Hi,I see that ATC Simulator is on special Christmas offer for $24.95, including 120 Tracons(!). http://www.atcsimtech.com/Can anyone who owns this package, or has some experience of it, let me know if it is worth purchasing, please? Is it interesting and varied? Is it immersive? Is it authentic? I know that stand alone packages such as this cannot compare with live ATC on places such as VATSIM, but I thought it might be fun, as well as a way to learn ATC procedures and lingo?Many thanks,Frank

I have V1.5 and it is pretty fun. Once I played with it I asked an approach controller in Charlotte about it (a nice boring late flight) and he mentioned that the ARTS III (which ATC simulates) is outdated now. He stated they had nw technology.Anyways, the game is fun and is challenging.

Thanks for your speedy reply, Chickenhawk!I look forward to receiving more.Regards,Frank

Hi Frank, I love it. I use voice recognition , and while this doesn't work always, it is better than typing every entry. It can get as involved as you want. Some sectors have real quiet times that you can practice with and the tutorial in the manual lets you practice without messing with you career mode. I started with V1 and now are at V1.5. Looking forward to V2. So far there have no charges for upgrading versions, only the add on sector discs.Have funPhill

Thanks, Phil!You also answered my unasked question about voice recognition! This would be the way I'd want to go, too.Best wishes,Frank

Before you buy, check out this site www.xavius.com

Hi Eric,Thanks for the tip! This is enroute rather than approach control, but I will certainly investigate it further.Best wishes,Frank

Frank,I had high hopes for ATC simulator but while it is fun, it never seemed anything more than a game to me. The biggest problem is the size of the sectors. If you try your hand at JFK, expect to have to handle all of the airports in NYC - both arrivals and departures. Well, it makes for a great mental challenge but it isn't realistic. Also, arrivals come in at seemingly random locations at random altitudes. In real life, hopefully your colleagues at Center are helping you out a bit more. They spent all of there energy on creating a massive number of sectors and real flights and ignored realism. I was lucky that the voice recognition worked as well as it did - some had major problems but I think that has been taken care of.The Xavius sim is not as pretty but I understand it is far more realistic. It's certainly challenging enough! It always seems to start slowly enough but all of a sudden you are really in deep doo doo. At least that's my experience!David

I have V1 of this sim as well. I second your comments:In reality, TRACON sectors are assigned areas around the primary airport. For instance, Denver TRACON is on 126.1 in my area, and handles all departures and arrivals to the west of KDEN. It gets really busy on westerly departures and easterly arrivals (UA is the largest airline), then really quiet in between (when we private pilots try to hit them up for flight following, or instrument pilots try to shoot an approach :) ). I still enjoy the sim, though.Bruce.

Hi David,Thanks very much for your detailed comments! It seems ATC Simulator is not as realistic as I had hoped, although it does looks very nice in the screenshots, and the special offer is attractive. Years ago, I derived quite a lot of pleasure from an ATC program called Tracon, which I used to run on an old IBM PC under DOS, with default sound(anyone still remember that venerable OS? :-)). I subsequently bought the Windows version, but had 'issues' with the sound.I think I'll take another look at Xavius before making a decision.Thanks for your help,Frank

Thanks, Bruce, for the extra information!. It's a little surprising the sectors aren't modelled correctly, especially given the fact that the simulator is using real world traffic(it says!). Ah well, we gotta have something to compain about now and then, I guess? :-)Best regards,Frank

Frank,There is a free version of the Xavius program so there isn't any risk. The payware version includes the pilots' voices. I've never been able to get voice recognition software to work with it though and it does not work on many newer laptops. A new, more sophisticated version has been in the works for months and months.David

You're welcome. Also note that my version is older than the current retail version, so some improvements may ahve been made since. It is enjoyable, and a challenge to control aircraft in a busy TRACON environment. Myself, I prefer flying.Bruce.