Hi. I'm finding  ProATC very difficult to understand, but at least now I've managed to get to my destination airport!

The problem now is finding a parking spot. In the past I have used GSX, but in ProATC I find that it gives a gate which seems complicatedly named! I can't find the gate - it's not listed in GSX.

If I ignore it and stick simply to GSX, sometimes it takes me to a gate which is already taken. It leaves me to 2 problems: i can't really taxi into that spot - it doesn't make sense; I can travel THROUGH the AI aircraft which makes no sense to me! 

Is there a way to taxi around the airport to a gate without touching another aircraft, taking into account getting assigned an EMPTY gate?!

Thanks, Gaz

If you have no empty Gate at your destination airport you have to turn down your traffic settings, simple as that. Several others already wrote that.

I never use PATC for Gate assignment, i just use GSX after touchdown.

Did you properly align ProATC/X with your current sim scenery setup? Otherwise, ProATC/X might use another database than what you have in the sim, resulting in different names for the gates.

However, I also end ProATC/X the moment I leave the runway, there is no need for me to have ProATC/X guiding me on ground after arrival. As soon as you left the runway, you can switch to the default ATC, which does a pretty good job in ground control (avoiding crashes with AI) and gate assignments.

Or, you use no ATC at all but only GSX with the risk of colliding with AI traffic.

Hmmm, ProAtc is not very difficult to understand. File a flightplan, e.g. with PFPX, export it, load that file into ProATCX, thats it.

 

Or, without PFPX or similar, simply enter your departue and destination airport and ProATC will generate a route for you.

The gate assignment is automatically, all in all it works relatively good. But you could also take a chart of your destination airport and preselect a gate in ProATCX. You could select several gate options. ProATCX will also keep the gate clear from AI Traffic.

 

ProATCX also "uses" the sim AI Traffic and reacts to it. So you will get the instruction to hold short of the runway if AI Traffic is landing. And AI Traffic stops (and your hear the instruction through ProAtcX to the AI Traffic) if there is any taxi collision. So there is a kind of AI Traffic interaction like with the default ATC.

 

So far I'm really satisfied with ProATCX, however the support is horrible.

Running makerwys is crucial to the operation of ProATC, also if using P3D v4 use Lorby Add On Organizer to export the library file before starting makerwys (don't forget to re-import it afterwards). Regarding airport parking, I always pick my arrival parking spot when I import my flight plan into ProATC, especially when on a through flight ( at that point, I stop PATC and restart it for the new flight, and of course I need to be at the gate I was directed to on arrival).

Regarding support, which I know can sometimes be very patchy on the official forum, we have a great facebook group which can help solve most users problems in the use of PATC, we can't, however, offer any programming solutions should they arise. In it's current iteration ProATC X is really quite stable and offers a sound option to those of us who fly offline, it's also one of the few that allows HOLDS on arrival or after a missed approach, which really adds a lot to it's simulated realism. For those ProATC X users that wish to join the facebook group the link is below.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1571953959750565/

P.S. I forgot to add, for those using GSX, you can now access the parking menu once below FL100, this is great when using in conjunction with ProATC, the other option would be to access the GSX menu once clear of the runway and ask for the gate that you chose when setting PATC up for your flight.

Edited October 12, 20187 yr by SierraHotel
Afterthought

Hi,

i always use ProATC and GSX for parking. About 10nm before landing i look for a free gate on the Airport from the
ProAtc Map, open the GSX Menu and report this to GSX so that would be done already and I do not need to worry
about it anymore.
Also i enter this in Efb2 for the taxiway, so after landing the map on Efb2 shows me automatically the taxiway to
the gate, helpful on big airports.
Of course, in the event of heavy traffic, it may happen that the gate is now occupied by another aircraft,
but in my settings this has never happened to me before.

10 minutes ago, J. Eberhardt said:

Hi,

i always use ProATC and GSX for parking. About 10nm before landing i look for a free gate on the Airport from the
ProAtc Map, open the GSX Menu and report this to GSX so that would be done already and I do not need to worry
about it anymore.
Also i enter this in Efb2 for the taxiway, so after landing the map on Efb2 shows me automatically the taxiway to
the gate, helpful on big airports.
Of course, in the event of heavy traffic, it may happen that the gate is now occupied by another aircraft,
but in my settings this has never happened to me before.

+1

All of the above and also, if all your gate are not full like you keep reporting. Within PROATC you can enter the gate you want, so when you land it tells you to go to that gate, I use that because if am in a EasyJet I want an EasyJet gate. But I don't have my airports full.

Edited October 12, 20187 yr by Nyxx

And how is it ensured that the gate you select that early is not used by an AI aircraft at arrival? By chance? Or is ProATC/X or GSX capable of keeping this gate free?

It's not but my airports are around 20% used and only once did I find my gate used. Not hard to use the one to the side in that case. As long as am parking at one of the real airline's gates am not bothered what number.

2 hours ago, SierraHotel said:

if using P3D v4 use Lorby Add On Organizer to export the library file before starting makerwys

This isn't needed anymore! The latest version of MakeRwys comes with a utility called LorbySceneryExport which is created by the Lorby guy and MakeRwys will use that utlity automatically if needed. So there is no need to install the Add On Organizer just for this and no need to run the Organizer yourself.

The latest zip of MakeRwys contains two exe files: MakeRwys.exe and LorbySceneryExport.exe. Copy them both into the P3D folder and run MakeRwys.exe as admin: that's it!

Hi  Jeroen, Ok, got it, many thanks

Edited October 12, 20187 yr by SierraHotel

This is a very area as far as I am concerned about! It sounds like the best thing to do is what someone suggested about no longer using Proatc after landing, and relying on GSX. The one problem I can think of there is that you will have no way of telling where other aircraft from your airline are. So, my test flight today was to EDDF on a British_Airways A320. GSX can't suggest what gate I should be going to for British_Airways aircraft. I understand in a lot of airports around the world, the airlines are parked together. 

When creating a flight plan for Simbrief, its there a way of telling what the active runway for landings is at the destination at the moment? 

I have zero troubles with using both.  ProATC gives me a gate, I open GSX and choose that gate, taxi there and all is good.  You absolutely DO need to sync your addon scenery with ProATC, as mentioned above though, its not as hard as it sounds.

2 minutes ago, ShawnG said:

You absolutely DO need to sync your addon scenery with ProATC, as mentioned above though, its not as hard as it sounds.

How is that done? 

When I asked Proatc for a parking slot, it gave me some complicated info (such as the terminal I think). When you ask GSX you can usually do it much simpler. How do you match the two bits of information up to the same gate?