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ATIS letter check

Available now.

What it does

Real controllers expect a pilot's first call to include the current ATIS information letter (FAA JO 7110.65 2-9-3) -- xatc checks for it on initial contact with a position, and reminds you if it's missing or stale:

  • No letter said at all -- the reply adds "advise you have information Alpha" (the current letter) onto whatever ATC was already about to say.
  • An old letter -- the reply adds "information Bravo is current, altimeter two niner six two", giving you the new letter and the altimeter setting together.
  • The current letter -- nothing is added; the reply goes out as it normally would.

This is appended to the clearance, taxi instruction, or pushback approval you're already getting -- it's never its own standalone transmission, and it's never something you have to read back. It's plain engine logic, not a fourth conformance monitor.

Where it's checked

Only on initial contact, once per position per flight -- calling the same position again later doesn't re-check it:

  • Clearance Delivery, when you first request your clearance.
  • Ground, when you first request taxi (checked independently of Clearance -- if you skip Clearance and go straight to Ground, Ground checks it itself).
  • Destination Approach, on your first check-in there (the destination ATIS letter, not your departure's -- and no altimeter is appended in this case, since Approach's reply already carries one).

Departure, Tower, and Center never check it -- by the time you're talking to them, you've already had at least one initial-contact check.

Limitations

  • The check only fires on the first call to a position, not on every subsequent transmission -- there's no ongoing enforcement that you keep using the current letter.