19 minutes ago, Gate99 said:

Despite its bugs I find the majority of the time it works just fine for me 

Yup, me too. FS ATC perhaps gets a worse rap than it should because on the occasions when it has a 'moment', people tend to remember that. Nobody ever posts about when it works just fine on most occasions.

In truth, the only place it ever really has gone bonkers with me - and even then not always - is when vectoring for an approach into LEAM Almeria over the Sierra Nevada mountain range, when it will very occasionally vector you towards one of those clouds with a granite centre.

7 minutes ago, Armchair Pilot said:

I use the in game ATC nearly all my flights simply because i know im not competent enough to hop into live ATC environments yet after a break from fsx days of vatsimming. One thing you can do as a user to avoid being flopped up and down is simply opening up charts and looking at the minimum constraints on waypoints, the 320 shows this but I am sure most charts have this marked out in navigraph. ATC handles step climbing and basic IFR just fine, but it also comes down to you the user knowing what you are getting yourself into flying blind when the resources are there to assist. 

Honestly, if you can fly your aircraft competently then you are more than competent at being able to do online ATC.   It is not rocket science and after a few sessions it becomes second nature and very enjoyable 

1 minute ago, ErichB said:

Honestly, if you can fly your aircraft competently then you are more than competent at being able to do online ATC.   It is not rocket science and after a few sessions it becomes second nature and very enjoyable 

yeah, more just gotta build up confidence to function in that environment again, it was so immersive and enjoyable but the longer you don't use it, the quicker you lose the rhythm of things. 

Just now, Armchair Pilot said:

yeah, more just gotta build up confidence to function in that environment again, it was so immersive and enjoyable but the longer you don't use it, the quicker you lose the rhythm of things. 

Just add a note to your flight plan saying that you are new. Generally, the online ATC guys are very nice and everyone understands that we all come in at different thresholds.  It’s not real life so mistakes are allowed too. 

1 minute ago, ErichB said:

Just add a note to your flight plan saying that you are new. Generally, the online ATC guys are very nice and everyone understands that we all come in at different thresholds.  It’s not real life so mistakes are allowed too. 

I guarantee you , you will never go back to pushing stupid keyboard keys again 

12 minutes ago, Armchair Pilot said:

yeah, more just gotta build up confidence to function in that environment again, it was so immersive and enjoyable but the longer you don't use it, the quicker you lose the rhythm of things. 

And its just as quick to get the rythms back. Went back to Vatsim after a 10years pause just 2 days ago. Started with patterns on a cessna 152, to refamiliarize myself with evrything. And thats it, im back, it feels so natural and easy. 

9 minutes ago, ErichB said:

I guarantee you , you will never go back to pushing stupid keyboard keys again 

Except the Push To Talk key :W

1 minute ago, leprechaunlive said:

And its just as quick to get the rythms back. Went back to Vatsim after a 10years pause just 2 days ago. Started with patterns on a cessna 152, to refamiliarize myself with evrything. And thats it, im back, it feels so natural and easy. 

I'll have to give it a go soon. Do sim charts allign with VATSIM procedures or should I look into Navigraph?

4 minutes ago, Armchair Pilot said:

I'll have to give it a go soon. Do sim charts allign with VATSIM procedures or should I look into Navigraph?

For my charts, i usually type the ICAO + charts on google and take the most recent ones. Usually, the first 2 or 3 links are from the countries Aviation Authorities so you get real up to date charts 

Maybe it is the kind of flying and airports I hit, but I would easily say that ATC absolutely fails to get me lined up anywhere close to the runway I want roughly 1 in 4 times.  I'm not the kind of person who comes griping every time something goes wrong.  I'm flying mostly short range GA flights into small to medium sized airports with little terrain around (flying a ton around the northeast US) and I regularly simply can't follow ATC after a certain point.  

I wonder if there's just a bunch of bad data out there and if you happen to hit those airports you run into more issues.  

I don't expect default ATC to be perfectly realistic or a replacement for online or commercial add-ons, but FSX would usually get you lined up where you needed to be.  

One thing I notice is that if you have a waypoint in your flight plan very close or right at the airport, the FS2020 ATC will want you to fly the entire plan, where in past sims it would know what within a certain distance of the airport to forget the last point.  Say for example your flight plan has the vor right on the field as the last waypoint before the actual airport, it seems the ATC expects you to cruise to directly over the airport, then suddenly realize it is time to approach now.  

1 minute ago, leprechaunlive said:

For my charts, i usually type the ICAO + charts on google and take the most recent ones. Usually, the first 2 or 3 links are from the countries Aviation Authorities so you get real up to date charts 

was referring more so in the sense if I am handed a STAR will the default navdata currently in sim be proficient enough to utilize. But indeed I do wish PNG charts were easily accessible.

1 minute ago, Armchair Pilot said:

was referring more so in the sense if I am handed a STAR will the default navdata currently in sim be proficient enough to utilize. But indeed I do wish PNG charts were easily accessible.

Never really had any trouble with discrepencies beetween the vastsim navdata, and msfs. There are some for sure, and some people seem to have a lot of troubles with it. But for the flying i do, its pretty acurate. Tell the atc you'r on msfs and you'll be good 🙂

 

1 minute ago, leprechaunlive said:

Never really had any trouble with discrepencies beetween the vastsim navdata, and msfs. There are some for sure, and some people seem to have a lot of troubles with it. But for the flying i do, its pretty acurate. Tell the atc you'r on msfs and you'll be good 🙂

 

telling them I'm on MSFS sounds like I am asking to get a beating after all the turf war I see going on between sims around the traps.

2 hours ago, andyjohnston.net said:

You must be using a different program.

I'm using the "I'm aware of ATC's limitations but still find ways to incorporate it into every flight"- simulator. It's called MSFS. What simulator do you use?

55 minutes ago, kerosene31 said:

One thing I notice is that if you have a waypoint in your flight plan very close or right at the airport, the FS2020 ATC will want you to fly the entire plan, where in past sims it would know what within a certain distance of the airport to forget the last point.  Say for example your flight plan has the vor right on the field as the last waypoint before the actual airport, it seems the ATC expects you to cruise to directly over the airport, then suddenly realize it is time to approach now.  

This is the biggest bug, and it is a significant contributor to the "turnaround" bug that affects people when they load in an approach.

When you load an approach, instead of anchoring your current position and choosing the IAF as your next waypoint, it anchors the IAF from your last waypoint, so it circles you back to your last waypoint before it starts flying the approach.  If that waypoint is 75nm behind you, so be it.

To counter that, you can add a final waypoint to your flight plan, but then ATC won't recognize that you are ready to land until you pass the last waypoint.  

One work around I am testing is to input a Direct TO the IAF as soon as it's given, hopefully that will anchor my aircraft to my current location.  Then when I load the approach, instead of circling to the last waypoint, it will simply circle around to where I activated the Direct To.....  Just a thought.