Yes, with 1.0.3.2 the descent clearance comes much sooner than before, but on my short EDDM-LIML this was well before cruise altitude and about 75 nm before the PMDG FMC tod. As a result, some of the ambience sounds seem to have been thrown off-kilter. Even so, a simple and overall pleasing experience now.

 

Michael

"In my opinion, the phrase 'Maintain present altitude' is not realistic when your assigned altitude hasn't been reached, or when instructed to descend to a lower altitude which hasn't been reached"

 

Saw that too JJ. Forgot to mention. Hope you passed that on to Mourad too. Your e-mail program should have a method to attach the your log.txt. I just looked at mine and it does show where ATC is constantly advising to go on a certain heading. I'll get mine to Mourad soon so he can see both of our findings.

 

Agree with Michael above. It is a simple and overall pleasing experience!

 

Best regards,

Jim

Jim,

 

" . . . Hope you passed that on to Mourad too."

 

Yes I did.

 

" . . . Your e-mail program should have a method to attach the your log.txt."

 

For sure my email program (Windows Live Mail) easily allows to attach a file but I shared my thoughts with Mourad using the Support/Email tab or function available on PointSoft's web page which doesn't provide for attachments. If I had his email address I'd send it but I don't. So I'll wait until he gets back to me realising that this is holiday season and that folks have other lives!

 

All the best,

 

JJ

Hi everyone,

 

Mourad has favourably responded to my feedback and I've provided him with the log file of the test flight on which my input was based.

 

Regards,

 

JJ

this program is going no where without NAV updates.. I prefer the checklist to be shared . Kinda lazy, i like some else do it for me and could be shared in the community.

this program is going no where without NAV updates.

 

Matthew, this program is prob going nowhere with or without nav updates.Did you look at voxatc ? Voxatc uses leveld navdata.

 

Good luck.

Hello everyone! Got a response from Mourad regarding the constant "change to heading 300" etc., between waypoints. The error only occurs when you click on “Assign waypoints of SIDs/STARs/Airways” in “In-Flight Options”. If you want a realistic flight, this option should be deactivated then rebuild your ProATC flight plan, save, and go fly. It really is more realistic with the PMDG 737. You start up fsx and in the FMC load a flight plan with the ProATC waypoints (or you can put them in manually). Activate ProATC and the co-pilot will request clearance. Clearance will tell you the SID you will be using. When you request to taxi to the runway, ProATC will provide the runway. Once you take off, departure will tell you to fly the SID (and that should already be in the PMDG FMC). Click on LNAV and you're on your way! There is little or no ATC between waypoints and even at waypoints there isn't any instruction from ATC as the flight plan is in the FMC. Once you near your destination, you'll be given clearances to begin descending and soon after the STAR and Runway for landing (all depends on weather). I was really impressed. It works great!

 

this program is going no where without NAV updates.. I prefer the checklist to be shared . Kinda lazy, i like some else do it for me and could be shared in the community.

 

Matthew, not really understanding your question or issue. The co-pilot constantly updates the NAV frequency whether in default or a commercial aircraft like PMDG. What checklist do you want to have shared? They are all shared.

 

Best regards,

Jim

Hello everyone! Got a response from Mourad regarding the constant "change to heading 300" etc., between waypoints. The error only occurs when you click on “Assign waypoints of SIDs/STARs/Airways” in “In-Flight Options”. If you want a realistic flight, this option should be deactivated then rebuild your ProATC flight plan, save, and go fly. It really is more realistic with the PMDG 737. You start up fsx and in the FMC load a flight plan with the ProATC waypoints (or you can put them in manually). Activate ProATC and the co-pilot will request clearance. Clearance will tell you the SID you will be using. When you request to taxi to the runway, ProATC will provide the runway. Once you take off, departure will tell you to fly the SID (and that should already be in the PMDG FMC). Click on LNAV and you're on your way! There is little or no ATC between waypoints and even at waypoints there isn't any instruction from ATC as the flight plan is in the FMC. Once you near your destination, you'll be given clearances to begin descending and soon after the STAR and Runway for landing (all depends on weather). I was really impressed. It works great!

 

 

 

Matthew, not really understanding your question or issue. The co-pilot constantly updates the NAV frequency whether in default or a commercial aircraft like PMDG. What checklist do you want to have shared? They are all shared.

 

Best regards,

Jim

Jim.

 

Is this program still giving problems or does it finally work the way it should?

IMHO, it works great now. Is it perfect? No. Working the way it should is in the eyes of the beholder but it's better than the default. Although it's a nice program, I still think the price is a little steep. I now have ATC running in the background and never had that since the days of Enviro! But I had to purchase the US sounds separately from Ralph Zimmerman (believe around $20). So that's an additional potential cost. They do have great background ATC for European and Spanish countries. Of course you can find your own ATC via the Internet or record your own for free. They have a very good program for recording your own ATC sounds, including the scripts, and the sounds are automatically placed in the appropriate folders. They have done a great job listening to the issues and making the necessary fixes in most cases. I'm sure more will be found but it's a program that's ready for primetime. Thanks for asking!

 

Best regards,

Jim

Hello Jim

Does ProATC interact with and talk to your AI or is it all canned chatter.

It's all canned chatter, but the ATC does 'know' about the AI, so will tell you to wait for landing aircraft, etc rather than clear you to enter the runway.

 

I confirm what Jim says above about selecting the correct user options in order to have less (or more) interaction with ATC.

 

Michael

IMHO, it works great now. Is it perfect? No. Working the way it should is in the eyes of the beholder but it's better than the default. Although it's a nice program, I still think the price is a little steep. I now have ATC running in the background and never had that since the days of Enviro! But I had to purchase the US sounds separately from Ralph Zimmerman (believe around $20). So that's an additional potential cost. They do have great background ATC for European and Spanish countries. Of course you can find your own ATC via the Internet or record your own for free. They have a very good program for recording your own ATC sounds, including the scripts, and the sounds are automatically placed in the appropriate folders. They have done a great job listening to the issues and making the necessary fixes in most cases. I'm sure more will be found but it's a program that's ready for primetime. Thanks for asking!

 

Best regards,

Jim

Jim,

 

What I meant was, can this program create a flight plan, add DPs & STARs, then allow the user to enjoy clear smooth sounding voices (unlike PFE), then the pilot can get the clearance, taxi to active, fly the FP using ATC instructions, decend to the approach and land with a clearance? This, to me, is the standard "as it should."

 

I want smooth, real, voices (ulike PFE where they are NOT all smooth) and the opportunity to fly with an ATC add-on, in an IFR environment, without crashes or problems. That's what I meant to say.

Hello

You will never get smooth natural speech out of any ATC program that is using chopped up wav files assembled on the fly, unless you have the resources that MS threw at FS9 and FSX ATC's audio post processing.

Out of all the ATC addons available PFE voices are by far the best especially with the right level of background radio interference set in the options.

Listen to LiveATC.net, some of that real life ATC is hardly smooth, some of it is really hard to make out.

It is a trade off, either we have chopped up wav files or we go for speech products such as VoxATC uses, neither way is perfect.

More important if the product is going to be more than ear candy is, how realistic are its ATC procedures, is it using realistic transition alts and not a blanket 18000ft, are its step climbs close to realistic, do they vary, where does it derive its nav database from ?, does it handle oceanic procedures ?.

These are the important points, anything less and we might as well dial up LiveATC.net on media player in the background.

Very interested in this! Any of you know of any videos showing a demo of the ATC communications?

 

I have longed for a realistic ATC add-on for FSX. As the FSX default ATC is just awful to say the least!! I really like the way they have integrated a co-pilot into it, as sometimes doing a two man job can be daunting....

Hello

You will never get smooth natural speech out of any ATC program that is using chopped up wav files assembled on the fly, unless you have the resources that MS threw at FS9 and FSX ATC's audio post processing.

Out of all the ATC addons available PFE voices are by far the best especially with the right level of background radio interference set in the options.

Listen to LiveATC.net, some of that real life ATC is hardly smooth, some of it is really hard to make out.

It is a trade off, either we have chopped up wav files or we go for speech products such as VoxATC uses, neither way is perfect.

More important if the product is going to be more than ear candy is, how realistic are its ATC procedures, is it using realistic transition alts and not a blanket 18000ft, are its step climbs close to realistic, do they vary, where does it derive its nav database from ?, does it handle oceanic procedures ?.

These are the important points, anything less and we might as well dial up LiveATC.net on media player in the background.

Even though this thread is not about PFE it is about an ATC add-on, so I hope it's ok for me to say this:

 

PFE has SOME great voices. Some are very smooth. Some are not. This means that there's a way to create smooth sounding voices. I just wish that they were all smooth.

 

I'll PM you. I have some questions that will likely help me get the most out of the program. Thx.