Petraeus

Addon Linker has a map so you can see at a glance where they are.

10 seconds, 30 seconds, a minute, five minutes - who knows? It was a bit like pulling the arm on the slot machine and hoping for a winner, only to be disappointed once more. Do I pack it in here, or do I answer the question about Hobbies? OK, one more go - but now it wants to know my favourite Music Genre, because that's absolutely critical information for companies who want to sell me a scenery package. How many more pulls on the arm before some money trickles out, or in other words, I get asked which simulator I use most? Because every answer only nudges me a further 2% along on the little dial. Instead I'll sit in the virtual queue waiting to take off from London Gatwick, but at least I can see how long it is to my turn.

For those living in these Sceptered Isles, in the drop-down list of countries, the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland' is sandwiched between Gabon and Grenada. Having said that, I stopped because of the irrelevant personal questions. Number of people in my household? Other hobbies? Life's too short.

Absolutely. Couldn't agree more. Which is why its use for software is so overblown and pretentious. The more established term in the mainstream software industry is the simple 'usability', which is self-explanatory; or the abbreviated UX (User Experience). In the 80's and 90's, when IBM, Microsoft and Apple were all vying for a slicker user interface, they set up 'Usability Labs', where volunteers would be drafted in to see how they managed with different screen designs, menu structures, icon designs, mice and trackballs etc. Thankfully they were never called 'Quality of Life Laboratories'; a rather sinister title unlikely to attract volunteers. I know the gaming industry has appropriated the term because they think it sounds more impressive than 'usability'. Starbucks thought their mission statement 'To inspire and nurture the human spirit' was more impressive than 'We sell good coffee'. Personal experience is the judge. For me, thirty years off my age would improve my own quality of life, whereas the advertised ATC changes are unlikely to shift that dial.

The use here and and in the flight sim world generally of the term 'Quality of Life' really makes my haemorrhoids twitch. I've been familiar with the expression in the extreme when the 'quality of life' of severely handicapped people or severely brain-damaged babies is being assessed, perhaps with a view to switching off life support or paying large sums in compensation. More generally it describes how people feel about their personal circumstances, their standard of living, health, freedom from danger etc. But to describe user interface improvements, for example one click instead of two, as 'quality of life' improvements, really is self-indulgent and trivialising in the extreme. We should ask the person with Motor Neurone Disease or trying to provide for their family on a semi-flooded island in Bangladesh what they think of the average flight simmer's 'quality of life' for a sense of proportion.

I use P2ATC in VR; we talk to each other.

Flight Finder - FlightAware However, the USA is much better than Europe in providing this information, (And flight plans as well, for that matter.)

Log into your Orbx account and look for the relevant Product Information. Order number is actually shown as 'Transaction ID'.

"Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand." Matt. 13:13

I'm in the UK and an afternoon flyer; I just wish PE could cover all the continental US, with hours to match, then it would be more use to me personally.

..and a decoding of 'SSO', for those not familiar with / never heard of it.

I have in the past used that combination in MSFS, because the native 747 and 787 were hopeless pre-AAU2, and because arguably the Aerowinx 747 is as authentic and 'study level' as it is possible to be - one could spend a lifetime learning its little wrinkles. However, with AAU2, we've now got very plausible big Boeings, not to mention seamlessly integrated with scenery, weather etc.

Unless you are also a beta tester of VoxATC like Kevin, how do you know that it has an updated user interface? Or did you mean 'if they update'...? Surely Pilot2ATC and Pro ATC were released years after FS2004, (which was actually released in 2003!), and they both date from the FSX / P3D era.

Very much so! 😄 As I understand it, FS HUD is a live product in MSFS, but there is also a beta of the next version. My question was, is there any live version of VoxATC for MSFS, or is there just a beta MSFS version at the moment?

But beta only at the moment?