No doubt many folks would love to fly above the clouds from Pittsburgh International to Morgantown, West Virginia--home of the 11-0 Sugar Bowl bound West Virginia Mountaineers! (Go Ers!) With the PIT-MGW controller and a few other goodies, you will be able to do that just that. You'll even be able to communicate in real time with simulated air traffic controllers. The controllers will call out positioning information to you all along the route. When you break out of the clouds, Morgantown's Hart field will be dead ahead!
The PIT-MGW controller simulates a Crown (USAir) commuter flight from Pittsburgh International to Hart Field in Morgantown. The air route follows the actual route flown by the commuter (weather permitting) several times a day, seven days a week. The aircraft usually flown is a Shorts 330. With full out throttle and a little imagination, Microsoft Flight Simulator's Cessna 182 can come close to emulating the Shorts.
This is the first of what will be (hopefully) many controllers for Microsoft Flight Simulator and Miika Asunta's FS-ATC. I would enjoy hearing from private or commercial pilots or from air traffic controllers. Maybe you have a flight plan that would be fun to simulate. I'd be glad to work with pilots or controllers in creating new controller files, especially for ILS routes that professional or private pilots have flown.
I worked very hard to make this controller as accurate as possible. Its development involved numerous conversations with professional pilots and air traffic controllers. I hope you enjoy it.
Getting started
To use this controller you need three things:
1. Microsoft Flight Simulator 4.0 (Mac version)
2. FS-ATC 2.1 Air Traffic Control software for Microsoft Flight Simulator Macintosh version 4.0 (Available on several on line services and Nautilus CD-ROM.)
3. Mallard Scenery files, SD-11 World Scenery and SD-9 World Scenery.
Open either the Pittsburgh @ Gate or Pittsburgh Soup situations from Microsoft Flight Simulator. Next, open the SD-11 World Scenery sector. Tune Pittsburgh Clearance Delivery on the com radio on 126.75. They will be the first folks you contact. The controller will take it from there.
Usually, whenever the controller talks to you, you are expected to respond. If you don’t respond, the controller will get out of sequence.
The controller will automatically change scenery sectors. It is neat feature of FS-ATC 2.1.
Some Caveats
The PIT-MGW controller is designed to use Apple’s Speech Manager. It will not work as well with sound resources or text.
In real life, Morgantown (MGW) is in one sector (Cincinnati) and Pittsburgh (PIT) is in another (Detroit). Microsoft Flight Simulator 4.0 picked this up and puts each airport in different scenery files. You will need Mallard Scenery files SD-11 World Scenery and SD-9 World Scenery. Unfortunately, Mallard did a very poor job matching SD-9 and SD-11. If you are flying on course in VFR conditions you’ll see a shift in the road below (Interstate 79) when the scenery files change. (“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain...”)
Flying the PIT-MGW controller is much better with cloud levels set. I created an overcast situation called "Pittsburgh Soup" with cloud bases at 2,700 AGL and tops at 5,000 feet AGL and an upper level 1/3 scattered at 10,000 feet AGL. When the controller changes from SD-11 to SD-9, the shifting of I-79 will not be seen. Not only does this add to the realism, it also makes flying the controller much more challenging! See how you do flying through that soup!
As you approach Morgantown, the FS-ATC navigation display changes to an instrument landing system. It will show if you are on the glide slope, too high, too low, etc. The glide scope indicator is still under development. Sometimes the indicator is not updated correctly. Look for improved operation in future versions of FS-ATC.
This controller is freeware, but not in the public domain. It may be copied and passed along to others as long as the controller is unmodified and this read me file is included.
The author assumes no responsibility for much of anything!
Thanks and Kudos
I am thankful to Miika Asunta, Robert Dorsett and Pat Camp for their valuable and patient assistance. These gentlemen understand flying and know air traffic control very well. Special thanks to Miika Asunta, author of FS-ATC 2.1, for making Flight Simulator 4.0 fun again!
Version History
Version 1.37: Corrected Pittsburgh taxi instructions from Pittsburgh ground to match the actual taxi way designations found in the U.S. Terminal Procedures.
Version 1.36 First release version (believe it or not!)
