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!

FAQ...

Why the ATC is not talking?

• Normally, the Debug display should indicate everything you need to understand why the ATC is not talking. Look at the ATC COM1 CANNOT SPEAK text. If everything goes right, this text should be followed by the reason why it is not talking. See Debug display for the different cases...
• If ATC COM1 CANNOT SPEAK is not displayed but EXPECTED STATE is displayed, check the following:

• The synthesis voices of your OS are working fine
• Make sure ATC is enabled

Why the ATC is speaking continuously, randomly?

• Make sure the keys you use for requesting are not used for any other purpose (moving flaps of your plane for example!). In this case, while you just want to move down your flaps, maybe you will request a lower altitude to the ATC!
• Make sure you have at least two different voices installed so that the pilot and the ATC speaks with different voices. If not, it sounds like a horrible monolog!

Why the ATC expected flight segment remains the same while I don't fly this segment?

• In IFR or VFR special, you have to make sure you trigger correctly the track you currently fly. In VFR, this should never occur (please report as a bug). See Debug display to know the flight mode you are in.
• Make sure you don't have two tracks superimposed or very close from each other.
• Try a Transit-out request (the ATC could then release you to VFR)
• Fly back to the waypoint and make sure you trigger it: in the Debug display Distance must be lower than Trigger, and your altitude must be close to the edited altitude in the flight plan.
• If this waypoint is an airport you are supposed to land on in the flight plan, you MUST land to make the ATC expecting the next flight segment.

Why the ATC is not clearing me to take-off?
First there is two clearances before starting a flight: a flight clearance and a take-off clearance. If you have a taxi chart, see the Taxi chart article for how requesting flight, taxi and take-off.

• Check that you are using the right runway! Ask a take-off clearance and pay attention on the runway heading the ATC gives. Depending on the wind direction, the take-off runway can be different from the planned runway.
• If you are not using a taxi chart, you must be on the right side of the expected runway with the same heading (+/- about 10 degrees). Make sure the coordinates of the airport are as close as possible to the middle of the runway you want to take-off from: to know if you are ready for take-off, EasyATC processes the coordinates and heading of your plane with the coordinates of the airport and the heading of the expected runway. 
• If you have a taxi clearance (see Taxi chart section), make sure you are within the trigger limit of the taxi waypoint (0.1 Nm by default, this value is displayed in the Debug text)
• You must trigger the airport
• You must talk to the appropriate ATC: any ATC that have the same CallSign that the aiport. For example if you take-off from Lima, you must contact a Lima ATC (Lima Tower or Lima Approach or Lima Departure). Note that Centers and FIS don't deliver take-off clearance.

Why the ATC is not clearing me to land?

• Make sure you are landing in the right direction. Ask a landing clearance if needed and pay attention on the runway heading. Depending on the wind direction, the take-off runway can be different from the planned runway.
• The ATC says the clearance:
• You just have triggered a FAF or a MAPT waypoint (IFR stuff)
• If not, when the distance from your plane to the airport is lower than about 2.5 miles (actually, it depends on the triggers min, max, and minimum for airport Constants)

Why my requests are not said nor displayed?

• Make sure the EasyATC/Preferences/Commands.txt file exists, is not corrupted and all the commands you want to use have a valid value (not equal to -1)

Why my requests are not said nor displayed?

• Make sure the EasyATC/Preferences/Commands.txt file exists, is not corrupted and all the commands you want to use have a valid value (not equal to -1)
• If you can read the requests inthe Message box but you don't hear them, check that the Pilot's voice is not disabled.
• Note that the pilot's automatic readback can be enabled/disabled. If disabled, you need to press a key to readback.

Why the ATC is not clearing me to land?

• Make sure you are landing in the right direction. Ask a landing clearance if needed and pay attention on the runway heading. Depending on the wind direction, the take-off runway can be different from the planned runway.
• The ATC says the clearance:
• You just have triggered a FAF or a MAPT waypoint (IFR stuff)
• If not, when the distance from your plane to the airport is lower than about 2.5 miles (actually, it depends on the triggers min, max, and minimum for airport Constants)

Why the ATC is not clearing me to take-off?

• Have a look on how the radio comunications are handled in EasyATC
• First, there is two clearances before starting a flight: a flight clearance and a take-off clearance. If you have a taxi chart, see the Taxi chart article for how requesting flight, taxi and take-off.
• First of all, make sure you have asked for a flight clearance. If you don't use any Taxi chart, you must ask this flight clearance to the ATC of the airport you are on (usually a Tower). If you use a Taxi chart for this airport, you must ask the flight clearance to the APRON waypoint.
• Check that you are using the right runway! Ask a take-off clearance and pay attention on the runway heading the ATC gives. Depending on the wind direction, the take-off runway can be different from the planned runway.
• If you are not using a taxi chart, you must be on the right side of the expected runway with the same heading (+/- about 10 degrees). Make sure the coordinates of the airport are as close as possible to the middle of the runway you want to take-off from: to know if you are ready for take-off, EasyATC processes the coordinates and heading of your plane with the coordinates of the airport and the heading of the expected take-off runway. 
• If you have a taxi clearance (see Taxi chart section), make sure you are within the trigger limit of the taxi waypoint (0.1 Nm by default, this value is displayed in the Debug text)
• You must trigger the airport
• You must talk to the appropriate ATC: any ATC that have the same CallSign that the aiport. For example if you take-off from Lima, you must contact a Lima ATC (Lima Tower or Lima Approach or Lima Departure). Note that Centers and FIS don't deliver take-off clearance.
• Finally, if you cannot have a take-off clearance, you can take-off and do a transit-in clearance after take-off (wait 10 seconds after leaving the ground to make sure the ATC is informed by X-Plane that you are now flying): everything should become normal for the rest of your flight. Don't hesitate to post your flight plan on the EasyATC forums so that I can found where the issue comes from.

Why the ATC expected flight segment is not the one I'm currently flying?

• In IFR or VFR special, you have to make sure you trigger correctly the track you currently fly. In VFR, this should never occur (please report as a bug). See Debug display to know the flight mode you are in.
• Make sure you don't have two tracks superimposed or very close from each other. In this case EasyATC can encounter some difficulties in selecting the right one
• Try a Transit-out request (the ATC could then release you to VFR)
• Fly back to the waypoint and make sure you trigger it: in the Debug display Distance must be lower than Trigger, and your altitude must be close to the edited altitude in the flight plan.
• If this waypoint is an airport you are supposed to land on in the flight plan, you MUST land to make the ATC expecting the next flight segment.

Why the ATC is speaking continuously, randomly?

• Make sure the keys you use for requesting are not used for any other purpose in any other application. Let's say you change the flaps position of your plane with the F key, when you will press this key, you will probably request for a flight clearance (because in the defaults settings, the F key is used to request flight clearance).
• Note that you can have the same problem with any other application than X-Plane: once EasyATC is running and the ATC is enabled, every keyboard input is handled, whatever EasyATC has the focus or not !
• Make sure you have at least two different voices installed so that the pilot and the ATC speaks with different voices. If not, it sounds like a horrible monolog!

Why the ATC does not talk?

• If everything goes right with the app, the Debug display should indicate everything you need to understand why the ATC is not talking. Look at the ATC COM1 CANNOT SPEAK text. If everything goes right, this text should be followed by the reason why it is not talking. See Debug display for the different cases...
• If ATC COM1 CANNOT SPEAK is not displayed but EXPECTED STATE is displayed, check the following:

• The synthesis voices of your OS are working fine
• Make sure ATC is enabled (ATC menu item is green and not red)
• Make sure the ATC is not paused (V3.0)

Why speech synthesizer voices are not working?

ERROR #2
The system returns that no voices are installed.

• First open Windows Synthesizer voice dialog and check that one voice or more are displayed in the drop down list
• This bug can occur when you install a Microsoft Speech Runtime Language that does not appear in the drop down. In this case, this is odd, but if you don't modify the registry (see Voices section) the bug occurs. Note that if you just decide to move back and you uninstall the Microsoft Speech Runtime Language, the bug still occurs now!!! The only solution I found was to do the registry changes!!

Why my flight plan is not working?

ERROR #1
EasyATC fails to make a full flight plan. That can happen when you Save as active flight plan a "partial" flight plan expecting EasyATC to fulfill this flight plan with the appropriate STAR, SID and TAXI charts he could find in the database directories.