Who's in the tower, and why arent you fired?

[Mattace64]

I've seen a few other threads on this a while back, but seriously what is going on with air traffic control in FSX?

The most common problem I've come across is ATC clearing both myself and another sim aircraft in flight to land on the same runway at the same time...

Call me crazy but that's got to be rule 1-A in air traffic controller school.

It's a real bummer to have to go around after a long flight.

[BillG]

It seems to me that fixing the ATC would be one of the biggest improvements Microsoft could give to Flight Simulator. All the eye candy is nice, but proper ATC would really make the actual flying a lot more fun and realistic.

[Wii]

Try flying online?

[NickN]

ATC: "United227 be advised pattern is full. Turn right heading 233 for 10 miles and enter pattern again on second leg, will advise on pattern entry in route."

United227: "Do you know it costs us two thousand dollars to make a full 360 in this airplane?"

ATC: "Roger, please execute a four thousand dollar turn."













Allegedly, while taxiing at London's Gatwick Airport, the crew of a US Air flight departing for Ft. Lauderdale made a wrong turn and came nose to nose with a United 727.

An irate female ground controller lashed out at the US Air crew, screaming: "US Air 2771, where the hell are you going?! I told you to turn right onto Charlie taxiway! You turned right on Delta! Stop right there. I know it's difficult for you to tell the difference between C and D, but get it right!" Continuing her rage to the embarrassed crew, she was now shouting hysterically: "God! Now you've screwed everything up! It'll take forever to sort this out! You stay right there and don't move till I tell you to! You can expect progressive taxi instructions in about half an hour and I want you to go exactly where I tell you, when I tell you, and how I tell you! You got that, US Air 2771?"

US Air 2771: "Yes, ma'am," the humbled crew responded.


Naturally, the ground control communications frequency fell terribly silent after the verbal bashing of US Air 2771. Nobody wanted to chance engaging the irate ground controller in her current state of mind. Tension in every cockpit out around Gatwick was definitely running high. Just then an unknown pilot broke the silence and keyed his microphone, asking:

"Wasn't I married to you once?"

[Mattace64]

Hmm... I wonder maybe running in IFR makes air traffic control work a little better in FSX??  I usually use VFR...  Has anyone noticed a difference?

[NickN]

ATC has been an issue for quite some time. It has not changed in FSX from FS9

I hope it's one of the priority items for FS11

To fix 'pile on' landing issues, use AI Smooth for FSX

http://www.sg-flightware.de/

the software will force FSX to set up the pattern correctly

You will need FSUIPC4 to use it.

[Mattace64]

Nick,

Cool... I'll check that out when I get home!

What is FSUIPC4??

Do you work for microsoft?

[LeFeaoux]

Hmmm, I have had only one issue with ATC in the past when they cleared me to 5,000 ft on an ILS approach and ran me into a mountain, lol. I have never had any issues at any airports or even while flying. Sometimes they unnecessarily route me all over the place before letting me land, but never cleared me and another aircraft to land at the same time. Actually, my ATC is REALLY good at managing aircraft. I often have to wait on the ramp for other aircraft to take-off/land.

I wonder why some have that issue and some don't?

[DaveSims]

Once again, everyone needs to remember that FS is brain dead.  It does not provide any separation once in flight.  It just vectors everyone in as they arrive, and doesn't care about other traffic, mountains, obstacles, or anything.  I do hope this is something FS11 corrects.  What I usually do is once I get lined up on arrival, I slow way down, full flaps, to provide a little separation between myself and the aircraft in front of me.

[reider]

I read of a pilot flying into a German Airport.  He contacted ATC and asked for directions.  The ATC on duty was known to be a trifle direct and questioned the pilots knowledge of the area and why he hadn`t planned his approach a little better beforehand.  The pilot then apologized for his lack of forward planning.  Explaining that while he was no stranger to this area, the last time he`d flown to this airport was during the war and he`d certainly not planned on landing!!!  

Reider  

[BillG]

The vectoring in on arrival isn't so bad. The thing that really bugs me is the constant changes while enroute...turn 20 degrees right, now turn 20 degrees left, now 20 degrees right, back and forth without stop. That along with the constant need to change frequencies. It's just not like that in real IFR flight.

[DaveSims]

Actually the need to change frequencies is real.  I've noticed that the sector changes (the reason for the frequency change) are pretty close to real world.  I've never had enroute vectors, I usually file GPS-direct, or airways.  The only vectoring I get is the last part of the flight on the way to the approach.  Then I usually bypass that by picking an approach that has a transition fix, which allows me to fly direct to that fix and the approach with no vectoring.

[Davoos15]

Yeah. FS ATC is horrible.

[BAW0343]

The Freq changes are usually spot on and often have the correct Freq.  At least in my area they do. The problem comes when your at that transition altitude just passing by an airspace, ATC deem it necessary you switch only to be thrown back and possibly miss an instruction that you will now get too late.

FSX ATC is quite possibly the worst thing, yet best thing, in FS. The fact we have it at its current level is pretty nice. But seriously, how would you like to manage 24,000 airports and get all the approach patterns and altitudes correct?

[uncleyuk]

 I assume the reason for the 20 degrees left, 20 degrees right is to correct the flight path.  I figured that when instructed to intersect the approach vector a person can turn to soon or to late and this corrects the approach.  Of course, who am I?