FSX-MS My little Pro ATC/X Review

[wanabflyer 53]

I must admit, the one thing lacking when you first jump in and buy this software, is a nice "printable" getting started manual. Had it not been for J van E's little tutorial in the FAQ section of the Pro ATC forum, I would have been fumbling around a lot longer than I did.

 

But that's also what I like about that little community over at the Pro ATC forum, everybody is willing to help out, so the forum is a wealth of knowledge in itself.

 

Regards,

[qqwertz 782]

If this included:

 

1) extracting data from FSX to get airplane performance

2) parsing runway lenghts from an updatable Navdata source

3) automated test for the code

 

and you did this all in one hour, I have to tip my hat off to you! For me it would take at least a day or two off writing tests to see if it all works now and in the future. Even then I would be unsure that it will work with any aircraft available for FSX.

 

To get back to the runway problem, I remember reading from the official forum about a similar problem. Aircraft imported with an earlier version of Pro ATC were giving problems. Re-importing helped other users. At least it might be worth a try.

Hi Jarkko,

 

I wrote my own dispatcher program in php because my VA didn't offer one and because I couldn't find one that did exactly what I wanted. It includes a database of airports and aircraft performance, and of course it took me (much) longer than an hour to do all of this.

 

What I referred to with "one hour" was the writing of a subroutine that picks an airport from a given database by taking into account the available runway length and aircraft t/o run at MTOW.

 

About the ProATC runway problem: I created the Dash 6 data in the latest version of ProATC from scratch because I have these data in my dispatcher. I have also read in the official forum that others had similar problems and that the developer is working on it. I am very much looking forward to the next version.

[re84uk 0]

Can Pro ATC handle GA aircraft or does it only really work with airliners?

 

Anybody?

[gman1986 14]

I'm pretty sure I've seen in some o the tutorial videos that they'd said they'd been testing with them.

[HighTowers 1,434]

This is one of the reasons why it has been sometime since the last update. The next update WILL NOT be released until it is ready, hence the delay since the last one.

 

Also a video will be released BEFORE the actual release itself as it contains LOTS of new features which will push ProATC/X into being the ATC program for flightsim.

 

Stay tuned

 

Sounds exciting. The anticipation builds. but do you have a list of upcoming features? Im guessing one of them is some sort of AI control.

 

What ive been still trying to figure out is how ProATC decides the arrival runway when winds are calm. Airports usually will dictate their usual runway when its winds calm conditions usually under 5 kts. Today I had a pretty successfull flight aside from the altitude restrictions, I landed in KSEA and assigned 34C. However on landing, AI were taking off on 16 rwys.

 

Come on release a teaser video.

 

For those shopping, Ive had RC4 and this is quite a bit better, and will only get better with active development and support. Happy to be a part of the feedback process to further its development.

[Jim Young 2,356]

Anybody?

 

It works but not very well. Personally, even though I'm computer literate, I could not get my Carenardo B200 to work with it but I have read some posts on the forum and some have stated they have it working. It would be nice if this is part of the 'big surprise' with the next update. Just understand it will eventually come so no reason to wait.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[CDR_Shark 0]

Good review. Thanks. I've been sitting on the fence with this Add On, but will probably make the purchase soon based on your post and the comments here.

[Guest]

Anybody?

 

Well, I never use ProATC/X with GA but last weekend, when trying to help out someone with a few (...) problems, I had a look at it and I discovered I can ONLY select Boeing and Airbus planes in the ProATC/X planner... All other brands don't give me selectable planes. So unless I select a Boeing in the planner but fly with a Cessna, I am not able to use ProATC/X for GA right now...

 

But I don't care because I wouldn't want to fly SIDs and STARs with the Legacy. My GA flights are often shorter then a STAR is... ^_^ But even if the flights are longer, I don't want ATC to tell me to stay on route. I always fly with a destination when I fly GA but I want to get there my own way (just wandering around or using VOR or whatever I feel like doing). So for GA I stick with default FSX ATC to announce my departure and so on but that's it: usually I don't use ATC at all.

[Jim Young 2,356]

So unless I select a Boeing in the planner but fly with a Cessna, I am not able to use ProATC/X for GA right now...

 

You can select a Cessna or any type of GA aircraft. You go to Data>Aircrafts>New Aircrafts and, for the manufacturer, select Cessna.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[Guest]

You can select a Cessna or any type of GA aircraft. You go to Data>Aircrafts>New Aircrafts and, for the manufacturer, select Cessna.

 

Best regards,

Jim

 

Ah, so you have to CREATE them yourself...! Didn't know that. Thanks for the heads up: I am sure Howard will like this piece of information too (if the upcoming upgrade solves his problems, that is). Because the Boeing and Airbus planes were all there out of the box, I presumed the other weren't there by mistake...

 

Obviously you have to figure out all the necesssary information about the plane, but I suppose it's of no real importance what you enter there as long as you have the brand and typename right.

[Jim Young 2,356]

but I suppose it's of no real importance what you enter there as long as you have the brand and typename right.

 

Well, that would be nice and maybe that is all you have to do but it does ask for instance, a Cessna, number of engines, cruising speed, cruising altitude, fuel, climb rate, and min runway length. It also has a performance section that looks like you just copy and paste the performance description. So just selecting the name is not going to work as Cessna has single, turbo-props, and jet engines.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[alpha117 73]

Flight: EKCH(Kastrup) to EDDT(Tegal) AirCraft: QW-RJ100

 

Weather: OPUS

ATC: ProATC/X

Co-Pilot: FS Captain

Normal taxi out to active, ATC all the way.

 

I didn't turn on 'anti -ice', wanted to test OPUS new icing feature!!

 

On climb out FS Captain, warned my that there was ice build up, I still didn't do anything!!

 

Then FS captain said I had a 'flame out'!!

 

Checked sure did, engine #4. Selected heading and altitude hold. Carried out 'engine flame out flow'.

 

Confirmed aircraft was stable and then contacted ATC declaring an emergency request return to EKCH.

 

ATC confirm and gave me vectors, which was followed by the aircraft automatically(Heading hold!!!)

 

Landed back at Kastrup, engineers confirm that it was pilot error and I should have turned on anti-ice

 

Just fantastic stuff

 

Proves everything works ProATC/X, OPUS and FS Captain.

 

Now, that's how it should be

 

Thought I would share

[HighTowers 1,434]

Flight: EKCH(Kastrup) to EDDT(Tegal) AirCraft: QW-RJ100

 

Weather: OPUS

ATC: ProATC/X

Co-Pilot: FS Captain

Normal taxi out to active, ATC all the way.

 

I didn't turn on 'anti -ice', wanted to test OPUS new icing feature!!

 

On climb out FS Captain, warned my that there was ice build up, I still didn't do anything!!

 

Then FS captain said I had a 'flame out'!!

 

Checked sure did, engine #4. Selected heading and altitude hold. Carried out 'engine flame out flow'.

 

Confirmed aircraft was stable and then contacted ATC declaring an emergency request return to EKCH.

 

ATC confirm and gave me vectors, which was followed by the aircraft automatically(Heading hold!!!)

 

Landed back at Kastrup, engineers confirm that it was pilot error and I should have turned on anti-ice

 

Just fantastic stuff

 

Proves everything works ProATC/X, OPUS and FS Captain.

 

Now, that's how it should be

 

Thought I would share

Nice. I know the other weather engines have icing as well, but never really experienced detrimental effects. Been through entire cloud layers for a while deliberatly not putting on anti ice, and didnt see anything dramatic happen. 

 

So what do you mean your sharing, but not posting the 1.2 update? Thats one hell of a tease!

[alpha117 73]

Hi Dave

 

Just a few little 'glitches' found on that flight that need fixing. Then hopefully 1.2 will be ready to go.

 

If I was a betting man, Saturday evening(UK)   should, I say again should be good to go

 

 

Stay tuned

[SierraHotel 982]

This is one of the reasons why it has been sometime since the last update. The next update WILL NOT be released until it is ready, hence the delay since the last one.

 

Also a video will be released BEFORE the actual release itself as it contains LOTS of new features which will push ProATC/X into being the ATC program for flightsim.

 

Stay tuned

In the meantime here's one I made earlier