Side option to train for ATC

[Michael Filhol 1269327]

Hello,

 

Just an info note of interest to those tutoring or training for air traffic control: the ATC-pie tower and radar simulator I put out now has a student-teacher connection mode allowing teachers to create situations and manipulate traffic in real-time for a connected student to work with. The teacher can spawn, move, fly, land... aircraft, change the wind and neighbouring ATC environment, send/receive strips, and snapshot situations to recall for the student to work again.

 

It is not meant to replace or interfere with any of the VATSIM rating process, but it may be used on the side by pairs of users wishing to work sessions together. I have learnt that Euroscope could play preset scenarios, but there can be situations in which live control of the traffic can be an advantage. So feel free to try it out!

 

Have fun and (make) fly safe.

[Óskar Berenguer]

I've been trying this program and it could be called ATC_PRO .

As a student that I am, I would perfecly glad that my mentor used this software than sweetbox. It's NOT difficult and you can play in solo mode so that means you dont need even a teacher or be a S3

[Thimo Koolen]

Does it require sector files?

[Michael Filhol 1269327]

Hello,

 

ATC-pie is packaged with the latest X-plane data cycle and was designed to rely on no external resource (except for the FlightGear scenery if you choose to render the tower view internally). Therefore no further data file is required for it to work, and most of the airports in the world are depicted fine, together with all surrounding navaids and fixes. The only exception is ground taxi/apron route networks which are still of very bad (yet growing) quality and only reasonably usable at certain locations. In any case, missing or bogus data can always be adjusted in separate custom files to preserve the default package from corruption.

 

So your short answer is no.

 

Consequently though, no airspace or country borders are provided out of the box. If you want such display, you can:

• import any number of image files in the radar background---why not a screen shot of your EuroScope (!);
  
• draw lines and labels with hand-written spec files---if the demand grows for use of VATSIM sector files in ATC-pie, I should easily provide a quick conversion script to generate them automatically.

[Thimo Koolen]

I tried it out and it looks good.

 

* How can I clear an aircraft for the ILS approach and clear to land? I couldn't figure that out.

 

* I can't start a ground session, because there are no parking positions. How could this be fixed?

 

* How would I import a screenshot from Euroscope (e.g. Approach sector file) and have it fit correctly?

[Michael Filhol 1269327]

Hi, thanks for trying it out! I appreciate it.

 

Quick remark first since this is not exactly about VATSIM: there is an ATC-pie support forum already hosted under FlightGear. You may want to take the pure troubleshooting stuff there, if only to find the help at all. I do not know whether it is good practice on my part or directing you to where you would rather not go (?), but I just wanted to point it out.

 

Secondly before answering your questions below, it looks more like you have tried solo sessions than the tutoring mode (my original topic), but it is the good first step because the way in which you control traffic as a teacher is almost the same as the way you do in solo, with only small differences.

 

How can I clear an aircraft for the ILS approach and clear to land? I couldn't figure that out.

First, if you have NOT been middle-clicking at all, you probably need to do some strip linking first (i.e. aircraft identifying) to use the workbench properly. Match the the transponder codes. See video 2 (~ 3:32) of the

for a demo of strip links.

 

Then, to enable the "cleared ILS/visual approach" instruction for an aircraft, you need it to know what RWY to expect. Either it told you one it was already established for, or you instruct them with the "expect RWY" instruction. If the aircraft is requesting a visual approach, it must also have reported the runway in sight---until then you must vector them down the approach path. You will find both of these instructions on the instruction panel, in the approach tab. Have a look at the feature note on "playing solo", currently section 2.2 of the user guide wiki page.

 

I can't start a ground session, because there are no parking positions. How could this be fixed?

To play ground, you need parking positions and a taxi route network. Unfortunately only some airports have decent specs for them, like OMDB, KPIT, KSFO. If you want to create them for an airport, you will have to use the WED software. Perhaps you can be lucky and find one available through the X-plane gateway.

 

How would I import a screenshot from Euroscope (e.g. Approach sector file) and have it fit correctly?

Three things will help you most:

- the "background images" section of the user guide

- the resources/bg-img/Notice file

- the provided KSFO example

 

[EDIT]

Two more things:

1. if you have a text file defining lines to draw from Earth coords (which I think a sector file basically is), the best way is probably to use "DRAW" files instead of pixmap images

2. if you do go for a picture snapshot, you can either make corners meet identifiable navpoints (easy to enter programmatically), or use the image positioning helper to find the coordinates that fit best

[/EDIT]

[Dace Nicmane]

To play ground, you need parking positions and a taxi route network. Unfortunately only some airports have decent specs for them, like OMDB, KPIT, KSFO. If you want to create them for an airport, you will have to use the WED software. Perhaps you can be lucky and find one available through the X-plane gateway.

Thimo, if you're looking for EHAM, I can add the taxi network, I just checked quickly that the gateway EHAM doesn't have it.

[Thimo Koolen]

If you want, that'd be awesome.

 

@Michael: I can't seem to get the ILS to work. I made sure that the runways have the ILS box ticked, but I have no idea how to clear the aircrafts for the approach.

[Michael Filhol 1269327]

I can't seem to get the ILS to work. I made sure that the runways have the ILS box ticked, but I have no idea how to clear the aircrafts for the approach.

We will need a little more info to help you out... [Mod - Happy Thoughts]uming that by "ILS box ticked" you mean you have ticked "this runway has ILS" in the runway parameters (options > airport settings).

 

What happens when you click on the "cleared ILS/visual approach" instruction button? It should only be one of two things.

Either: the aircraft properly reads back the clearance (check at the bottom of the text chat pane), in which case you are fine and the aircraft should intercept the LOC and the GS whenever able---bring it like you should at reasonable height within a ~30° angle to LOC line;

Or: some form of error is reported (e.g. nobody responding or aircraft rejecting the clearance), then tell us what message you get.

[Thimo Koolen]

With the ILS box ticked, I mean that the runway has ILS, yes.

 

 

I can't find a "cleared ILS/visual approach" instruction button. There is a message command "intercept LOC, cleared ILS", but that doesn't include the runway.

[Michael Filhol 1269327]

I can't find a "cleared ILS/visual approach" instruction button.

You do not seem to have the instruction panel open! Go to the View menu, click on "instructions" to make it visible and arrange/float/dock it where you want. The instructions you are after are under the "approach" tab. You must have missed the following in the user guide:

all other instructions (line up and wait, clear to land, etc.) must be sent from the dockable instruction panel

 

There is a message command "intercept LOC, cleared ILS", but that doesn't include the runway.

At this time those preset messages do not generate instructions for solo games. They are entirely customisable and rather meant for comm's in multi-player sessions. Though I grant you that instructions all generate messages, so this one is probably redundant.

 

Incidentally, I am seeing that your strips only display one line while they should two. Can you PM me more about your computer, system, Qt and PyQt configs?

[Thimo Koolen]

I can't find a "cleared ILS/visual approach" instruction button.

You do not seem to have the instruction panel open! Go to the View menu, click on "instructions" to make it visible and arrange/float/dock it where you want. The instructions you are after are under the "approach" tab. You must have missed the following in the user guide:

all other instructions (line up and wait, clear to land, etc.) must be sent from the dockable instruction panel

 

Got it! Thanks for pointing out.

 

There is a message command "intercept LOC, cleared ILS", but that doesn't include the runway.

At this time those preset messages do not generate instructions for solo games. They are entirely customisable and rather meant for comm's in multi-player sessions. Though I grant you that instructions all generate messages, so this one is probably redundant.

 

Incidentally, I am seeing that your strips only display one line while they should two. Can you PM me more about your computer, system, Qt and PyQt configs?

What information about Qt and PyQt do you need (and how do I get that information?)? I installed both a few days ago, so it's the latest.

 

I run Windows 10 on an Intel i7-4770K with an MSI GeForce GTX760 2gb, but I don't think these are important for it.

[Michael Filhol 1269327]

I run Windows 10

After checking with a few users, I realised that that was in fact enough info, and that many other people must have been playing with bad looking strips.

So I redesigned the strip display system, and you should be able to enjoy new fresh-looking strips with version r10g just released. Thank you for sending your screenshot!

[Michael Filhol 1269327]

And sorry I forgot:

How would I import a screenshot from Euroscope (e.g. Approach sector file) and have it fit correctly?

if you have a text file defining lines to draw from Earth coords (which I think a sector file basically is), the best way is probably to use "DRAW" files instead of pixmap images

The new r10g provides a script to import the GEO stuff contained in VATSIM-type sector files (.sct), which you might want to try. It does all the tedious coordinate translation work for you, however the result obviously needs some redacting, object selecting, etc. afterwards.

[Thimo Koolen]

I tried to git pull it, but it says I have the most recent version.

[Michael Filhol 1269327]

Woops, sorry. I maintain four branches on two repo's, and yours (sourceforge/master) was the only one I had forgotten. Pushed now, with my apologies. The tarball is otherwise up to date as well for those not using Git.

[Thimo Koolen]

Thank you.

 

 

And where would I add the Euroscope sector files? I can't find them so far.

[Michael Filhol 1269327]

Re. the warnings in your picture: I have added a few entries to the list of customisable colours, so they are now missing in your setup since your upgrade. To get rid of the warnings, you can add the missing entries to the settings/colours.ini file following the contained format, or more simply, if you have not been customising any colours: delete it---a new one will be generated with the defaults on next run.

 

And where would I add the Euroscope sector files? I can't find them so far.

ATC-pie does not support those files directly, since the data is not free and not packaged, and is redundant with a lot of what is already provided. However, the now packaged "sectorExtract.py" script translates some of the .sct files to a set of "DRAW" files to merge, split, recolour and adjust to your liking. Images can be resourced at runtime through the system menu: reload > background images.

 

As stated further up, to understand how to set up your background image list and menu toggles at a given location, please read the resources/bg-img/Notice file, and have a look at the KSFO example. The basic idea is to create, say for EHAM, a file called resources/bg-img/EHAM.lst containing one line per image to import, which you can then toggle on/off at runtime.

 

NB: For the moment, only the GEO section is sourced and translated, but airspace boundaries will probably come soon.

[Thimo Koolen]

I extracted the sector file and followed the guide. I moved the files to resources/bg-img and did a few renaming things, etc. When I start ATC-Pie now, it doesn't say "no background image found" anymore, so it found the sector file. It however doesn't show anything.

 

Extracted sector file: http://pastebin.com/PHUzY7g0

 

It doesn't show me anything at KSFO as well (which is included as an example).

 

Question about the open street map: does it work? Every time I get a timeout after like a minute trying to download it. I already brought the scale down, but no success.

[Michael Filhol 1269327]

I extracted the sector file and followed the guide. I moved the files to resources/bg-img and did a few renaming things, etc. When I start ATC-Pie now, it doesn't say "no background image found" anymore, so it found the sector file. It however doesn't show anything.

Yes, it found it, and you probably missed the "Img" menu under the radar screens from which you can toggle each file on and off, KSFO example included. At this point you understand the point of rearranging your files and drawing sections in such a way that they toggle together or separately as you desire. After script run, sector objects are grouped by type as specified in the sector file.

 

Also, if you are interested, I have just enhanced the script to extract ARTCC boundaries as well. If you PM me an email address or something, I can send it to you.

EDIT: version r10h is now out, and contains this extension, as well as SID and STAR sections

 

Question about the open street map: does it work? Every time I get a timeout after like a minute trying to download it. I already brought the scale down, but no success.

This feature works but is only a helper tool to download still images for user-given points, everything you can do yourself from OSM directly if you prefer. The problem is often that the OSM still image server is quite limited in use, and from what I remember large image files are often rejected, and after a few connections IPs are rejected to avoid repeated queries and server overload. Try with a very small res and small map coverage once first after 24 hours to check on the server status and the working state of the feature.

 

A timeout is quite different to a corrupt image or a rejected connection so it is likely that this somewhat unreliable server was just down at that moment.

Edited August 13, 2016 at 10:01 AM by Guest

[Thimo Koolen]

Hello Michael,

 

That's exactly what I missed, thanks for pointing that out. I've sent you a PM with my email address for the updatet script.

[Dace Nicmane]

I uploaded the EHAM.dat here.

Edited August 10, 2016 at 03:06 PM by Guest

[Michael Filhol 1269327]

Thank you Dace, nice work you shared there! It is almost upsetting to see how otherwise few airports have a ground net available.

Are you the author of this one? If so, I opened it myself and noticed that the TWY turn-offs and RWY intersecting edges were all unlabelled, e.g. E1, E2, E3... are all interrupted on either side of 36R. The result in ATC-pie is that they are considered apron edges, which generates funny "cross on apron" instructions so you might want to tag those too.

Edited August 10, 2016 at 10:38 AM by Guest

[Dace Nicmane]

Ok, I'll fix it. I'm a bit rusty with this work.

[Thimo Koolen]

Thank you Dace. Where would I put the file?