ATC Improvement?

[Guest jshyluk]

There are a lot of great suggestions in here. Many of them cover what I would like to see as well. I personally think that ATC has issues partly due to the MSFS flight planner. If the flight planner were to be improved, then I think the ATC would also improve. A big part of that would be SIDS/STARS, but a lot of that would be having the ATC handle more complicated user-created flightplans. That way, the course you log into your PMDG FMC would be the same one the ATC is following. As it stands, you pretty much need to turn off IFR ATC if you want to fly with an FMC.Although, my biggest beef with ATC is that it still will sometimes give me some crazy vector that just goes hundreds of kilometers off of any reasonable route -- sort of as if the ATC was giving me a quick route past a trouble spot, and then it forgets about me altogether. When I try to get back on the GPS course, the ATC threatens to cut off its services. I'd like to be able to give the ATC a hard-coded nudge that says, "please vector me along this airway", and then it could pick up the flight plan from there, much the same way that you can call up waypoints in the GPS.Another thing I would like to do with ATC is negotiate landing runways and gates well before approach. And finally, in my pie-in-the-sky list of improvements, I would like to hear more voices and more diverse regional accents. I do really like the new FSX ATC dialog box. I think it works better than the old FS9 one. Although voice-recognition would certainly be a thrill, I think the current ATC dialog box is almost as user-friendly as it could possibly get, for a visual display of ATC communication. Jeff ShylukAvsim Product Reviewer

[Guest Big Vern]

I've never had FS ATC vector me off course (it does sometimes fail to heed terrain), though that has happened a few times with RC4.01.

[Geofa 108]

We all have different requests-which shows how difficult it is to keep everyone happy-kind of like the other aspects of the sim!Me-I'd like random changes in clearances and routing which happens all the time in real life-from the time you pick it up on the ground till landing. I'd like the ability to go to a radar controlled airport and ask for a series of practice approaches e.g. 2ils approaches, 1 vor 9, followed by the published hold at petli-that is what I do 50% of the time I fly. I'd like random radar outages where atc calls and changes the clearance to the old manual airways with position reports and full approaches as happens sometimes.When I got my ifr ticket 17 years ago my instructor said in the radar envirnoment world I would probably never see a hold-he is right-I never have been given one (other than me practicing them regularly on my own). I have however been given "S" turns behind someone on the approach and vectors to waste time to allow an aircraft ahead to complete their approach-would be nice to see that.Sids' and Stars-my 1st 13 years of GA ifr flying I only got two. Now I get them quite a bit (fly near a class B airspace now)-only thing is before ever reaching the first waypoint of the Sid/Star atc always issues a vector for the rest of the flight-still haven't done one. I got very excited when I flew to Sarasota at xmas-they gave me a very complicated arrival. Got it all programed into the gps, studied the procedure-and sure enought-10 miles before the first waypoint got vectored in. It would be nice to have this ability though.How about atc screwups?-getting your call sign wrong, forgetting to hand you off to the next sector-giving you the wrong freq. for the next sector or the wrong controller to talk to-happens quite bit.. http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

[RFields5421 1]

FS is programmed to have the user aircraft and AI aircraft fly the same approach and landing process. There are some differences on how the two are 'handled' by the ATC.Creating a separate additional process would add more memory overhead and processer requirements. Right now the AI follow the routes in the XML code with minimal processor requirements.

[Guest jasonaerts]

BEING ABLE TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY TO ATC WOULD BE FABULOUS!!

[Guest drdaru1]

the ability to say callsigns in a real-life way here in the u.s...American Fife-Eighty-Two instead of American five-eight-two

[Guest drdaru1]

tower's on 120.575 a lot of heli ops down here, but yes it's class d now. standard measurements.we've been open since the fall/winter of 2005

[Guest RonB49]

>>One very easy change>>"Cleared for takeoff runway 27R... WINDS 260 AT 9 KNOTS"...>would be nice. Not difficult to code I imagine, and it is>standard practice to read over the wind here in the UK on>takeoff and landing clearences. >>I waited to respond to this post until I had time to confirm this but my FSX with Editvoicepack is doing this very thing; tower provides me with wind direction and speed both when it clears me to land and when it clears me for takeoff. I believe that at least the takeoff wind info appeared after I did my latest Editvoicepack update. I create my own weather themes and generally include a vigorous crosswind element to keep things challenging, so I don't know if this feature would be exhibited if winds were light and/or more nearly aligned with the runway.I've kept waiting to see if anyone else reported this behavior. I can't be the only person who has noticed this.R-

[RFields5421 1]

Where exactly is the tower located on the airport?I'll need to change the tower location and elevation and add a GUID for a default tower which looks closest to the one on the web site.Didn't the FAA used to do airport charts of Galveston?

[Guest WWFII]

>Where exactly is the tower located on the airport?>>I'll need to change the tower location and elevation and add a>GUID for a default tower which looks closest to the one on the>web site.>>Didn't the FAA used to do airport charts of Galveston?The tower is on the south-east side of the airport...I landed there awhile back. I might have a picture of the airfield! Let me look for it, and I'll get right back with ya!Here you go...I'll look for a better image, but you can see the tower just to the left of the runway I'm landing on. My dad took the photo. We are approaching runway 13...http://sdconx.net/download/photos/WayneF/G...on/_MG_1029.jpgHere's another one...a little further away...might help with the placement...http://sdconx.net/download/photos/WayneF/G...on/_MG_1019.jpg

[RFields5421 1]

The 2003 Master Airport Development Plan had two possible tower locations.Those shots show it was built in the "preferred" location. I can put one there.Are they still going to build all the new T-Hangers south and east of the new tower?

[Guest TheAmbler]

Hi Last year, for various reasons, I got some time on the new ATC 360 simulator at Heathrow. Instructors told me to give the wind speed from a readout on the controller's position. Maybe its not something that happens for GA aircraft.

[Guest stew286]

hi all, First improvment would have to be regional accents.If you fly in the states thats great but here in europe mainly the uk atc is totally different.Different calls, q.n.h (altimeter) must be answered plus i agree most airports use stars and sids.flight levels don't start at 18000ft and most airports have reporting points.ATC with french accents etc as all atc calls are made in english unless you make your first call in the local language.All commercial flights use english because of the flight recorder even though the crew may converse in there given language.the climb and descend calls remain the same but departure and approach are quite different.Microsoft used to make addons why not regional atc,same engine just different voice files.Atc centres will normally confirm which star is active for a given approach n.s.e.w.and airway you are on.Vfr is what it says vfr and most controllers at busy airfields will not want to talk to you unless you are transiting there zone.then it will only be type of aicraft where you are and where you are going to exit and eta.I think the improvment should be made more on flight planned flights allowing the pilots to use there fmc's more.Pmdg and level D are more use for atc than a c150 or the twins under king air.I liken the atc more on the sublogic atp,just a branch of the original flightsim.I say more for the heavy jocks less for vfr.stu

[Guest drdaru1]

Here's an idea on how to implement the callsigns:Record the numbers 1-99 in both front- and back-end inflection. record the word hundred...How about that... "Red Rock Two-Eighty-Nine Heavy"And if you wanted to half-a** do the job, you can cut out the inflections, or only record numbers 1-19, 20-90 on the tens.Come on Microsoft you can do it. Actually, I can do it for you, and you can insert the code to let us handle it. Either way, you can imagine how excited I was to hear the callsigns in the 'land the crj' mission on the demo, and how sad I was to hear 'Pacifica one-one-two-three' all over again. :(Help me Obi-Wan, you're my only hope.

[Guest stew286]

also to respond to QNH setting.Miss the qnh and you could be 200ft above or below without you knowing it,especially important in circuits.stu