Pilot2ATC noob , confused about some ATC calls

[BlackBeltMike 2]

Hi guys,

I am on day 8 of a Pilot2ATC trial, so still very new to it, and new to X-Plane 11.  Please forgive noob level questions...

So I have some confusion after watching the P2A tutorial videos vs my experience so far, so I hope somebody can help me understand what I'm doing wrong.  I will add that I have Orbx South England installed.

My flight is a short one from Heathrow EGLL to Lydd (EGMD).  I've created the flight plan in P2A, validated, connected to the sim and filed the flight plan.  P2A navigates me from the parking area to the active runway (09L), and I follow the route exactly as shown on the P2A taxi map.  I've performed this route twice now, and encountered the same problems on both journeys.

In the tutorial video, at some point during taxiing, the pilot is instructed to contact tower, and after reaching the hold short line, is instructed to report when lined up on the runway.  These are missing when I taxi to 09L.  When I arrive at the hold short point, I have to make a manual call "ready for departure".  ATC tells me at this point to switch to tower.  My co-pilot does this, and I call again.  Now ATC tells me to switch to ground, and they tell me to switch to tower.  This loops around and I try to move onto the runway and back off again to trick it into working, which does seem to help, but what did I do wrong to trip it up?

Also, on the tutorial video, there's another radio call from ATC , something like "expect vectors 5 minutes after departure".  I do not hear this when I fly.

Towards the end of the flight, I am receiving some confusing instructions.  Again it's probably me doing something wrong, but the calls are like: "Cessna Four Six Maintain Flight Level Zero Seven Zero  Descend and Maintain Five Thousand feet  QNH is One Zero One Niner ".  What does that instruction mean?

I do have the P2A ATC calls that I copy and pasted into a file, but unsure how to attach it to the forum post.

Everything else seemed to work fine, and I'm impressed with P2A.  I'd just like to understand these issues, thanks!

 

 

[Dave-Pilot2ATC 870]

Mike,

Your problem when departing at RW 09L is likely missing taxiway data.  In the default data, there are actually no taxiways that connect to 09L and no Hold Short points, so it's almost amazing that you got reasonable taxi instructions.

You can fix this by using Taxi Mnt to import the taxiways for EGLL.  See User's Guide for instructions on how to do this.

The "expect xxxxx after departure" is to Expect higher altitude xx minutes after departure.  P2A does not give vectors from Departure to Destination.  Like the real world, it gives you a clearance and expects you to navigate it using your GPS, FMS or flying manually.  You might get vectors to final approach at the destination airport, but not necessarily.

The confusing call you describe might happen if multiple "events" happen at once and ATC gets ahead, or behind, of itself.  In the one you cite, follow the last instruction which is to descend to 5000 ft.

Hope that helps.

Dave

[BlackBeltMike 2]

Hi Dave, 

Thank you for the rapid and helpful reply.  That all makes sense except the missing taxiway data.  Is it missing because of something to do with XP/Orbx scenery or is it that the ATC reads from P2A's own database?  

Would I get a more complete airport taxiway network etc if I import from FSX or is hand-fixing missing parts in Taxi Mnt sufficient?  

Is there an upload/download repository for 'fixed' airport data?

As a programmer myself, I can see the incredible amount of time and effort that has gone into P2A so expect a purchase request from me today or tomorrow.  It's every bit of what I've been looking for to fill the ATC gap in XP.

Regards,

Mike

[Dave-Pilot2ATC 870]

AIRAC data does not include information on taxiways, etc, so P2A has a default database with that information.  However, it is not complete or up to date, so using TaxiMnt, you can import the data from your SIM so that it is not only more up to date, but hopefully more aligned with the data in the SIM.  

In most cases, the import is enough to make the airport flyable.  The manual editing is meant for case where the import does not yield good results.  

Glad you're enjoying the trial.

Dave

[BlackBeltMike 2]

Thanks for replying so quickly with the purchase registration code Dave.  good stuff.

Also I tried hand-editing the EGLL waypoints last night and got a good result, then I found how much better the Import did by itself; everything looked spot on so I kept that.  Everything behaved nicely - still missing the "call when lined up on runway", but maybe I need to tweak my own communications to hear that.

[Dave-Pilot2ATC 870]

You won't get the line up and wait call unless it is needed.  For example, if the runway and final are clear, you will just get cleared for takeoff.

If another aircraft is on the runway, rolling out from a landing, for example, you will get Line Up and Wait, then cleared for takeoff once the other aircraft is clear of active.

There are countries in the world where every takeoff gets an initial line up and wait call, followed by a cleared for takeoff call, but P2A does not operate that way.

Thanks,

Dave