Beyond ATC - Too Early Access
5 months 3 weeks ago #17752
by jer029
Beyond ATC was created by jer029
Good video from 320 Sim Pilot on the new Beyond ATC air traffic addon for MSFS.
Please Log in to join the conversation.
5 months 3 weeks ago #17753
by Westcoast
Replied by Westcoast on topic Beyond ATC
Nice John! Have you tried it yet? Any idea if it works with FTX?
Mike
Mike
Please Log in to join the conversation.
5 months 3 weeks ago - 5 months 3 weeks ago #17754
by jer029
Replied by jer029 on topic Beyond ATC - Too Early Access
I have not had time yet to purchase and try it, but it's on my "soon-to-do list". My understanding is that non-MSFS scenery airports will have trouble, but it works around by telling you to taxi at your discretion or some such thing. There's an example of that in the 320 Sim Pilot video. This is also only for MSFS I think and not earlier sim versions. I think also it's AI-based so may be able to learn changes - not sure exactly how that works.
Anyway, if 320 Sim Pilot likes it (and he actually paid for this addon), then it's probably worth getting if you're flying MSFS.
It's well worth watching his whole video because he tests different things to see how the program responds.
John
Anyway, if 320 Sim Pilot likes it (and he actually paid for this addon), then it's probably worth getting if you're flying MSFS.
It's well worth watching his whole video because he tests different things to see how the program responds.
John
Last edit: 5 months 3 weeks ago by jer029.
Please Log in to join the conversation.
5 months 3 weeks ago #17755
by jer029
Replied by jer029 on topic Beyond ATC - Too Early Access
Okay, so yesterday I purchased the basic version of this new ATC program for MSFS to give it a test run. I think it's certainly worth waiting a bit for some future releases. To be fair, the developer makes it abundantly clear that the program is still in development and will have bugs. For those who watched the entire video on this from 320 Sim Pilot, you may have noticed that he had issues on his final approach with the way ATC handled things. I had similar issue, as did many other users based on what I'm reading on their forum.
The forum is another item worthy of note. Their primary forum seems to be on Discord, which is better known as an audio streaming alternative to Teamspeak. This seems to be a bit unusual medium for a forum of this type, and it's a bit strange to use in this way for me. The search function is good there though and you can quickly get to the topics of interest.
Getting back to the details, I made two flights - and here's my personal experience. First, I should have mentioned that you need to use Simbrief from Navigraph for your flight planning because that's what BATC uses to interpret your flight plan. This was fine for me because I use it for most of my flight planning anyway - especially for our Econ flights when I want to ensure accurate fuel planning.
Before getting into my flight, I had some issues with the initial setup. First - I couldn't get the program to recognize my microphone. I finally remembered that I handle my mic input through the simulator or FSUIPC. Anyway...it didn't recognize the mic until I had my sim up and running and configured BATC to use my yoke button for mic transmit.
With that done I thought I was good to go, but not quite. It had been a while since I dug through Simbrief information other than my flight planning. For the better part of an hour I could not get BATC to recognize my flight plan. I thought that it was not recognizing KMSP airport - yet others had no problem with that. I finally figured out that my Pilot ID and my User ID are separate fields in Simbrief. My User ID was interpreted as a different Pilot ID number, and surprisingly, Simbrief let me use that number - which I suspect was another pilot's flight plan that BATC was accessing even though I didn't see it on my flight planning screen.
Finally, with setup complete, I was ready to take to the air. My flight plan was a short flight from KMSP to KDLH - a frequent quick flight I like to make. Things seemed to go alright - but I still have to learn the correct protocol for communication. For now, I used the auto-respond and auto-tune options of BATC as I had my hands full just flying the plane and trying to follow what BATC wanted from me.
I had also forgotten much of how to fly the plane, so I was busy trying to get that working correctly, and by the time I got things back on track, BATC was vectoring me all over the place - basically ignoring my flight plan and vectoring me all the way from Minneapolis to Duluth. Lastly, BATC vectored me to a visual approach for Rwy 3. This seemed to be an impractical choice for my Fokker F28 1000, as Rwy 3 is much shorter than 9/27 - the usual runways ATC uses for larger aircraft. Still, I managed to land on Rwy 3 without too much trouble.
My next flight was back to KMSP. This time the flight went much better. I started the plane from cold and dark, ensuring that the systems were all set up properly on my aircraft. BATC started up fine without my earlier setup problems. I was also happy to see that BATC directed me to Rwy 27 for takeoff rather than the shorter runway. Since I have an addon airport for KDLH, BATC didn't recognize the taxi routes, but works around that by telling you to taxi to the assigned runway at your discretion. This is a common issue with BATC and 3rd party airport addons.
After takeoff I was vectored out of KDLH and eventually given direct to Bainy - part of the Bainy3 Arrival for KMSP, which was part of my flight plan. This worked well and I flew most of Bainy3 Arrival until I was vectored away for an approach to Rwy 30R. This worked well for the most part until the very final vector for the ILS. BATC directed me on a heading that had put me perpendicular to the ILS rather than a reasonable angle to pick up the localizer. I ignored the final heading and adjusted my heading to better catch the localizer to complete the flight.
Upon landing, I was given the option to park at a specific gate (a dropdown list of available gates was given) or choose "any gate". I opted this choice and was directed to gate 2A . I was familiar with that area of the parking at KMSP, as MSFS usually has me park in that area. I found the gate and the waiting ground crew. Surprisingly, the addon I use for KMSP seems to work with BATC. The addon not only gives me nice night lighting of the airport, but also labels the many gate numbers so you can identify the exact gate you're looking for.
So, in summary, I'm excited to see how this addon develops, but it will need some work - particularly on arrival and approach. I'd like to see a bit less vectoring and some improvements on the vectors given - particularly the final vector to capture the localizer.
I'll update further as things (hopefully) improve.
Happy flying,
John
The forum is another item worthy of note. Their primary forum seems to be on Discord, which is better known as an audio streaming alternative to Teamspeak. This seems to be a bit unusual medium for a forum of this type, and it's a bit strange to use in this way for me. The search function is good there though and you can quickly get to the topics of interest.
Getting back to the details, I made two flights - and here's my personal experience. First, I should have mentioned that you need to use Simbrief from Navigraph for your flight planning because that's what BATC uses to interpret your flight plan. This was fine for me because I use it for most of my flight planning anyway - especially for our Econ flights when I want to ensure accurate fuel planning.
Before getting into my flight, I had some issues with the initial setup. First - I couldn't get the program to recognize my microphone. I finally remembered that I handle my mic input through the simulator or FSUIPC. Anyway...it didn't recognize the mic until I had my sim up and running and configured BATC to use my yoke button for mic transmit.
With that done I thought I was good to go, but not quite. It had been a while since I dug through Simbrief information other than my flight planning. For the better part of an hour I could not get BATC to recognize my flight plan. I thought that it was not recognizing KMSP airport - yet others had no problem with that. I finally figured out that my Pilot ID and my User ID are separate fields in Simbrief. My User ID was interpreted as a different Pilot ID number, and surprisingly, Simbrief let me use that number - which I suspect was another pilot's flight plan that BATC was accessing even though I didn't see it on my flight planning screen.
Finally, with setup complete, I was ready to take to the air. My flight plan was a short flight from KMSP to KDLH - a frequent quick flight I like to make. Things seemed to go alright - but I still have to learn the correct protocol for communication. For now, I used the auto-respond and auto-tune options of BATC as I had my hands full just flying the plane and trying to follow what BATC wanted from me.
I had also forgotten much of how to fly the plane, so I was busy trying to get that working correctly, and by the time I got things back on track, BATC was vectoring me all over the place - basically ignoring my flight plan and vectoring me all the way from Minneapolis to Duluth. Lastly, BATC vectored me to a visual approach for Rwy 3. This seemed to be an impractical choice for my Fokker F28 1000, as Rwy 3 is much shorter than 9/27 - the usual runways ATC uses for larger aircraft. Still, I managed to land on Rwy 3 without too much trouble.
My next flight was back to KMSP. This time the flight went much better. I started the plane from cold and dark, ensuring that the systems were all set up properly on my aircraft. BATC started up fine without my earlier setup problems. I was also happy to see that BATC directed me to Rwy 27 for takeoff rather than the shorter runway. Since I have an addon airport for KDLH, BATC didn't recognize the taxi routes, but works around that by telling you to taxi to the assigned runway at your discretion. This is a common issue with BATC and 3rd party airport addons.
After takeoff I was vectored out of KDLH and eventually given direct to Bainy - part of the Bainy3 Arrival for KMSP, which was part of my flight plan. This worked well and I flew most of Bainy3 Arrival until I was vectored away for an approach to Rwy 30R. This worked well for the most part until the very final vector for the ILS. BATC directed me on a heading that had put me perpendicular to the ILS rather than a reasonable angle to pick up the localizer. I ignored the final heading and adjusted my heading to better catch the localizer to complete the flight.
Upon landing, I was given the option to park at a specific gate (a dropdown list of available gates was given) or choose "any gate". I opted this choice and was directed to gate 2A . I was familiar with that area of the parking at KMSP, as MSFS usually has me park in that area. I found the gate and the waiting ground crew. Surprisingly, the addon I use for KMSP seems to work with BATC. The addon not only gives me nice night lighting of the airport, but also labels the many gate numbers so you can identify the exact gate you're looking for.
So, in summary, I'm excited to see how this addon develops, but it will need some work - particularly on arrival and approach. I'd like to see a bit less vectoring and some improvements on the vectors given - particularly the final vector to capture the localizer.
I'll update further as things (hopefully) improve.
Happy flying,
John
The following user(s) said Thank You: BillMan4
Please Log in to join the conversation.
Time to create page: 0.072 seconds