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Jarkko

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Everything posted by Jarkko

  1. ATC program handling IFR flight should be aware of the SIDs/STARs/approaches/transitions available at a given airport. ATC should also be able to know taxiways available at a given airport. I imagine RC4 employs such a system.
  2. At the current moment, the percentage of the real world IFR flights conducted by a Concorde is around 0%. This is why I have to say I disagree. Nice to have: yes, must have: not in my opinion.
  3. Sorry about that, I forgot to mention that I only use it with vanilla FSX. I use TOPCAT in two phases, during planning and during flight (after departure clearance and after approach clearance). During planning, I use PFPX's takeoff and landing calculations (it uses TOPCAT in the background). I will check that I can takeoff and land safely with the weights and weather for a given flight. I then include this data in the Operational Flight Plan generated by PFPX for future reference. After I am sitting in the aircraft and ready to fly, I export my PFPX data to TOPCAT (there is a dedicated export function in PFPX). I then as for my departure clearance from ATC. I then know what runway ATC wants me to use. What I do next, is input the runway in use and the current weather into TOPCAT just to double check that I will still be able to takeoff from the runway I was told to use. If the runway is too short, I will then check which runway would be more suitable and will then ask ATC if I would be use a more suitable runway. (If I'm looking at a very long taxi, I will also check if I would be able to do an intersection takeoff, just to save some time during taxi). Same thing hold true for landing. I will check if landing is doable or not. I will also check which auto-brake setting is needed for the landing. As for the TOPCAT A320 profiles, I'm not sure if this was built in or if I created it manually, but here you go (I don't use TOPCAT for loading payload or fuel, I use the Aerosoft's fuel/payload manager for that):
  4. Here is the config I use for A320/B737. Not that different to the config you are using: My MD11 config (comparable to 777?) is almost the same. Takeoff runway length set to 6500ft, landing runway set to 5000ft. I have generic placeholder values in the v-speeds because I don't use the ProATC's co-pilot for announcing the speeds.
  5. I have been burned too many times by company routes that are not correct. PFPX started including mysterious FAP waypoints. Another program included SID/STAR waypoints without asking -> causing a havoc if the SID/STAR doesn't match the weather. Also PMDG's MD11 had a bug where having more than 256 company routes in the flight plans folder crashed the sim. This is why I feel safer typing in the route manually I don't think I have the default profile. I have created my own that works both with A320 and the NGX. I will post it here tomorrow if you don't mind (don't have access to my ProATC computer at the moment).
  6. I use the following programs in the order I start them up when doing a flight: ASN, PFPX, AS A320 (fsx), GSX, FS2Crew, ProATC, EFB, FS FlightKeeper, TOPCAT 1. I start ActiveSky first as it will provide weather data for my addons (that do not read NOAA weather) 2. I create a flight plan with PFPX. I import a route from either flightaware or eurofpl. If no route is found, I let PFPX generate the route 3. I setup weights as per the OFP from PFPX and start the sim 4. When I'm in the aircraft, I will get GSX and FS2Crew started with their actions as FS2Crew pre-flight events take 30 minutes to be done 5. While FS2Crew pre-flight events are on the way, I create a ProATC flight plan based on the PFPX flight plan. I use the copy paste method, where I do not include the SIDs/STARs 6. Then I start ProATC and get my departure clearance. I then compare the clearance SID with the one PFPX flight plan has. I enter both of these to TOPCAT and see which I want to use. Normally I use ProATC's SID but sometimes PFPX has a better one selected and I will request PFPX SID from ProATC. (FWIW I don't export flight plans to the aircraft. I always enter the route manually) 7. I the setup EFB flight plan using copy/paste. 8. Lastly I start FS Flight Keeper. All of this can be seen on my latest video. The description has shortcuts to my ProATC options (that work in tandem with FS2Crew), creating ProATC flight plan from PFPX flight plan and so on: https://youtu.be/2GtYTNoHkt0?t=1m12s As for the questions: In the video I linked, I managed to explain it completely wrong (the danger of live streams). If you enable this option, you are more likely to get vectors from STAR exit to you approach. Otherwise ProATC will attempt to find and approach transition that will link the approach and STAR (thus removing the need for vectors). Enabling this option can be considered more realistic as you will get shortcuts by vectors. Having said that, use with caution on airports that are surrounded with high terrain. With dangerous terrain, you will want to have this option disabled. Speaking of mistakes on the video, in the ProATC flight plan, I set the same airport as primary and secondary airport. Didn't mean to do that.
  7. This usually means that the callsign is missing from the voice set. If you don't' like "A-N-Z", then you can configure ATC (under options) to say "Alpha-November-Zulu" if that makes things any better.
  8. I'm doing exactly this. ProATC is on my laptop and I hear ProATC's sounds on a pair of headphones that are connected to my sim computer. Here's how I do it: I have one end of a cable connected to the headphone output of my laptop. The other end is connected to my main computer's line-in. I then have setup Windows to monitor/listen to the line-in signal. This way the line-in signal is mixed with the sim's sound and sent to my main sound output (which is a pair of USB headphones).
  9. For IFR flying: yes. For VFR flying: no. ProATC only supports IFR flights and favors bigger airports.
  10. He is working on making them compatible. Here's he's latest post on the forums: "I'm fixing the voice packs, please be patient, you will have them working soon! Keep an eye on this thread!"
  11. Here's my first flight with the release version. It's a replay of a live stream I did last night (sorry fr the low mic volume, family was sleeping). The link start from the time where I display my settings I have used for years. http://youtu.be/2GtYTNoHkt0?t=1m56s NOTE: In the video description, there are links to different phases of the flight, make sure to watch the (crash) landing (-390fpm). EDIT: Good flight. One thing I would like to see is runway crossing clearances.
  12. Neither Navigraph or Aerosoft include "expect vectors" data in the ProATC AIRAC. This is why ProATC doesn't know that it should issue vectors for this SID. For ProATC, the AIRAC looks like a normal waypoint-to-waypoint SID.
  13. The other problem is that PF3 (and a few other ATC products) break the immersion before you even start the flight. What would happen in the real world if you filed your route as a FSX flight plan to ATC? How far would you get? We all have our preferences. For me, having navdata/AIRAC support is a must. If an ATC program doesn't understand the routes you can find from flightaware or eurofpl, then it's not for me. PFPX understand these flight plans and so does ProATC. That is the way I like to fly. (Also having ATC know the real world SIDs/STARs/approaches without having the user enter the data is a huge time saver)
  14. I have only tried the demo and watched, but the voices in PF3 were too robotic for my taste.
  15. As Bob mentioned, please post a log in the forum. I personally tested this with last release candidate. The correcting vectors do come but ATC doesn't nag to you every 30 seconds as in the previous version. EDIT: Your case might be different than the scenarios that I tested. This is why the log will be helpful. Thanks!
  16. I noticed that a list of changes can be found Jere: https://fselite.net/news/pro-atc-x-v1-8-5-0-released/
  17. Hello, I just asked from Navigraph about the current situation and the the response is, that they plan to add the support, but no timeline yet. This is the one thing holding me back at the moment, so I hope this will soon be sorted. Keep up the good work!
  18. There is two levels of background chatter, ATC talking to AI aircraft and random real world background chatter (RealATC chatter package for example). Only on is playing at a time (please note that you need to turn of sim's voices or you will hear the sim's ATC duplicate the calls. This makes you also loose the sim's ATIS, which is a bit of a shame). Both of he AI and real world chatter can be turned off. Also worth mentioning is, that you cannot speak to ATC while background chatter is playing, just like in the real world. --- As a side note, I have to agree with Onel said above. Each add-on aims to be the one to replace all add-ons. All current available add-ons have their issues and their strong points. Maybe doing one aspect and doing it well, would lead to interesting results. I personally use one off 3 ATC add-ons based on what kind of flight I'm going to do. Works well for me, but is a bit expensive option.
  19. You heard correctly. EHAM and (other airports) have been doing this for about 20 years now (AFAIK). Pilots change to DEP frequency without ATC instructing to do so. It's mentioned on the SID plates: "Passing 2000, contact Schiphol DEP" Here's a screen shot:
  20. Listen, you can come and visit me anytime. We can go to my local international airport and see if it never happens EDIT: Look up SID charts for EHAM. What do they say? "Passing 2000, contact Schiphol DEP".
  21. Just to repeat, ProATC isn't instructing you to change frequency, it is just a reminder what the departure frequency is. The clearance says that you should contact departure only after you are airborne. EDIT: At 43min 40s you will hear the clearance. Please also note when the co-pilot contacts departure. https://youtu.be/wWsiSXpF-es
  22. I don't think it has ever done that. The wording in takeoff clearance is: "... When airborne, contact departure ..." So while you are on the runway, you should stay with the tower frequency.
  23. Sorry for a late reply, I've been busy testing out AirHauler 2 I noticed that Navigraph has AIRAC data for Eaglesoft so this means that you could have matching data in both the aircraft and ATC. Couple of options come to mind. The key is that you do not need to export a flight plan out of ProATC to the aircraft. Here are the options: 1. Fully manual: copy/paste the route from SimBrief to ProATC and enter the route manually into to FMS 2. Fully automatic: Export fsx or squwkbox format out of SimBrief and import it to ProATC, The SimBrief supports exporting in Citation format, then you could also use it. Those are the main ways to get a flight plan sorted. The third option for some selected aircrafts would be to create a flight plan in ProATC and have ProATC export the flight plan to the aircraft, but I rarely use this option as I prefer to enter the routes manually, because at the same time I make sure that a correct route gets generated.
  24. As for 5 seconds to great a flight plan, let's compare steps required to import for example the following real world route ESSA ARS N623 TEKVA DCT ESEBA ENGM 1) ProATC 1. Copy the route string 2. Open new flight plan window 3. Paste in the copied route string 4. Enter flight level 5. Enter primary alternate DONE 2) PF3 1. Copy the route string 2. Paste the route string into simbrief/vroute/PFPX/FSC 3. Convert the route string to one of the fpl formats that PF3 supports 4. Save the flight plan to your computer. 5. Open new flight plan by browsing your computer for the exported flight plan you created in the previous step 6. Enter flight level 7. Set transition altitudes for your origin and destination airports 8. Find SID plates for your origin and enter in (or verify) the SIDs available for each runway (and altitude restrictions) 9. Find STAR plates for your destination and enter in (or verify) the STARs available for each runway (and altitude restrictions) 10. Find approach plates for your destination airport and come up with a Minimum FAF altitude for your destination airport 11. Enter alternate airport DONE --- So what are the main differences for me? - With ProATC, you do not need external tools to convert real word routes to a format that the ATC program understands. - You need to input far less data into ProATC => much faster to get into air.
  25. It depends where you operate. ProATC normally vectors you from STAR exit to the approach, which works fine in Europe (you can also force ProATC to assign approach transitions to stay safe when flying to airports with high terrain, which is a real life saver). So to answer the question, yes, ProATC does vectoring and speed adjustment, but... The US STAR structure is somewhat problematic for ProATC. This is because the AIRAC data provided for ProATC doesn't contain info such as "expect vectors after xxx" (even though this info can be found on the plates). So flying the full STAR gives excellent to OK results in Europe, but not equally good results in the US. AFAIK this has been listed as a known issue and hopefully resolved in one of the future releases. In short, ProATC would start vectoring you sooner off the STAR. Then again, the early vectoring would cause problems if there is high terrain around the airport and this is why it's not a fast fix to do right.
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