A quick fly by of Pro ATC

[Daveo 36]

Does the mouse work with the menu or is it keyboard only?

[tf51d 284]

One issue I see with this, is if I am reading the features right, it uses the default AI, although it will react to it, it does not interact with it. Background ATC is canned chatter, although it says appropriate for the area you are flying.

[MrSpeaker 121]

Hey does it give you a route string so I could quickly copy and paste it into fscommander then import the route into my pmdg aircraft. The flight planning seems to be a draw back for me.

[Lars Peter Hammer 0]

One issue I see with this, is if I am reading the features right, it uses the default AI, although it will react to it, it does not interact with it. Background ATC is canned chatter, although it says appropriate for the area you are flying.

 

That is my consern as well. Can someone confirm if this is the case?

[Clutch Cargo 384]

Interested to see the demo. Hope this program includes inter-action through voice. If so, would luv to see that demonstrated in the demo video being made. And situational awareness of surrounding AI is a must in my book. Program sounds promising.

[Chock 17,769]

Well, I kind of blasted through it in order to get a bit of a mini review up on Avsim because I felt people would be interested to get a bit of a closer look at it. Because of that and the fact that I actually only got the thing yesterday, it is still pretty new to me, so I am by no means completely knowledgable on every thing it does, but in an attempt to answer some of the questions that have cropped up on this thread, here goes...

 

With all the other features aside, is it on par with RCV4?

 

I would say yes, but with reservations, since it does things a little bit differently. Procedurally it is as realistic as RC4, but what is different, is that it is a bit more 'on rails' than RC4 from what I can tell so far, so I did not see things such as leaving the frequency for WX, or the ability to declare an emergency and deviate from the plan, but note here that just because I did not see these things in the brief tests I have made, does not mean I know for sure that you can't do that stuff, like I say, this is pretty new to me.

 

Like RC4, the ATC responses and control can be handled by you, or automatically by your co-pilot, but one feature that I think is nicer than RC4, is that you can have the ATC text scroll across the screen in a very bright colour against a small tinted background, which makes it a lot better to read than the red text which RC4 uses. RC4 text of that nature can sometimes clip off the end of the message, making it tricky to copy an IFR clearance if you miss the squawk, whereas in Pro ATC, it was completely legible, and thus a bit more helpful. This might seem a minor point, but i think it's an important plus. Actually, the scrolling text sort of reminded me of the old pre-programmed 'Adventures' which used to be a massive part of the Flight Simulator scene, but were dropped by MS some version back from FS and then replaced by 'Missions' in FSX.

 

Can you add/create SID/STARS, add voices etc ?

 

Yes you can add voices apparently. There is more info about that on the Pro ATC website, where i believe you can download some stuff to assist in doing that. I could not find a way to add procedures, but, I might have missed something in not being able to do that. What I do know that you could certainly do however is, in a manner similar to the default FSX planner, add the waypoints of a SID or STAR to your flight plan so that the procedure's track is part of your plan. I sometimes do that in FSX to make ATC a bit more amenable to my intentions. If you could add your own procedures, that would in fact resolve one of my more pressing issues with it.

 

The one thing that seems to be missing is voice communication (with ATC, co-pilot etc.) Or did I miss that ?

 

Pretty sure you could actually do that, at least partially at this point, because it is using the default ATC window, and as you probably know, with Multi Crew Experience, you can interact with the default ATC window. Knowing how on the ball FS++ are with getting MCE to work with other add-ons, I would put money onthem being on the case with that already to ensuring you can do so flawlessly. FS++ are like that.

 

The co-pilot as I say, is one of its really strong points. it is very well implemented indeed, with some thoughtful stuff in evidence, i.e. if the co-pilot is running through a checklist and asks you, for example, 'Parking Brake?' and you are busy doing something and miss what they asked, after some time they will again ask 'parking brake?', so unlike some other such co-pilot add-ons I've had for FS, this one does not leave you wondering what the hell they asked, since you can either wait for them to say it again, or actually ask them to repeat what they said. Little things like that are much in evidence here, and they show that some thought has gone into the practicalities.

 

Does the ATC only follow ICAO, or does it do FAA also if flying in the States?

 

I've not used it enough to know for sure, but I do recall it telling me to 'line up and wait', which is I believe the newer procedural phrase recommended by the FAA, although you can correct me if I am wrong on that.

 

Does the mouse work with the menu or is it keyboard only?

 

Yup, it works with the mouse, you can click on the ATC window options to choose them.

 

One issue I see with this, is if I am reading the features right, it uses the default AI, although it will react to it, it does not interact with it.

 

Yup, that's my concern too, although I've not checked it out enough to be certain that that is the case, if it is, then that would be one thing that RC4 has over it, and would be a minus point for me.

 

Hey does it give you a route string so I could quickly copy and paste it into fscommander then import the route into my pmdg aircraft. The flight planning seems to be a draw back for me.

 

You can get you plan out, and into a format which your FMC can use, although to be honest at the moment it is a bit of a faff to achieve that. Nevertheless, it is possible with if you are prepared to get a little inventive. this is in fact my other complaint with it; I should like to see the ability to export its flight plans so I could pull them into EFB or an FMC more easily. The easy way around it at present, is to have Pro ATC automatically dump its route into the default GPS, which you can then save out and pull back in. this is by no means ideal, but it does at least give you some options whilst there isn't a more dedicated function in Pro ATC. I really think they need to look at adding that.

 

Al

[JBZ 13]

Al,

 

Thanks, Line up and Wait is now used in the FAA, but it was adopted from ICAO. If you were flying in Europe, you would hear Line up and Wait also. Some of the big differences between FAA and ICAO that you can tell are things like al**ude changes. ICAO will use "Climb FL190" where as FAA will use "Climb and maintain FL190".

[Chock 17,769]

Yup, I know all the European ones since I have to use them for real, but never flying for real in the US, I'm unfamiliar with some of the FAA ones. I don't know if it does all of the US stuff, I should think it is more likely to do European stuff since it is made by a European developer, although given that it is intended for use mainly with airliners, it may do the US stuff, I'll know for sure when having played with it a bit more, although I daresay someone will chip in and confirm or deny that.

 

If not it would make a pleasant change from the default FS ATC for me personally, where it normally insists on FAA procedures in other parts of the world, which was always a bit of a bummer. I'll be interested to see if it even goes one better and uses metres when flying over the USSR and some places in Eastern Europe. That would be kind of fun, and somewhat scary I should think too LOL. It would definitely be a plus point if it had that level of sophistication, not least because VOX ATC is pretty damn expensive for the Brit ATC version.

 

Can't imagine it would be too tricky to program in a discriminator which detected the ICAO codes and boundaries for your route, although it would of course mean that more audio files would be needed, which would be really the only reason why I could see it not happening, since it would of course mean more work and more files to load on an international flight across the pond.

 

Al

[PeteP 2]

I'll be interested to see if it even goes one better and uses metres when flying over the USSR...

LOL, I hope not Al as the states of the Russian Federation (and Mongolia, I think) abandoned metres and changed to flight levels based on feet for IFR traffic in November last year.

 

I think the question about ICAO as opposed to FAA procedures relates as much to altimetry as phraseology - e.g. pressure settings in hectopascals as opposed to in/Hg, variable Transition Al**udes from country to country (and sometimes airport to airport) as opposed to a fixed one of 18000ft in the US and so on. Any reports on this aspect?

Pete

[Sky Trail 13]

Hey Chock,

 

Thanks for the review, Looks really promising , but no where close to 65 bucks for a product with no SID and STAR ( at least should be able to port flight plan to all the best aircraft out there) , and of course network support for the moving map function. No point in moving map otherwise. Enough Bashing. I really hope the developer updates it with all the necessary things add AIRAC support fast and network...

 

<<<<< keeping fingers crossed for this to be the best ATC.... its really past due to have a kick &amp;@(&#036;* ATC for FSX... ( I dont prefer online flying, so my reactions to ATC is understated...)

 

Thanks again , CHock.. And is the airaft in the pic 787 from aerosim ???? or afs 350

[mr340 56]

Is there any video of someone actually using it or something . FSX ATC its kind of stupid sometimes . I don't know if its just me or this happens to everyone . But when am taxing on the runway FSX ATC will only tell me hold position when the other aircraft is right in front of you which you have to press brakes hard before you crash into the other plane . FSX ATC will send you right into a crash zone if you don't pay attention . Also when you are coming in for a landing in a busy airport . Oh my god like in KMIA gosh i had a hard time landing there. The ATC send tones of plane to land in one single runway i was like come on why doesn't the atc send other planes to land in an other runway i mean miami international airport has like 4 runways or more i think . An when am coming in for landing it almost looks like an airshow all these planes one after another coming in with the same approach one behind the other. I was like this is funny because when the other aircraft are about to land ATC out of no where tells them to go around after they said cleared for landing . I just sit back an LMAO . Another thing that happen to me was when i was on final approach ATC send a military aircraft on the same rout i was going to an about the same al**ude i was about 2,000 Ft an the military was 3,000Ft an coming in for the same landing as i did. All of a sudden the traffic alert system start driving me crazy an i was busy looking for the other aircraft when i notice it was right on top of me . I had to put my pmdg aircraft into a dive so i won't crash with the other aircraft . In the real world i think the traffic alert system will tell on pilot to decent an the other pilot to climb . But yet again its computer simulator . But the point is its about time to upgrade FSX stupid ATC to something new . But i would love to see video before i make my purchase . So i think am going to wait until others buy it an give there thoughts about it .

[bonchie 2,305]

Hey Chock,

 

Thanks for the review, Looks really promising , but no where close to 65 bucks for a product with no SID and STAR ( at least should be able to port flight plan to all the best aircraft out there) , and of course network support for the moving map function. No point in moving map otherwise. Enough Bashing. I really hope the developer updates it with all the necessary things add AIRAC support fast and network...

 

<<<<< keeping fingers crossed for this to be the best ATC.... its really past due to have a kick &amp;@(&#036;* ATC for FSX... ( I dont prefer online flying, so my reactions to ATC is understated...)

 

Thanks again , CHock.. And is the airaft in the pic 787 from aerosim ???? or afs 350

 

Unless I'm reading wrong, it does SID and STARs and assigns the STAR on approach as it should.

[Chock 17,769]

Yes, it does indeed do SIDs and STARs, my comment, which appears to have been misread, related to the fact that some airports do not have some of the SIDs or STARs which they should have in reality, for example, Manchester International EGCC has none of its STARs in there at all, but it does have SIDs.

 

And to the other question, yes it is indeed the AeroSim Boeing 787 Dreamliner in those screenshots. By default, there are a large number of airliners listed which you can use on your flight plans, but there is a similar capability to FSBuild and EFB in that you can add your own airliners to the list if you like, whereby you enter a few basic stats and the name of the aircraft type.

 

As far as airlines go, like Radar Contact, there is a big list of airlines you can choose from, plus you can enter your flight number and ATC will then call you via that callsign. For example, I chose Air Atlantique and the flight number 7575, and ATC was then calling me using 'Alpha Alpha 7575', which is not stictly correct since Air Atlantique's radio callsign is 'Atlantic', which Radar contact does actually get right, but that was a minor quibble as far as I was concerned.

 

With regard to a video of it in use, I'm going to make one shortly, and hopefully post it in a few hours or so..

 

Al

[Chock 17,769]

Two piccies of blagging a SID and a STAR into Pro ATC. EGCC has no SIDs listed, and LEAM has no STARs listed, so here I've generated a simple A to B flight plan, then right clicked on the intersections and beacons I wanted in my plan and then saved it. That has included pretty much the Honiley 1 SID from off Runway 23 right at EGCC, and the ILS approach procedure to Runway 26 STAR at LEAM by simply picking the beacons and waypoints listed on the procedure charts, although it is not exactly correct, since one of the custom waypoints I needed for the Honiley SID is not available, but it is pretty close to the correct procedure. Not ideal of course, since you cannot add you own SIDs and STARs to the database either (which hopefully they will patch so that you can), but it does mean you can get to have ATC make you fly the procedures more or less correctly if you really want to:

 

 

 

The test now is to see if ATC is aware that it will be vectoring me for an approach into LEAM which will have me descending over the Sierra Nevada Mountain range, which rises several thousand feet in places and forms a barrier to the north of Almeria and the flat coastal plain upon which it sits. For trivia fans, those mountains are where most of the famous Spaghetti Westerns with Clint Eastwood in them, such as A Fistful of Dollars and The Good the Bad and the Ugly, were filmed.

 

The default FSX ATC is known to vector you into this terrain, which is in fact what narked me off about it and made me buy Radar Contact, which keeps you clear of this terrain hazard, so let's see if Pro ATC is aware of this danger too. I'll let you know in about two hours when I've made the flight and hopefully not flown into a cloud with a granite centre.

 

Al

[N1G 88]

I just talked to the dev and he stated that voice control would be implemented in about 2 months. Thought some here might be interested in knowing that.

 

Bob