Advanced SimBrief tutorial
Good evening! My name is Professor Lego, and I will be your guide today, as I walk you through creating a flightplan for the average transatlantic flight.
- drum roll*
Tada! [img]http://onemileatatime.img.boardingarea.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/php021zvfpm.jpg[/img] [img]http://onemileatatime.img.boardingarea.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/phpcvcel8pm.jpg[/img] For the low price of just £3000 or so, travel in comfort between the financial hubs of the world: Canary Wharf, London and New York City. Travel in style on this 32 seat Airbus A318 across the Atlantic.
But wait. Imagine you are the Captain. And you have suffered a memory loss. Well, at least, of flight planning and oceanic procedures. What do you do?!
Our aircraft today is Golf Echo Uniform November Alpha, an Airbus A318, produced in 2009. It's fin [s]number[/s] is November Alpha. It's SELCAL is HP-CD.
Now just write his down in your notepad: SEL: HP-CD FIN: NA REG: GEUNA TYPE: A318
Note: As the Airbus A318 in FlightGear is not so advanced as the Airbus A320neo, please use the 320neo. Thanks. I'll walk you through the process of adding in all those waypoints in the MCDU.
Okay, time out.
What is SELCAL? Well, you see, over the Atlantic there is no radar. Air Traffic Control keeps in contact wih aircraft using CPDLC (datalink, via sattelite, text based) or HF radios. We're assuming that the 318 has no CPDLC. Okay, so listening to HF for hours is really uncomfortable. As an exercise, if you own a radio, tune it to a frequency with static and turn it up full. Imagine that for five hours.
Therefore, a system was developed which alerts pilots that a ground controller wants to talk to them. Each aircraft is designated a specific four letter code from A to S, except for I, N, and O, in alphabetical order, and not repeating letters. Only 10,920 SELCAL codes are thus available, so obviously, aircraft repeat. Therefore, callsign is confirmed over the radio. Pilots are usually alerted by a sound or light, or both. In the Airbus, there is a chime, and a green light lights up.
Note: FlightGear currently does not support SELCAL, so obviously, this is for information only.