Hi all,

 

I've been researching ATC addons for a while now and have narrowed the choices down to PF3 or Pro ATC.

 

I'm just wondering if anyone has any useful insight into which of these is best and why. I've read a few threads but most were over a year old and there's very little I could find on comparing these two specifically.

 

Any thoughts?

Been using PROATC for a couple of years now and am generally very pleased with it.  It works good most of the time and with a threatened further update in the offing it will no doubt be even better.  Can't compare it to PF3 as I never used it but.  One things for sure it is much much better than the FSX default.

 

Bob Palmer

I use PF3 with pleasure, voice controlling it via MCE (Multi Crew Experience). The developer is very responsive, in case of problems there are frequent updates.

 

Not so with PROATC/X, there is only one update a year. No intermediate hotfixes, nothing. So if you run into a problem, you might have to wait very long until it gets fixed. I can only use it in "copilot handles everything" mode due to a bug.

Very unpleasant experience so far.

 

Mike

The latest version of Pro ATC should be out shortly, and many issues are fixed with this latest release. I have used voice activated programs both ATC and FS 2 Crew, and found that I quickly got tired of having to wear a headset, having the voice activation misunderstood what I said causing multiple repeats ( and I used to be a radio announcer, so it's not me). Flying in the real world ATC for several decades , Pro ATC is the closest thing that I have found to the real thing, without having to pay $20 a month for a pay ATC program. 

ProATC is the only one I have tried, but it's really good. I recently had a quite complex approach and then a go around. ProATC handled it perfectly according to the approach plate. I was quite impressed.

I don't have PF3 but I do have PFE which is the earler version of PF3 as well as PROATC/X. Out of the 2 I prefer PROATC/X because of the dynamic assignments of SID and STARS and the adherence to their constraints, where PFE and I believe the same with PF3 you set up transitions during preflight, and then once you fly past that point you are basically on your own until yo reach the Final Approach Fix (FAF) where you will be vectored then cleared for the approach. One pro for PFE/3 is you'll have a wider variation in voice packs, while PROATC/X does not have as many and can be inconsistent, especially call signs. Many of these voicepacks are created by users, and as such quality control suffered a little. Here is a sample of both

 

PROATC/X

 

 

PFE

 

Having been trained as an air traffic controller I would say all the addons are not too good yet better than the default. They are more of a flight following and flight planning service

I own ProATC/X but don't use it, since I'm extremely annoyed, that it doesn't use correct ATC callsigns... (SAS is called S.A.S and not Scandinavian for instance)... I know that this depends on the voice pack, but I haven't found any (yet) that matches this correctly - or is really good...

 

Do any of you (who use ProATC/X) have any suggestions of voice packs?

Thank all for the responses so far. I mainly fly GA but often IFR and I think the p3d standard ATC is really bad. Has me changing altitudes at random times and not really vectoring correctly so looking to upgrade this. I like the fact SIDS STARS are included with pro ATC but aren't they also in pf3?

 

 

Having been trained as an air traffic controller I would say all the addons are not too good yet better than the default. They are more of a flight following and flight planning service

 

^

This.

 

I have ProATC and I also tried the full-featured trial version of PF3. They both try hard to please, but all I can say is that for IFR flight, they are better than the default. Not a ringing endorsement.

Take a look at Pilot2ATC

ProATC's  biggest downfall is the lack of pilot voices, about 4 or 5 as I recall. PF3 and PFE before it, has loads. Yes some are electronic but you learn to live with that or delete any annoying ones. Another annoying problem I had with ProATC was that it rejected about one in five of my FSC flightplans for reasons unknown. Latest AIRACS all round.

 

ProATC's  biggest downfall is the lack of pilot voices, about 4 or 5 as I recall. PF3 and PFE before it, has loads. Yes some are electronic but you learn to live with that or delete any annoying ones. Another annoying problem I had with ProATC was that it rejected about one in five of my FSC flightplans for reasons unknown. Latest AIRACS all round.

 

Most of  these issues are fixed in the upcoming update. 

Most of  these issues are fixed in the upcoming update. 

'Most' of these issues Bob?  I am hoping that that is not a definitive statement from a Beta Tester as to the state of the impending update?  If it is - then how would you define 'most'?  Many ProATCX customers on these fora, myself included, have waited (patiently and silently), for a whole year, assuming that 'all' of the issues within the program would have been resolved by now. Is that not the case?

 

A little bit of clarification would be appreciated Bob?

 

Regards,

'Most' of these issues Bob?  I am hoping that that is not a definitive statement from a Beta Tester as to the state of the impending update?  If it is - then how would you define 'most'?  Many ProATCX customers on these fora, myself included, have waited (patiently and silently), for a whole year, assuming that 'all' of the issues within the program would have been resolved by now. Is that not the case?

 

A little bit of clarification would be appreciated Bob?

 

Regards,

 

You will see when the update comes out.