Best ATC addon today

[mwilk 1,106]

I've been using Pilot 2 ATC for quite a while now. It does what it's supposed to. It's frequently updated and the developer responds quickly to questions or problems. While VOX ATC is a good program, support has become virtually nonexistent. Basically it's now user support in the Avsim forum.

[windycloud 30]

I thank everyone for the input, especially those who wrote in length and great details.  I didn’t quite expect the somewhat diversified votes but it only means there is truly more than one good choice out there.  I’ll have to do some more research.  

[mikced76 57]

In my opinion in theory nothing beats VATIM but you are stuck to regions and times when an where there are controllers available. Pilotedege I Heard is a good alternative. On the "non live" side of things I would recommend VoxATC. The only one that generates and interacts with AI Aircraft. Like someone said above though, you need additional voices. Actually you dont need to get those (Cereproc, Ivona etc) but the default voices are very robotic and it distracts from the illusion 🙂     

[Pete Dowson 558]

17 hours ago, DrumsArt said:

Pilot2Atc and PF3 have their qualities but also their defects (longer to put into service), relative obligation to declare in advance the Sid and Star

That may well be true of PF3, but certainly not Pilot2ATC which is fully aware of SIDs and STARs, and which will assign them dynamically, according to weather, traffic, etc, should you allow it.

Neither Radar Contact nor PF3 are aware of SIDs and STARS in the same way, so if you want to use them you usually have to pre-defined them as part of the plan -- or get them to allow you to do your own thing till you get to the first waypoint (or transition) and once past the last one.

As for "longer to put into service), this really isn't a thing. I fly a ProSim837 cockpit, so ,once set correctly, I've never had to change the flight parameters needed for things like TOC and TOD calculation. For all I know P2A may save these details in a database for each aircraft you fly, but I wouldn't know.

Really all I have to do is press Connect, to connect to P3D, load (or ask it to generate) the Flight Plan (the basic one, not necessarily with SID and STAR included), the Flight Number (if you want a different one from last time) and desired Flight Level (obtained from your planner), and ask it to Validate it, and File it.  All done in a minute or so.

It takes much longer using PFPX and TopCat to generate and distribute the plans (as well as P2A -- one for P3D, one for ProSim, and one for ASP4).

The only drawback with P2A (and VoxATC for that matter) is the cost of adding decent voices. I've built up a collection over a period, usually when there are sales.

Oh, and because I know others will point it out, one of the things with P2A which puts folks off is that it doesn't currently interact with AI. You can have chatter, but it is semi-random, not specifically related to the traffic around you. This will come (Dave is very active in developing and supporting P2A), and at present it doesn't really bother me. It's pretty busy in any case as I like short hops -- mostly not more than an hour between take off and landing, so I'm kept pretty busy. I remember in the days I used Radar Contact often not being able to get a word in because of the chatter! (I like lots of AI traffic)

Pete

 

[mikealpha 266]

11 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

one of the things with P2A which puts folks off is that it doesn't currently interact with AI.

does P2A use European phraseology in the meantime ?. I had tried it a year ago and at that time it didn't.

Mike

[vadriver 248]

25 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

The only drawback with P2A (and VoxATC for that matter) is the cost of adding decent voices. I've built up a collection over a period, usually when there are sales

yes ..... but one's investment in TTS can also be used with other addons such as MCE (imagine the same copilot in 2 addons)

no wait, you can even record callouts & checklists by that same copilot (or several for variety) for your aircraft with TTS voices.

so, 'tis not an investment for vox / p2a alone.

ps ..... microsoft "freebies" can also do the same (flew with anna many a time)

[vadriver 248]

25 minutes ago, mikealpha said:

does P2A use European phraseology

not sure exactly, but you can't as best i recall fly across different FIR's with different baro's / TL's etc.

but please check .... didn't go beyond the trial (too cumbersome compared with ..)

[CFIJose 5,485]

17 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

I tried them all, even beta tested a couple. I only use PF3 now and I think it is the best overall. Free demo too. 

Bob,

Have the sound of the voices been improved?

In the past they sounded too robotic for my taste. I chose to stick with P3D default ATC and Editvoicepack mods.

Jose

[DrumsArt 270]

2 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

That may well be true of PF3, but certainly not Pilot2ATC which is fully aware of SIDs and STARs, and which will assign them dynamically, according to weather, traffic, etc, should you allow it.

Neither Radar Contact nor PF3 are aware of SIDs and STARS in the same way, so if you want to use them you usually have to pre-defined them as part of the plan -- or get them to allow you to do your own thing till you get to the first waypoint (or transition) and once past the last one.

As for "longer to put into service), this really isn't a thing. I fly a ProSim837 cockpit, so ,once set correctly, I've never had to change the flight parameters needed for things like TOC and TOD calculation. For all I know P2A may save these details in a database for each aircraft you fly, but I wouldn't know.

Really all I have to do is press Connect, to connect to P3D, load (or ask it to generate) the Flight Plan (the basic one, not necessarily with SID and STAR included), the Flight Number (if you want a different one from last time) and desired Flight Level (obtained from your planner), and ask it to Validate it, and File it.  All done in a minute or so.

It takes much longer using PFPX and TopCat to generate and distribute the plans (as well as P2A -- one for P3D, one for ProSim, and one for ASP4).

The only drawback with P2A (and VoxATC for that matter) is the cost of adding decent voices. I've built up a collection over a period, usually when there are sales.

Oh, and because I know others will point it out, one of the things with P2A which puts folks off is that it doesn't currently interact with AI. You can have chatter, but it is semi-random, not specifically related to the traffic around you. This will come (Dave is very active in developing and supporting P2A), and at present it doesn't really bother me. It's pretty busy in any case as I like short hops -- mostly not more than an hour between take off and landing, so I'm kept pretty busy. I remember in the days I used Radar Contact often not being able to get a word in because of the chatter! (I like lots of AI traffic)

Pete

 

Hi Pete,

"This may be true for PF3, but it is certainly not true for Pilot2ATC, which is fully aware of SID and STAR, and will affect them dynamically, depending on the weather, traffic, etc., if you allow."

You're right, but the difference is that Vox will (eventually) assign a Sid or Star in real time during the clearance or approach phase.

"As for "longer to put into service", it's really not a thing. I fly a ProSim837 cockpit, so once properly adjusted, I never had to change the flight parameters necessary for things like TOC and TOD calculation."

In your case, it does make sense. Personally I use several types of aircraft (Ga, Tube liner and so...).

"As far as I know, P2A can record these details in a database for each aircraft you fly, but I don't know."

I don't think so, but I could be wrong.

"All I have to do is press Connect, to connect to P3D, load (or ask it to generate) the flight plan (the basic plan, not necessarily with SID and STAR included), the flight number (if you want a different one from the last time) and the desired flight level (obtained from your schedule), and ask it to validate it, and submit it.  It's all done in about a minute."

Again, in your case, it actually makes sense (ProSim837).

"It takes much longer to use PFPX and TopCat to generate and distribute the plans (as well as P2A -- one for P3D, one for ProSim, and one for ASP4)."

I haven't used PFPX for a long time. Here's how I do it:

I prepare a flight plan via Simbrief. I run Simbrief Downloader program (excellent) which will in no time download both a PDF file with the very detailed flight plan + a .pln file in the P3D directory + an FMS file in the right format in the directory of the chosen aircraft (Pmdg, Fslabs, Aerosoft, A2A and so...).

I load the plane, the airport, the flight plan in P3D (or Fsx, which will be automatically loaded in Active Sky).

All I have to do then is to initialize VoxAtc (which will detect the plane I'm using, the taxiways corresponding to the airport and the route of the flight plan by assigning or not a Sid or Star during the approach.

About the approach, if there is no Star, Vox will vector me correctly even in mountainous areas. If there is a Star, very often Vox will assign it to me at the beginning, then before the end of this procedure it will ensure a vectorized approach (as often in real life). The way Vox manages the approaches bluffs me every time (of the 3 other Atc programs I have, Vox on this level is far ahead). From what I have seen, the vectorization of P2Atc seems more than random...But maybe I didn't dig deep enough. Any comment on that?

One last thing that annoys me a bit with P2Atc is the more than 2GB of memory it uses (I know, it's inherent to the program which is both an ATC software + a Flight planner + a flight tracking on a map). I understand also that you use P2Atc on a second computer, which is not my case. If I need flight tracking on a map, I use Navigraph Charts as an accessory.

Don't get me wrong, P2Atc is an excellent program that I've been following since day one (32bit version). Moreover Dave excels in terms of creativity, reactions, speed to respond to any problems encountered!

Btw, I saw that you posted in the VoxAtc forum, did you finally install and try it?

One thing is sure, there are many choices in the Atc programs for everyone to find what they want in relation to their way of flying.

Regards,

Richard

[DrumsArt 270]

10 hours ago, windycloud said:

I thank everyone for the input, especially those who wrote in length and great details.  I didn’t quite expect the somewhat diversified votes but it only means there is truly more than one good choice out there.  I’ll have to do some more research.  

Hi Jason,

If you have time, try them, it's free. Nothing beats that.

Richard

[edpatino 1,964]

13 hours ago, omarsmak30 said:

I use Pro Atc, actually I find it pretty good and I use it for every flight. The only thing I wish it had, if you can import flightplan from simbrief instead of creating the flightplan manually 

You can import flightplans into Pro-ATC/X, although not sure if in different formats than the default *.pln, so no need to enter it manually. From simbrief you can also export in different formats.

Cheers, Ed

[Pete Dowson 558]

6 hours ago, mikealpha said:

does P2A use European phraseology in the meantime ?. I had tried it a year ago and at that time it didn't.

It sounds very correctly European to me, yes. And Dave is European. I have read in the past some feedback to him about the lack of US terminology though. I don't think that's now the case either. However, I only fly in Europe.

When I used Radar Contact it was pretty US based as I recall. I think each product probably does better in its athor's own areas.

4 hours ago, DrumsArt said:

You're right, but the difference is that Vox will (eventually) assign a Sid or Star in real time during the clearance or approach phase.

That's not a difference. That is exactly what Pilot2ATC does! In fact that was one of the main reasons I chose it!

4 hours ago, DrumsArt said:

I haven't used PFPX for a long time. Here's how I do it:

I have looked at SimBrief too, but I stick to PFPX because ProSimUtils (a program working with ProSim's CDU to provide ACARS and other services) then allows me to get all the flight plan details, load sheets etc, on my CDU and print them on my centre console if I choose (I have a small thermal printer for this purpose built -in). The Prosim utility automatically gets the plan details from PFPX and the load sheets and so on from TopCat.

4 hours ago, DrumsArt said:

I saw that you posted in the VoxAtc forum, did you finally install and try it?

No. I'm a bit concerned with VoxATC about how to get any information i need OFF the main P3D PC (and screen) onto my Networked PC and my in-cockpit screens, as I can do automatically with P2A. I need the voice input and output on the Networked PC, not on the P3D PC, because it is that which handles the headset and the overhead speakers.

Pete

 

 

[mikealpha 266]

11 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

It sounds very correctly European to me, yes. And Dave is European. I have read in the past some feedback to him about the lack of US terminology though.

Are you sure ? Hm, that is really weird. I had asked Dave several times and it wasn't very positive regarding European phraseology. E.g. here : 

 

[Pete Dowson 558]

1 hour ago, mikealpha said:

Are you sure ? Hm, that is really weird. I

Sorry. I said it seems pretty good to me, and definitely different to the North American way I had in Radar Contact.  But you are probably much more an expert on phraseology than I. I'm afraid that due to my eye problems (hereditary RP) I never got my license.

Pete

 

 

[AndreNr22 7]

I started with IVAO and than after a year changed to Pilotedge. PE was the best decision I ever made. Can recommend it to anybody!