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R Hardman

Standalone Full ATC?

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I have been using Pro Flight Emulator (PFE) together with FDC Live Cockpit (FDC) for a number of years now and I can highly recommend them. PFE replaces the default ATC and includes many voice sets with different English accents, taxi guidance system both verbal and visual and many other improvements. FDC acts as a copilot, performing checklists ext. also has cabin crew announcements, again with different accents. You can buy them individualy or together. They have been tweaked to work together.


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I read PFE can control your taxi across active runways to hold until clearance is given to cross. Big plus there. Does it control your movement on taxiways? Big killer is taxing in the J41 only to find a 747 AI just pulled into your path and you either have to zap it or go through it! I read the PFE manual and didn't catch any mention of that issue.

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Hi Richard, yes PFE will control this. It has an option in the program to "Rebuild Data PFE Database" which checks all the airports and runways in your FSX.


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And the way climbs are managed is poor too (default ATC waits until you are almost levelling out at each climb altitude before giving the next climb clearance - very annoying!).

This is my biggest pet peeve about FSX ATC. If there was a way to force it to give the next altitude clearance 1000ft before instead of 200ft before a level off I'd be happy. So tired of having to catch up to VNAV path because ATC gets me off of it. Especially in descent.

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I read PFE can control your taxi across active runways to hold until clearance is given to cross. Big plus there. Does it control your movement on taxiways? Big killer is taxing in the J41 only to find a 747 AI just pulled into your path and you either have to zap it or go through it! I read the PFE manual and didn't catch any mention of that issue.

Just to clarify, PFE does control your ground movements, It will assign runway for departure, Gates or parking on arrival Note it doesn't consider assigned airlines of gates, like default ATC can so you may not like the gate it assigns you. That said there is an option prior to flight that you can force an assignment of a gate. There may be an AI plane occupying it when you arrive there. What I usually do is use the closest open gate at that point using GSX. If your path takes you across a runway it will clear you to proceed. In some cases though you won't get a clearance. In this case, you can hold short at the line, and request clearance by pressing the 0 key. Note though, like most ATC programs, PFE does not actually control the AI aircraft, just interact with it to give verbal commands. so you still may run into situations where AI will get in your way. All that said overall I would highly recommend PFE also, especially if you buy the voice pack, that plus the free voice pack on their forum, gives you 99 voices to choose from, with regional accents. Most sound very good, but you may find a couple you may think needs improvement. In addition to the normal ATC features, it can handle emergencies, Oceanic Positioning reports via SELCAL,  and it has 3 methods of ground taxi guidance. One it has a gauge you can set up on your aircraft, which will give you an arrow which way to turn on a taxiway route. Two it can takeover the heading bug during taxi to direct you. Note this feature doesn't work on complex aircraft like PMDG, because of the custom systems they use. The best way though is by voice instructions from a virtual FO.  Another nice feature, is when you fly without AI present (For performance reasons, whatever). Most AI programs use canned AI recordings to simulate air traffic in this case, PFE will actually create and control  PFE  virtual AI. This has the benefit of having a seamless ATC session with air traffic using the same controller as you are, giving you the impression that there is air traffic when there is none, especially in the air.  Here's a flight I did using it. It also demonstrates the Oceanic communication as well.

 

This is my biggest pet peeve about FSX ATC. If there was a way to force it to give the next altitude clearance 1000ft before instead of 200ft before a level off I'd be happy. So tired of having to catch up to VNAV path because ATC gets me off of it. Especially in descent.

What I usually do to get a smooth climb is set my MCP altitude about 1 or 2 thousand ft higher (or lower) then assigned, since the default ATC will usually give you clearance about 300ft above or below this gives enugh time to increase/decrease your mcp alt without VNAV disengaging, and is low enough to get back down if you don't get clearance right away, usually when ATC is too busy with AI aircraft.


Thanks

Tom

My Youtube Videos!

http://www.youtube.com/user/tf51d

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Tom, bit the bullet and tried PFE. After a lengthy install with a directory structure bugs (ADV verses Adv subdirectory) got it working. 1st Flight was from an uncontrolled field. Strike one. Could not get past "Open flight plan" when contacting ATC. Then tried it from CYYC. Made it all the way from clearance to taxi (like the verbal directions) to the assigned runway, Was told to line up and hold... then line up and hold over and over and over and that never stopped. Strike two. Oh well, we can only dream someday we who need to fly quietly and not disturb the family will have a workable ATC. Thanks everyone for the advice.

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Tom, bit the bullet and tried PFE. After a lengthy install with a directory structure bugs (ADV verses Adv subdirectory) got it working. 1st Flight was from an uncontrolled field. Strike one. Could not get past "Open flight plan" when contacting ATC. Then tried it from CYYC. Made it all the way from clearance to taxi (like the verbal directions) to the assigned runway, Was told to line up and hold... then line up and hold over and over and over and that never stopped. Strike two. Oh well, we can only dream someday we who need to fly quietly and not disturb the family will have a workable ATC. Thanks everyone for the advice.

Did you do the MakeRnwy and rebuild PFE DB step? Never had or heard of an issue like that in PFE before. Sorry it didn't work out for you.


Thanks

Tom

My Youtube Videos!

http://www.youtube.com/user/tf51d

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In the first part, I believe he was predicting that this thread will go downhill and eventually lead to arguing and being locked. In the second part, he was stating that he thinks Radar Contact is the best ATC program for IFR flights.

Exactly.

 

Major advantages over default ATC:

- Different sounding voices than default. You can do something else on longer flights and just have to listen for a different voice to grab your focus instead of actively monitoring FSX (ATC window and callsign). I've lost count of the times I've used this advantage to clean my apartment or cook or do something on my laptop during longer flights.

- Virtual F/O, i.e. autoreadback

- Better approach vectoring

- Less handoffs

- Flight critique

 

Major drawbacks over default ATC:

- Limited amount of available callsigns

 

 

 

Please can we avoid this twitter type hashtag rubbish on this forum.

 

I have no idea, like the other poster what you are on about.

#No

 

See Buziel-411's post.


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My add-ons from my FS9/FSX days

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Its incredible that after 10 years we can't use a stable and complete ATC software. I can't believe why there is no interest in this kind of addon.

 

- RC4 imho is the best, but discontinued and with old voices

- VoxATC is good, but if you want decent voice you have to purchase new nuance and are limited to 3 or 4 voices

- PFE is quite old, and similar to RC4, but less flexible, ever in imho

- PATCX is good in the concept but as you reported a bit bugged

 

I'd like to have a complete and stable software, in PMDG style, because ATC is an essential part of our hobby and can't always fly online.


Riccardo

OS: Windows 10-64 bit, CPU: i7-7700K @4.20 GHz, GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 G1 8GB GDDR5, RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR4 32GB 3000MHz, MB: MSI Z270

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Its incredible that after 10 years we can't use a stable and complete ATC software. I can't believe why there is no interest in this kind of addon.

 

- RC4 imho is the best, but discontinued and with old voices

- VoxATC is good, but if you want decent voice you have to purchase new nuance and are limited to 3 or 4 voices

- PFE is quite old, and similar to RC4, but less flexible, ever in imho

- PATCX is good in the concept but as you reported a bit bugged

 

I'd like to have a complete and stable software, in PMDG style, because ATC is an essential part of our hobby and can't always fly online.

 

Where do you get the idea that you can only use 3 or 4 voices?    I have 10 voices loaded on my VoxATC.  I use 6 for ATC and 4 for pilots and have no issues.   Of course.. I have 32 gigs of RAM too.  Had to put that RAM to use somehow since flight simulators won't!    I consider VoxATC one of the very best.   Yeah, it can cost you a penny since each voice will run you $45 unless you buy bundle packages but it does everything that an ATC is suppose to do and even drives my AI traffic engine so no need for an AI Traffic add-on.   The only real down side is you have to talk which is not good if you need to be quiet and the extreme levels of stupid handoffs to ARTCC's.


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Captain K-Man FlightBlog Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCulqmz0zmIMuAzJvDAZPkWQ  //  Streaming on YouTube most Wednesdays and Fridays @ 6pm CST

Brian Navy

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- PFE is quite old, and similar to RC4, but less flexible, ever in imho

 

PFE less flexible? Can RC4 give you taxi instructions to a runway? Can it even assign a gate on arrival? Does it have any form of taxi guidance? Does RC4 have 99 separate recorded voices to choose from? Does RC4 handle Oceanic positioning reports complete with SELCAL calls? Other features are pretty much a match for what RC4 does, emergencies etc.


Thanks

Tom

My Youtube Videos!

http://www.youtube.com/user/tf51d

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@Brian: I think Vox is a great addon, its strenght point is tts phrase, but its also its own limitation, you said! 32 gig of RAM and costs for each voice. Unless you want to use MS voice, orrible! For the rest I tried the demo and it's a very good addon. The downside is the fact you have obviously to TALK.

 

@Tom: RC5 was intended to introduce the feature you talk about, taxi guidance and gate position, but as you know RC5, for the moment, is suspended. However RC4 is, for me, one of the best ATC addon at the moment.

 

What I can'tunderstand is why none structured softwarehouse has yet started to develop and ATC addon. Maybe missing SDK and developers has to do a workaround? Is so difficult to work on ATC addom, maybe yes. Why we can have detailed aircrafts but not detailed and structured ATC?

 

Seem strange, but don't you agree with me that best ATC voices is still default ones? (Apart from Vox, but those sound too much real and clear to be atc voices).


Riccardo

OS: Windows 10-64 bit, CPU: i7-7700K @4.20 GHz, GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 G1 8GB GDDR5, RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR4 32GB 3000MHz, MB: MSI Z270

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What I can'tunderstand is why none structured softwarehouse has yet started to develop and ATC addon.

 

It's likely that no "structured softwarehouse" thinks it's worthwhile developing one commercially?

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What I can'tunderstand is why none structured softwarehouse has yet started to develop an ATC addon.

 

The biggest problem encountered by John Dekker - author of Radar Contact - was trying to take control of Ai aircraft. FS would constantly try to regain control. That's why Ai will occasionally taxi right through your aircraft and cut across you during taxi.

 

It's unlikely that problem can ever be resolved. Beside that an ATC program is probably the most complex to write and won't appeal to the casual flier. Hence Gerry's point that it's probably not commercially worthwhile.


Ray (Cheshire, England).
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