X-Plane 11.30 ATC

X-Plane 11.30 has a revised ATC voice system that is more flexible than ever before. This video goes through the steps to set up a flight plan and contact ATC for clearance & taxi instructions.

Transcript below:

Hello there, this is Jennifer Roberts with a tutorial on using X-Plane 11. Today we’ll take a look at ATC, including the changes coming in the X-Plane 11.30 update. This video was recorded using a preview copy of X-Plane 11.30b1.

First let’s take a look at the Air Traffic Control settings: you can have text, verbal, or both types of ATC messages depending on what you enable here. By default, ATC text & verbal messages should be enabled.

I’ve started a flight at the demo airport Seattle-Tacoma (KSEA). I’m on a GA ramp with our default C172. We’ll walk through the steps on setting up a flight plan and contacting ATC for
clearance & taxi instructions.

To get started, press the return or enter key to bring up the ATC screen. Note that if you hit the enter key and you get a box like this

It is a chat box and means you have multiplayer enabled. Turn it off in network settings to get ATC back.

Press the button “file flight plan” to specify the info about your flight. X-Plane 11.30 has a revised ATC voice system that is much more flexible than ever before. This also means there are a few new fields in this window.

The Aircraft Identification box will list our C172’s tail number by default, but you can change this if you wish. Pick the aircraft manufacturer and model from the drop downs--these are new fields that ATC will use to identify your aircraft when they talk with you.

You can specify the airline and flight number if you wish, but I will leave them empty as they’re not required for our purposes now. The Departure ICAO is filled in for us with our current location, so we’ll fill in our destination airport, which is going to be the nearby Boeing Field (KBFI). I’ll fill in my enroute altitude as 3000. I’m going to leave the route blank because we want to go direct, but you could also enter any NDB/VOR/FIX/Airway to get real routings.

I’m going to go ahead and check the “auto-tune recommended frequencies” box. When combined with the departure wizard which is enabled by default, it makes the ATC process straightforward and easy to use. You can always tune your radios by hand or by double clicking on a line in the ATC window if you prefer.

Let’s “Request altimeter”. Now we need to read back the transmission--note that when I press the “readback transmission” button while ATC is talking I hear a beep--this indicates the line is in use and I have to wait and try again. You can also use the “repeat last transmission” button if you need to hear ATC’s instructions again.

Now we can “request clearance” and read back those instructions. The auto-tune option has already switched our COM 1 freq for us, so we can also request taxi now as well. Acknowledge the clearance as before and then look around you. You’ll see yellow arrows painted on the ground directing you to where you should go. Where the arrows stop, you must also stop and wait for further instructions.

Taxi to where the arrows are taking you. When you reach the side of the runway, ground will instruct you to contact the tower, and autotune the tower freq once you respond.

Check in with this new controller. This is how you tell the controller you’re now on their frequency waiting for their command. If there are AI aircraft using the runway, you will have to wait until they are done. This may take some time! At that time, Tower will call you and give you your takeoff clearance. Respond and then depart. Unless otherwise instructed, fly the runway heading up to your cleared altitude of 3,000 feet.

Once you’re in the air you’ll have additional options to cancel your flight plan and to request missed approach.

At some point, you will be handed off to the center controller on 124.20. Check in as you did before. Continue on your heading and altitude and eventually Center will begin vectoring you to an approach at your destination of KBFI.

Once the approach is set up, you will be handed off to KBFI’s tower for landing and the process continues until you’ve arrived back at the gate.

Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time!