Real Controller plays ATC Pro: probably the best TRACON sim (ATC Pro Gameplay)

[@NoDakExpress]

Timestamps below! ATC Playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLP3FrhmnKN4caDeIocTKBhdqjcEnSz6LU 01:30 intro to the airspace and the scope 4:28 session begins 17:55 more traffic 31:45 a disabled aircraft?! 39:31 a brief rant 48:20 closing thoughts

[@FalloutProto]

Why do u say tree?

[@NoDakExpress]

@@FalloutProto in aviation certain numbers are pronounced differently to avoid confusion: 3 = "tree" 4 = "fower" 5 = "fife" 9 = "niner"

[@FalloutProto]

@@NoDakExpress that’s interesting, weird that the voice recognition has difficulty with “tree”

[@timgreen9857]

@@NoDakExpress The phenetic alphabet is universal for ATC/pilots? I feel flights to Quebec in November would be rather confusing

[@fredashay]

Is the program actually recognizing your voice? Or are you just speaking the commands for the sake of the video?

[@sircaramelofcanadia4743]

I truly didn't understand any of this, but I was thoroughly entertained.

[@isiacguill5708]

At least he’s honest

[@filmandfirearms]

That sums up the entire channel for most of us

[@michaelleitner1245]

Me too.I'll stick with just watching. I don't a program that would give me a nervous breakdown.

[@barelyalivebobcat8380]

31:15 “What are you doing southwest?” With that zoom just killed me. Great work as always NoDak, and a really interesting find!

[@NoDakExpress]

Lots of questions about Vatsim! Nope! I don’t control on there - in order for them to acknowledge your actual experience, you have to give them your real name so they can essentially look up your licenses. I’m not going to give them my name - so I would have to go through all their training, which I don’t have time to do since I do all this in my free time! If I ever did content creation full time I would make the time and do vatsim (consider supporting on Patreon or becoming a channel member on here if you want to support the content and help me do this full time in the future!)

[@azayasund]

NoDak, if you change your mind, let me know. I control for ZMP (and visit at ZBW and ZAU) on VATSIM. It’s pretty obvious that you’re a former controller, so they’d do an abbreviated training program since you have previous experience (essentially just a checkout/airspace familiarization). We’d love to have you aboard if you’re interested!

[@MattH-wg7ou]

I dont understand. You have to train and get "checked out" to play a game/sim?

[@azayasund]

@@MattH-wg7ou is any of it 100% accurate? No. The pilots are varying levels of experience, as are the controllers. Easily the best part of this network is meeting people who share the same interests and work hard to emulate what the real world does. I’ve made friends for life here and it’s a great feeling watching them follow the same path and shape their careers (Pilot/ATC or some other title within Aviation) because of their experiences here. Not to mention for VATSIM, IVAO, and POSCON it’s free! PilotEdge is a pay for service that focuses more on the pilot education side.

[@MattH-wg7ou]

@@azayasund I'll have to check it out. I dont know ANYTHING about any of these VATSIM, etc. I thought it was just like networked Microsoft Flight Sim type stuff or DCS. But apparently that perception was wrong.

[@azayasund]

@@MattH-wg7ou definitely have a look!!! Love VATSIM and used to use Pilot Edge and POSCON. Each have their strengths and weaknesses. If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up!

[@jameslanz2117]

Hey as a professional airline pilot and a fan of ATC I really enjoy your videos. I like the way you explain things. Who knows maybe we’ve worked together in real life? Keep up the great work

[@peterjames808]

ATC 'verify you have Golf' A/C 'We'll get Golf' Narrator - 'That was, in fact, a lie.'

[@StackableGoldMC]

Me and my instructor called up tower. Well turns out right as we called tower the ATIS had been updated. We do in fact go listen to the current atis.

[@nathanchester4522]

Its crazy seeing how this works. I'm based out of KC and its really cool seeing my local atc radar.

[@zandertompson2468]

I know nothing about Air traffic control and never seen work of air traffic controller. But KZbin algorithm decided what this is exactly what I need. And oh boy, it was an interesting video to watch!

[@thecorporatepilotdad]

That looks like a good ATC sim as long as the voice recognition is good. I heard you have a few problems with it when saying THREE the way we’re “supposed” to say it in aviation. The last ATC sim I used was Radar Chaos. It’s not bad for a basic ATC sim anyone can play and it’s under 10 bucks. BigFatSimulations makes it and they did have an ATC sim that is just Center going into PHNL.

[@jamescollier3]

One, two, tree lol

[@jamesbrummett9530]

My very first ATC simulator I purchased was in the mid 1990s and it came on those 5.25" floppy disks. I loved that simulator. I had enough time logged as a student pilot to under the basics.

[@Harvestersz]

I bought this on release. I was soon concerned by the lead developer asking us to 'spread the word' since sales weren't going well. Those fears proved to be founded when they lost the license to use the voices (I can't remember their name right now ... Amazon bought them), and an update removed them. I also remember some odd things like General Aviation being removed from the sim. It was all just sad watching it all fall apart because it had so much promise. BTW, London Control recently had a paid fan-made mod released for it if you want to take a look at that.

[@NoDakExpress]

Yeah the way it launched and is still sold is just toxic. If this was on Steam it would be the go to ATC game for everyone

[@suninmoon4601]

Nice exposition 👍 As a recently retired Controller, it's fun to keep track of such developments (reference: Kennedy Approach, back in the day). On a practical level, I am reminded of how frustrating voice recognition was when we introduced it as a training aid more than ten years ago, and, to be frank, that it's only slightly less frustrating today. It just kills all the fun for me having to try to speak like a computer. It would be less realistic, yes, but I think it would flow so much better using a Click & Point Menu Interface, instead of having to focus on the enunciation of "tree" when you mean "three" 😎 Again, nice job 👍

[@mbgal7758]

Is that you Steve? Lol he was Kennedy ground I think.

[@51stparedoctober4]

I'd love to see a video with you controlling on Vatsim.

[@squeecy9965]

This game has so much potential. but it seems like the developers just left it in the dust. The AIRAC that they are using is extreamly outdated, and im sure they could make some pretty needed polishes to the AI. Other than that, this is a hell of a product

[@SaintBrick]

I picked this up around 2018 and got a refund after about a week. The dev's cut and run, but not before telling everyone that an update was just around corner. I promptly got a refund. If the voice rec works for you it might be OK as is. But there are a hand full of bugs and misc other things that make it frustrating to use.

[@CelticGladiator7]

True. Never found any other product that could be so dedicated to imitate the reality. Sad to see it seems abandonned, no updates for years, huge potential lost. I only hope some enthousiasts will pick this project some day and take care of it sharing their ideas and work with community. I've had it since early 2017, received an updated afterwards once.

[@wyattglassco1810]

If you want a good ATC simulator, because a VATSIM controller. You control pilots that are flying in flight simulators. We follow real world procedures and real phraseology from the 7110.65.

[@BlueSideUp77]

LTD902 was a student pilot who didn't realize he was transmitting on guard.

[@timoofi]

London control is a great center simulator. ATC Pro is great but isn’t maintained. You’ll see that live weather and weather simulation isn’t supported anymore.

[@palanthis]

Neat! I worked in a ARTCC for a year installing and supporting CTAS (Center TRACON Automation System). Very cool people.

[@Henoik]

31:46 Was that the altitude acquisition alert I heard?

[@FalcoGer]

What are you doing? "American 1962, airport is closed, divert to alternate." Job done.

[@Obi1nacobi1]

The same voice recognition program is now used at the FAA Academy for terminal classes. You are no longer talking to a human responding as the pilot it is all robot. There's a lot of room for screws up but to my understanding if you figure it out you're good.

[@PebelWasTaken]

Would you be intrested in trying vatsim. You ATC qualification transfers over directly so you wont have to do the training. You can do centre on it. Also all the planes are real humans.

[@Fightre_Flighte]

I keep forgetting that vatsim actually has controllers.

[@psychopeda23]

Please tell me a little more about vatsim . . . i heard some about it but i do not know a thing. Is VATSIM just a game or a professional Training Simulation?

[@psychopeda23]

@@pallas6613 thank you! now i know about it! sounds great by the way!

[@mikeyharris]

Just to give a little more insight into Vatsim. If you fly on Microsoft Flight Sim, X Plane or FSX (I'm sure there are others also), then you can connect to the Vatsim network. You can see all other aircraft from all other sims, including liveries as well as being able to hear them speaking to ATC. This makes it very realistic. Add that to the fact that the controllers have to undergo extensive training over many years (in order to get to centre controller) and you have the most authentic air traffic control network outside of real life. I'm currently a ground controller on the network and we're always learning. The best part about it, it's completely FREE!

[@Andrew-13579]

I’m thinking this ATC TRACON simulation could be a good training tool for VATSIM controllers…if only it had the ability to be modified, bug-fixed and maintained by the VATSIM community. You could really practice correct phraseology with this…if you don’t say it correctly it will let you know. And it might help some become real controllers.

[@PauloMoreira1970]

Hi, about a Center ATC you can see London Control, it's very nice also. And it gets also some APP positions. I was a military ATC and currently a Private Pilot. Nice to see this video from you, I also have this sim, and I love it.

[@35manning]

Have you heard of VATSIM? I used to do it many years back, it's multiplayer ATC with pilots using "transponder" software and controllers using various radar programs depending on the region (eg, Australia has a TAAATS display as per real life). I even attended a few meet ups with the Australian group which included a tour of Melbourne centre (controls all of the southern half of Australia's with the ability to take over for Brisbane centre) and Melbourne international tower (YMML).

[@the.other.ian.]

You forgot to say nice when you said the number of pages in the Kansas manual

[@icanhaskpop1239]

This is particularly cool because my office is only a couple miles from KCI. I even worked security at KCI, before the TSA was established. 😁

[@Lion_McLionhead]

Strangely reminded of playing a DOS air traffic game with text mode graphics, 30 years ago. Never got very far with it, but it looked impressive.

[@FlightATC]

Best centre control sim I can think of is Radar Chaos Hawaii Edition from BigFatSims. It's an older one, and no voice control, but still really fun.

[@TheMNWolf]

I came to this video after playing some Endless ATC and all I can say is wow. It's like I can't do this but I want to do this.

[@jackielinde7568]

SWA4 needs to be given a number to call.

[@JohnVanderbeck]

I don't know how you get those vectors. I guess I'm spoiled by sims that let you drag a line off the block to get the heading I want. You're just doing it in your head amazing!

[@erastmus]

There is/was a great center ATC Sim called ATCC made by Xavius. I don't know if it's still sold anymore, but it was bascially a home version of their commercial ATCC simulator. I believe there was a spin off of it called Win ATCC too, if I'm not mistaken.

[@SimpleTakeoffs]

This was thoroughly enjoyable!

[@blackhawks81H]

When you worked ATC, did you ever work in the Chicago/indiana/Michigan... Let's say "Lake Michigan" general area? I could swear I recognize that voice... I just can't remember where. I wanna say it was on a trip between GYY and PLN, most of which would have been dealing with APP/DEP clearance which was handled by Minneapolis Center(134.6). Or on the way from IGQ to 06C to get lunch at Pilot Pete's... Always a cool flight. Flying under ORD airspace in a little Citabria watching those massive beasts going right over us. Dealing with getting bounced between ZAU and Chicago approach when there was a presidential TFR in place during the many Obama visits to Chicago was a huge PITA as well. Just this massive chunk of some of the busiest airspace on earth.. GIANT BLANKET TFR.. They never seemed to have time for the little Citabria, so I had to bug them over and over which then made them quite annoyed with me... but I didn't want to find out if a Citabria can beat an F-16 in a slow turning fight the hard way. Lol. Otherwise It was always an excellent practice flight early on after I got my license. Dealing with the ORD airspace restrictions, and the fact that there was a 1000+ foot tall Radio/TV transmission tower directly on the path, meant I really had to pay attention to everything. It's amazing how something that huge, that's so visible from the ground, can be practically invisible when you're up in the air until you're right on top of it. And forget the guy wires.. You'll never see those. I swear aircraft windshields have some magical coating that makes ALL wires invisible. Lol But the food at pilot Pete's made it all worthwhile. Love the channel. It's rare to find someone who's into a lot of the same stuff as myself. Going to check out that patreon right after the vid is over.

[@scootersplace9324]

I've listened to many hours of live ATC it's nice to know what they are actually doing and why... Thank you

[@anasyn]

I really enjoy watching you play these games.

[@boringpolitician]

Reminds me of an ATC sim that was on the Commodore 64 when I was a child.

[@Citiesinmotionplayer]

I was wondering earlier if there were ATC sims out there, then I got this recommended to me. Looks interesting!

[@tima9531]

Love the videos and would like to get in to playing these games. I went to college at UND for ATC and commercial aviation, but now I'm an engineer for the railroad and have fallen off the aviation side of things. Are you from north dakota?

[@Engineer_Eric_59]

Thank you for posting. So you can play as dep, arrival etc or all the stations?

[@nighthawk4502]

I recently got my 3 level in USAF ATC after cross training. I’m stuck at my old base with no new assignment so pretty much purgatory for a while, I think I might pick this game up to help keep me fresh on radar phraseology since I don’t even know what airspace, nor type of facility I’ll be in.

[@TaelonZ]

OOOH my airport!

[@31dknight]

Mine as well!

[@captaintoyota3171]

I work literally at the end of downtown airport. Live near KCI as well. Currently building the new Buck O Neill bridge.

[@AuroraClair]

Does anyone else struggle with speed and understanding the radio speach? P.s. 13:51 how did you determine they (american 592) were 24 mil from the field?

[@promcheg]

A great resource when writing a book. Allows character to sound like someone who maybe has a clue. XD

[@mr.kilroy6818]

Can you simulate UAP phenomena contacts on this !..like all that have taken place and story line ones !

[@heathbarnhart1092]

American Airlines in Terminal C (east side), which is where most things are (I'm pretty sure Delta, United, Frontier are in C as well). In 10 years picking up relatives I've never been to Terminal B and Terminal A is being rebuilt. Freight on on the west side.

[@tc0330]

Term B is Delta and SWA. Term C is AA and UA. LCCs are split between both.

[@Kansasavation]

I’m so glad you did my home airport of MCI

[@icdfs27]

When vecturing do you just estimate headings?

[@TemptedDuckship]

Love the heeler/ACD in your profile pic - honestly got me to click on this! :D

[@Bovafett]

such an interesting game. How do you know the headings they should fly? Is it just based on an estimate compass heading or is there some info on the screen I'm missing?

[@tissuepaper9962]

The dotted line is called the "extended center line" of the runway. Pointing along the centerline, and pointing up at 3° is a thin radio beam that allows the pilot (or an automated system) to intercept the correct glide slope to land on the runway. The plane just needs to cross the beam at a shallow enough angle so that there's enough time to turn and follow it.

[@Bovafett]

@@tissuepaper9962 thanks! I understand the ILS intercept but when he was directing traffic to turn left heading X to X point, I was wondering how he knew the headings to give

[@tissuepaper9962]

@@Bovafett the "shallow enough angle" part is how he knows, I'm pretty sure it's just judged by eye here.

[@Bovafett]

@@tissuepaper9962 ok thank you, that's what I thought it was

[@JBUDDTV]

can't wait to see more, probally picking up this game this weekend

[@NoDakExpress]

It’s installation method is catastrophically terrible - that’s absolutely why this thing hasn’t taken off. It’s weird - I’ve never used anything like the process they have to buy and pay for the game. If this was on steam it would be the highest rated ATC game on there. Thanks for watchin!

[@tc0330]

Presently, especially with the construction going on MCI lands 01R when landing north. Usually vectors to RIBBS. Pretty much everyone lands the right side with a left turn on K then D as it gets everyone to their gate. Landing south on 19L usually works for most with a right turn on D. 01L is ideal for north for north departures. Term B is DL and WN. Term C is AA and UA. LCCs are split among both. Sadly, there were no RPAs on your scope. #RIP IYKYK MCI is for mid continent international. The IATA code of KCI is being used in Indonesia, and among other reasons, it’s not available for Kansas City.

[@shadowhealer2001]

Question for you: How do you do point-outs to the tower? The online guide is ambiguous and for someone who isn’t entirely familiar with the 2 character codes (mentioned in the guide) how do you point out an aircraft to kmci for instance. (Key commands)

[@thewarderman1840]

I love your channel and would like to see your take on what Trevor Jacob could have done before he abandoned his plane

[@andrewjvaughan]

do they have fuel simulated? can you tell them to go around until they enter an emergency?

[@31dknight]

Great video from Nodak.

[@ClayR11]

I’ve flown into KICT many times, not sure I’ve talked with you but I’m sure you’ve heard OState call signs in your area

[@XaviRonaldo0]

I wonder if this is the simulation the FAA uses to aptitude test potential new ATC.

[@woltews]

We need to get him and city planner plays together for a colab video

[@BlazeJedi]

Ooo this is cool...and there goes a hour!

[@Dre-st3lf]

Start basics soon, how long were you a controller for?

[@Cheef0Beef]

When will the English Dubbed Episodes be released ?

[@thamirivonjaahri6378]

This is one of those games, which seem like they are trying to actually recruit people for this job

[@gslucas21]

When did we (or ATC) go to 'fife' and 'tree'? Always has sounded silly to me. I still use five and three when repeating back.

[@mrmiyagi5]

I think he's a Yooper

[@daveslow84]

This looks interesting! I've recently tried several ATC sims and have overall not been impressed... Do you control on Vatsim as well?

[@reformCopyright]

Do you always have to say the full callsigns of GA aircraft for the sim to understand you?

[@sortaspicey9278]

Didn't expect to see MCI!

[@newdeathscope]

What do all the boxes and the like mean on the scope? I'm looking forward to you running ATL, that field gets crazy

[@rikpeeters]

Can't you broadcast over center to hand the aircraft off to yourself?

[@charliecharliewhiskey9403]

ATC when a pilot messes up: "possible pilot deviation" ATC when ATC messes up: "airspace deviation" 🤔

[@SpencerSaid]

Unpossible, ATC never messes up😉

[@MattH-wg7ou]

I have no idea how you ATC people do it. It seems really difficult and overwhelming! I fly fighters and am often in a 4 ship formation so when we are in a radar trail formation thats a 6 mile "nonstandard" formation yall have to deal with and plan around. Also we are almost always exceeding the under 10k "speed limit", which probably makes predicting and sequencing more difficult. But on the other hand, when you say "expedite climb" we can certainly oblige! Our local ATC guys remind us at every Instrument Refresher Course, that when they call out traffic and we say "radar contact" that doesnt help them until we say visual, even though we now have the SA to "see" and avoid. It's (ATC) a different world, man. I dont think I could do it.

[@jimlee350]

How about Vatsim?

[@Iamthemonkeylord]

Fully staffed?? The most unrealistic part of this sim 😂

[@NoDakExpress]

It’s true 😆

[@mmmmmatthewwwww]

should jump on vatsim atc controller, pretty full on, especially at Heathrow

[@Abrown2048]

Kansas City International is in Missouri...

[@davidbarker5030]

If you have an ipad you should try ATC Voice, not sure if they have a computer version. Not as realistic looking but ive found it to be the best in the app store for tracon games. I found that your could work faster with the touch creen commands vs the voice. Plus you can speed up the sim, during the slow periods or if you want to increase the complexity.

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

have they patched the trees since this video?

[@davidbarker5030]

I worked at DFW tracon, scrren looks amazing but the voice recognition seem bad and the center not handing you off aircraft untill well in your airspace blows the whole game, also looked like other positions were using your airspace without a pointout, nomally that wouldnt bother me but just wondering if it is watching for all your aircraft.

[@MrRecorder1]

Curious: Are you allowed to let planes fly through "non-approach airspace" (gray areas) when vectoring them in for a landing?

[@NoDakExpress]

If you coordinate with the controller who ‘owns’ that other airspace - yes! Thanks for watchin!

[@MrRecorder1]

@@NoDakExpress Thanks for the fun and informative videos! And thanks for the answer. I Assume that "coordinating with neighboring airspaces" is a bit out of scope for the sim. :D

[@EMicheleAdams]

I believe that's the callout feature. You can accept or not. Thus far I always do since they've only once put one in my path and I just delayed descending my traffic a few miles without any other issue.

[@tobiasrud]

What's the reason you changed from ATC to pilot? Looking to become an ATC myself, so you might have some interesting takes or tips.

[@ThatSB]

Is this pretty accurate with reading voice?

[@PhogofWar]

Fun! NoDak, did you work at Hector at all?

[@NoDakExpress]

Nope! Went to the airplane museum at the airport there a few times when I was up there though! Love that yellow DC-3!

[@kukulkanlordofcas4931]

Are you capable of giving visual approaches and telling them to follow traffic ahead, or do they just want the ILS?

[@BlueSideUp77]

What is the edit-ability of the airspace in this simulator?

[@marksmith8163]

Would KABQ be difficult due to civilian and military with government air space sites near the east of KABQ .

[@Bearviation]

Amazing! While I am deep into flight simulation (X-Plane and MSFS2020) I have played Radar Chaos (various editions) and other radar games in the past. This looks like what I would like to have when I want to do something other than flight sim. Would you say there's a huge learning curve to this; it seems so! Thanks for this video - looking forward to seeing more.

[@captaintoyota3171]

Whoop whoop KCI. Man i love that u have so much Exp with my local airport KCI. I sit and listen 2 ATC streaming at Kci when i have free time. Good white noise plus im close enough 2 hear planes take off after Atc radio. Im working RIGHT at end of Downtown K.c. airport runway on the river. Building new 169 bridge so we get cool take offs. Had a pair of blackhawks followed by a drone fly in. Pretty cool

[@Alien-Earth1]

Where did you buy ATCPro from?

[@CodyIsDaBaws]

Hey, that’s my airport!

[@CodyIsDaBaws]

Ps the state wanted to change the airport from the triple donut to something else but we refused to pay for it so it got subcontracted to some company that’s footing the bill

[@sombrero4316]

game of the year right here

[@badrobotintel]

I have a question for the poster of the video interested in purchasing ATC pro but I'm unfamiliar with how to do it since it's seems to be out of date on some of the websites I see it all I have a Windows machine could you tell me anything about how to purchase it and how does it arrive does it take a cloud network installation or is it just a group of random executables that you would keep on your machine to install it could you describe anything it would take and how it functions do you need an internet connection to maintain the game when you're offline is it playable thanks for your answers Also what's the average price of the game and any add-on sectors that may be available for purchase what is their average price thanks again

[@holobolo1661]

Would love to see a video of you on VATSIM

[@Diddyoil09er]

"T" tree? Or tango

[@rasmuszander298]

What game is this? Where can I get it?

N573VW didn't like being called whiskey Victor

[@douggale5962]

I want to say "Reduce speed zero one zero knots" and see if they stall it and crash. What if you tell them to do something dangerous, can they refuse?

[@holditorsken2030]

go on vatsim bro, you'll love it

[@jakehouchin8965]

Where can I get this game?

[@gablovestech]

You should give vatsim a try.

[@fn0rd-f5o]

Ah the infamous "with you" on check-ins are even found in this sim :D