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 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!

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).

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 “;”

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.

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.