Having bought Opus early on and following this thread I have come to be believe that this is a great way to develop a complicated product. Those that want to can participate early, as I did with Opus, and those that don't can wait until the product matures, as I will with Pro ATC. But in any case the developer gets feedback on the product and can incorporate lessons learned to the benefit of those who choose to wait. This all hinges on the developer listening to and acting on the feedback but in the case of both Opus and Pro ATC this seems to be the case.

I understood that already, no problems at all. ^_^ And you might like my rather positive post that I posted while you probably were typing. ^_^

I did indeed!!! :rolleyes:

Its certainly not the conventional way to go, but in the end, the more people that use ProAtc the more polished it becomes and faster as well. This is because a more variety of systems are tested with different configurations, different computers, different scenarios, and different the way people use it or not use it properly. ProAtc I think has come a long way to improvement, and the issues that pop up while sometimes annoying are duly noted and addressed usually in a timely manner depending on how complicated it is to tackle it.

 

I dont know how perfect an ATC program can be because its just not human to make decisions like in the RW, and the instructions are very robotic and I dont see how this could be perfect, but I look forward to it being the best it can be within the limitations of FSX and P3D.

 

If I get proper instructions for runway assignments , taxiing, takeoff direction, SID and STAR assignments even if I have filed eronously this should be a correction ATC sees better, and vectors in a proper way to the ILS, I think this will be a great experience in using ATC and way more than the default. Aside from anomalies and other issues, overall its coming together really really well.

 

I decided to get RealATC voice files background as hearing "direct to Margo" from London center gets monotonous , and ridiculous when you are in the middle of the ocean. lol

 

Im sure in time user voice will be implemented as well but first we need a solid foundation. So Kudos to Pointsoft team and all the best in the coming new year as well to fellow simmers. FSX Lives On!

So far, ProAtc has nothing better to offer than the SID/STAR assignment in comparision with the (good) old Radar Contact for those who are only interested in the ATC-part ?

Currently for me, I cant see the need to spend that $$. May be the next year . Happy new year !! :Party: :Party:

So far, ProAtc has nothing better to offer than the SID/STAR assignment in comparision with the (good) old Radar Contact for those who are only interested in the ATC-part ?

Currently for me, I cant see the need to spend that $$. May be the next year . Happy new year !! :Party: :Party:

 

You're probably right Chris, but for someone like me who is still using default ATC, it seems a natural upgrade. IMO, I also think the actual voices are far superior to those of RC...

And this time there was. I wandered off about 6 times

 

My advice to you would be don't wander off course. I'm pretty sure that's part of the training real world pilots get. Compared to the battles with FSX ATC in trying to get a sensible descent or to fly a SID or STAR without continually being vectored off in weird directions, it's really quite easy.

 

If you are having a problem with the flight plan itself, I suggest you do this.

 

1) Get the route you want to fly from VATAware or whatever as a text string with neither SID nor STAR e.g. EGKK DVR UL9 KONAN UL607 AMASI UM149 BOMBI T104 WLD UM867 BAVAX Z106 MANAL M736 TULSI LOWI

 

2) Use the Import facility to get this into PROATC-X and save it.

 

3) Put the same route into your aircraft FMS manually, do not import the PROATC-X generated flightplan. This takes only a minute, is as the real life pilot would do it and gives you nice smooth turns which it's hard to bodge up..

 

4) Enter the assigned SID & STAR into your aircraft FMS manually, do not import the PROATC-X generated flightplan. This takes only a minute, is as the real life pilot would do it and gives you nice smooth turns.

 

5) Before you say that this renders the PROATC-X flight planner redundant, I'll say that as I use AS2012 for weather textures and route winds, it has the big advantage of being able to generate an FSX flightplan for that and any similar purpose you may have. Before PROATC-X I was battling with trying to do the same via SimRoutes or similar which suffers from using a different AIRAC.

 

6) In addition to not wandering off course, don't miss any ATC calls. I'm pretty sure that's part of the training real world pilots get.

 

7) During the flight, keep an eye on your NAV display and make sure you don't wander off course. I'm pretty sure that's part of the training real world pilots get. If you aren't sure, check on the PROATC-X menu and make sure the active waypoint is ahead of you and not behind. If you have broken the thread, call for a direct to to the next waypoint to reconnect it. This compares with the need in the FSX ATC to go out of the flight, create a temporary flight plan with the first way point as the next one and then requesting a new IFR clearance, so PROATC-X is a lot simpler to use there.

 

This works pretty flawlessly for me and is a damn sight easier than the standard ATC. I can't comment on RC4 or any other add-on ATC as I don't have them. I can confirm that if you don't have any of those and you fly IFR airliners using SIDS & STARS with sophisticated FMS, then this is a LOT better than FSX.

My advice to you would be don't wander off course.

 

LOL Thanks for all the tips but (sorry for making this not more clear: it might have saved you some time) I wandered off on purpose. ^_^ I was testing the software to see what it does and doesn't do. It is not my habit to leave the flightplan (at least not with an airliner) and I know how to stay on it ^_^ but I wanted to make sure PorATC/X is not just a bunch of wavs that get triggered at certain points along the route but that it actually follows your plane and comes into action when needed. That didn't happen last weekend and that's why I tested it once more. This time it DID happen and my next flight will be a normal, regular neat one. B)

 

BTW I already enter the plan manually if I have the time for it but even if I don't, I do enter the SID and STAR myself: at this moment the SID that you load with the ProATC/X file isn't really actually loaded and selected in the FMC (when you go to the DEP ARR page you will only see <SEL> before the runway, not the SID) and due to this you can't arm LNAV, which I always do. So if I do load the ProATC/X flightplan, I still select the right runway and SID and then lineselect the 'old' SID out of the Legs page. I already posted this on the support forum so the devs are aware of this.

do not import the PROATC-X generated flightplan.

 

Can I just jump in here fellas if you don't mind. What is the point of this? At the moment I create a flightplan in FSC and then import it into the NGX's FMC and select the relevent SIDS and STARS from within the FMC. So are you saying I can no longer do this? Can I no longer generate a flightplan in FSC?

I wandered off on purpose.

 

No that wasn't clear to me. I guess you are going to break anything if you try to do so deliberately. Glad you've made it clear now as otherwise it comes across as a negative comment in a public forum against a product which, if used as intended, works pretty well for me at least.

 

 

Can I no longer generate a flightplan in FSC?

 

I don't know what FSC is but all I'm saying is that IF you have a problem following flightplans generated in PROATC-X accurately, as the previous contributor seemed to be, leading to him breaking the ATC thread, then one pretty painless way around it is to create the PROATC-X flightplan & the FMS flightplan separately but from the same source. For me, they then work together flawlessly in parallel.

 

PROATC-X has the ability to import flightplans from a number of sources and export in a number of formats. You'd need to read the small print to find out if any of these is exactly what you want. As others have mentioned, the software has made big improvements via updates and if you want to ask for something additional, I'd try doing it directly in the PROATC-X forum or by email..

 

Meanwhile, if what you're doing already works for you, stick with it!

I don't know what FSC is

 

Apologies, Flight Sim Commander, which is one of the main flight planning progs that is used. I just need to ensure that I can continue to use this program... as you say, I'll register on the forum and get some further info there. Cheers...

No that wasn't clear to me. I guess you are going to break anything if you try to do so deliberately. Glad you've made it clear now as otherwise it comes across as a negative comment in a public forum against a product which, if used as intended, works pretty well for me at least.

 

Part of the job of ATC is to redirect traffic that is misbehaving vertically or latteraly. Even default FSX ATC does that. I was simply testing if ProATC/X did that too. If I would have 'broken' something by doing something deliberately then ProATC/X wouldn't be no good at all imho! ProATC/X is INTENDED to correct you when you stray off and so it is a MANDATORY function on an ATC addon and hence should be tested thoroughly. I fail to see where my post could have been taken in a negative way because I did clearly say ProATC/X DOES what it should do.

 

Can I just jump in here fellas if you don't mind. What is the point of this? At the moment I create a flightplan in FSC and then import it into the NGX's FMC and select the relevent SIDS and STARS from within the FMC. So are you saying I can no longer do this? Can I no longer generate a flightplan in FSC?

 

No, I don't mind. ^_^ You should be able to import a flightplan but up to now I haven't been able to do so, but I only have the FSX planner and Plan-G so I can't test FSC (only have the free version here). Maybe someone else could test FSC? However, if you even can't import regular .PLN files I wonder what you CAN import. Anyway, it SHOULD be possible, maybe in the future. The important thing is to make sure that the flightplan that ProATC/X is using is the exact same as the one in the FMC is using which is quite logical (ATC has to know your flightplan of course).

 

Anyway, what ailchim meant to say is that you should currently NOT use the .rte flightplans for the 737 NGX that ProATC/X generates automatically because they include the SID (and later on the STAR) and that simply doesn't work: PMDG (for some reason) disabled the option to load plans that include SIDs or STARs. So if you create a plan with FSC without SIDs and STARs, as you said you already do, and you are able to import that plan into ProATC/X then everything is fine.

 

EDIT

Apart from importing a flightplan from a file you can also Copy and paste one into ProATC/X: I just created a simple plan with 3 waypoints (no random fixes) in FSX and copied it into ProATC/X: worked like a charm. So as it is now you should be able to do the following:

 

1. create a flightplan in FSC and save it as a rte file for the PMDG 737 NGX

 

2. copy and paste the flightplan in ProATC/X and save it as a ProATC/X flightplan (obviously it helps if all programs use the same AIRAC)

 

3. start FSX, start a flight, enable the plan in ProATC/X (so it will start using it for you current flight) and then load the FSC .rte file (and NOT the ProATC/X rte file) in the 737 NGX FMC (simply forget about the ProATC/X generated rte plan). You can also first load the rte file and then reqeust ATC clearance, the order doesn't matter

 

4. wait until ProATC/X assigns you a SID and enable that one in the FMC

 

5. the STAR will be assigned when you get close to your destination (as is normal in Europe but may be odd for the US)

 

Now ProATC/X will follow the FSC flightplan to the letter.

 

EDIT 2

I just copied a few flightplans from the internet into ProATC/X: works great too as long as it starts and ends with an airport ICAO code so for instance this plan from

http://www.edi-gla.co.uk

 

N0311F210 LEKKO UN872 WOODY/N0274F150/0030

 

has to become this

 

EHAM LEKKO UN872 WOODY EBBR

 

You can even edit it after copying it into ProATC/X. In fact, you only have to copy it from somewhere else and when you go to the option in ProATC/X it already has everything copied, ready to be edited before importing. (That sounded a bit complicated maybe... it's easy though).

 

Nice. I think this copy and paste option will be my default way of creating plans because then I know the plan is quite realistic. The ProATC/X planner is nice too but it just does a random plan without any link to real life operations, so it seems.

Apologies, Flight Sim Commander, which is one of the main flight planning progs that is used

 

Ah of course, I've heard of that but never used it.

 

J van E has covered your question I think but for completeness, ProATCX will import:

 

ICAO/ICAO 2012 and

SquawkBox3/FSINN

 

flightplans directly, plus you can paste text as per J van E's EHAM LEKKO UN872 WOODY EBBR. ProATCX will allocate you a SID to LEKKO and a STAR from WOODY at the appropriate time.

 

It will export to the above plus FSX and FS9 formats and of course there's special provision for PMDG aircraft.

 

As indicated, the authors seem keen to react to requests, so if you want something else, ask.

 

I suppose the obvious one is to import from FSX/FS9 plans as all the other route planning programs out there must be able to output those.....

Well, that's a positive end of 2013 as far as ProATC/X and I are concerned.

 

It's the end of 2013 already? Man! That was fast!

 

Best regards,

Jim

It's the end of 2013 already? Man! That was fast!

 

Best regards,

Jim

 

LOL Time goes by fast but luckily not THAT fast... ^_^

 

I just flew that short flight from EHAM to EBBR and ATC gave me a good SID and a very good STAR plus transition which lined my up pretty nicely for the intercept of the ILS. Everything went very well, I have to say (apart from the wrong runway still being used but let's hope the next version solves that problem). All in all a very good and fun flight and a nice realistic ATC experience. I manually entered the route in the FMC and added the SID and later on the STAR plus transition when I was assigned one and that felt pretty realistic. Also having to contact for start and pushback and getting some basic information provided while lined up on the runway is nice. All in all it's getting better then default FSX ATC in some aspects. B) ^_^

 

I am looking forward to everything the devs have in store for us (I read they will also take care of AI, first in the air but later on the ground too, which would be very nice of course, and also alternates, flightplan in the kneeboard, a more detailed map, etc. etc.: they have a lot of plans so it seems, so in THAT regard I wouldn't mind if 2013 would be over quickly... ^_^

Guys, how's Pro-ATC/X cooperating with AS2012sp2b3 weather? No anomalies?

Are there any plans for Voice recognition or MCE integration?