System users in both real life and the virtual community frequently file flight plan routes that do not conform to ATC requirements contained within ATC Letters of Agreement or Standard Operating Procedures. Regarding SimBrief, and specifically the “Suggested Routes” portion of the Dispatch dispatch system, many entries displayed in the suggested routes should be categorically removed for non-compliance with ATC needs.
Real-world ATC commonly issues pre-departure reroutes to aircraft that have filed an invalid or non-conformant flight plan. While real pilots are used to and proficient with receiving/applying these reroutes, it can be a source of frustration and difficulty for both virtual pilot and ATC to deal with a full route clearance amendment when the pilot had every reason to believe that a suggested route is a correct option.
Further, it is possible that while certain suggested routes are scraped from FlightAware and cited as justification to be a suggested route, the routes FlightAware displays may not be correct, as they might be amended by ATC prior to departure without it reflecting on the FlightAware. Below see an example of a reasonably common route, KORD-KDEN. While the example route may be valid in the sense that it conforms with a given AIRAC cycle and is legal to fly, it’s far from a “suggested route” for anything ATC would typically assign, let alone a proper preferred route. There are innumerable other examples of filed flight plans that simply would never be allowed to depart in the real world without potentially significant amendment.
With all that said, I am proposing a 2-piece improvement to the SimBrief “Suggested Routes” section.
1.) Ability to Flag or Remove Bad Routes
2.) Ability to Suggest or Prioritize Good Routes
Trying to reduce or entirely remove poor routes will be a benefit to the sim community as a whole. Especially so during event periods where the increased frequency and time/frustration cost of what would be otherwise unnecessary reroutes is exponentially more painful. It will reduce frustrations of ATC and pilots alike. It will also improve realism, especially where real-world ATC and pilot can have input as to actual-used flight plan routes.
I appreciate your consideration.