Flight arrival planning

[Gaz 15]

Hi

I'm sorry if this is in the wrong area on Avsim, but I am interested in what happens in the real world when it comes to planning an arrival. 

On the videos I've watched, most of them enter a SID and arrival runway, even before they've got clearance to takeoff from their departing airport! The built-in ATC for P3Dv4 takes you off your flight plan and directs you to the active runway when you get close to the arrival airport, which has always seemed right to me, since only then may you know the active runways, weather, etc. 

I'm thinking of using ProATC, and I'm just worried about how that is different to the P3D flight planner when it comes to this. Will ProATC ignore what was planned and redirect me if the wind direction has changed since I started the plan? 

Thanks, Gaz

[vadriver 247]

gaz

Essentially yes ...... PATC reviews the weather enroute & will (re-) assign an expected arrival / approach to suit weather & the active AI runway in use (provided you setup PATC's options to do so) just before TOD (start of arrival).

It also assigns departure that way, using the weather at the time you ask for flight clearance at the gate..

In both though, like all atc programs, there is the chance the weather may change in that 15-25mins from the gate to takeoff / TOD to touchdown ...... which can be a tad annoying.

Edited July 29, 2018 by vadriver

[Gaz 15]

7 hours ago, vadriver said:

Essentially yes ...... PATC reviews the weather enroute & will (re-) assign an expected arrival / approach to suit weather & the active AI runway in use (provided you setup PATC's options to do so) just before TOD (start of arrival).

Brilliant, it answered my question, and makes sense to me! I really appreciate it! 

Thanks, Gaz

[Guest]

12 hours ago, Gary McCluskey said:

On the videos I've watched, most of them enter a SID and arrival runway, even before they've got clearance to takeoff from their departing airport!

 

8 hours ago, vadriver said:

PATC reviews the weather enroute & will (re-) assign an expected arrival / approach to suit weather & the active AI runway in use (provided you setup PATC's options to do so) just before TOD (start of arrival).

ProATC will not only assign a STAR before TOD but also already while you are still on the ground! It will not give you the expected approach through audio (when you 'talk' with ATC) but even before take off the inflight interface of ProATC will already show you which STAR you could expect depending on current weather over there. So you can already select it on the ground and then activate it (or change it) whenever ATC gives you the final STAR before TOD.

That's the greatest thing about ProATC: you only have to tell the program what your departure and destinaton airport is and it will take care of everything else, including selecting/assigning SID and STAR. It's a lot more convenient and imho realistic than other ATC addons where you often have to take care of every detail of the flight yourself.

[vadriver 247]

20 hours ago, Gary McCluskey said:

On the videos I've watched, most of them enter a SID and arrival runway, even before they've got clearance ....

Gaz

most videos don't show crews using/receiving acars for digital atis & clearances etc. 

8 hours ago, J van E said:

the inflight interface of ProATC will already show you

in effect, the PATC interface is in most ways that acars, giving current metars etc.

often I wish PATC had the option to use that interface in lieu of voice for clearances !