EasyATC...

EasyATC is a free third party air traffic control plugin for X-Plane.
EasyATC V4.Beta released
See the updates here

Download EasyATC 4.Beta
(and please check the executable file updates)
X-Plane.fr
X-Plane.org

A first video using EasyATC 2.0 in a VFR flight!

An IFR flight using EasyATC 1.1.

Cruise Altitude

When you Enable EasyATC, a dialog is displayed asking for the cruise altitude (among others items). The value you select replace any "9999" Altitude value of waypoints of the flight plan.
That means that when you create a chart of a flight plan and you put "9999" in the Altitude column that means that this value will the Cruise Altitude you pick-up when you enable EasyATC.

How to create a flight plan with the X-Plane map?

Only in EasyATC V3.0.

• Open the Flight planner
• Click Flight plan/New to clean the list of waypoint
• Check the item Helpers/Record
• In X-Plane put your plane on flight at the cruise altitude you wish and just above the airport you want to take-off from
• Move back to the flight planner and click somewhere in the window (the flight planner must have the focus)
• Press the space bar of your keyboard
• The first line of the list should now be filled with the main fields EasyATC needs to do his job!
• Go back to X-Plane, move to the next waypoint you wish, go back t the flight planner, press the space bar, a new waypoint is added, ect...
• Repeat this for all the waypoints you need for your flight until the arrival airfields
• You can save the flight plan (Flight plan/Save)

How to create a flight plan from a FMS file?

• Get a .fms file (flight plan format for X-Plane) from your favorite tool (for example OnlineFlightPlanner.org)
• Once you have the fms file somewhere in your hard drive, open the EasyATC Flight Planner
• Clic Flight plan/Load FMS file and browse to your file
• The Flight planner should now display all the waypoints of the route, the coordinates and maybe the altitudes (if the fms generator you used has generated some altitudes)
• Select all the rows of the list (clic on the first one and clic on the last one while pressing the Shift key)
• Clic Helpers/Auto complete/All columns
• Answer to the questions.
• NavAids - EasyATC will ask you to confirm the NavAid he found in the X-Plane data is the one of your flight. This occurs because a lot of NavAids identifiers are not unique and can exist in different places in the world!
• Airports - EasyATC will ask you to pick up the runway(s) you would prefer to take-off from and the runway(s) you would like to land on (I add "s" because you can create a flight plan with more than two airports!). Note that the orientation could change depending on the wind direction.
• The waypoints list should now be filled with all the information EasyATC needs to do his job the right way. Note that some fields are still blank but it doesn't matter. Those fields can be used in advanced/realistic flight plans...
• Clic Flight plan/Save. Don't change the initial folder (flight plans MUST BE saved in the DATABASE_FlightPlans directory)
• Clic Flight plan/Save as active flight plan. Don't change the initial folder (the one and unique active flight plan MUST BE saved in the ACTIVE_FlightPlan directory). This second save registers this flight plan as the one you want to fly now!

The flight plan is ready. On X-Plane, put the plane on the starting runway you chose in the flight plan, clic ATC/Enable, set your radio to the first waypoint frequency and request for the flight clearance... Enjoy your flight!

How to create a realistic flight plan?

If you want to experience realistic conversations with the ATC, you need to edit a realistic flight plan from scratch. Following, an example with an Ajaccio to Nice IFR flight...

• First of all, you need the SID and STAR our flight plan is based on. In this tutorial, I will only do the Ajaccio SID chart. Once you will have done one chart, you will be ready to do any other chart.

• Note that it’s better to think "modularity" by creating separate charts than one single big flight plan so that you can re-use the charts in different flight plans. Once the charts are created, it’s very easy to add them into a new flight plan associated with other charts! And maybe, one day, you could share your charts with the community!

• This is one of the Ajaccio IFR SID charts...

Fields

Identifier

You take-off from Ajaccio airport so click on the first cell of the first row in the list, Identifier column, and type “LFKJ”.

Type

On the Type column, since you take-off from this airport, select RWY. Note that APT would be selected if the plan was to fly above the airport without landing or taking-off. By selecting RWY, the ATC is informed we effectively land or take-off from this airport. Actually, in the case of the very first checkpoint of the flight plan, the ATC guesses that you are going to take-off from this airport.

ATC callsign

On the ATC Callsign, enter the name of the controller that is supposed to manage your take-off. In this case Ajaccio. Actually, you can write Britney Spears if you want. It’s just the callsign the ATC will use when talking to you.

ATC type
In the ATC type column select the appropriate kind of control that the planes are supposed to talk with. In this case, tower controllers are the one who deliver take-off and landing clearances. So select the TOWER item.

ATC frequency

On the ATC frequency column, type the frequency of Ajaccio tower “118075”. Note that we omit the decimal in the frequencies. You must use 6 digits for frequencies (this is to fit the frequencies format in X-Plane, even if in most of the planes, the last digit is not used)

Transition altitude
On the Transition altitude, we can enter a value or left the field blank. If you let this field blank, the default transition altitude will be used in the messages.

Altitude

On the Altitude column, let the cell blank. That means that the ATC will not expect any altitude (but you could type here the cruise altitude you expect to fly at)

Speed
On the Speed column, type the maximum speed allowed in the waypoint. There is thousands people living here and there is some speed and noise restrictions in this place! Type 180.

Heading

On the Heading column, type the heading of the runway. Always think about the point of view of the ATC: you are expected to take-off with the 203 heading! So enter 203 in this cell.

Latitude/Longitude

Let the Latitude and Longitude blank for the moment

DME distance

We are not expected to follow a DME arc at this waypoint so we let the DME distance field blank

NavAids identifiers and frequencies

We don’t use any navaid when taking-off. Our only navigation objective is to keep our heading to 203 until the next waypoint. So we don’t fill any of the NavAid1, Freq NavAid2 and Freq columns.

Actually, these fields are not used by the ATC yet. 

Extra message
On the Extra message column, you can add anything you would like to hear from the ATC at this waypoint and that cannot be processed with the other values.

Linked checkpoints
On the Linked checkpoint column, you can enter the identifier of the waypoints the ATC can give you as direct flight as soon as you will have left this waypoint. The ATC will pick randomly among the available identifiers and the probability to pick-up one of the alternate waypoints can be edited in the Constants (20 % is the default value).

In the case of our take-off from LFKJ, we can enter in the cell “AJO07;IS;LONSU” for example. I’m pretty sure it does not happen in real flights since the plane would be too close to Ajaccio city when flying from the runway directly to LONSU or even IS. But you can add all the links you want. Note that those links don’t need to be in this chart, and will be ignored if they cannot be found within the following charts of the flight plan.

Now you can fill the three following waypoints, AC015, AJO07 and IS the same way...

Auto-complete...

• Select all the waypoints rows and clic on Helpers/Auto complete/All columns. The auto-complete  looks for the waypoints identifiers into the airports, navaids and fixes X-Plane data. Each time an identifier is found, the auto-complete fill some of the fields.
• For the navaids and the airports, the auto-complete ask you to confirm the identifier is really the one you need.
• For the airports, he asks you to choose the runway. This is used when there is several charts for a given airport: there is usually one chart for each runway direction. This allows the ATC to pick-up the right chart depending on the wind direction.

Save...

• Click on Chart(s)/Save and give a name to save the chart file.
• The chart is then saved and reloaded to update the colors of the rows. The green rows are there to highlight the first and the last waypoint of the charts. It is especially helpful when editing a full flight plan! 

Flight plan...

Now the chart is ready to be integrated into a flight plan.

• Clean the grid by clicking on Chart(s)/New and then create the IS to NERAS chart the same way we did for this LFKJ to IS chart. And after that you can do the same for the third and last chart, the STAR NERAS to LFMN.
• When the three charts are saved, clic on Chart(s) (or Flight plan)/New and clic on Chart(s)/Add three times to import the three charts into the grid.
• Pay attention on the current selected waypoint (the blue line) before adding a chart: an imported chart is always added AFTER the selected checkpoint.
• Clic Flight plan/Save, give a name and save the flight plan file. This way, the flight plan is saved in the DATABASE_FlightPlan folder. But the flight plan is not the active flight plan yet
• Clic on Flight plan/Save as active flight plan. This way, the flight plan text file is duplicated in the ACTIVE_FlightPlan directory.

You can now close the flight planner (or not), move the plane to the Ajaccio airport, enable the ATC and request for take-off...

Note that for a full realistic flight, you can now insert one or more taxi charts!

Updates...

V4.Beta updates...

• NEW! VFR can now be very close to reality thanks to the use of advanced Taxi charts when flying Region Flight Plans. Advanced means that Taxi charts can now contain extra informations like TMA(s) information (size, ceilings and floors), FIS or region controls
• NEW! Left hand or right hand runways can be edited
• NEW! Missed approach charts are supported (Not tested for quite a long!) 
• NEW! Different kind of reports avoilable (VFR): position, altitude, radial, when leaving area, after a given time, traffic pattern (VFR).
• NEW! Reverse fligth plan check-box allow to fly reverse a fligth plan without extra edit (not used a lot, probalbly buggy!) 
• NEW! AFIS is now supported with different behaviour than actual TOWER control
• NEW! Tens of features here and there (sometimes no bug free yet!!):
• ATC can close the airport temporarily and cancel your approach
• ATC can ask fo a go around at the last moment
• ATC can ask you to wait at a holding pattern if you are to high above the expected altitude
• ATC can advise you of restricted/prohibited airspaces
• Etc.
• NEW! Synthesized voices can be mixed with radio effects for more realism
• When requesting GUIDANCE (new request), the ATC gives you precise vectors to the next checkpoint until you leave its airspace.
• The ATC talks to other planes but!... "virtual" planes at this stage! I mean these planes are randomly generated within EasyATC for communications but not for visual display. Their requests are randomly generated depending on their state in the flight plan (take-off, landing, leaving area, etc.). Requests and clearances are not accurate at all. It's just to bring some life and being more realistic: you have now to ba aware of the callsigns to react when the ATC calls is for you!
• The ATC can be paused if you need keyboard input for another app for example
• Some warnings are displayed when saving charts to avoid many issues when using the flight plan
• Top-of-descent and Awake ATC requests added. No problem if you don't use these requests. I just added to make ATC conversations matching what happens in IFR flights as can be seen in this video
• Flight plans can now be edited by "recording"the plane positions in the X-Plane map!
• When flying a Region flight plan and asking for landing to a given airport, EasyATC dynamically update the flight plan with the most appropriate STAR from the available arrival charts. The controller then ask to proceed to the entrance waypoint of the STAR.
• When auto-filling a flight plan message boxes are displayed only when necessary.
• When saving a flight plan, a message box is displayed if something wrong or something that could downgrade the flight experience is detected on the waypoints. A Help button opens the appropriate web page in the EasyATC blog to help in solving the issue.
• ATC sometimes makes mistakes (and rectify immediatly, of course!). This looks pointless but when heard, gives definitly a sense of humanity to the synthesize voices!
• ATC sometimes ask the pilot to repeat his last request!
• Not necessary to merge the STAR, SID or Taxi charts in the flight planner: pick a "Cruise" flight from a given fix or navaid to another (usually SID exit and STAR entrance) and EasyATC automatically loads appropriate charts to fulfill the flight plan by searching among all the available charts.
• After landing, if the ATC is busy (or randomly if not busy), he asks for transponder standby
• When a holding short in the Taxi chart is close to the middle of the runway, the ATC asks to backtrack the appropriate runway
• Now voices sound like radio voices. Better immersion for sure! Blended radio noises are separated wav files that can be customized. The radio effect can be disabled.
• "Microsoft Speech" synthetic voices now work (only "System Speech" voices was working in previous versions). 
• When filled in the first waypoint of a STAR chart, the Custom message field  is used as the name of the approach when the ATC says the expected landing message.
• Random altitude changed by the ATC was full of bugs (too often, yo-yo effect, was breaking SID and STARS, was sometimes giving a too low altitude so that the communication was lost!, etc...). Now fully debugged
• DME arc in IFR was pretty buggy too (unconsistent out of the track message, bad headings, not enough error margin, etc...). All seems fixed now.
• Alternate waypoints/shortcuts was completely broken! Still some hidden bugs probably but much better now...
• In IFR the ATC was asking for reports too often
• Some fixes in STAR update in IFR flights: was changing too often, better processing of the wind direction when picking-up the appropriate STAR
• Fixes in Altitude change request.
• All states and messages are written in a Log.txt file (reseted each time the ATC is enabled). Nice thing to help me in debugging your failed flights!
• In SIDS or STARS, the ATC can now ask for speed changes
• The voice speed rate changes in some circumstances (see Voices section)
• All the constants of the program are now customizable.
• Autofill of the cruise altitude in the flight planner now fits precisely the flight rules (was sometimes wrong)
• Listening to an ATIS does not reset the last contacted ATC!
• Hundreds of bugs fixed... and new ones unfortunatly!

Released V2.3 updates...

• Flight planner - Invalid fequencies are automatically fixed (in previous versions last digit was always "0". For example 118.020 is now 118.025)
• You can now prevent the ATC voices to match the language you selected. This allow EasyATC to use all the installed voices instead of using always the same one(s).
• ATC can sometimes change the cruise altitude and ask for a climb or a descent
• The ATC can repeat his last message even after a "did you copy?" message
• ATC gives the QNH only when flying below the transition layer or when descending from above to below transition layer.
• Better processing of the waypoints to avoid U-turns to move back on track while the next waypoint is pretty much straight forward.
• New request : after a landing, the pilot have now to say that the runway is vacated (RunwayExit request) before the Tower asks to contact ground.
• Transit out request can be used when taxiing: in this case, the pilot asks for leaving the frequency.
• When the NavAid1 contains the "ILS" string ("ILS" or "ILS N2" or whatever...) and the Freq 1 field is filled, the ATC gives the ILS frequency when saying the expected landing message.
• Emergency bugs fixed and better handled by the ATC
• In Taxi charts, you can now put the Identifier you want for the holding points (but the first line must remain the name of the airport and be APRON Type). Custom message is not used anymore. See Taxi chart section for more detailed information...
• Tens of bugs fixed...

Released V2.2 updates...

• Taxiing is now availale!
• Play sound in flight planner is back
• Say again request bug fixed
• Pilot's voice can be muted
• Pilot's auto-readback can be disabled. You must press a key to readback
• Take-off runway depends on the wind direction
• Alternate airports
• "Regional Flight Plan": an easy way to have a simplified ATC without editing a real flight plan for the guys who want more simplicity! 
• Airfield traffic pattern: when approaching an airport, press the Landing Pattern key and the pilot will talk the expected phraseology depending on the position and heading of your plane (downwind, cross wind, left or right hand, etc.)

Released V2.1 updates...

• When using a key for requesting, the key input work anyway in others applications (the key event was stopped in EasyATC in version 2.0)
• Help icons open this web site
• Coordinates converter is opened only when double-clicking on coordinates columns
• Coordinates are in the right columns when importing fms file in flight planner

Released V2.0...

• User inputs
• VFR and VFR SPECIAL flights
• Better usage of synthetic voices
• Simplified flight planner
• Smarter ATC
• Customizable languages

Next planned updates...
Planned for V4.0. By priority...

• Refine airfield infos in Taxi charts (ILS...)
• Make the ATC talking to other planes
• Line-up on runway before take-off
• Expect visual approach message
• Confirm cleared to land and/or approach
• ATC complain when landing on the bad runway
• Taxi code clean-up

Flight planning

• Be able to fly without any flight plan by loading X-Plane airports data dynamically.

X-Plane dataref access

• Something more relevent that txt files...

Bug tracking...

Known bugs in EasyATC 2.0...

Requests and clearances

• When requesting to land after take-off, the ATC gives a clearance to land but does'nt change the flight plan and so still ask for flying away from the airport (climb, heading, etc.)
• Heading change request is available but is not working properly yet. The clearance is delivered but then things can go wrong in many ways
• Pilot's requests/Disabled does not work as expected
• Say again request does not work when asked after the message loop interval if the ATC had nothing to say on last speech)

ATC...

Requests...
To listen the ATC you must request first. See the Requests section for the available requests. If the ATC still not talk, have a look to the FAQ...

ATC Type...
The ATC you talk with can belong to one of the following kind of control areas. The ATC type is edited in the flight planner through a dropdown list.
As in real life, the clearances or information the ATC will give depend on the kind of ATC it is: you cannot have a taxi clearance from a CENTER or DEPARTURE controller!
The ATC Type is also used to build the callsign of the ATC in the messages. ATC callsign (for example Dallas) and ATC Type (Departure) are concatenated to build the whole callsign (Dallas Departure).

APPROACH or DEPARTURE
At this stage there is no much difference in terms of ATC behaviour between Approach and Departure. Select the one you want for the spoken callsign. When talking to that type of ATC...

• VFR flight becomes VFR special 
• Landing information (not clearance) can be delivered
• APPROACH can ask for holding patterns (only IFR)
• Can deliver flight clearance (see Taxi chart section)

CENTER or FIS

• VFR remains VFR
• Are just supposed to answer (always approving!) to transit in, report, altitude change requests
• One day, they will give some traffic information

GROUND

• Deliver taxi clearance

INFO

• Same behaviour than CENTER and FIS
• Not that this Type is used as a "tag" when editing the runways in a Taxi chart

TMA

• VFR become VFR special randomly (See Constants section to modify the probability of being turned into VFR special )
• Similar to APPROACH and DEPARTURE behaviours

TOWER

• VFR flight becomes VFR special if you requested to land or if you are within a STAR or a SID
• Can deliver pretty much everything

ATC behavior...
Many things can be improved in the way the ATC gives you clearances. That the most interesting part of the plugin to program! So feel free to give me feedbacks...
WIP...

Debug display...

The debug information is displayed underneath the messages display.

The typical debug display...

Plane states...
To/From

• To/From - The Identifiers of the waypoints the plane is the closer.
• Distance - Distance between the plane and the waypoint 
• Trigger - The radius of the waypoint (when distance is lower than trigger and you fly reasonnably at the waypoint altitude as defined in the flight plan, the next flight segment is activated)

Out the track

• Indicates if the plane si triggering or not the track between the two waypoints 

 Track altitude

• Indicates if the plane altitude is between the two waypoints expected altitudes. See Waypoints section for details on how triggering works...

ATC cannot talk...
If the ATC cannot talk to you "ATC COMx CANNOT SPEAK..." is displayed underneath plane state information. The following reasons can be displayed...

Unable to find an ATC with xxx frequency
The frequency you use on your COM1 (COM2 is not implemented yet) is not in the flight plan

 Pilot didn't talk to xxx
You didn't request (or your request has been lost, bug...)

COMx is muted
Make sure your COM1 is not muted

ATC frequency (xxx) is different from plane COMx frequency (xxx)
I think this is deprecated now...

Plane is xxx miles from xxx (xxx miles max.)
You are too far from the closest waypoint that have this frequency (in the flight plan). Note that the altitude matters! The more you fly high, the farther you can talk to ATCs!

Expected state...

Most of the states are labelled the same way than the Plane state but the values can be different! Imagine you have planned to land on a given airport but you fly above it without landing, the ATC will remain stuck on this airport until you land on it! So the Plane state values will indicate the closests waypoints from your plane, but the Expected state will indicate the ATC expectations.

Extra expected states are...

Back on track

• When the ATC considers the plane is back on the track. Should be removed on next updates (just for me when debugging)...

Flight mode

• The flight mode the plane is for the ATC
• This can be temporary. When flying VFR, for example, in some circumstances, the ATC can handle the plane in VFR special mode within a given time frame before setting him back to VFR.

Holding short

• The name of the holding point you are supposed to taxi before bein cleared to take-off, and the distance between your plane and this point. See Taxi charts...

Charts...

A flight plan is a bunch of waypoints. A quick-start flight plan can be made of one single group of waypoints. A group of waypoints is a chart. A realistic flight plan should be made of three charts at least.

• The SID
• The "en-route" chart
• The STAR

Google that if you are not familiar with those terms. SID and STARS are generally IFR flight stuff but many airports have some VFR approach and departure rules and waypoints. The flight planner allow to edit that kind of realistic procedures.

Let's see first what kind of flight plans you can do. Then we will have a look on how exactly a chart is edited in the flight planner...

Requests and clearances...

Thanks to keyboard inputs you can talk to the ATC.

Affectations...
Clic Settings/Requests

1. Select the line in the list you want to change then press the key you want to use for the given request. The key you pressed must appear in the Key column.
2. WARNING!: you must use keys that are not used for any other command in X-Plane!  If not, Assume that "A" key is requesting for take-off clearance in EasyATC and is toggling gears, when you will press this key after take-off to move up gears, the pilot's voice will request for a take-off clearance!
3. Clic Save button when all affectations are done

How to request...

1. Press the key of the request
2. The ATC menu item of EasyATC is turning blue
• This means the ATC and the AIs let you talk
• I added this option for people like me who want to request by speaking and not only by pressing a key and using the pilot's synthesized voice.
3. Then, once you have spoken your request, press the Return key to actually send the request to EasyATC and get an answer... I hope...

Requests...
Awake ATC
The pilot simply announce its situation in short way. This is inspired by what it seems to be usually said in IFR when contacting the first time an approach controller. See this video.

Altitude up or down
This request consists in asking for a given number of feets to climb or descend. The pilot asks for the next waypoint expected altitude more or less the ALTITUDE_CHANGE_REQUEST_FEET value in the constants you can edit as you wish (1000 ft by default).
So, assuming you fly at 10,000 ft, and the next waypoint Altitude is 12,000 ft if you want to fly at 14,000 ft, you have to request twice: a first time to obtain 13,000 ft and a second one to be cleared o 14,000 ft.
This is not very user friendly and will be improved one day, but asking for altitude change is not something you ask every 5 minutes, so...
In some circumstances, the ATC can deny and the will ask you to maintain the expected altitude. The probability of deny can be changed with the ALTITUDE_CHANGE_REQUEST_DENIED_PROBABILITY constant. Note that you cannot change altitude within an approach

Flight
Before asking for a take-off clearance, you must request for a flight clearance. If you don't use a Taxi chart in your flight plan, the TOWER of you start airport will give you this clearance. If you have a Taxi chart, you must contact the controller of the APRON waypoint of the Taxi chart.

Guidance
The ATC gives you vectors to follow precisely the expected track. You must request again each time the controller changes. If you request Guidance whereas you are already in this mode, the ATC stops giving you vectors.
Note that the flight mode does not change. If you are lost and wants your flight to be handled til the next landing you can request for an IFR flight.

Heading left or right
Request for a new heading of a given angle offset toward the left or the right. I never use this request so it's probably buggy. Actually, the ATC inserts a new waypoint at 20 miles from the plane in the requested direction (the plane heading +/- the given angle).
The angle can be edited with the HEADING_CHANGE_REQUEST_DEGREES constant (30 degrees by default)

Landing
The pilot asks for landing instructions. Pay attention on the frequency you use! If you talk to Paris Tower while approaching Bordeaux, Paris will give you a clearance for HIS airport and not for Bordeaux... The ATC should warning in the following updates with some confirmation or whatever...

Landing pattern
This is not really a request. The pilot just says (or should say...) the appropriate Traffic pattern speech.

IFR
If you are flying in VFR, the pilot will request for IFR flight. This option can be used like in real life if you had a wrong timing in your flight and night falls before you reach your airfield, or if you feel lost and want to be vectored by the ATC.
If you fly IFR, the IFR flight will be cancelled and you will be in VFR mode.

Readback
The pilot readback the last ATC message he received. If you want to handle the readback by yourself, make sure the Pilot auto-readback option is disabled (Settings/Pilot's readback).

Repeat
The pilot asks the ATC to repeat its last message.

Report
The pilot says the current state and position of the plane. Use this request (not a request actually, but well...) to report after the ATC has previously asked for a "report over...". After report, the ATC is supposed to validate the next flight segment even if you don't trigger the waypoint.

Runway vacated
For coming 2.3 version...
After landing, you can make the pilot announcing the runway vacation. The ATC will then answer to contact ground if a Taxi chart is available or to taxi to general aviation apron if no Taxi chart is available.

Say again
The ATC repeats exactly the last speech

Speed up or down
Same comments than Altitude up or down. The constant is SPEED_CHANGE_REQUEST_KNOTS.

Take-off
The pilot asks for a take-off clearance. You must contact the ATC of  the airport waypoint in the flight plan to be cleared for take-off

Taxi
The pilot asks for a taxi clearance from the apron to the expected holding short point. If there is a taxi chart in the flight plan, you must contact the ATC of  the GROUND waypoint(s) to be cleared for the flight. If no taxi chart, any of the airport ATCs (Tower, Departure, Center...) will deliver the flight clearance.

Top-of-descent
The pilot announces he is starting the descent. You don't need to use this request since I added this just to make communication with ATC more realistic: in IFR, the pilots do this, usually. It's a sort of IFR report position in a way.

Transit in
The pilots reports the plane situation and asks for a transit. This is the best and more realistic way to awake the ATC when approaching a controlled area (but any of the other requests can awake the controllers!). Note that if you fly VFR, and you want to land, you should use the Landing request. With the Transit in request, the ATC will just allow you to fly over the airport.

Transit out
The pilots says that he leaves the controlled area. The ATC gives the next frequency and says goodbye. If you are too far from the next waypoint where the frequency changes, the ATC should not approve the transit out and ask you to call later. If you were flying in VFR special you should now be VFR.

Weather
The pilot asks for a weather information update. At this stage the ATC gives the wind direction and speed, the QNH and in some cases the transition altitude and/or the the transition level .

Constants...

The Constants are constant numeric values used by the program to process plane position and states and ATC behaviour, expectations and messages. There can be tweaked by selecting the Settings/Constant item in the EasyATC main window menu and then by changing the values.
That said, you cannot break anything since when EasyATC is re-launched, all the values are reseted to hard coded values.
Detailed definition of those constants should be write here soon...

Flight modes...

When flying the following modes, ATC...

VFR...

• Can ask for frequency change in some circumstanes (if you have requested for transit for example)
• Answers to any request
• Gives local QNH

VFR special...

• Doesn't correct your heading until you leave the expected track
• Asks to descend or climb if you are too far above or below the expected altitude (the altitude of the next waypoint in the flight plan). The ATC will not talk if you are climbing/descending, considering you try to reach the expected altitude.
• Asks for frequency change in many circumstances
• Ask for reporting if the next waypoint is REPORT type or randomly if you fly inside a SID or a STAR.
• Ask for a squawk code

IFR...

All VFR Special events and...

• Asks to follow heading if your heading is too far from the expected one
• Asks you to climb (or expedite your climb!) if you are below the expected altitude. The ATC will not talk if you are climbing/descending, considering you try to reach the expected altitude.
• Ask for frequency change on all circumstances (if frequency is available in the flight plan of course...)
• Asks for holding pattern if waypoint is HOLD type
• Asks for arc DME correction if the track is a DME arc

EasyATC 2.0 - New features...

Inputs

• Keyboard or Joystick inputs (See Bugs section about joysticks...)
• See Requests and clearances section for available inputs

Voices

• When ATC frequency changes, the voice change

VFR and VFR Special

• When enabling the ATC, a two buttons dialog box ask you for the flight mode you want to fly. Depending on the flight mode you choose, the ATC will behave differently. See Flight modes section for more details...

Flight planner auto-complete

• You don't need anymore to fulfill the ATC callsign and ATC frequency columns after the auto-complete. The flight planner propagates automatically the control area before and after any airport in the flight plan until the distance to the airport (computing coordinates) exceeds the maximum VHF range (See Constants section...)

Flight planner menu...

Menu

Flight plan

• New – Reset the display to a blank checkpoints list
• Load – Open an existing flight plan
• Save – Save the existing or new flight plan
• Save as – Create a new flight plan file form the existing one
• Save as active flight plan – Save the flight plan into the ACTIVE_FlightPlan folder. When enabled, the ATC load the flight plan file which is inside this folder. If it is empty, the ATC will not talk (or even crash...).

Chart(s)

• New - Reset the display to a blank list
• Load - Open an existing chart 
• Add – Add a chart to the list. It will be inserted AFTER the current selected waypoint
• Save - Save the existing or new chart
• Save as – Create a copy of the chart (only when editing a single chart)
• Remove chart – Remove the whole chart the current selected checkpoint belongs to
• Remove checkpoint – Remove the selected waypoint(s)
• Insert checkpoint – Insert a new line before the current selected waypoint

Helpers 

• Converter  - Opens a small window where you can enter a degrees/minutes/seconds coordinates and convert this into decimal coordinates EasyATC can read. Note that this converter is automatically opened when you double-click into a latitude or longitude cell in the list. In this case, when you click on Convert button, the window is closed and the cell filled with the correct value. 
• Auto Complete - EasyATC try to fill as many cells as possible by looking for information into the different nav data, fix data, apt data files in the X-Plane resources. The modified cells are displayed with red font. When looking for a fix or navaid identifier, some dialog boxes can be displayed to confirm that the item that has been found is the one you need: many fixes and navaids have the same name in different places in the world! 

Playsound

Select two waypoints and press this button to hear the ATC. The state of the plane is supposed to be the first waypoint (altitude, heading, speed, coordinates, frequency, etc.). The ATC gives all the instructions to fly to the second waypoint.

Text boxes and drop down...

Flight plan name

• The name of the flight plan when previously saved

Chart name

• The name of the chart of the selected chart when previously saved. When selecting a waypoint row, in a multiple charts flight plan, this dropdown box displays the chart the waypoint belongs to (then you can see, for example, the chart you would remove if you clic on Chart/Remove in the menu)

Triggers...

When you edit waypoints in a chart, you have to pay attention on the following key points about triggering...

Triggering...
A trigger is an area or a volume that releases an event when something enter and/or exit this area or volume.

Waypoints...
The waypoints in EasyATC are cylindric triggers with a variable radius and a constant height auto-generated by EasyATC when the flight plan is built.

Trigger height
The trigger height is the height of the detection cylinder. This value can be changed with the TRIGGER_CHECKPOINT_HEIGHT_TOLERANCE constant. The default value is 10000 ft. That means that if you edit a waypoint at, let say, 6000 ft, EasyATC will consider you are triggering this waypoint if the altitude of your plane is between 1000 and 110000 ft.

Trigger radius
The trigger radius is processed by EasyATC depending on the distance between this waypoint and the two surrounding waypoints. The more a waypoint is close to the one before and/or the one after, the smaller is the radius. This is done to avoid superimposed triggers: if your plane is triggering two waypoints at the same time, EasyATC can deliver inappropriate messages. That said, the processed radius is never smaller than the minimum trigger size constant so the triggers can intersect if you edit two waypoints very close from each other. In this case a message will be displayed when you enable the ATC saying which are the waypoints that are too close.

Track
Between two waypoints/triggers, the ATC expects the plane to fly inside a corridor with a given height and width that fit the altitude and size of the triggers on both side

Plane triggering...
When the plane enters a trigger, the ATC compares the situation of the plane with the last expected track (the line between two waypoints), does some processing and updates or keeps as it is the expected track.

Constraints...
Avoid to close triggers.
The distance between two waypoints should not be lower than twice the minimum trigger radius constant. If not, when in-between the two triggers, the plane can be considered randomly inside the first waypoint or the second one.

Avoid crossings with same altitudes.
To allow crossings, I've added a vertical size on the tracks and waypoints. So if you have one track at, let say, 10,000 ft and another track, exactly below at 5,000 ft everything should work fine, if you keep the vertical trigger and track size constants below 2500 ft (half of the altitude difference).

Compatibility...

Charts...

If you have created some charts with the previous EasyATC V1.1 and you want to keep them, you must update their format...

• Make a backup of the files first
• Open the flight planner
• Select Helpers/Update format.
• A dialog box should display the number of updated files (only .txt files are processed).
• Then open a flight plan and check that the columns are correctly filled. The new column ATC type should display some ATC type items. The updater is supposed to automatically fill this field depending on the ATC callsign field: if you have Dallas Center, CENTER should now be displayed on the ATC type column. You have now to remove the Center word from the Callsign to just keep Dallas).

Waypoints fields...

The waypoints are edited in the flight planner before the flight. A bunch of waypoints is a chart. Waypoints are defined by several fields...

Identifier
The identifier of the airport, the navaid the fix or whatever this waypoint is.

• This identifer should be the official name of the checkpoint so that EasyATC can find some extra information about this checkpoint within the simulator data.
• That said, the identifier can be the name you want. In some cases you will need to use a custom name
• If you need a checkpoint somewhere for a better realism in ATC behaviour
• If you have cross-overs in the flight plan
• A given chart cannot have two waypoints with the same identifier. But a bunch of charts within one flight plan can. See Charts section...
• Avoid special characters especially ";". I often use " ", "-", "(" or ")".

Type
The kind of checkpoint it is. Note that you can leave this field blank. No problem for the ATC. But the better there are filled, the best the ATC will be smart!

• APRON - For Taxi charts only. This type define the parking place you use to start from. At this stage, EasyTAC only use the ATC information (frequency and callsign) as the ATC to contact to have a flight clearance.
• APT – An airport you plan to fly over and not land on nor take -off from
• RWY_ALT - Alternate airport. The ATC will ignore this waypoint until you contact its controller or if you set your transponder to emergency and this airport is the closest in the flight plan.
• RWY – An airport (a runway, actually…) you plan to land on or take-off from
• RWY_L – The same with some detailed knowledge provided to EasyATC. This way it will know there are two runways and this one is the left one!
• RWY_R – Same but right side…
• FAF – Final approach fix. Used by EasyATC to announce the « cleared to land » message. If no FAF, EasyATC uses a mix of the distance to the airport and the plane heading to speech this message anyway…
• IAF – Initial approach fix. Used by EasyATC to know when talking to you about the expected landing procedure and runway
• IF – Intermediate fix (not used at this stage)
• HOLD – Holding pattern entry point. This way EasyATC knows it can ask you to wait a little bit ! Not used yet but coming soon…
• MAPT – Missed approach point. Not used at this stage but who knows…
• REPORT – (VFR only) A fix where you have to report to the ATC (not implemented yet)
• TWY – Taxiway checkpoint. EasyATC will soon be able to give you some taxiway directives I hope…

ATC Callsign
The name the ATC calls itself when talking to you. It's the name of the controller you are supposed to talk with from this checkpoint to the next one.

ATC Type
The kind of ATC. See ATC section for details...

• APPROACH
• CENTER
• DEPARTURE
• FIS
• GROUND
• TMA
• TOWER
• UNICOM

ATC Freq.

• The frequency of the ATC.
• WARNING: no decimal. This weird format is the way the frequencies are stored inside X-Plane...
• Note that when the frequency is filled by the auto-complete helper, the last digit (sixth one) is always "0" which can leads to wrong frequency like 128170. The right frequency should be 128175. This is because the frequency in the X-Plane data files are stored with 5 digits and I just add a 0. Should be improved later...

Transition altitude
The published transition altitude of the airspace the waypoints belongs to. This field can be left blank in most cases since EasyATC apply the default transition altitude as defined in the Constants.

Altitude
The minimum altitude at this point or the cruise altitude planned

Speed
The speed to not exceed at this point

Heading
The expected heading from this checkpoint to the next one. his can be left blank since EasyATC computes the headings "on the fly". It must be filled in the given cases:

1. The waypoint is an airfield : the heading must be the heading of one of the runways (note that if it does not match the wind direction, EasyATC will automatically reverse the heading for take-off or landing)
2. You want the ATC to give you the route as published in the charts (if you are out of the track (IFR), or if you ask for the heading to the next waypoint, or when the ATC wants to give you some NavAid advices). Don't worry, if this field is not filled, the ATC will calculate a relevant heading.

Latitude/Longitude
Decimal coordinates of the checkpoint. Please use “.” and not “,” for decimals. Note that you can double click on the cell to open the Converter windows (see below…)

DME distance
This field is used in the following cases:

1. The expected DME radius if this waypoint belongs to a DME arc procedure.
2. The magnetic variation of the airfield if the waypoint is an airfield.

Then, if EasyATC finds a value in this field and if the waypoint is not an airport, he expects you to fly a DME arc of the given distance from the NavAid1.

NavAid1
The NavAid you are supposed to use when following the given Heading or the DME arc. When it's not a DME arc, use this NavAid1 if the route is outbound from the NavAid

Freq.
The frequency of NavAid1

NavAid2
The NavAid you are supposed to fly inbound when following the given Heading.

Freq.
The frequency of NavAid2

Custom message
Optional. This field can be used in the followig cases:

1. The name of the SID or STAR procedure if it's the first waypoint of the chart. This name is used by the ATC when giving you the approach clearance ("cleared for Los Angeles airport LOC ILS approach, blabla..."
2. The name of the Apron if the waypoint is the Apron of a Taxi chart.
3. Extra message the ATC will say when you will trigger this waypoint

Linked checkpoints
The identifier(s) of the waypoint(s) EasyATC can ask you to proceed directly after flying over the waypoint. The probability of shortcuts is defined in the Constants and the destination is chosen randomly through the available identifiers. You must separate the identifiers with “;”

Flight plans and charts directories...

Three folders are used for flight planning. You can add some sub-directories for your own purpose if you want but the flight plan and the chart files MUST remain at the root of these directories.

ACTIVE_FlightPlan
In this folder, the flight planner makes a copy of the flight plan you have saved as the active flight plan.

DATABASE_FlightPlans
When you save or save as a flight plan, it is stored in this directory.

DATABASE_Charts
When you save a single chart or a flight plan, this chart or all the charts in the flight plan are saved (or updated) in this directory.

How to create a flight plan?

You can edit quick flight plans from an airport to another with a bunch of checkpoints from scratch. You can do the same by importing a FMS file. And if you want to fly a fully realistic flight route with close to reality communications with ATC, you can edit an advanced flight plan.