...Cross the Pond is one of the biggest Events and runs for several hours and you may see as many as 200 people over the Atlantic during the event. Other Events like Friday Night Ops are fun as well. If you can find a popular event you can usually expect to see Center, Approach, Departure, Tower, Ground and Delivery on....

My experience says 400+ planes in cross the pond and up to 200 planes inbound for vatusa events like FNO. Highly recommended

My experience says 400+ planes in cross the pond and up to 200 planes inbound for vatusa events like FNO. Highly recommended

Yeah I mighta been a little conservative on my numbers lol. Check out VATSPY Time Lapse of the Events below. Bogies like Fireflys all over the Sky!

1+ for IVAOForget artificial ATC, go fly online.Your RT will improve massively too.Bert Van Bulck

PFE DELUXE, great atc program, very good with many many nationalities and voices.lloyd jones

i go with Radar Contact for offline flying. I found Pro Flight Emulator just to complicated to work with even though it sounds better. You have to convert your flightplans and then check every waypoint otherwise it will act up and refuse to let you climb or decend. Radar Contact seems much more user friendly and can be up and running in seconds. The only drawback is that sometimes radar contact will tell you to decend from cruise down to something silly like 18000 within 30 miles and the PMDG737 can struggle to go down that fast, but you can select "Unable to Comply" and it will let you decend as you like.

No, you don't have to check a waypoint in PFE (what ancient version are you referring to? The software has a steeper learning curve then RC but once you past that stage, it is far more flexable for me and for ex. allows me to descend in time when I ask center for a lower altitude.jos denis

A lot of ATC are folks that are still in school or working so you won't see many during the day. However at Night and during the Weekends there is always a ton of ATC online. This is especially true during the Fall and Winter Months because Vacations are over and people are spending more time indoors because of the cooler weather.

Don't forget that maybe my night flying it is not theirs, and when i can fly they are at school or working.

Don't forget that maybe my night flying it is not theirs, and when i can fly they are at school or working.

+1I am 13+ GMT, so online flying would be difficult

No, you don't have to check a waypoint in PFE (what ancient version are you referring to? The software has a steeper learning curve then RC but once you past that stage, it is far more flexable for me and for ex. allows me to descend in time when I ask center for a lower altitude.jos denis

Spot on Jos. It is a much more powerfull atc program that people realise.

I've become a big fan of VOXATC. A little pricey but good.

Thanks guys! Any idea where you get RC4. i think that is the best option for me because my computer spends most of the time not connected to the internet.Robert Shedd

Hi, i was just wondering what is the best fsx ATC to use with the NGX. When i try to use the defalt ATC it wont let me fly my sid and star route. So i was wondering if thier is a ATC program out there that lets you fly your sid and stars.ThanksRobert Shedd

RC4 vs. PFE vs. VoxATCI advise you and take a look at the following discussion.I reviewed few of them and it would be very informative.http://forum.avsim.n...__fromsearch__1VATSIM/IVAO is the best, however I hardly fly on line as most of my flights are in APAC (South-East Asia) where on line controllers virtually does not exist.I ran a research for two months and found VoxATC is the best out of all and the easy out of all to operate.and many more... read the rest in the link I sent you... it's a must.

+1 for VATSIM....oh and don't forget CROSS THE POND this Saturday the 29th :) see you there

+1 for VATSIM....oh and don't forget CROSS THE POND this Saturday the 29th :) see you there

I will be there!

I don't mean to be bias, but you should check out the Virtual Aviation Experience, they offer atc, and have a few servers up for your use. Overall a good friendly community and the allow you to do everything that is found in the real aviation world. Check them out www.virtual-aviation.org

I've been using the cheap route. The default FSX ATC, but I go to Simroutes to plan routes,and then I load them into FSX. Not perfect, but not bad either.. You will be able to flythe usual SIDS/STARS, but you will often also get vectored into the airports by ATC.Sometimes pretty close to plan, but often not.. So in that sense, it's semi realistic.I never really know for sure what to expect until I get there.One thing about using Simroutes into FSX. The cruise altitude is not set.So you want to edit that plan with a text editor, and add the cruise altitude youwant. Do not load it into FSX planner and try to add the cruise alt. That seemsto whack the plan out, as it tries to plan a whole different new route.Just edit it with a text editor, and you will be good to go. I have a whole slewof plans already made up for most of my usual routes.Also.. Some of the SIDS/STARS in Simroutes are not up to date.But.. most of the old ones with similar names will still work fine with a littletweaking.IE: When I run up to Dallas, I use the CRIED 4 departure..But.. Simroutes shows it as the CRIED 3 departure.. But ithappens to have about the same path and waypoints, so it'susable as long as you make you the route is correct when itspits everything out. DUMPY 2 is now DUMPY 3 in the RW..This is the actual FSX plan I use from Hobby to Love.Note how I added the 30k cruise altitude.. That is set to 00when you build the plan, so needs to be tweaked before youuse it.Anyway, this is just one way you can have semi decent ATCwith the default FSX ATC for free.. BTW, Simroutes can alsospit out the PMDG routes for the FMC. But I like to punchthem in manually, so don't use those.[flightplan]title=KHOU to KDALdescription=KHOU, KDALtype = IFRroutetype = 3cruising_altitude=30000departure_id=KHOU, N29* 38.73', W95* 16.73', +000046.00destination_id=KDAL, N32* 50.83', W96* 51.11', +000487.00departure_name=William_P_Hobbydestination_name=Dallas_Love_Fldwaypoint.0=KHOU, A, N29* 38.72', W095* 16.73', +000000.00,waypoint.1=LITLD, I, N30* 30.29', W095* 28.10', +000000.00, CRIED3waypoint.2=STELL, I, N30* 50.41', W095* 32.65', +000000.00, CRIED3waypoint.3=CRIED, I, N31* 21.24', W095* 39.68', +000000.00, CRIED3waypoint.4=CQY, V, N32* 11.14', W096* 13.09', +000000.00, CRIED3waypoint.5=ORVLL, I, N32* 26.34', W096* 22.22', +000000.00,waypoint.6=DUMPY, I, N32* 39.73', W096* 30.32', +000000.00, DUMPY2waypoint.7=KDAL, A, N32* 50.83', W096* 51.11', +000000.00, DUMPY2

Gotta tell ya, for a USA-based pilot, fly VATSIM Europe in the early afternoon for live ATC at its best! From Scandinavia to the Med, the European controllers are the best around. Evenings in the USA, you have to take what you can get; ATC is usually VERY unpredictable at best (although they seem to be trying to schedule more events lately). Still, you cannot beat the human-to-human interface that LIVE ATC gives you, especially if you're serious about improving your skills. Go get it! Enjoy!!! VATSIM truly rules (in my my humble opinion).