Thanks Bob. I'm curious why the distance from the last waypoint would be the trigger and not your distance from the arrival airport. Couldn't that create problems?

 

 

The distance varies depending on how far the last waypoint is from the airport. For instance, if I am flying into Detroit, and my flight plan's last waypoint is 80 miles from the airport, approach will contact me before I get to the last waypoint. It has to, because I have to enter the approach into my FMC, before reaching the end of my flight plans list of waypoints. I typically fly around 14 VA flights per week, all over North America and Europe and have had no problems with arrival at the destination as far as stars, vectors, approaches, etc. 

Thanks Bob. I'm curious why the distance from the last waypoint would be the trigger and not your distance from the arrival airport. Couldn't that create problems?

In PF3 Ray you are told to contact approach around about the wypt before the start of the STAR.

Very interesting thread.... I decided to install the Demo version and have a go. It is quite good, I enjoy it....

 

I have just published a video in which I review PF3. I hope you find it useful and informative. It does not cover everything, but it gives you a good idea of what PF3 is about.

 

Here is the link below.... Enjoy!

 Nice video well done. Pre recorded voices are difficult to adjust when it becomes necessary to change the terminology so sometimes a compromise has to be made. Some of the voices date right back to PF2000. The owners might not even be with us any more!!

As regards clearance to cross the rwy I believe you should have stopped and that would trigger the call. PF3 does issue that clearance. Try it again and if you still don't get clearance then bring it up in the PF3 forum. Dave will then probably ask you to send the log files.

I had hoped the demo would have gone with pilot voice 15 which is the one I used in my video link in my sig if you haven't already watched it!!

I know. What I meant to ask was if ATC will give you clearance 'at random' to a higher altitude in the middle of a SID or is it either 'follow the procedure to the end' or 'we don't care what you do, see you at the initial alt'. In real life a pilot might be cleared unexpectedly to deviate from the SID because of circumstances: does that happen in PF3. 

unfortunately , it cant as PF3 does not have SID and STAR database. That is the reason i wish PF3 could read AIRAC database. It will make it lot more realistic with some surprise element.

One can not pre decide SID or STAR and incorporate its waypoints flight plans as if runway change occurs by the time you are ready to taxi, those waypoints are of no use.

Bob / Volo,

 

Thanks for that. Because PF3 has no STAR info will you just be given vectors and descents for the approach and landing including an intercept heading for the localiser (assuming there is an ILS)?

 

Assuming you are do you have the option of accepting those instructions or alternatively, flying the STAR all the way in with PF3 only making contact when you're x miles out for landing clearance?

unfortunately , it cant as PF3 does not have SID and STAR database. That is the reason i wish PF3 could read AIRAC database. It will make it lot more realistic with some surprise element.

One can not pre decide SID or STAR and incorporate its waypoints flight plans as if runway change occurs by the time you are ready to taxi, those waypoints are of no use.

Well it does give me clearance to a higher altitude sometimes.

Bob / Volo,

 

Thanks for that. Because PF3 has no STAR info will you just be given vectors and descents for the approach and landing including an intercept heading for the localiser (assuming there is an ILS)?

 

Assuming you are do you have the option of accepting those instructions or alternatively, flying the STAR all the way in with PF3 only making contact when you're x miles out for landing clearance?

Ray,

In the video above see fnav77's post above. He asked for vectors instead during flight.

I was looking at some of the videos for Pilot 2 ATC. The sound on this program is the best I have heard so far.   Not robotic at all. Can't wait to they release version 2 to see what it is like. 

unfortunately , it cant as PF3 does not have SID and STAR database. That is the reason i wish PF3 could read AIRAC database. It will make it lot more realistic with some surprise element.

One can not pre decide SID or STAR and incorporate its waypoints flight plans as if runway change occurs by the time you are ready to taxi, those waypoints are of no use.

 

Exactly. And that's why imho PF3 isn't the ATC add-on to get. The developer should have implemented support for navdata like Navigraph instead of adding screens to add that data yourself. Odd choice. 

That would be the Microsoft TTS voices.  The same that VOXATC uses I believe.  You can purchase more but they cost more than the program I've heard.  Windows 7 comes with one or two voices I think.  Not sure about 8 or 10.  

 

Clive may be able to chime in here with better info.  If he does I can find nothing on the website or videos of updatable navdata;  does it use AIRAC data or no?

 

According to their FAQ for the latest version (not 2.0)

 

Does the product read any navdata with regards to SIDS, STARS and altitude restrictions?

Pilot2ATC relies on your flight plan for altitude and nav info. You can import flight plans from pln or fms files from many planning sources or from FSX, P3D or X-Plane directly. If using SIDS and STARS, just import the same flight plan you are using to load your FMS and you'll be good to go.

 Nice video well done. Pre recorded voices are difficult to adjust when it becomes necessary to change the terminology so sometimes a compromise has to be made. Some of the voices date right back to PF2000. The owners might not even be with us any more!!

As regards clearance to cross the rwy I believe you should have stopped and that would trigger the call. PF3 does issue that clearance.

Thanks for that, I am glad you liked it.

I didn't know PF3 would give me the clearance to cross as the taxi clearance only mentioned taxiways. It is good to know that it does give us clearance to cross. Very nice indeed!

I was looking at some of the videos for Pilot 2 ATC. The sound on this program is the best I have heard so far.   Not robotic at all. Can't wait to they release version 2 to see what it is like. 

There are v2 video's online already. Sounds a lot better than PF3, yes, but still robotic, or maybe synthesized is a better word. It's a different kind of robotic. :wink: And I think the amount of voices is limited. Besides, as Sean already said, Pilot2ATC doesn't seem to support navdata so that's the end of the story for me and probably you too. And, quite important for me, you need to actually TALK to ATC: that's a no go in my situation. So that's another one I can cross of my list.  :wink:

There are v2 video's online already. Sounds a lot better than PF3, yes, but still robotic, or maybe synthesized is a better word. It's a different kind of robotic. :wink: And I think the amount of voices is limited. Besides, as Sean already said, Pilot2ATC doesn't seem to support navdata so that's the end of the story for me and probably you too. And, quite important for me, you need to actually TALK to ATC: that's a no go in my situation. So that's another one I can cross of my list.  :wink:

Jeroen,

 

I think VOXATC is what you are looking for it uses navdata and you don't have to talk, you can have the FO do it for you.

As regards clearance to cross the rwy I believe you should have stopped and that would trigger the call. PF3 does issue that clearance.

 

In PFE you got clearance at about 50% of the time, When you didn't you would stop at the holding point and request to cross. Some times you would be cleared, sometimes asked to hold short for a time then cleared. Note this was random, not actual AI awareness.

Jeroen,

 

I think VOXATC is what you are looking for it uses navdata and you don't have to talk, you can have the FO do it for you.

 

Thanks for the tip but the fact that actual talking is problematic doesn't mean I want the FO to do everything.  :wink: I want to do it all myself so I simply need an ATC add-on that works with the keyboard, like default ATC and PF3.

 

BTW Pilot2ATC does seem to support SIDs and STARs, it can add the recommended ones automatically, but it's not clear to me where that data is coming from.

Jeroen,

 

I think VOXATC is what you are looking for it uses navdata and you don't have to talk, you can have the FO do it for you.

I keep reading this, yet VOXATC is not listed in Navigraph update list. What format do you update it with? The only ATC program I see that Navigraph supports is PROATC-X.

I keep reading this, yet VOXATC is not listed in Navigraph update list. What format do you update it with? The only ATC program I see that Navigraph supports is PROATC-X.

Level-d

 

It has a demo limited to a week