Leaving the aerospace

Aeroplanes can legally leave the aerospace only through gates.

Failing to leave the aerospace from a gate will trigger a penalty as described in the scoring section of the manual. Leaving the aerospace from a different gate than the designated, will also trigger a penalty, although not as severe.

Gates are bi-directional which means planes can both enter and exit the aerospace. To avoid collisions, in ATC-NG, even flight levels (like 10, 20, 30) are reserved for leaving the aerospace, while odd ones (like 05, 15, 25) are reserved for entering it.

Three parameters are considered in evaluating if an aeroplane left the aerospace correctly:

1. Exit point: the exit point must be within the boundaries of the gate, clearly identified on the map. In other words: the plane trajectory must intersect the edge of the radar map between the two lateral lines marking the gate. Crossing the edge of the map outside the boundaries will be considered as leaving the map not from a gate.
2. Flight level: the flight level of the plane at the moment it exits the aerospace must be within the minimum and maximum altitudes (both included) of the gate (also marked on the map) and must be even. Crossing below the minimum FL or above the maximum one will count as leaving the map not from a gate, while crossing it at any other altitude than even FL, will count as leaving the aerospace from the wrong gate.
3. Heading: the plane heading at the moment it exits the aerospace must be within ±30 from the airway orientation the gate gives access to (this information is displayed on the map too). That is: if the gate’s orientation is marked as “260”, the aeroplane heading needs to be between 230 and 290 degrees. Don’t forget you can check the current heading at no point penalty with the SQUAWK command.