is there a way to......help

[Guest zimmerbz]

Ok, i hate the default ATC in FS9. It drives me crazy. They have you contacting 3 different approach controls before you get to the airport, no SIDS/STARS, ect...I like online flying, but dont like the fact that there are not too many people flying at once, no traffic. With that being said, I fly on my own, with my own route, SIDS/STARS, approaches and so on. Is there a way to make it so my flight has priority? For example, a plane waiting to t/o will wait for me to land instead of going on the runway? I feel that since I am not doing an ATC flight, these planes dont know im there. How can i get around this?2) When getting the ATIS, they say planes landing and departing 9R and 9L. How do I know which one is being used for t/o and for landing? I had that problem at DFW when they said planes landing and departing 17R 18L 18R 17C....i had no idea what to do. Any help?ThanksBrad

[Guest zimmerbz]

I was flying KORD-KLGA. I tried to ask permission to taxi, departing east for t/o. I got denied saying i need an IFR flight. This makes sense since that would be a real world operation. I ignored it, started to taxi to 9L behind a bunch of United A319's. I finally got lined up, took off and flew ORD1 to GIJ then as filed. Once I got close to LGA, tuned in the ATIS and got 22 as the active. I planned the approach and flew it in no problem, and greased it perfectely. Only problem is, I couldnt contact the LGA tower. They kept saying to contact approach. I didnt want to do that b/c i was affraid i would get vectored all around and take me off course. I dont think MS ATC is good at all. Luckily there was barely no traffic at LGA and I was able to land without a problem. But how would I contact tower to get permission to land if there is a bunch of traffic? Remember, i dont want to file IFR bc I hate the ATC. Is there a way? Also on a side note, I d/l'd LGA AFCAD and got way more gates. I have every US carrier on AI from project ai, but there were only like 4 planes on the ground. What is the problem here? Thanks a lot!

[Guest Ideas]

"Also on a side note, I d/l'd LGA AFCAD and got way more gates. I have every US carrier on AI from project ai, but there were only like 4 planes on the ground. What is the problem here?"You must have flightplans programmed in that are using the airport...

[Guest Stamatis]

Try Radar Contact for ATC. It mixes very nicely with AI traffic and I can assure you it is looong way ahead of default ATC.Stamatis

[bdenni 0]

Your problems are a result of how Microsoft programmed FS to handle ATC. They had to establish a basic set of rules which included a hard defined sector and ATC entity that you should contact when your aircraft is in that sector.Sometimes, your route of flight crosses a corner of one sector and FS/ATC tells you to contact a new controller. In real life, human controllers have a set of operating procedures and make decisions that usually keep you with one controller (who then coordinates your flight through the other controllers sector without a frequency change). To program all of these exceptions would take a lot more code and possibly bog down the program with additional decision making.I don't believe that MS programmed the SIDS and STARS into the ATC component, even though they are available in the GPS. You're flight from KORD to KLGA was denied VFR probably because conditions were not VFR at the time. I've only had one denial from a major airport as a VFR popup requesting landing clearance and I filed an IFR flight plan on the spot (albeit from my departure airport to the destination - direct...No do not put my plane at the starting location) and then received an IFR clearance, approach clearance and landing clearance.I don't believe that using AFCAD or TTools can change this. MS will have to make changes to it's ATC component before it become closer to reality.

[Guest Stamatis]

"In real life, human controllers have a set of operating procedures and make decisions that usually keep you with one controller (who then coordinates your flight through the other controllers sector without a frequency change)."I agree. But there are some "entertaining" real world exceptions, an example of which I will describe:We were approaching the airport of San Sebastian (LESO), in northern Spain. The airport is situated a few meters next to the France/Spain border.We were approaching from the south, but we would land from the north (Rwy 22). During our approach we were handled by San Sebastian Approach control, but as we passed the airport headed towards the north to fly our downwind and base, we were handed to the French Biarritz Approach Control (The airport LFBZ) and then, when established on finals, handed back to San Sebastian Tower !Sometimes the real world ATC beehaves exactly like FS! :-)Stamatis