'Shared Radar', 'Drones', etc.

[Nitschtr]

Now, I have been registered and following the discussions on this forum for quite some time now. And I have to say, I am actually pretty hyped about it.
But there are some things that almost nobody seems to be talking about, that actually excite me the most. These are mainly the 'Drone' system and the ability to share your radar as an ATC.
First of all, are both of these planned features still a thing? When are they planned to be implemented? (I know, questions starting with "when" always require a lot of caution...)

Now, for the drone system: I know there are some kind of drones on PilotEdge - but these stay out of controlled airspaces and are not interactive. However, your website states that they would be contollable through voice, basically interacting with you the same way a human pilot would do. Am I imagining this correctly? Are we actually going to have 'smart' AI aircraft that perform everyday operations across the world alongside the pilots that occasionally log on and off of the network? Will an ATC be able to sequence up to 20 airplanes at a time at three in the morning, while none of them makes a single mistake and adheres exactly to what the controller wants them to do? Will we finally have some action on the apron with airplanes idling, pushing, taxiing and taking of simultaneously?
This brings me to another concern: Currently, SCENERY plays a huge role as the most extreme killer of immersion on most networks. For example, if a P3Dv4 user lands at KBOS using flyTampa scenery on VATSIM; and an X-Plane user is sitting on a taxiway using MisterX6 scenery, both of them being very sophisticated and realistic, the X-Planer will see the P3D guy floating a few feet above the surface. That is due to the different elevations in the different simulators. Will the POSCON network do anything about this? My suggestion would be that, as soon as an Aircraft is noticed to be close enough to the surface by the computer, it gets glued to the ground, at least on the screen of the X-Plane user. Or do the developers have any better ideas, as I am not the most creative mind in the world?
The same more or less applies to the different stands and gates, by the way.

The 'shared radar' is another point that I am not quite clear about. Sure, I understand that this means the ability of a radar screen being monitored by two users at a time.
But how exactly do you expect this to be managed? Are we talking about scenarios like this:

ATC1: controlling...

ATC2: logs onto the screen - "Hey, you can take your break, I'll take it from here."

ATC1 informs 2 about traffic situations and stuff.

ATC2: takes over the controls, his ID is now the one 'in charge'.

ATC1: logs off.

 

Or are we solely talking about 'instructor-student-scenarios'? Like, the student controls the airspace and the instructor takes a kind of passive role? And is the second controller able to transmit on frequency?

I know, these are a lot of questions, so thank you in advance for reading and maybe answering a few, if not all of them.

[Andrew Heath]

@Nitschtr Wow, thanks for all the questions. I will do my best to answer as many as I can.

ATC radar sharing is easy, and will probably be available on the final public release of the network.

However, the drones are a huge project that we have only just scratched the surface of. Don't expect drones in the open beta, its more like a Phase 2 item.

The idea for drones is they will be partially AI, enough so that controllers can have fun when there are no other "real" pilots online. Hopefully over-time, they will become 100% intelligent.

Ground clamping is 100% solved. Lateral deviations due to runway/taxiway/apron differences is another issue that we have ideas for, but will be a much tougher issue to solve.

As for the more detailed ideas about shared radar... lets just put it this way, you are gonna like the end result, I promise you that