markvii wrote: * | Mon May 01, 2017 4:48 am |
Other atc programs are "terrain aware" (pro/atc-x,pilot2atc and now also voxatc beta) so I was wondering if there are plans for pf3 to be made terrain aware as well ?
Terrain and sid/stars (navigraph and all that) awareness would really be the icing on the cake imo.
Thnx
.Can't say it works for voxatc beta because I didn't try it but the developer says it is terrain aware. (
http://voxatc.com/Home.aspx/Beta.- check the line where it says version 7.3).
This seems to be contested as far as I have seen. Lets just say that the Voxatc beta is not run on the same terms as PF3!!
Think of it this way. Real ATC know of the surrounding terrain (at least one hopes they do!). There are only two ways they can see you, visually or by radar. If visually then there is a not unreasonable chance that you too can see the terrain. The only other way they can see you is with radar. Radar as you may already know is line of sight. It cannot see around corners, through mountains etc. Therefore ATC can only vector you if you show up on their radar. That means that either you are above the local terrain or following a published procedure that allows them to have line of sight. This notion that ATC can somehow vector you around mountains when you are below their peaks is misplaced. All approach charts will have MSA minimum safe altitude marked on them. Sometimes the numbers are displayed as a pie chart and sometimes you will see large numbers placed over some of the chart areas. These numbers are there for your benefit not ATC's. They are usually QNH. All you have to do is not to descend below the MSA. One good way of ensuring that PF3 doesn't descend you below the MSA is to set the FAF altitude for your destination field in the bottom right of the SID/STAR page. In most cases the FAF altitude will be above the chart MSA but if not make it so in PF3.
Bear in mind that you the pilot are responsible for not scratching the paint. Not ATC!
All you have to do is look at the approach charts, find the lowest MSA, then in PF3 enter the FAF altitude for that airfield ensuring that it is not lower than the lowest published MSA. I would say that's only a few seconds worth of your time and PF3 will remember for the next time you fly there.
Where you have to fly a procedure that goes around a mountain say then you are on your own as you are in real life.