Editor's Note: Please refer to AVSIM Online's ATC Product Comparison for an evaluation of this product vis-à-vis ProFlight 2000. That feature includes a brief history of ATC Generation software by Robert MacKay, and a general tutorial convering ATC practices and product implementation concepts.
We all crave real or near real air traffic control when we fly. The closest we can get without going and enrolling in a flight training
school is Squawkbox. But for those that have limited usage of the Internet due to cost or are
restricted to one phone line don't have to worry. A host of freeware, shareware, and commercial software is available. The latest addition to the pack is Radar Contact version 2. The developers are John Dekker and Doug Thompson. John is a Lead Systems Analyst living in Atlanta. Doug is a real world air traffic controller in the Memphis Area Control Center.
Installation And Documentation
Without a doubt this is one of the
hardest installations I have gone through since Windows 95 came out four
years ago. After putting the CD in the drive, the Radar Contact main
installation program comes up. This is sort of like the control center
from where you decide which programs to install. The first time I
installed it, I selected all the files available, namely the Radar Contact
program, the Pilot and Controller files, APLC32, FSUIPC, Nav 3.0,
FSNavigator, Flight Commander, FSMeteo, and all the chatter files (there
are a lot). Great. Everything seems to be going smoothly until it comes to
moving the pilot and controller wav files. Part way through this, it would
crash for no reason at all. After a bit of hunting on my drive as to where
the files went, I moved the rest myself. (By the way, the directory where
they go is \fs2000\adv\wav\Fleetwood.) After completing the installation of
the necessary files, I proceeded to install the flight planners. The one
that I was hoping to get working was Ted Wright's freeware Nav 3.0. But as soon as
the files started copying to my hard drive, my computer would reboot.
Three times I tried this, and all three times, it rebooted. In the end, I
just went to Ted's website and downloaded it from there.
Flight Commander is a shareware flight planner that has to be registered separately. The
limitation here is you can only generate your flight plan in a limited
area. FSMeteo is also shareware this time around. The limitation here is
it will shut off after 15 minutes of use until registered.
Once I mentioned these problems
to John and Doug, they suggested I take a different approach. They
recommended I install the required files first, followed by the flight
planners, and optional files, followed by the chatter files. Well, this
created a whole new set of problems. Radar Contact and the wav files
installed but this time, the installation program for Flight Commander
refused to run and Nav 3.0 was still rebooting my computer. Finally, after
almost a week with the CD, I got everything to work. I would like to point
out that both John and Doug did everything they could to help me with my
problems, short of coming to my house and installing it on my computer.
It's one of those rare cases that seem to stump everyone. Our Managing
Editor Maury Pratt installed it without a hitch so it seems it's my
particular configuration. If you do buy the product, rest assured that
John and Dave will help you with through any and all installation problems
to the best of their ability.
So what is Radar Contact?
For those that are new to Radar Contact (like me), you may be wondering what it really does. Well, it's really an adventure generating utility for Flight Simulator 2000. You can take flight plans created in Ted Wright's Nav 3.0, Flight Commander, FSNavigator, Proflight 98, Super Flight Planner, or FS2000's flight planning utility and use Radar Contact to convert it into an adventure. So what's so special about that, you may ask? Well, it's the level of features that are included in the adventure that you can use during your flight that set this program apart from others. Features such as holding patterns, diversions due to bad weather or traffic, the ability to declare minimum fuel and be vectored direct to your destination, traffic advisories, different controller voices for the different sectors, multiple frequency changes as you fly across the country (this applies only to flights in the US), realistic departure procedures for users of Ted Wright's Nav 3.0, the ability to select a terminal or non-terminal approach, terrain NOTAMs, Pushback/Start procedures, pilot discretion descents, crossing restrictions, receiving harsh comments from controllers if you ask them to repeat instructions over and over again. The list is endless.
The realism is par none. Take off on a cross-country flight, say Seattle to Miami, and expect terrain NOTAMs from Clearance Delivery, taxi instructions from Ground Control, altitude holds and heading changes on departure from Tower, departure procedures from Departure control, multiple frequency changes from lower to upper sectors, multiple frequency changes as you fly across the U.S., and the reverse procedure as you approach Miami. By default, there is a 20% chance that you will be asked to enter a holding point at your destination. With this level of realism, expect to sit around at the computer for the duration of your flight.
So how do you use it?
Using it is a piece of cake. I'll cite what I did using Nav 3.0, but the procedure is pretty much the same for the other flight planners. So first, create a flight plan. Previous users of Nav will be right at home. The look and feel is exactly the same. This time around though, it's FS2000 compatible, and has the ability to include a Departure Procedure (formerly known as SIDs) and STARs. It also supports moving map display connectivity from a remote computer and various other enhancements.
For a change, I decided to fly a different route, and a long one at that. I decided to fly from JFK Airport in Bolivia, South America, to London Heathrow. It's a long flight, but perfect to test out the all features of Radar Contact. A note about our departure airport: JFK Airport is located in La Paz, Bolivia. What's special about this airport is that its altitude is 13,313 feet above sea level. For those that want to try this airport out, the ICAO code is SLLP, and yes, it's one of the airports included in FS2000's airport database.
With Nav 3, you can either enter your flight plan manually or have it auto-generate one for you. The flight plan in the screenshot was entered manually, which also allowed me to specify which waypoints will be used for the departure procedure out of SLLP. Likewise with the arrival, I could specify the points for my STAR or use one of the included ones. The small icons with a gray background in the screenshot are the ones being used in my departure procedure. Another way to modify the DP/STAR database is to add entries to the files DPSTAR.XML using a text editor, although make sure you back up the original. Any DPs or STARs you save in your flight planning are stored in a file called MYDPSTAR.XML.
If you've filed a flight plan containing a departure procedure, you'll see "Departure Procedures Enabled" as your adventure loads. If you filed a Terminal Departure, Clearance Delivery will include the phrase "via Departure Procedures, then as filed" in the clearance. If you go with a non-terminal departure, then the same clearance will be issued to you when you contact Flight Services. One tip here: If you do file a flight plan with a departure procedure, export the flight plan to FS2000's GPS system after you save it from within your planner. This allows you to load the flight plan up in FS2000's GPS and have the departure procedures already laid out for you.
Once you're happy with your flight plan, save it and then export it into an APL file. Finally, open up Radar Contact, click on the Nav 3 tab at the top, and if you've specified the correct path to the flight planner, you should see the name of your flight plan. Click on it, click Next, enter the parameters you want to use, and then click Finish. Finally, start FS2000 and load up the adventure, making sure you're sitting at your departure airport before you load it.
Radar Contact 461, you're cleared for takeoff
With the aircraft loaded and parked at the gate, I loaded the adventure. A nice voice greeted me (most likely that of Doug) and RC initialized. Hopefully you've made a note of your frequencies, or at least the ATIS frequency when you generated the adventure. It's important you do note your ATIS frequency down because you need it to start the adventure. Tune in the ATIS, and write down any pertinent information.
Once you've tuned in the ATIS, the scroll bar (the display in the top left corner of your screen) will tell you what the next frequency is that needs to be tuned into the radios. As I taxied over to the active, I was listening to some great ATC chatter. Once I got off the ground, things got busy. Tower handed me off to departure, where I was cleared on course to FL230, and then told to contact Center, who then told me to continue climb to FL230. As I approached that altitude, I was handed off to the second center controller, who then cleared me to FL330. Approaching FL310, I was asked to contact Center again, who then cleared me to my cruise altitude of FL390. All this in a distance of less than 150 nm. In this first 150nm, I was also vectored twice due to traffic, and received three traffic advisories of aircraft crossing in front of me. Pretty cool I said to myself.
On this particular flight though, once I got up to FL390, things slowed down. I didn't change frequencies until I started my descent into Heathrow. I asked John about this and he said that because he didn't have international air traffic control coverage charts, he couldn't incorporate it. He did for the U.S., and so that's why if you fly in the U.S., you'll be asked to change frequencies in the same areas our real-world counterparts do. He also said that it's not hard to incorporate; so if anyone reading this can help John with regards to ATC coverage charts, drop him a line, and hopefully version 3 will allow us to change frequencies on international flights.
The heart and soul of Radar Contact in the air is the scroll bar. This is how you, as the pilot in command, communicate with air traffic control. Nine keyboard shortcuts are all that need to be learned. These nine shortcuts are used to scroll through what's called the "Pilot's Request" pages. From these pages, depending on who's controlling you (Approach, Departure, Center, etc.), you can select from a variety of options. If you're with Ground, you can scroll through the pages until you see "Rwy" and select a different departure runway. With Center, you can declare minimum fuel, request vectors around weather, request change in altitude, plus a whole slew of other requests. It's simply amazing the amount of freedom you have with the scroll bar. Learning the scroll bar is essential. Good thing the CD, along with the Radar Contact website, come with an excellent tutorial on how to use it.
Your flight plan has been terminated. Good day.
Radar Contact is simply a marvelous utility for anyone that hasn't full-time Internet access through Cable or DSL, or access to another phone line. Add to this the fabulous technical support provided by Doug and John, coupled with the Radar Contact forum right here on AVSIM.
However, there were a few little quibbles. The first one, which I already mentioned, was the installation. I had a lot of fun trying to get it going, but once I did, I was really happy with what I saw. Other minor problems I ran into were receiving taxi instructions to Runway 0, and then receiving clearance for takeoff, but no warning from Air Traffic Control. The forum mentioned something to this degree, about loading your flight plan into the FS2000 GPS after you're all set for takeoff because of something Flight Simulator's flight planner does, but I couldn't get it to work. Also, during the ATIS report, I would hear "Altimeter 0000." The fix here is to load your weather before you start the adventure.
Users may experience errors during installation of some of the larger chatter files included on the CD. The reason here is the installation program eats up your entire RAM. The fix is to reboot your computer in Safe Mode and then do the installation. When creating flight plans, you're limited to only 29 waypoints. I found this out after trying to convert my test flight plan and received an error. And one final note to consider when creating your flight plans. By default, there's a 40-mile distance that is set for ATC to begin the descent into your arrival airport. This means when you create your flight plan, your final checkpoint should be as close as possible, if not right on your arrival airport. If this isn't done, you may be asked to descend way out. For example, if your final waypoint is 170nm from the airport, you may be asked to begin your descent 210nm out. Also, Air Traffic Control may get angry with you for missing a crossing restriction even before it's been issued. So if you get either of these, chances are your final checkpoint is too far from the airport.
One problem you may or may not see, but worth mentioning, has to do with the communications system. When you use CTRL-SHIFT-Y, a frequency appears in your aircraft com window that doesn't match what the scroll bar is displaying. If you see this, it will always be the tenth digit. For example, 125.80 in the scroll bar will read 125.70 in the aircraft com window. If this happens, then manually enter the com frequency in the aircraft com window and then hit either CTRL-Q or CTRL-SHIFT-Q. It's an intermittent problem that I saw, but others may not.
The final icing on the cake is a bunch of freeware add-on utilities I discovered through the Radar Contact forum. The first one is the Radar Contact 99 Control Panel available here in the AVSIM Library. This neat little utility, created by John Hnidec replaces the keyboard for the scroll map. When loaded, a small, moveable window appears that can be used instead of the keyboard for the nine RC shortcuts.
The second utility I found is an Adventure Text Display module for FS2000, written by Pete Dowson. This is another gem. What it does is to redirect the output displayed during the adventure into its own window. This window is resizable, moveable, and dockable. So now, instead of not being able to read the text because your panel is covering it, run this little utility and you can move the text around your window where you want. The cherry on top with this particular utility is that the program remembers where the window was placed on the specific panel you used it in, so the next time that panel is loaded, the text window is right where you left it.
The final utility is Fstar RC, a Radar Contact module for users of Jeppesen's Flitestar or FlightMap. This one is also written by Pete Dowson. I never got the chance to try this one out because I don't have Flitestar/Flitemap, but according to the readme file, "this package provides Jeppesen Flitestar and Flitemap users with a direct link to JDT LLC's Radar Contact 99. As an aside, it can also produce .sbp plans for Joe Jurecka's Squawkbox, and Enrico Schiratti's CDU, and .efp plans for Chris Brett's EFIS98."
Without a doubt, this is one of the better commercial add-ons I have seen for FS2000 all year. Anyone who is still contemplating buying this should stop contemplating and go and buy it. It's a great add-on with great potential in future releases. From this release forward, it can only get better. The minor flaws that I mentioned in the review are not reasons that should be used to not buy it. The technical support is the best. It's prompt, and courteous. The longest I had to wait for a response was about six hours. Plus the Radar Contact forum is always buzzing with people that can help. If you haven't already done so, click here to go the RC website and place your order today.
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