Working with vACDM

The plugin vACDM is designed to use it without diving deep into the ACDM procedure. It can be used if the controller is aware of the basic procedures. Next to that, the pilot does not need to be aware of the topic at all, it will work with all kind of pilots.

When using vACDM, the enroute and startup clearance should be issued seperately. Enroute clearance can be issued whenever the pilot requests it. Startup should only be approved when the pilot is able to push and/or start the engines within the next 5 minutes. 

Set TOBT

vACDM works best when the TOBT is up to date and the pilot is completely ready at that time. The filed EOBT is always a good first guess. If there is no valid time available (empty TOBT, time in the past or to far in the future - TOBT orange), ATC should ask the pilot if he has a time where he is fully ready for pushback. That time should be entered as TOBT. 

Issue Startup

As soon as the TSAT is displayed in green, startup can be issued. If the pilot calls in before that and it is still shown in light green, the TOBT can be set to now and the TSAT will be recalculated. That new TSAT will not be later than the previous one, but might be earlier if there is a gap in the sequence. If ATC can assume that there will be no benefit in updating to an earlier TOBT (e.g. due to a high traffic load and a small time difference to the TSAT), the TOBT does not need to be updated as the TSAT might remain the same.

If the TSAT is shown in orange, the pilot missed the window for startup and the TOBT has to be set to now to recalculate a new TSAT.