ATC Simulator
 

Hi There,

Does anyone remember a computer game that was an ATC Simulator or something similar. It showed a basic ATC screen and allowed you to give instructions to the planes to get them to land. I only had the demo version. Does anyone know of where I can get hold of a copy of the actual program?

Cheers!!

Ross
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I don't know about ATC simulator but I do suggest (if you haven't already) that you get a copy of ATCC from Xavius (http://www.xavius.com) which is now freeware.

An excellent sim with plenty of expansion sectors available over the net also.

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"Go around..I say again...go around"

Hi there,

Thanks for that. I'm downloading it as I write this. It is actually better than what I was looking for. Do you know of any other training utils available as freeware online?

Ross
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Hi all,

Wow! That ATCC simulator is really something. Thanks for that. Mind you the manual took a fair old while to print and I'm going to have to study those charts for a while if I hope to even stand a chance... For anyone who either works for that great body of upstanding people known as NATS or for those who just wonder what all the Air Traffic Controls and CONSTANTLY moaning about. Get this program!

Ross
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Well I work for NATS here "oop north" and I reckon ATCC is fantastic :)

If you follow the link of the xavius page to the extra sectors site (I think it's called Spongeys site or something) you can get a shed load more sectors, including a UK one :) (Which is London Goles Sector) There is also an egroup called "atcc" that you may like to join.

I reccommend you give Sector 38 a try in ATCC first. It seems to be the easiest one for training and validation. That should get you used to the commands and the slightly strange procedures (strnage to me anyhow)

As for other sims there is one knocking around called TRACON but it's payware, unlike ATCC and quite hard to find. I've tried it and don't reckon it's anywhere nearly as good as the prog you have anyway!

Have fun and for all of my trusted collegues out there reading this - I know I'm sad - please don;t give me stick :)

Have fun anyhow

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"Go around..I say again...go around"

ATCC is brilliant, never fails to scare the living sh**e out of me - I'll stick to flying ;)

Well worth a look, won't tka elong to download or take up any space on the hard drive...and as pointed out it gives those of us who fly 150's and the like an idea as to why sometimes ATC get a bit annoyed with us entering controlled airspace when we shouldn't http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/eek.gif

That's an excellent point kopbhoy :-)

I've never really thought of the programme as a sort of training tool before but now you come to mention it........

I like the function whereby surrounding sectors are sometimes problematic when it comes to handing off traffic.

I find that feature to be VERY VERY VERY realistic!

Pity they couldn't have also written into the prog stuff like level busts (increasing by the day) and callsign confusion (ditto!). That really would be excellent then and an even more useful tool :-)

Then again - it's good just a good programme to to mess about with when you're bored :-)

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I can print off the manual and sector notes for ATCC without any problems - however when I try to print off the chart, I get a tiny diagram about 2 inches by 3 inches and totally unreadable. All possible combinations of sizing and viewing gives me no joy. Has anyone else had similar problems?

Cheers, Lurk

Lurk,

Try opening the maps in Wordpad. The manual suggests that this helps. Even then it's cut off the right side of my maps so I'm about to try printing them landscape to see if that helps.

To all,

I certainly agree that it was a real eye opener for me as to how an ATCC works. I'll certainly get hold of the UK sector. Does anyone know when version 2 comes out?

Cheers!!!!

Ross
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Thanks Ross - like most people, the manual is usually the last thing that gets read!!!

Ummm you asked about version 2 of ATCC. Seems there's some probles there.

Apparently Xavius are having troubles and the release has been put on hold. I know some pals of mine have had problems getting in contact with the company so who knows?

I'm sure someone else will buy the licence of whatever.

Let's face it, if Microsoft can make a train simulator (unbeliveable!!!!!) then surely ATCC must be worth a go?

Keep your eyes peeled anyhow :)



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"Go around..I say again...go around"

Love to try this atcc but when I start it up and try to log in with N (new employee) my pc just looks at me and goes no further.What am I doing wrong??

I had two problems with ATCC - but one of them (printing out maps bigger than 4 inches square) MAY have been answered.

Other question though...and I'm sure it's in the manual (but you know how difficult it is to find something when you are searching)...because of the difficulty reading the small printed charts, I have sometimes handed off an aircraft to the wrong sector - the next controller does not accept the aircraft (because it's not his) but I cannot regain control of it to correct the error.

All I get is "declined, aircraft in handoff".

Answers on a postcard?

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Is the "ATC simulation" you're thinking of one that was released for the Spectrum and was created by Mikrogen and entitled "ATC"?

Spent many a long time guiding BA 747s into Plymouth whilst expediting the Dan Air 748s into LHR. Who cares if I got a zero rating!

Y'know something folks? In many ways, it's much better than FS200, Fly, etc...

In your average Flight Sim, you line up, take off, flick a few switches and land. In ATCC there's so much going on that it takes a hell of a lot of concentration and a high level of situational awareness.

Any ATCO's care to comment? I'd be interested in what peoples opinions would be...after all, Microsoft market their product as being 'As real as it gets', something I'm sure many of us who fly real aircraft, whether it's a Cessna or a 747 would disagree with.

Hi all,

First off Lurk R how did you manage to control the sector's w/out the manual. I have problems with :) !!!!! I sure hope they get round to a releasing it. Am I right in saying that the pilots use sound clips this time? As for you Bodger I think the manual mentions that problem somewhere. If you e-mail me (see below) so I've got your address I'll send it on. Or if you want to trail through the manual you'll get the same result. Bearcub, Fraid I can't help with the 2nd I'm still getting my bearings.

Ringwayman. I'm not sure. I'm fairly sure it was for the PC. In this version you actually guided planes to take-off and land so it was more of a control tower sim.


Ross
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OK - hopefully I might be of some help here ;)

Bodger I think you may need to re-install ATCC sounds like you may have a corrupt installation there. Dunno how powerful your PC is but ATCC is only a small proggy. If re-installing doesn't work try running ATCC is DOS and see if that helps.

The answer given to the maps question is correct - use Wordpad to view the little blighters. If you want to tinker with them I find loading them as an image into Word after a bit of jiggery pokery works for resizing and the like. Might be worth a try.

Bear Cub - hmmmmm - you should be able to press F1 then click on the flashing tag of the aircraft you want back, to retrieve a lost handover. It shoudl then say in your console "handoff accepted" or something like that. You really do need the right maps and for them to be the right size for ATCC otherwise chaos really does take over!

Finally kopbhoy. I'd say that ATCC was much more realistic then say FS98 and I really would say that the software is perhaps as far as you can take a PC based sim that also doubles as a "game" i.e something that can entertain also. Obviously there's alot of stuff missing out of there like VFR traffic requesting a service, level busts, callsign confusion..even the odd emergency would be "nice" if you know what I mean.

I believe the problem would be that if you added all of those elemsnts you may scare off some of the casually interersted people who use and enjoy the software. Not everyone likes to come home from work or whatever and engage their brain to the extent that a fuly featured ATC sim would require. I could be wrong there, but I suppose as with FS98 and the like, there is a fine line between entertainment and something really difficult and not that enjoyable to the casual enthusiast or player.

To stop this waffling I seem to be doing, yes, in my experience as a faithful (???) NATS employee - this is about as real as it gets on the PC - for the time being anyhow.

Very interesting point that kopbhoy :)

Hope this waffle is of some use anyhow!

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"Go around..I say again...go around"

[This message has been edited by niteflite01 (edited 05 October 2000).]

I've just remembered too - there's a game knocking about called "Tower" whcih is really good.

You can download it from http://www.theunderdogs.org/

Try it - it'd about 5ish MB to download but when it's up and running it's basically a Tower sim where you can actually see the little planes as they come and go and taxi at one of the three airports provided.

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"Go around..I say again...go around"

Ross,

I printed off the manual but only looked at the page which had the commands :-) I've always had a big interest in ATC and lots of reading combined with heaps of listening on the scanner has given a good understanding so I didn't bother with the theory sections on separation, co-ordination, etc. Obviously the bit on how to print the charts was in the part I skipped :)

As for other simulations, years ago I bought the early version of Tracon which I really enjoyed. It only came with the sector files for 6 American cities but did give instructions on how to construct your own . Being a resident of Melbourne, I faithfully reproduced the local TMA chart to put together a 50 square nm Melbourne sector file - and also 1 for Sydney as it was more fun handling familiar traffic!

Also borrowed Tower off a friend which is quite good for scenery - uses digitised photographs to give a tower view but the novelty started to wear off after doing many hours in the ORD tower.

Other than that, for real time simulation, I prefer to supply ATC for the SATPAC region of MS FSIM users. Quite a friendly place to fly in a virtual sky!!!

Niteflight....you've caused me grief!!

I fancied "Tower"...found it, downloaded it (almost 8mb - yawn) but it has now "listed" 6 (six) files in my download folder....called (believe it or not) Tower1, Tower2, Tower3....(guess the rest!!).

File 1 had a "Tower.exe" icon lurking inside so I clicked and it started loading - then asked for "insert disk two"...and I was buggered.

Can you shed any light on how to install Tower? In words of one syllable (why are there three syllables in the word "syllable"?).

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