Hello, I am a VATSIM controller at Miami, and recently I’ve encountered a problem with SimBrief Dispatch affecting our controllers which I believe should be rectifiable by your team. Essentially, when a pilot plans a flight from their departure airport to KMIA - Miami International, SimBrief automatically selects the arrival runway as runway 08R. However, KMIA doesn’t really land on runway 08R. Typically, aircraft routed into KMIA from the Northeast on the BNFSH2 and CSTAL2 arrivals will instead land on runway 12. This has become somewhat problematic for our controllers, especially during high traffic situations and events. When pilots begin a flight, they program their FMC so that the arrival flies the runway 08R transition for the ILS 08R, as that is what SimBrief has told them to expect (even though they should be flying the runway 12 transition for the ILS 12). For example, a pilot will program the CSTAL2.08R arrival and plan on the ILS 08R. If you look at the chart, this will take them to TUPAC, where the STAR ends for runway 08R, instead of taking them to CHUUM, where we want them for runway 12 (This is also reflected in the notes section of the CSTAL and BNFSH STARs if you look there). When these pilots contact our Miami Approach controllers, we tell them to expect the ILS Runway 12. And the unfortunate truth is, quite a few VATSIM pilots will go into the FMC and change the approach itself to the ILS 12, but they will completely forget to change the STAR to actually fly the runway 12 transition. So instead of flying CSTAL2.12, they fly CSTAL2.08R. This has become quite the issue for most of our controllers, because in high workload situations, we don’t really have the time to vector the aircraft back around for runway 12, after they’ve flown the 08R transition. If SimBrief instead told these pilots to plan on landing runway 12, when KMIA is in east operations, and they are filed via the CSTAL2 or BNFSH2 STAR, I think it would really help to solve the problems our controllers have been facing recently. Is there any way you guys would be able to modify SimBrief Dispatch so it does this instead? Thank you so much for your help and keep me updated!
Problem is since those arrivals are Vector arrivals that drop you off at a given point - unlike a continuous string of fixes to the runway, the runway requirement is probably just a chart note - it wouldn’t be buried deep within the guts of the Arinc424 coding. I looked at this at work using probably the same A424 provider’s data SB uses for another airport (KLAX).
Pilots and DX have to read the charts instead of just going click happy and thinking one click if it prints, it flies, which also happens a lot in the RW unfortunately.
im pretty sure simbrief is using the atis to select runways now where available (realworld included)
which as of this moment for example (bold added):
MIA ARR INFO K 1553Z. 09008KT 10SM SCT028 BKN034 BKN055 BKN250 29/21 A3006 (THREE ZERO ZERO SIX). APCHS BEING CONDUCTED TO PARL CONVERGING AND INTERSECTING RWYS. ARRIVALS EXPECT ILS RWY 8R, RWY 9, RWY 12 ., RNAV OR GPS APCH RWY 8L. LDA RWY 12 TO HOLD SHORT OF RWY 9 IS 8100FT., LDA RWY 9 TO HOLD SHORT OF RWY 12 IS 9750FT., IF UNA TO HOLD SHORT NTFY APCH ON INITIAL CTC OR ASAP… RWY 8L, RWY 8R FREQ 118.3 RWY 9, RWY 12 FREQ 123.9. NOTICE TO AIR MISSIONS. RY 9, 27 CL LGTS OTS, WIND SHEAR/MICROBURST INFO NOT AVAIL ALL ARR/DEP RWYS. BIRDS INVOF MIA. ALL ACFT READ BACK ALL HOLD SHRT INSTRUCTIONS AND ASSIGNED ALT. …ADVS YOU HAVE INFO K.
While that may be in the ATIS, I’m doing an OFP 2-4 hours before departure (in the RW). I’m not looking at the ATIS for a 12 hour flight. If I was flying across the state of Florida sure, but not for a long-haul flight.