Useful Resources

Useful resources for controllers in the Reykjavik CTA.

AIPs (Iceland, Greenland, Faroe Islands)

The Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) is a publication issued by or with the authority of a state and containing aeronautical information of a lasting character essential to air navigation. AIPs contain details of regulations, procedures and other information pertinent to the operation of aircraft in the particular country to which it relates.

The Reykjavik CTA and underlying aerodromes/airspace have three relevant AIPs:

WIP - natTrak Tutorial

This tutorial is currently being updated and is currently not accurate to how natTrak functions. DO NOT USE this tutorial until further notice.

natTrak is a tool developed by VATSIM to simulate how oceanic Request for Clearance (RCL) and CLX (Clearance) messages are handled in real life via CPDLC. VATSIM Scandinavia Iceland has adopted this tool for Reykjavik ACC/OAC.

All controllers on Reykjavik Control (BIRD_x_CTR) are strongly encouraged to use natTrak to handle RCL messages from pilots on VATSIM.

Logging On

First, click the "Sign In With VATSIM" button at the top right of the website. Provided you are already logged onto VATSIM with a BIRD callsign, you will be redirected to a screen that looks like this:

Screenshot 2024-10-20 170004.png

The most important tabs on natTrak are:

  1. Pending Messages — Shows RCL messages which have not yet been reviewed by ATC.
  2. Processed Messages — Shows RCL messages which have been reviewed.
  3. Create Manual Clearance — Allows you to manually create an RCL message in natTrak for an aircraft which did not file a request via natTrak.

Processing RCL Requests

After you open the "Pending Messages" page, you will see the following page.

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To take action on a request, click "ACTION" next to the flight you wish to clear. This will open a separate tab in your browser containing the aircraft's clearance request.

clearance req.png

Here, you have an opportunity to change any relevant aspect of the aircraft's request, including their cleared routing, flight level, Mach number, or to impose a restriction such as crossing their entry point at or before/at or after a given time.

At the moment, whereas changing an aircraft's flight level, Mach number, etc. generates an additional "warning" message in the clearance to indicate the change, changing an aircraft's route does not do so.

Hence, when amending an aircraft's cleared route, it is recommended to add "ROUTE AMENDMENT" into the Free text field, to achieve the same effect.

Once you are ready to send the clearance, simply click "Transmit Clearance" and the clearance will be sent to the pilot! The clearance request page will update to show the clearance request in the bottom left.

1st clearance.png

As with real-world datalink operations, the pilot does not need to reply to the clearance if they accept it (they will only contact you if they have a question or a request.) You may now close their request message window.

Transmitting Re-clearances

To transmit an amended clearance to an aircraft you (or a previous controller) already processed the RCL message of, the process is very simple.

Firstly, if you do not already have the aircraft's request message pulled up from issuing their clearance, you may go to the Processed Messages page to retrieve it. Click on Processed Messages. You will be faced with a page that looks very similar to the Pending Messages one.

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Click on the "Action" button next to the aircraft you want to issue a re-clearance to. You will see the same "Request Message" page as when you issued their clearance.


To issue a re-clearance, simply change whatever you need to change in the "Send clearance" side of the page, and then click "Transmit Reclearance." The page will update with a new clearance message 

NAT Doc 007

NAT Doc 007, formally known as the North Atlantic Operations and Airspace Manual, is the official real-world document outlining the procedures and regulations for the North Atlantic oceanic airspace.

The latest version (published Jan 2023) is available HERE.

Software Setup Guide

This guide details how to install the software necessary to control in the Reykjavik CTA (Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands) on VATSIM.

If you have any questions, please contact the current facility engineer for the Reykjavik CTA. The current Reykjavik CTA facility engineer is Jonathan Fong (1308253).

Required Software

Two pieces of software are required to control in the Reykjavik CTA:

Windows is required for all of these pieces of software (except VectorAudio/TrackAudio.) MacOS and Linux users must use a virtual machine to run Windows and control, or use tools like Wine at your own risk.

Setup Guide

Step 1: Install Euroscope

Download and install Euroscope from the link above, following the prompts of the installer.

Make sure that you are running the currently recommended version of Euroscope, as listed above. Older versions may not have as much functionality, and newer versions may not be as stable.

Step 2: Install the AFV Standalone Client

This step is fairly easy. Download and install the AFV standalone client from the link above, following the prompts of the installer.

Step 3: Download the Sector File

The sector file, strictly speaking, is the file that contains all the airspace data for the Reykjavik CTA. The term "sector file" is also commonly used to refer to the associated settings files, plugins, etc. that make it possible to control in the Reykjavik CTA.

The Reykjavik CTA uses the platform Aeronav GNG to distribute updated sector files. Controllers should configure Euroscope to automatically download the most up-to-date sector file from Aeronav GNG. To do this, follow these instructions:

  1. If you are reinstalling the sector file because of any bugs/issues with an old install, open File Explorer, go to %AppData%\Euroscope, and delete all existing folders & files that have names starting with "BIRD."
    • If you had a very old install of Euroscope before as well, you may also need to go to %userprofile%\Documents\Euroscope and do the same thing.
    • For advanced users: Be sure to save any custom settings files that you want to keep in your new install!

  2. Launch Euroscope from the shortcut created during install (search "Euroscope" in the start menu.) Euroscope may ask you to select a profile — you can ignore this by pressing ESC. Euroscope will then load up with a blank radar scope.

  3. In the green toolbar at the top of your screen, click "OPEN SCT,"  then in the dropdown menu that opens up, click “Download Sector Files."

  4. Click "Euroscope main sector file provider", then press the “Download" button in the middle-right of the window (outlined below in red.)

    Screenshot 2024-02-21 124846.png

  5. Many more providers should now show up. Find “AeroNav GNG Sector File Provider,” tick "A" next to it, and press the middle-right “Download" button again.

  6. Even more providers will show up. Find "Aeronav GNG VATSIM Scandinavia," tick "A" next to it, and press the middle-right “Download" button again.

  7. In the bottom half of your screen, you will see the "Provided Sector Files" section fill up with a big list of sector files. Click on the one named "BIRD Install-Pack" and press the bottom-right Download button (not the one you were pressing earlier! See screenshot below.)

    Screenshot 2024-02-21 124938.png

  8. Once that is done downloading (the "D" column next to BIRD Install-Pack will be ticked), click on "BIRD Update-Pack" and press the bottom-right download button again.

  9. Tick "A" next to BIRD Update-Pack. This will ensure your Euroscope will download updated sector files automatically.

  10. Close Euroscope. If Euroscope asks you to save anything, just click on "No" or "Cancel All."

  11. Relaunch Euroscope. When Euroscope asks you to select a profile, this time, select "BIRD_TopSky.prf."

  12. Congratulations! If you've done everything correctly, you should be looking at a blue/green/grey radar scope depicting the Reykjavik CTA's airspace.

Step 4: Disable Auto METAR Addition (Optional – Recommended for C1+ Controllers) 

The below is optional, because the issue of METAR list clutter is generally only an issue for C1+ controllers controlling BIRD, due to the amount of airports that may be "active" under their airspace.

For APP/TWR/GND/DEL positions, controllers may find it easier to leave "Auto display METARs" ticked. With only 1-2 active airports at most, there is no clutter in the METAR list, and it saves time to have the METARs for those airports displayed automatically by Euroscope.

For BIRD controllers covering Iceland top-down, to make sure that Euroscope correctly recognizes that you are responsible for departures and arrivals for Icelandic airports (including AFIS fields), all these airports are added as "active" airports whenever you log on as BIRD.

Unfortunately, this also means that Euroscope will try to add the METAR for every Icelandic airport which BIRD may be responsible for. This is because of how Euroscope currently handles the addition of METARs to the METAR list.

This can cause a lot of clutter for BIRD controllers in the METAR list. Thus, it is recommended to follow these steps as a workaround.

Go to OTHER SET (in the green toolbar), click on "General Settings," and then UNTICK "Auto display METAR of active airports." (The red option highlighted below.)

KSnimage.png

This will mean that when you log onto any position, no METARs will be added automatically. You may add METARs manually to the METAR list for the airports you need by typing the command .qd [ICAO code], e.g. .qd BIKF. Pressing the F2 key is a shortcut for the .qd text command.

Logging Onto The Network

To connect to VATSIM (or Sweatbox, the training server used for mentoring controllers), click on the big "CONNECT" button at the top-left of your Euroscope window.

A window will pop up asking for the details of your connection. Make sure that you review the following settings:

Once you have reviewed all of the above items, you should be ready to connect to the network!

If you are an advanced/knowledgeable controller, and know what you are doing, you may also consider reviewing the following items:

Controllers should generally never touch the "Range" setting, unless specifically advised to do so by the facility engineer. Position ranges are carefully adjusted to provide full coverage over a controller's airspace, without violating VATSIM's maximum visibility ranges (as defined in VATSIM Code of Conduct section C8.)

Connecting an ATIS

Thanks to the help & support of one of our controllers, Ollie Killean, the sector file is automatically configured with Euroscope to generate an ATIS.

At the top of your Euroscope window, you should see four small boxes labeled with dashes.

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These represent the four ATISes that you are allowed to connect to VATSIM. In the Reykjavik CTA, we only have three airports with an ATIS (BIKF, BIRK, BIAR). Therefore, the leftmost box is for BIKF's ATIS, the second from the left is for BIRK's ATIS, the third from the left is for BIAR's ATIS, and the fourth one is non-functional.

As a reminder, TWR controllers may only connect one ATIS — the one for the aerodrome they are controlling. APP & CTR controllers may connect multiple ATISes if they have multiple aerodromes under their responsibility, which they are covering top-down.

To connect an ATIS, firstly, select your active runways in Euroscope. Then, click on the box corresponding to the airport whose ATIS you want to connect (e.g., to connect an ATIS for BIKF, click on the leftmost box.)

An ATIS setup window will open.

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Tick "Automatically generate new ATIS using the URL," and then click "Test URL." The Text ATIS section will automatically fill up with the appropriate ATIS text for your aerodrome, for example:

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Check that the output looks correct (correct active runway included, etc.) If everything looks good, click "Connect ATIS" at the bottom-left of the window. You can then close the ATIS setup window. The boxes at the top left of your screen will change from showing dashes, to showing the current ATIS letter.

image.png

If you need to disconnect an ATIS (e.g., you are on APP/CTR and a controller has logged onto TWR beneath you, and they will take over the ATIS connection), simply click "Disconnect ATIS." (If you are closing/logging off VATSIM, you do not need to click "Disconnect ATIS" — just disconnect yourself from the network, and all your ATISes will disconnect with you.)

Optional Features

RDF

RDF, or Radio Direction Finder, is a system used by some air traffic management systems which finds and indicates the location of incoming radio signals, allowing ATC to pinpoint who is transmitting.

RDF is not used in real life by Reykjavik ACC. However, as some controllers find RDF a helpful tool when controlling the large bandboxed BIRD airspace, options for it are present – but disabled by default – in the BIRD sector file. When enabled, the TopSky plugin will draw a circle around any aircraft currently transmitting.

To enable RDF, follow these instructions:

; -- RDF --
// -- RDF is not used IRL in the BIRD FIR, but you can enable it anyway by removing the slashes // below --
// RDF_Mode=1
// RDF_AntennaPos=0

The TopSky implementation of RDF only works with the "AFV for VATSIM" client. It does not work with TrackAudio or other such alternative solutions.

Updating Your Software

Euroscope

Do not update Euroscope unless the facility engineer has announced that you should do so.

The most stable version of Euroscope is not always the newest one. Euroscope's development process can be somewhat unstable, and new releases may have bugs that break or lower the quality of the controlling experience.

If the facility engineer has announced that controllers should update to a new version of Euroscope, follow the instructions provided by the facility engineer to update Euroscope. (Generally, you will just need to download the new installer from the Euroscope website.) Otherwise, do not update your Euroscope install.

Sector File

If you've followed all the steps listed above during the install process, then your sector file will automatically update whenever a new version is released. (Generally, every 1-3 AIRAC cycles. There is not necessarily an update every AIRAC cycle, as many cycles do not have any significant changes within Icelandic/Greenlandic airspace.)

When you start Euroscope, you may sometimes receive a notification that a new sector file has been downloaded. Euroscope will ask you if you want to use the new sector file in all of your ASR files (i.e., your radar views), and if you want to delete the old sector file. Click on "yes" to both prompts.

Plugin Updates
Occasionally, one of the plugins in the BIRD sector file package may be updated by its developer. Due to Euroscope limitations, updating the sector file itself does not automatically update the plugins.

1. Close Euroscope.
2. Open this folder: %AppData%/Euroscope/BIRD/Plugins/Updated Plugins
3. Copy (CTRL+C) the DLL files of the plugins you want to update.
4. Go "back" one folder, to %AppData%/Euroscope/BIRD/Plugins
5. Paste and REPLACE the DLL files into that folder with the new DLLs you just copied.
6. Relaunch Euroscope & enjoy the updated plugins!

AFV Standalone Client

The AFV client will prompt you on startup if there is a new version to download. Follow the prompts the AFV client gives you to update itself.