Flight Planning & Clearance
- Flight Plan
- The set of details a pilot submits for a flight — callsign, aircraft type, flight rules, destination, cruising level, and route — either through a session's submit link or the guest-accessible submission form. Submitting one creates a flight strip on the controller's board.
- Callsign
- The identifier a flight operates under, such as an airline code followed by a flight number. PFControl parses recognized airline prefixes and displays them alongside the raw callsign on the strip board.
- ICAO Code
- The four-letter code identifying an airport, used when creating a session and as the departure/arrival fields on a flight plan.
- Route
- The planned path of airways and waypoints a flight follows between departure and arrival, entered as free text or built automatically with the Generate button, which picks a SID, STAR, and cruising altitude that respects altitude rules.
- SID (Standard Instrument Departure)
- A published departure procedure a flight follows out of an airport. PFControl infers the SID from the first token of a route string when it matches a procedure-like pattern, and displays it in its own column on the departures table.
- STAR (Standard Terminal Arrival Route)
- A published arrival procedure a flight follows into an airport, inferred from the route the same way as a SID and shown on the arrivals table.
- RFL (Requested Flight Level)
- The cruising altitude a pilot requests when submitting a flight plan, shown alongside the CFL on the departures table.
- CFL (Cleared Flight Level)
- The cruising altitude a controller has actually cleared the flight to, which may differ from the pilot's requested level.
- Alternate Airport
- A backup destination a pilot may list on their flight plan in case the primary arrival airport can't be used.
- PDC (Pre-Departure Clearance)
- The clearance a pilot requests and receives over ACARS before pushing back, confirming their route and cruising level are approved by the controller working that airport.
- Clearance
- Explicit permission from a controller for a pilot to take a specific action — push back, taxi, take off, or proceed on a route — tracked through a flight's status and PDC state.
Flight Strips & ATC Operations
- Flight Strip
- The live, editable row representing a single flight on a session's board — the digital equivalent of a paper strip, updating in real time for every controller in the session.
- Squawk Code
- A four-digit transponder code assigned to a flight so it can be distinguished on radar. PFControl includes a one-click button to generate a new random code for a strip.
- Stand
- The gate or parking position a departing flight is assigned before pushback, tracked as its own column on the departures table.
- ADEP (Aerodrome of Departure)
- The origin airport of an arriving flight, shown on the arrivals table.
- ADES (Aerodrome of Destination)
- The destination airport of a departing flight, shown on the departures table.
- Wake Turbulence Category
- A classification of an aircraft type based on the turbulence it generates, used alongside aircraft type on the strip board to help controllers apply appropriate spacing.
- Status Flow
- The sequence a flight strip's status moves through as a flight progresses. Departures run PENDING → STUP → PUSH → TAXI → RWY → DEPA; arrivals run APP → RWY → TAXI → GATE.
Communications
- ACARS
- PFControl's messaging terminal for a signed-in pilot's flight — a log of the submitted flight plan, PDC requests and clearances, and any messages a controller sends. Opening ACARS requires being signed in, since it's tied to your account. See ACARS & Requesting PDC in the guide.
- ATIS
- Automated Terminal Information Service — a recorded broadcast of current airport conditions and active runway. PFControl can auto-generate an ATIS formatted for the PFATC ATIS channel when you create a PFATC session.
- Contact Me Message
- A direct message a controller can send a pilot through ACARS — for example asking them to switch to a specific frequency — which appears in the pilot's terminal the same way a clearance does.
Network & Sessions
- Session
- A flight strip board for a single airport, created from Create Session. A Standard session is private to whoever has the link; a PFATC session publishes its traffic to the Network Overview.
- PFATC Network
- An organized, network-wide mode for controlling: PFATC sessions share departures and arrivals with each other and appear together on the Network Overview, rather than staying isolated to a single session.
- Network Overview
- A live, network-wide dashboard at /overview showing every open PFATC session's active departures and arrivals at once.
- Sector
- An area of airspace or set of airports a controller is assigned permissions for, determining which flights they can edit from the Network Overview and which airports' charts surface first in the Chart Drawer.
Flight Rules & Aircraft
- IFR (Instrument Flight Rules)
- A flight plan type indicating the flight will operate under instrument procedures, typically involving a full route, assigned altitudes, and ATC clearances at each stage.
- VFR (Visual Flight Rules)
- A flight plan type indicating the flight will operate visually rather than on instrument procedures, generally with a simpler clearance flow.
Profiles & Community
- Featured Flight
- A flight a pilot has chosen to highlight on their public profile, capped at three per pilot.
- Controller Rating
- Feedback a pilot can leave for a controller after a session, contributing to that controller's average rating shown on their public profile.
- Developer API
- PFControl's public REST API for reading session, flight, and account data with a scoped key. See the full API reference.