FSX-MS My little Pro ATC/X Review

[HansRoaming 73]

Helen, you might want to have a look at VoxATC as it also has VFR and the selling point for me was that it uses speech recognition so I'm talking to ATC and getting the responses back, I bought it to learn how to live on VATSIM and I'm starting to reply to ATC without having to look at what to read so it's already working.

[tonywob 4,768]

I'll step in here and add that I can't get ProATCX to work with GA planes. Maybe it's the routes I fly, but I was either forgotten about, told I would receive vectors and then left to fly off somewhere forever, or told for no apparent reason to climb to an unreachable altitude. The developers do listen though, and I've given bug reports. But I can sadly say I've never ever completed a successful flight in a GA plane using ProATC.

 

Even with the 737, I did a flight from London to Zurich, and upon reaching Zurich and reaching the IAP, I was told to climb to 10,000 and vectored away from the approach. I was then just left and forgotten about. I'm not sure what happened, but things like this have ruined it for me.

 

With regard to voices. I purchased a voice pack from liveatc.net, and this does add more variety to the background ATC. e.g. However, the voices do get very repetitive, and I'd prefer just to hear aircraft in the sim being vectored, etc. It sounds like this is being implemented.

[Jim Young 2,356]

I was told to climb to 10,000 and vectored away from the approach. I was then just left and forgotten about.

 

That happens occasionally and you can fix it by pulling up the menu and selecting Fly direct to (select a waypoint). That will get you back on course. You most likely missed a waypoint in the ProATC flightplan.

 

I have tried too with the B200 from Carenardo and have failed. I'm not too upset yet as I am having my fun with ProATC and the PMDG737.

 

If you want to hear aircraft being vectored around you during a flight, turn on the default ATC as well as the background ATC and you'll hear aircraft being vectored. That area of ProATC though still needs a lot of work but I'm confident it will get there some day soon.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[Guest]

turn on the default ATC as well as the background ATC and you'll hear aircraft being vectored

 

Why also turn on the background ATC...? I only have default ATC on: only that one reacts to everything around you. With MyTraffic X 5.4 and AI set to 20% I really can't use the additional background ATC chatter...! ^_^

 

And btw although I of course would like ProATC/X to take care of the AI too, I have to say I like the setup as it is now, with default ATC as background ATC: I have set the volume of the default ATC pretty low so when ProATC/X contacts me it's pretty clear someone wants my attention. When ProATC/X will also take care of the AI I am afraid I will miss whatever they say to me because it get's lost in all the ATC talk. I already had that problem with default ATC.

[coma 6]

Hey guys,

 

I am looking for a ATC addon, but my use of flight sim is quite specific and linked to my PPL training...... thus I am looking for something which gives a better representation of US and/or Canadian VFR procedures, for GA.....(maybe some IFR). Everything I have looked at seems geared to the airliners and harcore IFR usage.

 

 

http://pilotedge.net was purpose built for people in your exact situation. Definitely check it out (disclaimer: I'm the founder of that network, but I still maintain that PE is pretty much what you're looking for).

 

Alternatively, there is a no cost option called VATSIM (http://www.vatsim.net) that offers a similar service (with a wider coverage area). However, there are significant differences between the two networks that become quickly apparent if you're working on your real world flight training. Here's a page offering some info on the distinguishing features of PilotEdge: http://www.pilotedge.net/pages/comparison-to-other-networks

 

Use the 'contact' page on our site if you'd like more info, I don't want to hijack this thread any more than I have, however, I wanted to provide a little more detail on your specific question that came about as a result of original post.

[megs8888 20]

I did my first flight with PE the other day on their 2 week trial it's awesome whilst it only covers a certain area in the states it's worth it i reckon.

[qqwertz 770]

Dont' but ProATC yet. It has potential, but it is so buggy that I wouldn't even consider it a beta version at this time. Look at it in 6 month, but at the moment it is just a frustrating experience to have to work around countless errors such as not being able to contact ATC, wrong runway lengths, impossibility to delete waypoints and so on.

 

If you get it running it is very nice, but I have to fight for one hour to get a 50% chance to have a flight going. I'll probably go back to VoxATC for a while.

[Jarkko 59]

Hello!

 

The possibility of voice support got my attention. I currently fly using either Radar Contact or VoxATC. Most of the time I prefer to use VoxATC as it increases my workload heavily during approach phase. I know it's unrealistic to handle both comms and flying in a tubeliner, but that the way I like it

 

Now for a question about Pro ATC:

 

Both of my current ATC programms struggle when flying to LOWI. I end up being vectored into a mountain. This is especially true when approaching from the west (ELMEM arrival). I have an AirHauler base in LOWI so I fly a lot from and to LOWI.

 

How does Pro ACT handle arrivals and to destinations which have high terrain surrounding the airport (is ProATC "aware" of the terrain)? Have has Pro ATC handled you when flying into LOWI (vectored from STAR or full approach)?

 

Thanks for the help!

[HighTowers 1,434]

I havnt done a LOWI approach with P-ATC yet, but the STARs alt restrictions are not being entirely adhered too. Do your own due diligence. A real pilot doesnt just take ATCs word for it all the time, and always checks his charts anyhow to be sure all is correct and it wasnt a misunderstanding or said incorrectly.

 

That being said, There is a Major update coming next week set to fix a number of bugs and issues as well as introduce some new features as stated on the forum. There is no specific list as yet, but a video will be coming to introduce it all.

[Dirk98 354]

At this point I have moved to PFE, which seems to do everything I want ATC to do (Short of actually controlling the AI!) including SIDS and STARS (Although that requires a little bit of setup, but works great!!)

 

In PFE, are SID and STAR predefined for each flight before you launch FSX? Or are they assigned by PFE engine based on the SIDs and STARs you have in the data and subsequently on the current wx conditions supplied by a wx engine (like AS2012 or OpusFSX)? So can you say that you don't know a specific SID or STAR you'll be assigned before you receive the instruction from PFE engine?

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

[qqwertz 770]

How does Pro ACT handle arrivals and to destinations which have high terrain surrounding the airport (is ProATC "aware" of the terrain)? Have has Pro ATC handled you when flying into LOWI (vectored from STAR or full approach)?

Hi Jarkko,

 

ProATC offers the possibility to enter altitudes for waypoints (above, below, at). However, "at altitude" is currently not saved (took me another couple of hours to figure this out). It is also not easy to add your own waypoints to a flight plan. I guess eventually ProATC will be able to handle LOWI and similar approaches, but with the current version you had to spend some time creating the flight plan before it _may_ work.

 

Peter

[Jarkko 59]

Thank you Peter and Dave for the info!

 

(EDIT: Forgot to thank Dave)

Edited March 1, 2013 by jpuustinen

[Dirk98 354]

A few more questions:

 

1) Can ProATC be run on a networked computer?

2) Does ProATC read wx in FSX supplied by different wx engines? Or it is limited now to OpusFSX only?

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

[Kaboki 437]

I just left the default ATC and bought Pro Atc X, but I have a very annoying issue when the controller gives me a handoff to another controller.

After I have confirmed his instructions I switch to the frequency given by the controller.

But on the new frequency I can't get any response from ATC, then I switch back to the frequency I left and then I get contact as if I have never been told to leave this frequency.

So the whole flight Im on the same frequensy that I started with even if the controller have handed me over to other controllers with different frequensys many times.

Anyone else expirienced this problem?

[Guest]

Anyone else expirienced this problem?

 

Not exactly that problem, but I did have various 'switching problems' in the past. Everything was solved after letting the co-pilot do the switching. (Which is the only thing I let the ProATC/X co-pilot do: everything else is done by FS2Crew).