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DOCUMENTATION FILE FOR ATC-GAME. (Version 0.60) / 1 ================================ *************************************************** * This documentation is only 8 pages long! * * So, please, print it.... and read it! * *************************************************** WARNING ! --------- The ATC-Game and ATC-PRO require a high definition VGA video card & monitor (640 x 480, 16 colors). The graphics part of the game (the radar screen) is drawn in vector graphics, not in bit-map which is much too slow for this application. Changing the screen definition would cause aspect ratio calculations for each vector which would put further limitations on the CPU require- ments. In order to keep the game available to the widest base of users, we have choosen not to process any aspect ratio calcula- tions, hence limiting the game to only one screen definition which however is becoming quite a standard (also for IBM OS/2). The ATC- Game has been succesfully run on an 8088 / 8 Mhz CPU with a Wes- tern Digital Paradise-Plus video card without severe performance degradation. For the registered version, ATC-PRO, we recommend an 8088 + coprocessor 8087, or an 80286 or better to cope with the more sophisticated simulator calculations (vectors and reals). When you start up the ATC-Game, it will self-detect your video mode (setting) and report its findings if this is different from VGA 640 x 480, 16 colors. So, if you are not sure of what you have, you can always try without locking up your system. CONTENTS OF THIS DOCUMENTATION: ------------------------------- 1. Game definition. 2. How to play. 3. Screen layout. 4. Terminal area layout. 5. Game rules. 6. Game Commands. 7. Radar display layout. 8. Flight simulator parameters. 9. Terminal Area parameters. 10. Hints. 11. Information on ATC-PRO. 1. GAME DEFINITION. ------------------- The ATC-Game is an ATC (Air Traffic Control) simulation game. As an Air Traffic Controller you are in charge of the Terminal Area (TMA) of a medium sized international airport. The TMA is a volume of airspace which is the buffer between the airport take off and landing activity on the one hand and the Airways which are used by arriving and departing traffic on the other hand. The Wingsfield TMA is a square of 28 nm extending from the ground up to 12,000 feet. In the TMA it is your reponsibili- ty to vector the departing traffic to the appropriate airway and the arriving traffic to the appropriate runway, maintaining suf- ficient separation between aircrafts. Standard minimum separa- tion is 3 nm (nautical miles) horizontal or 1,000 ft (feet) ver- tical. You will actually control the traffic by issuing clearan- ces. In this you are assisted by the most recent technological developments in Air Traffic Control such as a Data Link with all aircrafts and Computer Assisted Traffic Monitoring (CATM) which are things real world Air Traffic Controllers can only dream of. LIABILITY DISCLAIMER: The ATC-Game and ATC-PRO are games with no other purpose then leisure and free time occupancy. This software is not suited for professionnal training nor for com- mercial use and no assumption can be made that the (realistic) simulation in this game could be in conformity with internatio- nal air traffic rules or regulations. 2. PLAYING THE GAME. -------------------- Aircrafts are handed over to you either by the Airport Tower Controller (yellow progression strips) when they are ready for take off, or by the Airways Controller (blue progression strips) when they arrive from outside with your airport as a destination. Airway controllers will warn you in advance of arriving aircraft, their estimated arrival time and altitude, so that you do not vector departing aircrafts head-on with arriving ones! Clearances to arriving traffic can only be issued after they have actually entered the TMA (= visible "blip" on your screen). Because the aircraft parking area is located between the two pa- rallel runways (25L /25R) the tower controller will direct depar- ting traffic to the most appropriate runway depending on ground traffic conditions at the moment. Wingsfield airport is located in a quite touristic area. Occasio- nally it will happen that private pilots doing some sightseeing will cut through the TMA without being aware of it. Of course they are not in radio contact and you will not be able to issue them any clearance. The CATM will report those aircrafts on your screen as "not identified" as soon as they are under primary radar coverage and it has been determined that no Data Link can be established with them. If the airport's precision approach radar is able to track an unidentified aircraft, it will deter- mine its altitude and issue traffic advisories in case of con- flict with TMA traffic. 3. SCREEN LAYOUT. ----------------- The screen of the ATC-Game is divided in 5 areas. The main area is the Radar Display which contains a blue over- lay of the TMA layout and where the radar tracked aircrafts will appear in the form of a green "Blip". The CATM (Computer Assisted Traffic Monitor) will add a tail to each "blip", representing the actual direction and speed of the tracked aircraft. It will also add a "label" with the flight-ID and Type of aircraft (Jet or propeler driven Light airplane) and the most important flight information collected from the aircraft through the Data Link. (Actual altitude, actual trend, final destination, active clea- rance). The right side of the screen contains a window on the top with the actual airport conditions (wind, time, runway in use). The middle window on the right contains the progression strips of all airplanes under control of the TMA. The strips are automatically maintained by the CATM and color coded. The lower window on the right is the space where you can type in your clearances. At the bottom of the screen there is a 2 line message window. If you do the job well, it will be empty! If any problems are iden- tified by the CATM or reported from the aircraft, a warning mes- sage will be displayed in the message window. 4. TERMINAL AREA LAYOUT. ------------------------ The Wingsfield Terminal area extends from ground to 12,000 ft. Besides the airport, represented by its runways in the center, the terminal area contains the following items (all in blue overlay): - 3 navigation beacons (STA, BRA, WET). - Over Beacon STA (Stacky) there is a holding pattern where you can temporarily "store" airplanes out of the way. - In the ATC-Game Shareware version, only the runways 25R / 25L are operational (runway centerline is 250°). - 4 airways identified as N, S, E, W with their "floor" at 5,000 ft. - A noise restricted area in the left bottom corner. This area is restricted for flight below 5,000 ft. Incursions in the area at an altitude below 3,000 ft will cause an official complaint to be issued to by the local community. - Out of the end of all runways there is a "Locator Outer Marker" (LOM). These are navigation beacons used by the airpla- nes in the landing procedure. The reason why they appear on your screen is because you should vector all aircrafts in such a way that they will be able to pass the LOM at the proper altitude and lined up with the runway for landing. Vectoring air- crafts too fast, too high or not properly lined up over the LOM may cause a "missed approach" if the pilot cannot handle the ap- proach within safe limits. We strongly recommend that you printout the TMA Layout which will be possible with most system configurations by pressing the "Print Screen" button. Don't forget to include the "GRAPHICS" command in your Autoexec.bat file. You can then use the printouts to draw direction lines and reference points on them to assist you in vectoring aircrafts properly. 5. GAME RULES. -------------- You start the game with a salary of 8,000 (of whatever currency!). The airways controllers and the Airport Tower controller will hand you over the airplanes when appropriate. Airways are handed over in blue strips with the estimated arrival time and the arrival altitude. Ground traffic is handed over in yellow strips when the airplane is ready and waiting to line up onto the runway for take off. The ATC-Game will handle about 50 movements (i.e. arriving or departing aircraft) per hour, which is pretty busy times for one controller. So if it looks simple in the beginning, be a little bit patient.... If you are on the slow side, the ATC-game will au- tomatically lower the number of movements handled, but this will be reflected in your salary! As soon as an airplane has been taken over by you (by issuing a clearance) it will be shown in a green strip. When you clear an arriving airplane for landing, it will change its strip to light blue while it is conducting the approach and final landing. As the landing is conducted on instruments by the pilot there are no further clearances required. If you vectored the airplane in such a way that it cannot conduct the approach safely, the pilot will decide a missed approach. The standard procedure for missed approach is "Set course to STA and climb to 3,000 ft", which all aircrafts will always do in a missed approach situation, waiting for new clearances. If you are a safe controler, your salary will increase gradually. However, if you are not "up to standards" your salary will decrea- se. "Below standard" conditions are: - Excessive delay before clearing handed-over traffic. - Vectoring airplanes out of the TMA or not in the proper Airway for their destination. - Traffic advisory which is when the separation between airplanes is less then 3 nm horizontal or 1,000 ft vertical. - Air Miss, which is a near collision situation. - Incursions in the noise restricted area. Low altitude incursions (below 3000 ft) are more serious. - Missed approach. - Vectoring a departing aircraft to landing. - Vectoring airplanes into airways BELOW 5,000 ft. Vectoring aircrafts in such a way that they fly into the ground or into eachother (mid-air collision) will cause you to be fired! 6. GAME COMMANDS. ----------------- While typing your command, you can correct typing errors with <Back-Space> and clear the complete command line with <Escape>. A clearance takes effect after you pressed <Enter>. Clearances which cannot be interpreted correctly will cause a low tone "beep" and are not transmitted to the airplane. All commands are in the format: FlightID + Command + [Command String]. Commands: C = Clearance ( + Command String). T = Take Off ( no command string). Clearance command strings: 3 digits = Set course to heading xxx. 1 or 2 digits = Cleared to altidue n x 1,000 ft. 25L or 25R = Cleared to land on runway 25L or 25R. WET, S, STA, ... = Set course to a known TMA fix. Examples: ANYID T = Cleared for take off. will cause the airplane to line up onto the runway and take off. ANYID C 035 = Set course to 035°. Will cause the airplane to turn to this hea- ding. Notice that leading zeros are required. ANYID C 3 = Cleared to 3,000 ft. Will cause the airplane to climb or let down until the required altitude is reached. ANYID C 12 = cleared to 12,000 ft. ANYID C W = Cleared to airway W (west). Will cause the airplane to set course to W. ANYID C BRA = Cleared to BRA (Bravo) TMA fix. Will cause the airplane to set course to BRA. ANYID C 25R = cleared to intercept and land on 25R. Will cause the airplane to maintain present heading until it intercepts the runway center line, then follow the approach path to land. Limitations on landing clearances: Landing clearances will only be accepted if the ACTUAL heading of the airplane is within +/- 60° of the runway centerline (for 25R / 25L this is 250°) and the ACTUAL altitude is 2,000 ft (or close enough to this value to intercept the approach glide-slope). Clearing an airplane for landing PASSED the runway center line (i.e. you cleared the airplane too late) may cause the pilot to fail to detect the approach glide-slope and continue on the interception heading. Clearing an airplane for landing from a heading which does not intercept the runway center line will cause the pilot to keep flying on this heading without ever detecting the approach glide-slope. Holding over STA: The Shareware version of ATC-Game does not include an automatic holding procedure over STA. However, the holding has been positioned on a 270 / 090° radial and the flight simulator algoritms are designed so that planes will turn LEFT with a 180 difference in heading. By successively issuing the clearances ANYID C 270, ANYID C 090, ANYID C 270, ... you can maintain an airplane in the holding pattern. The regis- tered version, ATC-PRO, contains an automatic holding procedure which will keep the holding airplanes in the stack until you give them a new clearance. A limited on-line help screen is provided with the "HELP" command. Help will also freeze the flight simulator which means that while the help screen is displayed all aircraft positions are "frozen". This enables you to temporarily stop the game to answer a tele- phone call or so.... Sorry, there is no "BOSS Escape" function! 7. RADAR DISPLAY LAYOUT. ------------------------ Each blip on the Radar screen generates a label with the flight information. Typical label design is: ANYID J =5 W>WE First label line gives the flight ID + airplane type. Airplane types are J for Jet. L for propeller Light aircraft. Second label line gives the traffic situation: = Trend; 5 Actual altitude x 1,000 ft; W Flight destination; >WE actual (last) clearance under execution. Trend can be = Level flight; U Up; D Down; I Intercepting (runway centerline); L Landing (on centerline in final approach); G Ground (landed); T Taking off. Flight destination can be: W, E, S, N for departing aircraft; A for all arriving aircrafts; 8. FLIGHT SIMULATOR PARAMETERS. ------------------------------- One of the major parts of this software is the flight simulator which moves all the airplanes on the screen. The flight simula- tor uses advanced flight envelope algoritms which move each air- plane according to its individual parameters. The flight simulator parameters are set as follows: - Airspeed: 160 kts (knots) for Light aircraft. 240 kts for Jets. - Approach speed: 160 kts for Jets; 80 kts for light aircraft. - Climb: 1,800 ft/min for Jets; 1,200 ft/min for lights. - Turn: Standard procedural turn at 180° per minute. Nearest turn left or right to new heading. - Let Down: 1,800 ft/min all aircrafts above 2,000 ft; 1,200 ft/min all aircrafts below 2,000 ft. The use of advanced flight simulator software causes the "airplanes" to behave in a very realistic way: - Acceleration at take off and lift off when the appropriate speed has been reached. - Self determination of the course to a TMA-defined fix. - Self determination of left or right turn to new heading. - After a plane recieved a clearance to a runway, it will reduce its speed to approach speed, maintain its heading until interception of the approach glide-slope, track the approach path down to the treshold, land and brake... unless landing conditions (altitude, speed, centerline, heading) are not met at the "missed approach point" which will cause a "missed approach". 9. TERMINAL AREA PARAMETERS. ---------------------------- - The TMA extends from ground to 12,000 ft. - Airways connecting to the TMA extend from 5,000 to 12,000 ft. - Arriving traffic in Airways is always on EVEN altitudes, i.e. 6,000 ft, 8,000 ft, 10,000 ft, 12,000 ft. - Clearance to land on a runway must be given when the ACTUAL airplane conditions are as follows: * Altitude: 2,000 ft (there is some tolerance in here!); * Heading +/- 60° from runway centerline (250°). - Airplanes will track the approach glide-slope when within +/- 3° of the runway centerline. - Once airplanes are established on the runway centerline for final approach the horizontal separation limit is reduced so that both runways can be used simultaneously for approach without causing traffic advisories ("L" condition in the blip label). 10. HINTS. ---------- - When you clear an airplane for take off, it takes some time before it will be lined up, switch on the transponder (so that it will appear on your screen) and start the take off roll. - If you take off from parallel runways don't forget that separation minima apply as soon as the airplanes are airborne. - Airplanes reduce their speed when cleared for a runway (approach). Don't follow too close at high speed! - There is an significant difference in approach speed between lights and jets. Don't follow close at all! - Clear leaving airplanes to oneven altitudes so that they will always be separated from arriving traffic which is on the even altitudes. - Stay away (3 nm) or high from unidentified airplanes. - Read your progress strips as well as the blip labels to keep aware of what's going on and what clearances you issued. - Prepare your next clearance typed ready in the command-string. The clearance takes effect only when you press <Enter>. If something more urgent has to be done first, clear your waiting clearance with <Escape> and type-in a new one. - Above anything else keep calm, don't pannic! It's only a game! 11. INFORMATION ON ATC-PRO. --------------------------- Registration information is shown on the introduction screen of the ATC-Game. If you like a more chalenging version of this game, you should register for ATC-PRO with the following enhancements: - Improved radar screen graphics with "write trough" of the radar blips and labels and "XOR refresh" of the blue overlay. This gives a much more readable radar display. This caused rewriting of a major part of the vector graphics and this version to become available for shareware. - ATC-PRO contains an automatic Holding procedure for STA. Air- planes cleared for holding will head to STA and start the round-robin in the holding until further clearance... or fuel exhaustion! - A "Break Approach" command requiring a landing aircraft to "go-around". This is an emergency feature should you have cleared an airplane to land on a busy runway! - Operation from all runways (07 and 02 are the real challenge!). - Variable wind direction and strength with application of the wind component to the flight simulator. This causes the airplanes to "drift off" in the wind while flying (like the real ones do!). Expect strong winds in the "senior" mode! - Choice of two proficiency levels: a senior level with 60 to 80 movements per hour; a training level with 30 movements per hour. - Fuel exhaustion of arriving airplanes if you keep them rooming around too long. - Improved tracking to TMA fixes. - And more features to come when I get good suggestions from registered users. (C) Copyright 1993 by E. van de Winckel, Brussels, Belgium. >>>>> END OF AUTHOR'S DOCUMENTATION FILE <<<<<<