Hi,

 

I am using RC and I'm very happy with it. You can run it in a networked setup on a 2nd computer and it works with any weather addon. Depending on the weather RC will give you the right rway. You can also choose to fly SID, if you put the SID in your flightplan.

 

RC will not issue a SID or STAR itself, that's about the only downside of RC I can come up with.

 

Good luck!

 

Peter Aertssen

EHAM

 

PS: there is a voice pack for RC available here on avsim. Do a search for meatwater. Then you do have accents, although totally random regardless where you fly.

Well, if you ask me, its vPilot (VATSIM).....

 

a lot of regional accents, somtimes hard to understand - unfortunately not covering all areas of the planet - but hell - at least its as realistic as one could ask for, I was using RC for a long time - but since flying online - never started it again, now since its missing sort of development and is pretty outdated, I didn"t even bother to install it any more.....

 

Go fly online - look for covered areas an go fly there - is best ATC experiance you will get on a simulation.....

I'm also looking for a good ATC add-on with regional accents and think PFE would be the best in this respect, however I found on an other thread here on AVSIM that there are quite some disadvantages of PFE. The biggest issue seems to be a very cumbersome configuration and usage. Before each flight you need to convert and load your flightplan into PFE, then define the departure and arrival runways and manually program the SIDs and STARs, etc. Also PFE seems unable to adapt to changing wind direction at the arrival airport, at least when using a third-party weather engine. These are the reasons why I'm still hesitating to buy it...

 

In general, ATC Add-ons do not seem to be quite popular. Searching for PFE on youtube I could hardly find any videos showing it in action. And it seems there are a couple of ATC add-ons each having their specific advantages but all of them also having some severe disadvantages making them a no-go for me... :unsure:

However, what makes RC so good?

 

Whilst it would be nice to have regional voices relevant to your flight what to me is more important are the correct instructions based on where in the world I am. When it was being developed RC was able to use the experiences of 2 real-world controllers - one US based for FAA procedures and the other UK based who knew ICAO rules.

 

What that means is that you will always hear the correct instruction wherever in the world you fly. And with the limited voice sets it has it does its best to match voice to country.

 

Can other ATC offerings instruct you to contact Kuala Lumpur Centre or Brisbane Centre or do you just get a generic Contact Centre? There are over 3,000 individual recordings for each controller voice in RC. Compare that to others. The pilot voice sets have over 2,000 recordings.

 

RC can also run over a network and is a very stable program. You certainly wouldn't be disappointed if you bought it.

 

I searched YouTube and found a comparison of PFE, Pro-ATCX and RC4.3. This may help you with the voices.

You can also try ProATC.

It works ok for me and is very easy to use. Although there are , like all programs, some issues. 

The developer promised a new version that will released september or october. (no guarantees of course, it is software ) 

I'm also looking for a good ATC add-on with regional accents and think PFE would be the best in this respect, however I found on an other thread here on AVSIM that there are quite some disadvantages of PFE. The biggest issue seems to be a very cumbersome configuration and usage. Before each flight you need to convert and load your flightplan into PFE, then define the departure and arrival runways and manually program the SIDs and STARs, etc. Also PFE seems unable to adapt to changing wind direction at the arrival airport, at least when using a third-party weather engine. These are the reasons why I'm still hesitating to buy it...

 

In general, ATC Add-ons do not seem to be quite popular. Searching for PFE on youtube I could hardly find any videos showing it in action. And it seems there are a couple of ATC add-ons each having their specific advantages but all of them also having some severe disadvantages making them a no-go for me... :unsure:

 

Prepping PFE won't take more than 5 minutes. You only have to define SIDs and STARs if you wanted to. You don't have to define runways and you can fly generic SIDs and STARs without defining them.

 

Who said that it is unable to adopt to changing winds at destination airport? This is not true.

 

As for videos,

 

 

 

 

For me, the ATC program I use, must sound as much like I am flying a real aircraft as as possible, regardless of the accent of the controller/ pilot etc.

 

Not being a RW pilot, I have and still do listen to hours of RW ATC recordings (You Tube etc) and based on that, I have a pretty good idea as to the phraseology and ATC procedures that I should be hearing at the various stages of my flight from Clearance delivery to arrival gate assignment, including unforeseen events such as missed approaches and go- arounds.

 

An ATC program can sound as good as you like, but if that sound is telling you things a RW controller does not say, what's the use of that? Of course the ATC program has to also work as bug free as possible too and with a minimum of work-arounds.

 

Just my preferences.

A few things about RC that has made me switch:

 

1. Work on v.5 has stopped, most likely permanently in the words of the developer (he did seem to leave the door open, but it doesn't look promising).

 

2. The STAR (in particular a very long one) needs to be programmed into the RC route ahead of time. Otherwise, RC will be expecting you to fly directly from your last waypoint in the route to your destination airport and will yell at you if you don't. (Yes, it's rude. Those controllers have a way of making you feel like a real dumbo).

 

3. The crossing restriction on arrival. Hate it! If I'm on my normal descent profile, I have to put it into a dive to make it – always. If I say I can't make it, it yells at me some more and sends me off on a silly excursion.

 

I've moved on to VoxATC: far from perfect, of course, and in many ways falls short as compared to RC, but the developer still updates it from time to time, so I can at least look forward to occasional improvements. And I like that I can talk to it. Of course, the regional voices is something you won't get with it.

 

Cheers!

Pro ATC X

Pro ATC X

 

I don't know if you're being entirely serious with that recommendation given the furore it's attracted during its life.

 

I'll just say this about my experience with it.

 

Firstly, it doesn't use standard ATC language which the author freely admits to.

 

Second, I was instructed to climb to FL160. I levelled off at FL140 to see what would happen. Nothing. It failed to notice I hadn't done as instructed.

 

Third. It's pretty well known that British Airways' callsign is Speedbird but Pro-ATCX referred to my flight as "British Airways".

 

Maybe once the long promised major update has been released and has been received favourably by its customers it can be recommended. I doubt many would do so as things currently stand.

It doesn't seem to me here that any of them are worth a hoot!

It doesn't seem to me here that any of them are worth a hoot!

Don't know if I would go as far as that. There are three pretty well established addons (PFE, RC4 & VOX) that are definitely better than the default. That puts them a bit better than a Hoot I would say.

 

Coupled with a PMDG a/c, VOX gives me a good level of realism.

I have used RC 4 for years and it always has worked well.

 

It´s not the newest application, but it´s really easy to use and just because it´s old, does not mean that it doesn´t live up to todays standards..

Only letdowns are the lack of proper SID/STAR procedures (but easily bypassed) and detailed taxi instructions.

 

I don´t know the other ATC programs, but I doubt that the perfect one exist, but at least they are all probably better than the default FSX ATC (Actually it is not that bad, but still lacking)

 

 

Finn Jacobsen

I don't know if you're being entirely serious with that recommendation given the furore it's attracted during its life.

 

I'll just say this about my experience with it.

 

Firstly, it doesn't use standard ATC language which the author freely admits to.

 

Second, I was instructed to climb to FL160. I levelled off at FL140 to see what would happen. Nothing. It failed to notice I hadn't done as instructed.

 

Third. It's pretty well known that British Airways' callsign is Speedbird but Pro-ATCX referred to my flight as "British Airways".

 

Maybe once the long promised major update has been released and has been received favourably by its customers it can be recommended. I doubt many would do so as things currently stand.

This is the only one I know