A quick fly by of Pro ATC

[Guest firehawk44]

<br />can you drag the moving map to a second monitor, also where you able to select the star that proatc assigned you in the pmdg fmc and did the waypoints match up<br />

 

Yes, as I stated above, I have the moving map on my second monitor. With the moving map, you'll see all the waypoints ProATC needs to see so I made sure they were entered in the FMC on the LEGS page. You'll have to fly in Windowed mode though. This morning I took off from LAX and was given the Chaty2 SID and Runway 7L to takeoff. I entered that data in the FMC so I couldn't tell whether it had the same info as ProATC; however, vectoring after takeoff to Chaty2 was exactly the same as in the PMDG FMC. In past flights, that was an issue as I missed waypoints that were evidently embedded in the PMDG 737. With the moving map I ensured I had all the waypoints entered after Chaty2 so the PMDG FMC took me exactly on the course ProATC was sending me. Again, I think this issue is moot. ProATC developers have already stated they are working to get all the same AIRAC data put into their program as is contained in any commercial aircraft such as PMDG. Here's what ProATC shows when you look up the data for a SID/STAR for KLAX. As you can see, it shows the route for Chaty2. If there's something different in the PMDG AIRAC data, then you can add/delete the waypoint in the SID, save, and you're on exactly the same course.

 

 

Best regards,

Jim

[jimimac 19]

im waiting on the airac database before i purchase, thanks for the screenshot.

 

 

jim

[Paul J 349]

As a lot of this thread is about service, and PFE has been spoken of, so I thought I'd put in a mention of some great service. I've had PFE since 2006, but somewhere in a rebuild a few months back it got 'mislaid'. At noon today I sent an email to Dave March - and roughly three and a bit hours later - the Deluxe version is being downloaded as I type this. I wish all developers had this standard of service. This guy is tops in my book.

 

One very happy customer. B)

 

pj

[jimimac 19]

does pfe use sid/stars and are you able to update the database.

 

 

thanks,jim

[Paul J 349]

A quick quote from the manual, Jim:-

 

"you can select to fly a SID (DP) of your choice. You can even give

it a name (Alpha-Two-Romeo for instance) which will be included in the clearance and takeoff

instructions you receive.

With no SID departures in place the standard ProFlight clearance would be "Cleared for takeoff,

runway nine, fly runway heading"

Using the SID feature you would hear "Cleared for takeoff, runway nine, alpha-two-romeo at

five thousand departure approved". You would then fly whatever published departure you want,

with no further ATC interaction, until you reach the altitude given in the takeoff clearence, at

which point ATC would kick in again and give you any altitude instructions accordingly. Please

note, SID altitudes can be set in the SID/STAR options display too, but should you choose to

leave this at zero for any configured SID then PFE will work one out for you."

 

I've placed the manual (pdf) here. It's a necessary read, as PFE is actually two programs, although basically you create your flight plan using your favorite tool - like FSBuild or PlanG including the SID and STAR - select it in the FS2000 portion for conversion, then run PFE - and you begin the flight.

[Speedbird 11 2]

does pfe use sid/stars and are you able to update the database

 

More accurate to say that PFE permits you to use SDs and STARS.

 

For SDs, there are four ways.

1. Accept a generic "SD", which will be plausible vectors much like the FS ATC.

2. You select a waypoint in your flight plan that marks the end of the SD (ATC largely leaves you alone until you reach it).

3. You select an altitude at which the SD ends (similar to 2 above).

4. You designate a 5-character name for your desired SD, one allowed at a time for each runway e.g. for Brookmans Park 5J you could desingate "BPK5J" and ATC will clear you for "Bravo-Papa-Kilo-5-Juliet". You define them as per point 2 or 3 above.

 

For STARS, there are three ways.

1. Accept a generic "ST", which will be vectors much like the FS ATC (not as wandering in heavy winds though).

2. You select a wayoint in your flight plan that marks the start of the STAR (ATC clears you for the approach, then largely leaves you alone until finals).

3.You designate a 5-character name for your desired STAR, one allowed at a time for each runway, similar to named SDs above.

Separately, you can also nominate your missed approach altitude for each approach.

 

Pretty good, all told, in conjunction with regional accents and other features. Like all ATC products though, it lacks some of the better features of the FS ATC, but gives you other things instead.

 

I suppose since this long thread is about Pro ATC X, I should add that Pro ATC handles SDs and STARs automatically (making it much easier to use in this respect), but pronounces them in a similar way to PFE (although regional accents are not really Pro ATC's forte right now).

 

I hope this helps.

 

Michael

[Guest firehawk44]

"since this long thread is about Pro ATC X"

 

Yes, let's try to keep this thread on ProATC. PFE can be discussed in another thread.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[Guest firehawk44]

Another update released - 1032.

 

- Improved TOD (top of descent).

 

- If you now pass a waypoint without being recognized by PRO-ATC/X, the next waypoint is assigned while in range of 10 NM, so you do not have to return for passing it.

 

- Importing new voices is now XP-Compatible

 

Best regards,

Jim

[EdwardSm 5]

Thank you for the review. Very helpful.

[riccardo74 36]

A simple question (sorry if already asked): how is assigned sid and stars, randomly or accordingly with weather and traffic conditions?

[Guest firehawk44]

According to weather.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[riccardo74 36]

Thanks so much Jim, this is very interesting and real...

[jimimac 19]

hi jim[firehawk44] have you done any flights using the latest patch

 

thanks,jim

[Guest firehawk44]

Yes, it works very well. Descent is much earlier than in the past and more realistic. You can't miss a waypoint anymore either and that's nice. My only complaint now is the fact Center or Radar Control constantly tells you to go to a certain heading once they tell you to go to the next waypoint. So say you're going at heading 300 between two waypoints and your PFD shows that you are on a heading of 300, ATC still tells you every 5 miles to turn to heading 300 and that can get pretty aggravating after a while. It's done between every waypoint and I never saw this in previous versions. I did this flight last night between KLAX and KSFO and planned on reporting this problem to ProATC later today after golf. I had AS2012 running and perhaps the weather is making it look like the flight is not on course. I hit every waypoint shown in the moving map. Had a beautiful nighttime flight into KSFO and took some pictures while being vectored to KSFO 19L. The following photo of the wing of the PMDG 737 Special Aircraft (the one with United States of America on the side), shows a picture of the "Joker" on the winglet. I thought that strange considering what's happening today in Aurora.

 

 

I might add that the PMDG seemed to work better with ProATC. I had to change the waypoints in the Legs Page of the FMC but when Approach gave me the HADLY2 STAR and RW19L, I just had to enter it in the Arr/Dep page and all the correct waypoints showed up. Worked very well. It would be nice to have the co-pilot change settings on the panel but he does set the NAV/COM frequencies. The FMC controls the flight path very well.

 

One other thing... when landing at KSFO, ATC didn't tell me to contact ground like in the past. I hit the 1 key to bring up the options and saw you now have to pull that up before landing and click on the option "Request Landing". That wasn't done automatically by the co-pilot.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[Jean-Jacques 120]

Hi Jim,

 

I want to confirm that I also encountered the issue related to repeating the same instruction every 30 seconds or so. I've reported it to Mourad late last night but couldn't figure out how to send him the log file. I'm waiting for him to respond by email so that I can return a copy of my log file. In my note to him, I also reported that during that same flight, a short flight from KBOS to KJFK, I was not offered a stepped descent but rather instructed to descend from FL240 to 4000 feet. The issue may be related to the fact that this was a short flight.

 

Finally I took the opportunity to share two items (an issue and a suggestion) which were encountered before the latest patch (1032) and that continue to be present using version 1032. The first is related to the preparation of new flight plans. When the default FL300 is changed and then a cruising speed selected, the FL reverts back to the default FL300. But if you select the cruising speed first then select a new FL, then PRO-ATC accepts it. My other item was a suggestion, an only a suggestion because I am not a pilot. 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. So I think the instruction should probably be changed to 'Maintain assigned altitude'.

 

With the recent adjustments and new co-pilot and controller voice packs, I think PRO-ATC/X is coming along just fine and looking forward to a choice in pilot voice packs.

 

Regards,

 

JJ