needed.
FYI, I structured that poorly. I just realized you thought I was directing it AT you. My intention was to reinforce your point about practice and experience. That is what takes the “pressure” out of things like the “O’Hare gem”
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That made my day!
