Hi there,

I purchased a license yesterday after utilizing the trial period and I think your ATC client has a lot going for it. As someone with RW piloting experience who has flown in the US, I wanted to point out a couple of things I've noticed that I was wondering could be addressed in future versions or that there is already a fix to:

1. Tower assigning altitudes and radar contact-In my IFR flying, I never recall having a tower controller assign a higher altitude. You were immediately sent over to departure who provided that higher altitude. Also, on final when checking in with tower they will say radar contact which isn't necessary as a tower doesn't need to have you on radar to clear you to land.

2. Zig zag vectors on approach-When given vectors to intercept an approach fix, it seems like I am being zig zagged left and right until they finally give me a base turn and then intercept heading to capture the fix. In the real world, ATC would rarely do this and give you maybe a couple of vectors before clearing you for an approach rather than several vectors. Is there a fix for this?

3. Headings being assigned in 1 degree increments-I don't ever recall being given vectors in 1 degree increments. Some SIDS and STARS require you to fly headings in 1 degree increments, but I've never seen this with vectors. Is there a way this could be addressed? The least I've seen is 5 degree increments.

4. When my co pilot is reading back an instruction-Sometimes when co pilot reads back an instruction, the controller will ask him to repeat but then move onto the next instruction. Is there a fix for this?

5. How does Pilot2ATC calculate when to hand off between center and approach/departure? I saw you could specify a radius for these sectors, but I feel like it might be more useful to have altitudes as an option to select instead. For example, I was climbing in the flight levels and I was still on departure frequency.

6. Center is giving you altimeter settings when I am at the flight levels. Is there a setting to change this based on what part of the world the transition altitude is?

Thank you for the great work you do.-Chris

Most if not all of these things are answered in the manual:
 

1. Allowed heading variance (deg)
2. Allowed course deviation (NM)
3. Controller radius for Tower, Departure, Approach

 

It's in the config menu.

Appreciate the suggestions, but I've tinkered with all of these and they haven't fixed any of the issues I mentioned.

Darn.

 

Well, if you have logs or the grammar transcriptions from your ATC "conversation", that might help dave diagnose. Good luck!

Thanks for your observations.  

As a RW pilot myself, I am aware of these "quirks".  Most are due to limitations in the way the program is implemented and will be addressed over time.

I have saved your list and will keep it in mind as the program evolves.

Dave

Thank you for your response. Look forward to seeing future versions.