January 31, 20251 yr I'm learning the ATC. Shown below is the ATC session while flying the PMDG 737 in MSFS 2020. The text below appears in a span of less than 2 minutes. I'm currently flying at FL350 heading south in the US. The waypoint mentioned by ATC "HARPR" is not programmed in the FMC. A few questions: 1. I'm at FL350. ATC wants me to descend to FL340 and then climb to FL410. How is this possible? 2. How do I locate the HARPR waypoint? Why does ATC want me to head to 015 when my current heading is 164? 3. Why is radar service terminated? 4. Why is IFR replaced with VFR and how could I possibly go VFR (less than 18,000 feet in the US) in such a short time? Also, I'm still about 200 miles from my destination airport with 3 waypoints to go still showing an altitude of FL350 in the FMC? Edited January 31, 20251 yr by anavsun Added tags
January 31, 20251 yr The default ATC just isn't that great. You can and should ignore contradictory instructions and just fly yourself. If you want nice ATC, you can check out BeyondATC or SayIntentions.AI. I use BATC myself (one time, $30 purchase) and it's really good. 9800X3d, 4090, 64 GB DDR5 6000 RAM, 4 TB NVME (2x2), 4K Ultra + Framegen
January 31, 20251 yr Don't try to understand default ATC. Watch some youtube videos and learn how it's done by real world pilots. Check out King Schools website or their YT videos. Once you understand ATC, then use default for VFR. Then get a copy of BATC for your IFR flights. SI is subscription based. If you don't mind paying for a subscription, that add-on covers both VFR & IFR. You can try it out for a few days. https://www.sayintentions.ai/ MSFS
January 31, 20251 yr There were rumors MS/Asobo would be improving ATC for 2024 but it's not happened yet. BATC is really a fabulous program and is well worth the cost. Noel System: 9900X3D Noctua NH-D15 G2, MSI Pro 650-P WiFi, G.SKILL 64GB (2 x 32GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR5 6000, WD NVMe 2Tb x 1, Sabrent NVMe 2Tb x 1, RTX 4090 FE, Corsair RM1000W PSU, Win11 Home, LG Ultra Curved Gsync Ultimate 3440x1440, Phanteks Enthoo Pro Case, TCA Boeing Edition Yoke & TQ, Cessna Trim Wheel, RTSS Framerate Limiter w/ Front Edge Sync. Aircraft used in MSFS 2024: Fenix A320, Aerosoft CRJ, FBW, WT 787X, I-Fly 737 MAX 8, Citation Longitude.
January 31, 20251 yr The only thing you need to understand about 2024 ATC is that it is the same as in 2020! I'm using it only for background chatter LOL Life time flight sim enthusiast, current airplane owner 172P (past C182F). FAA CP/IR ASEL/AMEL, FI ASELMy System: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D , MSI X870 GAMING PLUS, 64G RAM, ASUS RTX5090, 4T SSDPut my hands on (pic/dual/given)7GCAA, 8KCAB, BE24, BE76, BE35-C33, BE35, C150, C152, C172B/N/P/R/SP, 182F, M20E,M20C, M20J, AT6(SNJ4), PA28-140,PA28-151, PA28-161,PA28-181,PA28RT-201,PA28R-180/201T, PA24-250, PA32-300R, PA44, AC114, YAK-18T, YAK-52, SR22
February 1, 20251 yr Author Follow-up questions about ATC: For VFR, the default ATC is ok? Is BATC still in early access and will be so from 1 to 2 more years? What is push-to-talk? I see BATC mention Traffic in their website. Is Traffic an add-on payware? I already have Just Flight's Traffic. Will BATC work with Just Flight's Traffic? Other than pricing, what's the difference between BATC and SI?
February 1, 20251 yr There's no understanding the default ATC, it's garbage. i7-13700KF, 32gb DDR4 3200, RTX 4080, Win 11, MSFS 2024
February 1, 20251 yr 7 hours ago, anavsun said: Follow-up questions about ATC: For VFR, the default ATC is ok? Is BATC still in early access and will be so from 1 to 2 more years? What is push-to-talk? I see BATC mention Traffic in their website. Is Traffic an add-on payware? I already have Just Flight's Traffic. Will BATC work with Just Flight's Traffic? Other than pricing, what's the difference between BATC and SI? Don't worry about the early access status of BATC. It's not expensive, so at $30 USD it won't set you back much, even if you find that it's not perfect as an early access product. I believe traffic refers to AI traffic. BATC can now control AI traffic, whereas before, it could only control you and all AI traffic was ignored. It's not an add-on, it's supposed to come if you own the $30 version of BATC. PTT or Push To Talk means you press a button on your joystick or keyboard, and what you say in your microphone will be transmitted. It's called PTT because on other ATC networks like VATSIM, you might want to talk to your friends but you don't want what you say to your friends to be transmitted to the ATC controller on VATSIM. Similarly, Beyond ATC has PTT, so that if you push the button, what you say in your microphone will be transmitted to the Beyond ATC controller. If you don't push the button, you can say anything in your microphone and it won't be transmitted to the Beyond ATC controller. Also, if you don't want to use a microphone and speak to the Beyond ATC controller, you don't have to. The Beyond ATC UI provides selections that you can click on, just like you click on the selection for ATC in MSFS 2024. So you can use Beyond ATC just with your mouse and a microphone isn't required at all. Of course, the microphone makes it more realistic. Edited February 1, 20251 yr by abrams_tank i5-12400, RTX 3060 Ti, 32 GB RAM
February 1, 20251 yr To be fair though, while default ATC is bad, it's usually not quite this bad. BATC is also not without its quirks. Just the other day, it had me flip-flopping back and forth between a 010 heading and a 170 heading, then assign multiple heading changes of merely 5 degrees within a short space of time. When it works, it's great, but there are still some kinks to be ironed out. One option I haven't heard mentioned is FSHud, which IIUC may be the best when it comes to adherence to real-life procedures. I haven't tried it myself, though I've been meaning to. I haven't been keeping up - is version 2.0 still in beta or has it been released?
February 1, 20251 yr BATC, FSHUD or maybe SayIntentions ( I don't own SI ) are the only way to go right now... Forget default 😕 Edited February 1, 20251 yr by jcomm Flying gliders since 1980 Flightsimming since 1992 AMD Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, GPU Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB, 1 TB and 500 GB nvme2 SSD drives, HP 27" 60Hz LED monitor @ 1920x1080, T16000, Hotas from old X52 Pro, Saitek Combat Rudder Pro (2010 model)
February 1, 20251 yr 8 hours ago, martinboehme said: One option I haven't heard mentioned is FSHud, which IIUC may be the best when it comes to adherence to real-life procedures. I haven't tried it myself, though I've been meaning to. I haven't been keeping up - is version 2.0 still in beta or has it been released? It has been released, although with FSHud I would never let the term 'beta' put you off, as the beta versions are usually very reliable. Ian Box
February 1, 20251 yr Commercial Member Sayintentions.ai has a new free AI ATC you may want to check out. OpenSky: Free AI ATC AverageJoe
February 1, 20251 yr Author 2 minutes ago, AverageJoe said: Sayintentions.ai has a new free AI ATC you may want to check out. OpenSky: Free AI ATC AverageJoe Thanks. I'll check it out despite it being free ie. you usually get what you pay for with freeware (there are some exceptions of course --Add-on Linker, Little Nav Map, vBazillo's sceneries immediately come to mind).
February 1, 20251 yr I dumped MSFS default ATC long ago! Only good for absolute beginners and often VERY frustrating! My current favorite is SayIntentions which has the best sounding voices and supports both IFR and VFR! Also, I love how responsive the AI is to any changes vs being locked into a set flightplan! Just like real life! Now with a free offering, it’s a no brainer!
February 2, 20251 yr 6 hours ago, sep23 said: I dumped MSFS default ATC long ago! Only good for absolute beginners and often VERY frustrating! My current favorite is SayIntentions which has the best sounding voices and supports both IFR and VFR! Also, I love how responsive the AI is to any changes vs being locked into a set flightplan! Just like real life! Now with a free offering, it’s a no brainer! Do you have the option to click responses versus PTT using voice? Approx cost per month? Noel System: 9900X3D Noctua NH-D15 G2, MSI Pro 650-P WiFi, G.SKILL 64GB (2 x 32GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR5 6000, WD NVMe 2Tb x 1, Sabrent NVMe 2Tb x 1, RTX 4090 FE, Corsair RM1000W PSU, Win11 Home, LG Ultra Curved Gsync Ultimate 3440x1440, Phanteks Enthoo Pro Case, TCA Boeing Edition Yoke & TQ, Cessna Trim Wheel, RTSS Framerate Limiter w/ Front Edge Sync. Aircraft used in MSFS 2024: Fenix A320, Aerosoft CRJ, FBW, WT 787X, I-Fly 737 MAX 8, Citation Longitude.
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