Decent ATC addon?

[Kuragiman 227]

 

 

Regarding PF3:
To get around your issues with STAR waypoints to close to the airport you should not include the STAR waypoints in the flightplan loaded into PF3. Let the STAR entry be your last waypoint. Tick the STAR option in PF3 and PF3 will let you fly your STAR without vectoring you.
 
And are you aware that you can easily control PF3 via voice as well? Take a look here: http://www.avsim.com...lyinsidefsx-vr/

 

And there in PF3 shows it weakness.   It doesn't understand SIDS and STARS truly.  It's an illusion.  That is one of VoxATC's strengths.  It not is aware of them but will assign them to you on the fly.   So that fligth plan you filed the night before with XXX SID departure may not valid anymore when you start flying and VoxATC will reassign you a SID or STAR based on weather conditions which is EPIC.   Not only that but it is capable of calling out the SID and STAR.    PF3 does not.   That seems a bit tedious to have to go into my flight plan .PLN filea nd remove the waypoints I don't need.   I kind of like having my STAR on my flight plan briefing report that SIMBRIEF spits out.   I'll experiment.

 

I would not call that Easy.   Easy is having VOX work right out of the box.   I'd love to see a video demonstrating this DMVAC and PF3 working together.  It seems to me that is a lot of setup.    How does it understand altitudes?  How does it know your callsign?  These are things one uses during every flight and they change.

[01pewterz28 117]

Does Pro ATC over voice control I cannot stand pre-determined selections I prefer to communicate via voice control.

[RALF9636 1,951]

And there in PF3 shows it weakness. It doesn't understand SIDS and STARS truly. It's an illusion.

I cannot disagree. But isn't the whole flightsimming an illusion after all... :wink:

 

And you also are correct that setup takes its time and that there are limitations when using VAC with PF3. I have to alter my VAC-profile to consider the current callsign and flightplan before every flight (it takes less than a minute though). But limitations remain because VAC certainly does not know about altitudes and runways in use for example.

 

Multi Crew Experience also is an alternative - it can interact with PF3. And I think there is a youtube video about MCE and PF3.

 

As you said, "everything has something". Ideal would be a software that had all the features of all the ATC addons together in one place.

[Jarkko 59]

 

 

Ah, ok, I didn't know that ProATC does load its sim plan into the sim WITH SID

 

Yes and no.

 

ProATC can be configured to add SID/STAR waypoints to the default FSX flight plan (even during the flight). This way you can use ProATC even with the default aircraft that do not have AIRAC support.

 

For advanced aircraft, like the Airbuses and the PMDG kind, SIDs and STARs are not exported in the flight plan.

[RaptyrOne 1,404]

After following this thread, took the plunge and purchased Pro-ATC-X yesterday. Installation was easy enough and I already run a subscription to Navigraph AIRAC data which found and updated the ProATCX database without issue.

 

A bit of a learning curve though. I admittedly rushed into a flight in NGX to test it out as I did not have much time on my hands and while I saw the potential, I seemed to fluff it a bit on the flight planning side. I planned with PFPX and then imported that route to NGX and P3D for use in AS2016 and ProATCX. Somehow I ended up not getting any SID / STAR guidance from ATC though. Then of course, getting used to the checklists and co-pilot actions. The co pilot called "gear up" and raised the landing gear on short final, I guess because I had already lowered the gear a short while earlier. Also, while in the parking bay, doing pre start check, the strobe was called for and switched on. This is wrong. Rotating beacon yes, strobe no. But I guess that this was also due to me doing all sorts of things, trying to get to grips with the program, might have had it confused about where I was in the process.

 

Will give it another try tonight but this time I am switching off all co-pilot actions except tuning and responding to COMM radio. A co pilot that can raise the landing gear on short final, while trying to fly an ILS approach in poor vis is not welcome! :-)

 

Another thing I did not like - I was flying into Durban, South Africa, from Johannesburg and all ATC traffic was talking to London - err, that's 10,000km's away! Even P3D's default ATC / AI refer to "Johannesburg".

[Jarkko 59]

Ideal would be a software that had all the features of all the ATC addons together in one place.

 

+1

 

I have been saying this for years. At the moment, there isn't one product that does it all. You have to choose the ATC product that does all the things right that are a must for you.

 

This is also why I (have to) switch between 3 ATC programs depending on the type of flight I'm doing.

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

 

 

+1

I have been saying this for years. At the moment, there isn't on product that does it all. You have to choose the ATC product that does all the things right that are a must for you.

This is also why I (have to) switch between 3 ATC programs depending on the type of flight I'm doing.

 

Probably wise.

 

 

Will give it another try tonight but this time I am switching off all co-pilot actions except tuning and responding to COMM radio. A co pilot that can raise the landing gear on short final, while trying to fly an ILS approach in poor vis is not welcome! :-)

 

It has long puzzled me why an ATC program would want to act as PNF.  Pilot2ATC has some of those features too.  Ah well...as long as you can turn it off.

[Jarkko 59]

took the plunge and purchased Pro-ATC-X yesterday ... A bit of a learning curve though. I admittedly rushed into a flight in NGX to test it out ... Another thing I did not like - I was flying into Durban, South Africa, from Johannesburg and all ATC traffic was talking to London - err, that's 10,000km's away! Even P3D's default ATC / AI refer to "Johannesburg".

 

Just get you up and running faster, you could try copying my options that I've been happy with when flying advanced aircraft's: 

 

As for the co-pilot. It's only meant to work with aircraft that follow the sim's normal autopilot and system signals. It will not work PMDG aircraft. I'm personally extremely happy with FS2Crew co-pilot.

 

As for the Johannesburg incident, you are not hearing ATC talk to AI, you are in fact hearing generic real world ATC chatter. It can be turned disabled if you want. (FWIW if no ATC chatter can be found for your area, ProATC will fallback UK chatter. You can also add your own regional chatter or purchase from 3rd party sources such as http://realatc.net/RealATC.htm)

[Guest]

 

 

A bit of a learning curve though. I admittedly rushed into a flight in NGX to test it out
 

Will give it another try tonight but this time I am switching off all co-pilot actions except tuning and responding to COMM radio.

 

There is a bit of a learning curve indeed but I have to say it is a bit of an odd learning curve. In the past I've had other addons with learning curves and after a while I clearly saw where I went wrong in the beginning: I learned from my mistakes. But with ProATC, very odd, things seem to go wrong in the beginning and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong... so I just kept on using the addon and after a while things started to work. I still don't know what went wrong in the beginning (where I lost contact with ATC or received odd instructions). I am sure it were all pilot's errors but as I said, ProATC has an odd learning curve. Maybe it's better to say it has to grown on you. Keep on using it and you will be fine.

 

Good idea to turn of the CP: personally I have EVERYTHING like that turned off. The ATC part takes some learning, as I just said, and you just don't need all that CP stuff along with it. Keep it simple and basic. Personally I don't like to use any CP software (I also have the CP checklists turned off in my Airbus) because otherwise things get too boring for me.  :wink:

 

I btw also have all chatter disabled and even turned off ATC's contact with AI. It only gets in the way of my own communications. But that's a very personal preference.

[threexgreen 3,139]

Are there any issues with ProATC when using time acceleration during cruise?

 

I planned to buy PFPX as well. Do I actually need it if ProATC has a built in flight planning function too (how extensive is ProATC's flight planning function)?

[Jarkko 59]

Are there any issues with ProATC when using time acceleration during cruise?

 

I planned to buy PFPX as well. Do I actually need it if ProATC has a built in flight planning function too (how extensive is ProATC's flight planning function)?

 

Time acceleration isn't officially supported as it may cause missed waypoints. Some users are using time acceleration, and here's how: Come out of time acceleration waypoint or two before your last enroute waypoint, check that you are on the correct frequency, if ATC isn't tracking to the same waypoint, request direct to the waypoint, the aircraft is flying to.

 

PFPX and ProATC's flight planner are two different things. ProATC's "flight planner" is more like an IFR flight plan entry form with the added possibility of generating a route for you. I personally don't use routes generated by ProATC, because using real world routes gives you better results. Real routes have been validated and optimized by a human, which also makes ProATC work better.

 

For fuel planning, takeoff and landing calculations, route validation, optimal flight level calculation and so on, PFPX is the tool you want (if the aircraft's that you fly are supported by PFPX).

[Breeze 17]

Where is the demo of ProATC/X available at as mentioned in this thread?  Or is there not a trial?

[Jarkko 59]

Where is the demo of ProATC/X available at as mentioned in this thread?  Or is there not a trial?

 

As mentioned in this thread, there is no demo available for ProATC. Youtube videos are the next best thing.

[Breeze 17]

Some talk about a demo and some say there isn't one.  Thanks for the clarification Jarkko.

[vololiberista 205]

Another thing I did not like - I was flying into Durban, South Africa, from Johannesburg and all ATC traffic was talking to London - err, that's 10,000km's away! Even P3D's default ATC / AI refer to "Johannesburg".

I've seen videos of landing at Singapore with chatter in the background of Manchester Airport UK. That is somewhat unrealistic I would say.

I have my AI set to 70% which provides quite a lot of chatter in PF3. Each airline with their respective accent being controlled by chinese with Singaporian accents. That's more acceptable.