# General ### Before you fly... Welcome to Dortmund! This small airport primarily hosts airline flights from or to Eastern European cities and also some holiday destinations. Among VFR pilots, it is a favorite due to the **low levels of scheduled traffic and simple airport layout**, but pilots need to be wary as Dortmund is located partially below the Köln/Düsseldorf TMA, Germany's most complex airspace. Although the airport has a simple layout and low traffic levels on VATSIM, you should still **prepare yourself thoroughly** to **keep it fun for everyone** and avoid mistakes which might lead to delays for yourself and other users. **If you are new to VATSIM**, Dortmund is a perfect airport to get started on the network. Controllers will almost always have enough spare capacity to answer questions or quickly explain a procedure to you. It rarely gets very busy, so making smaller mistakes will usually not have a negative impact on anybody else's experience on the network. When flying IFR, however, you may experience **busier frequencies during departure and arrival** and should already be experienced enough to be comfortable with these frequencies. ### Parking position Please make sure you choose an appropriate stand for your aircraft type. **Passenger flights** use parking positions 0 thru 12. **General aviation aircraft** park at stands B2 thru B6 or other positions on the elevated GAT in the West of the airport.

**Stands 0 thru 4** require a pushback whereas **stands 5 thru 12** are used as nose-out parking positions so outbounds don't need a pushback but inbounds require a push-in. Controllers are aware that not all simulators and/or sceneries support the required functionalities, but will **generally assume that pilots are parked nose-out but unable for push-in**.

Dortmund is **not equipped to handle A380 aircraft**. To maintain realism and prevent inconveniences for controllers and other pilots, we ask pilots to choose a different airport when flying the A380.

### Handoffs **When instructed to contact another controller, do so as soon as possible**. This will avoid you having to stop moving or level off. Please do not hold your position to switch the frequency, keep moving on the ground!

Be aware that **some frequencies in use might not be shown in the controller list of your pilot client**, so it is important that you listen carefully to what ATC says.

##### Auto-handoff Dortmund utilizes an auto-handoff procedure for IFR departures where **Tower will not hand off outbounds to the approach controller**. The current airborne frequency will always be noted in the ATIS.

Contact the airborne frequency **immediately when airborne** unless explicitly told to remain on Tower frequency.