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Ray Proudfoot

25 Flights with Radar Contact 4

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Guest eatkins

I was asked by jd to do some final testing on V4.0 of R/C. Now I have had V3.1 since it came out. I even did my own voice files so I could hear my own voice within FS. Now I thought that R/C could not get any better

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I've been eagerly awaiting RC v4 for over a year. I held off purchasing the older version since I knew the new one would be coming out. I'm glad to hear such a positive first report. A realistic ATC is what will make, for me, FS9 complete. One question: do you use ASV? Does the frame rates get hit if both ASV and RC run together, or does RC just totally displace the default FS ATC? In any case, my credit card will be used on Dec 10. Mike

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I use RC together with ASV for every flight, and the there is minimal frame rate hit. I configured ASV for max 3 cloud layers and 128 bit clouds, and they work great together.System: P4 2.4, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128meg, 1 Gig ram

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Guest JIMJAM

Can this be used as an intellegent replacement for FS9's ATC or is it used in conjunction with?In other words, do you use the default ATC menu for basic commands and then use a special window or commands to access additional commands?And finally,if its menus are they mouse driven or am I going to need all my 10 fingers and 3 page print out to refer to?

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Look at their homepage http://jdtllc.com/ and download the manual for RC v4.It will replace the default ATC and the menus are keyboard driven, but you can assign shortcuts to your joystick.Hope this helps,Pat

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Once your plan is loaded into RC4 and you choose your options you activate assuming ASVe and FS9 are already running and you are parked waiting to go. Make sure that FS9 has caught up with current weather and AI is established.When you start RC a dockable sizable window (Pete Dowson's advdisp) whose position can be saved with a flight fills with RC's text menu which uses keys (that can be mapped by you) and a description for each key. You simply hit the assigned key and the command is carried out. The menu commands change in context so you are not overwhelmed by long lists.RC will give you ATIS and all ATC calls. You have options to interact with FS controlled AI meaning RC will pay attention to AI and only vector them out of your way while calling traffic target alerts to you and them also avoiding runway encroachment and overtake on final, and also reprocess the FS AI chatter and you will here in the background.I have tested a few flights with the release version having advanced from the latest 3.1 to 4.0. It is a IMO a WOW! add-on that totally replaces FS ATC (with relation to you). It is not only for jets but any aircraft that flies under IFR control at any altitude. Version 4 added commands (which I have not tried) to shorten the downwind vector in the pattern for an localizer merge for slower aircraft and other goodies.I use it with ASVe flying all IFR flights (which could be mandatory in VFR VMC situations - another topic) in small GA, charter/commuter twins, regional and medium range jets in many situations. I am a former GA pilot so it was really nice to find this.Since it falls into the category of a global add-on meaning as long as not VFR you use it with any controlled flight, consider the cost spread out in flying multiple weather and aircraft type situations. Highly recommended!!!

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Guest bobsk8

I was curious as to how people that are currently flying on Vatsim now would react to this program. Does anyone know if any of the Beta Testers have Vatsim experience, and what their reaction was to this program...?'''

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Guest eatkins

Mike,I use RC,ASV,Flight Tracker during the flights and have no frame hits that I know of. RC Does replace FS ATC.Hope this helps!

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Guest eatkins

Bob,I have never used Vatsim...Hope someone who has can answer your question. Try the radar Contact forum...here

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Bob,I don't know if any of my fellow testers use VATSIM or equivalent on-line services. I tried on-line flying some years ago when I had a dial-up connection and the relatively primitive software plus the instability of a dial-up 56K connection didn't make for a very pleasant experience. I believe I was responsible for several go-arounds at EGLL when my connection dropped out at a critical point :-(Whilst on-line flying has come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of years it still has inherent disadvantages but also some advantages. Here's how I see the relative merits of each...ON-LINE FLYING.Pros. Interaction with a real human being; Realistic procedures adopted; Other aircraft around you are being 'flown' by real people; the closest thing to the real experience.Cons. Requires you to know a lot of procedures which on top of having to fly your own aircraft can appear daunting; No option to 'pause' your flight; Controllers' skills can be of variable quality; Expensive for dial-up users; Have to switch off Ai traffic resulting in quite sparcely populated airports; Only the major airports have full radar coverage and peak times can be very busy.Radar Contact v4Pros. Full interaction with Clearance, Ground, Tower, Departure, multiple enroute controllers and Approach for any airport in the world. (some of these may merge for smaller airfields); Ability to pause flight; Realistic FAA and non-FAA procedures for the whole world; Emergencies; request higher and lower altitudes; deviate for weather; deviate to alternate; lots of Ai traffic around you with virtually all being called by their correct callsigns and many other features too numerous to list.Cons. Recorded human voices as opposed to real ones although the voice sets in v4 are pretty good; Spacing on finals into congested airports may occasionally cause go-rounds (mainly because of the inherent problems in the FS9 Ai engine).That is a very quick 'n dirty comparison off the top of my head. For the full RCv4 feature list check the website www.jdtllc.comI won't even begin to compare RCv4 to the default ATC in FS9 because it's absolutely dreadful for the serious flyer. It has no concept of transition altitudes! :-(When you consider this version of Radar Contact has been in development for well over a year and has a testing team of 15-20 people you can perhaps grasp how complex it is. Maybe the reason why there isn't a profusion of ATC programs. It's just too complicated to tackle. The development team has a real-world controller (based at Memphis) so you're guaranteed all the correct phraseology for FAA areas and for all the Europeans and the rest of the world we have a British controller who helped enormously with all the non-FAA procedures.Will I be flying on VATSIM? Whilst it's an excellent service I probably won't because I enjoy the freedom that Radar Contact gives me.Hope that helps,


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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Guest bobsk8

>Bob,>>I don't know if any of my fellow testers use VATSIM or>equivalent on-line services. I tried on-line flying some years>ago when I had a dial-up connection and the relatively>primitive software plus the instability of a dial-up 56K>connection didn't make for a very pleasant experience. I>believe I was responsible for several go-arounds at EGLL when>my connection dropped out at a critical point :-(>>Whilst on-line flying has come on leaps and bounds in the last>couple of years it still has inherent disadvantages but also>some advantages. Here's how I see the relative merits of>each...>>ON-LINE FLYING.>>Pros. Interaction with a real human being; Realistic>procedures adopted; Other aircraft around you are being>'flown' by real people; the closest thing to the real>experience.>>Cons. Requires you to know a lot of procedures which on top of>having to fly your own aircraft can appear daunting; No option>to 'pause' your flight; Controllers' skills can be of variable>quality; Expensive for dial-up users; Have to switch off Ai>traffic resulting in quite sparcely populated airports; Only>the major airports have full radar coverage and peak times can>be very busy.>>Radar Contact v4>>Pros. Full interaction with Clearance, Ground, Tower,>Departure, multiple enroute controllers and Approach for any>airport in the world. (some of these may merge for smaller>airfields); Ability to pause flight; Realistic FAA and non-FAA>procedures for the whole world; Emergencies; request higher>and lower altitudes; deviate for weather; deviate to>alternate; lots of Ai traffic around you with virtually all>being called by their correct callsigns and many other>features too numerous to list.>>Cons. Recorded human voices as opposed to real ones although>the voice sets in v4 are pretty good; Spacing on finals into>congested airports may occasionally cause go-rounds (mainly>because of the inherent problems in the FS9 Ai engine).>>That is a very quick 'n dirty comparison off the top of my>head. For the full RCv4 feature list check the website>www.jdtllc.com>>I won't even begin to compare RCv4 to the default ATC in FS9>because it's absolutely dreadful for the serious flyer. It has>no concept of transition altitudes! :-(>>When you consider this version of Radar Contact has been in>development for well over a year and has a testing team of>15-20 people you can perhaps grasp how complex it is. Maybe>the reason why there isn't a profusion of ATC programs. It's>just too complicated to tackle. The development team has a>real-world controller (based at Memphis) so you're guaranteed>all the correct phraseology for FAA areas and for all the>Europeans and the rest of the world we have a British>controller who helped enormously with all the non-FAA>procedures.>>Will I be flying on VATSIM? Whilst it's an excellent service I>probably won't because I enjoy the freedom that Radar Contact>gives me.>>Hope that helps,Thanks for the info Ray. By the way, there is a program that I use when I fly online when no Vatsim ATC is on, like very early in the morning, called "AI Separation". You can download this from the file Library under FS2004 utilities ( fsaisv1.1.zip) It works very well to eliminate go arounds caused by AI , and AI aircraft landing on your wings as you are trying to fly an approach. I don't know if this would help with RC 4 or not........

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Hi Bob,I use AiSmooth - an alternative but equally useful program to help with Ai traffic smoothing. This works very well with RCv4 and I would recommend either to prospective RC users. It's not that RC doesn't do a good job of trying to keep you and other traffic seperated - it does, but FS9 really does have a mind of its own as far as Ai traffic is concerned. RC works hard to keep you seperated whilst on finals but these programs work further out and so help keep the inbounds reasonably spaced. Certainly in all the hours I've been testing v4 I've had remarkably few incidents especially since using AiSmooth and when you consider we use Ultimate Traffic at 100% into airports like KLAX or EGLL that's a pretty good test!Ai aircraft have appalling manners in FS9 especially when taxiing around busy airports. They just decide they're having right of way and pity the poor sod who tries to argue with them! Hopefully FS10 aircraft will have better manners :)Cheers,


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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it's been more like 2.5 years. ray did an outstanding job on the wav editing, and he's probably forgotten those 2003 and 2004 beta years :-)jd

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JD,Good grief! Time flies when you're enjoying yourself, it's all turned into a blur :-)Do they have a icon for a blush? No, so this will have to do instead :-beerchug Thanks for the nice words.Cheers,


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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