Ground Control
controllers handle all aircraft movements around the airport's web of taxiways.
Ground controllers are responsible for the safe and efficient transition
of planes from gate/parking to the active runway(s) and vice versa.
It is your job to know where the pilot calling you is on the field and
also the traffic around the pilot. Study the airport diagram for
the field you are controlling. Some pilots may not be familiar with
the field and may ask for progressive taxi. Depending on your workload,
this may entail giving the pilot the taxiway identifiers and possibly turns
onto and off of taxiways to get them to their destination.
If your workload is light, you can even track the aircraft with the Top
Down View [F12]. You can tell the pilot which way to turn to get
where they need to be, watching their progress all the way. Top Down
View is also excellent for finding pilots around the field. In a
nutshell, this is all the ground controller handles.
Let's
take a look at a sample transmission between pilot and controller:
P: Detroit
Ground, good evening, (callsign) is ready for (IFR/VFR) taxi to the active.
C: (callsign),
good evening, taxi and hold short runway (xx), contact tower 118.40 when
ready.
Unless, you
need to alert the pilot of converging traffic or if the pilot needs progressive
instructions, you may not hear from the pilot again. This does not
mean that you can forget about him/her. Like I stated earlier, it's
your job to maintain safe and efficient flow of traffic at your airport
AT ALL TIMES.
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