I'm pretty sure the default ATC is trying to kill me with its directions. I'm looking for advice on a good atc program. I fly the 737 ngx pretty much exclusively and also run UT2 & Rex. I am probably going to pick up fs2crew (this looks good would anyone recommend or not recommend it?). I tend to fly ifr. 

Is VATSIM an option? You're restricting yourself a lot if you use an in built or add on ATC program because they cut out a huge amount of real world operations and IMO are a waste of a good payware aircraft's abilities.

Vox - best out there IMO.   Free demo and look for other threads with alternatives.  

 

http://www.voxatc.com/Home.aspx

 

FS2Crew is awesome with the NGX.

Is VATSIM an option? You're restricting yourself a lot if you use an in built or add on ATC program because they cut out a huge amount of real world operations and IMO are a waste of a good payware aircraft's abilities.

I'm still learning, so I do not feel ready for vatsim. Is proatc any good?

 

 

Is proatc any good?

 

There are a lot of discussions in this forum about the good and the bad of ProATC-X.  Personally I enjoy it.  If you like to have a co-pilot who will handle most of your chores and let you check out the scenery in the area, put together a flightplan with SID/STARS, and provide ATC guidance, this is for you.  If you are looking for an ATC program that sees every bit of AI and guides you away from it, then you will want to have the default ATC program running too.  The product is still under development to add a few more features and fix any bugs found.  I have owned it since the minute it was announced it was available and you should have seen it then.  It's 100% better now.

 

Best regards,

Jim

Tried them all.

 

VOX ATC baffled me, but it has its fans. Fair enough.

 

Radar Contact is old and has its limitations but generally works as advertised.

 

PFE is the most immersive and by far tries the hardest to provide a 'full' ATC environment. Hamstrung by its origins as an FS 98 program however and is a chore to set up and use.

 

Pro ATC has potential and is a doddle to set up and use. Biggest gripe for me is chronic lack of voice add ons rendering it rather unrealistic and it gives you really odd ATC instructions. It's still rather buggy at this time. Definitely could be excellent though.

I was hoping to get word on the future of Radar Contact as the 12 hiatus was over a on the 1st of July but the developer hasn't responded yet. Hope to get something potential on Radar Contact 5 soon.

After a lot of reading here and on other forums I finally took the plunge and purchased PRO ATC X. I have to say I was underwhelmed at first. But now getting used to it  I can see it has a lot of potential. But this is where it grabs you. That potential will need to be realized by the community in general for it to reach its full potential. A lot of character can be added by users' own recorded voices. It starts out with only european (german) voices. You need to download other peoples sets to hear different accents. You can also purchase Ralph ZImmerman's sound files for background ATC chatter for the USA to add character to your experience. (I did purchase his work and it does indeed add character to the experience). But taking into account the price is in Euro's it didn't convert well to my NZ Dollars-  it was an expensive experience for me. Do I regret it - not so far.

 

Keep in mind also that it seems geared to tube liners rather than a VFR single engine experience. You can tick a box and file a flight plan using GA to get manual instruction to climb and descend and headings, but it really doesn't work for just a VFR experience with ATC as far as I can tell (Correct me if this is not true). For that you will just have to revert to the default FSX ATC.

 

But, the Forum Moderator and programmer appear proactive and have brought out regular updates adding missing features and fixing bugs. So in a way - it is a live progam  - and you can't get much better than that...

 

Ray

Default ATC is excellent for pure VFR flight in my opinion.

 

 

But, the Forum Moderator and programmer appear proactive and have brought out regular updates adding missing features and fixing bugs. So in a way - it is a live progam - and you can't get much better than that...

 

Well, that was true six months ago but not anymore imho. The dev hardly visits the forum: his last post was from June 28th and the one before that was from May 21st... not exactly proactive I would say, and the moderator posted some 15 to 20 posts last months, but usually only to welcome new members. Promised tutorials, updates and whatever just don't come anymore...

 

I use ProATC/X only with the 737NGX and if you are aware of its shortcomings, it does work fine but it's FAR from finished and perfect... For VFR/GA I use default ATC which is indeed the best for that as Bennett said. Since I haven't flown the 737NGX for a few weeks now, I also haven't used ProATC/X anymore. I do visit the forum every now and then to see if a new update has been released, but nothing...

 

All in all I wouldn't recommend ProATC/X to anyone, considering what it costs and what you get.

J Van E, while I am not defending them, they do say that why they haven't been so proactive in the past few months - admittedly over a month ago. While I cannot totally disagree with your comments,( I should add I am relatively new to the Pro ATC X forum),  - I will continue to trust they will develop it further and as yet, see no condemning reason to despair in that belief. I believe your non recommendation is a tad draconian.

 

Ray

James Bennett, on 06 Jul 2013 - 4:33 PM, said:

Is VATSIM an option? You're restricting yourself a lot if you use an in built or add on ATC program because they cut out a huge amount of real world operations and IMO are a waste of a good payware aircraft's abilities.

By far the best option out there without a doubt - with ONE real BIG exception that has been stated before...extreme lack of coverage. I did my first couple Vatsim flights about a month ago now and it was AWESOME!!! However, I like to fly real airline routes where I don't just pick an origin and destination each time but fly from the last place I landed at to the next destination. I check vatsim before I start my flights but 95% of the time there is next to no coverage on the route I want to fly. Plus, I've been flying a lot of RW routes in Europe lately but I live in the U.S. So, when I'm flying, it's usually between 12a and 6a in Europe so there are never anyone on then. It's a shame that there isn't more ATC because it is just unbelievably great when there is, unfortunately that's few and far between. Unless maybe you don't mind "jumping" around to places that have coverage each time you fly.

 

 

I believe your non recommendation is a tad draconian.

 

Well, I only recommend things that I think are fully worth the money. Simple as that. In its current state ProATC/X isn't worth the very high price (compared with other addons). I could have added that I don't recommend it in its current state and I also could have added that I can't recommend it fully, meaning that for some part the addon works and is fun to use (as I did say) but if someone asks me 'should I buy it?' I wouldn't recommend it without saying it's far from finished and perfect, as I also already said.

 

I don't want to advice people to spend 50 bucks on an add-on that I KNOW isn't as good as it could/should be yet and for which the last minor update has been released two months ago, so... I can't recommend it. I don't call that draconian but honest and fair.  ^_^

J Van E, while I am not defending them, they do say that why they haven't been so proactive in the past few months - admittedly over a month ago. While I cannot totally disagree with your comments,( I should add I am relatively new to the Pro ATC X forum),  - I will continue to trust they will develop it further and as yet, see no condemning reason to despair in that belief. I believe your non recommendation is a tad draconian.

 

Ray

On another forum J van E advised me not to buy it right now, but to wait for some more weeks/months. But I really wanted a new ATC-program that supports the flying of SIDS and STARS, and so bought it anyway. All I can say is that I think he was right in his arguments. I actually don't regret buying it yet, because I still have hope for the future, but now the program isn't all it's advertised to be.

Some things were promised 'coming soon' last year and still haven't been implemented.

 

And the most annoying thing is indeed the lack of communication. If only Alpha117 (dev) posted about every two weeks or so a little status update even if he had not accomplished anything or just some minor things. Now you hear nothing, and that's just not good.

I fully agree with J van E's comments. It is still (after one year!) a unfinished product. What I miss most is the correct interaction with ai traffic.

 

Harry