ATC ID's when using Huub's Spitfire/Hurricane repaints

[Miggers]

What do peeps use?, Squadron callsigns,or just SPITFIRE or HURRICANE?

Certainly not what's used in AH's Hurricane "EXPERIMENTAL N700MS" I hope.

Miggs

[Motormouse]

What do peeps use?, Squadron callsigns,or just SPITFIRE or HURRICANE?

Certainly not what's used in AH's Hurricane "EXPERIMENTAL N700MS" I hope.

Miggs

Airforce works; otherwise you need to mess about with edit voicepack

Ttfn

Pete

[Miggers]

Airforce works; otherwise you need to mess about with edit voicepack

Ttfn

Pete

Ta Pete.
I thought I had an EVP for either "SPITFIRE" or "SPIT" and "HURRI" for Hurricanes somewhere.

[Sbob]

I've posted in the past about the convention I use for WWII-era ATC.

Basically, it really comes down to what YOU expect to hear.
The convention I use for "ETO" aircraft is the side or fuse letters and numbers.


To use my ATC stuff, you'll want to include the "atc_id", "atc_airline", and "atc_flight_number" lines in each aircraft's "[fltsim.XX]" section of the aircraft.cfg file.
As an example, let's say we want ATC to talk to aircraft XJ825.
We would add the following to that aircraft's "fltsim.XX" section:

atc_id=XJ825
atc_airline=XJ
atc_flight_number=XJ825

In the game, we would see the text of "XJ825" if its enabled and the aircraft would be called "X-Ray Julliet Eight Two Five".

So, what's going on and how can you tweak this stuff for FS9?

The "atc_id=" is only for the red text if you have it enabled.
The "atc_airline=" is actually a dummy and is needed if you want to hear both letters and numbers. If FS9 can't decode the letters in this section, it just skips it after a very short delay.
The "atc_flight_number=" line can contain letters and numbers as long as we use the dummy line above it. If we don't use the dummy line, weird things can happen.



As for the rest, you would add
atc_type=HAWKER
atc_model=HURRICANE

or

atc_type=SUPERMARINE
atc_model=SPITFIRE

to the [general] section just below the "[fltsim.XX]" sections.

Note that this convention only uses stock FS9 voice files and we don't have to worry about running Edit Voicepack.

[Sbob]

I almost forgot, the other version is for aircraft with letter designations.

Let's say we have a Spit with the code TR-B on the fuse and its registered as XS1234.

Again, use the "dummy" trick and you'll wind up with:

atc_id=XS1234
atc_airline=B
atc_flight_number=TRB

In this case, ATC will call you* "Tango Romeo Bravo" or "Romeo Bravo" for short.
This, to me, is more logical since the tower can see the letters on the fuse more clearly than the numbers on the tail.
I use this convention for allied planes during WWII.
For Axis and Soviet planes it gets a little more complicated. You'll need some VPC files for words like "Red', "Blue", "Black", "White", etc. and just use the normal airliner convention.
You can find some of the more more oddball callsigns at MAIW. They should still have a master VPC file for download or start raiding their AI packs.

BTW, I've asked this a couple of times- if anyone wants the FULL list of "stock" FS9 voice files just say the word and I'll post the three lists here or whip up a zip file with three text files.



*-This also works just fine with AI traffic as long as the airport BGL files allow airline names.

[Mick]

Something to remember is that ATC communication is all about brevity. No unnecessary words or terms. Don't hog the channel! I'm only personally experienced with American practice long post-war, but brevity would be even more important at a busy wartime base. I haven't flown from a military base but people I know who have tell me that it very much that way.

When I flew from a controlled airport I would check in like, "Westfield Tower, Cessna Two Four Six Six Echo ready to taxi for departure." In reply and from then on the tower would simply address me as "Six Six Echo."

That airport had an Air Guard base and the tower knew their squadron call sign (Hawk) and what type of plane they flew, so when the Guard checked in I would hear something like, "Hawk One with a flight of four ready for departure," and the tower would simply address the flight leader as "Hawk." If it was a single aircraft it would check in as "Air Guard Fox One Hundred, Six Four Niner Two, ready to taxi," and the tower would address him simply as "Air Guard Four Niner Two," or just "Guard Four Niner Two." The regional airliners would call in like, "Pilgrim Flight Sixteen," and the tower would address them that way, more often skipping the word "flight." Communications with inbound aircraft was along those lines - brief.

Sometimes it got even briefer. I recall one time flying into Westchester County Airport, New York City's general aviation airport late on a Friday afternoon, at which time Westchester County might be the busiest airport on the planet. We checked in with something like, "Westchester Approach, Piper (N-number) entering your area for landing," and got a reply like, "Roger piper (N-number), descend to (altitude), assume heading (whatever), do not reply to this or any subsequent calls. If you miss a call, turn away, fly heading (heading) for ten minutes, climb to (altitude,) turn back and call in again." Communication was to be kept to an absolute minimum!

So if you want to be "as real as it gets," don't worry about putting something into every line that Microsoft put in the cfg file as possible ATC verbiage. Rather, delete lines that would never be spoken. atc_airline=, atc_type= and atc_id= is all you ever need and even some of that's too much after initial contact with the tower. Keep it brief. Radio discipline! Professionally!

[Sbob]

Yep, I know.

One thing I stress is that ATC is what YOU make of it.
Going back to WWII, a lot of airport comms relied on an Aldis lamp and a flare gun. Maybe some Morse code for the bombers..

We have to work with what FS gives us.

[Miggers]

Thanks for the tips Sbob.
Yes indeed Mick,brevity is indeed the name of the ATC game.
Over here in UK,warbird fighters/transport/bombers are usually called by the type name,i.e "Spitfire,Hurricane,Mustang,Dakota or WHY.
Bare in mind that most are privately owned(The BBMF has 5 Spits,2 Hurricanes,1 Dakota and 1 Lancaster and are still on Air Ministry/RAF charge using their serial numbers)and so have a "civvy" G- registration,so ATC will call "Spitfire G-CFGJ" and
shorten it to "Spitfire Golf Juliet"(Spitfire Mk.1a N3200).
When on display it would be known simply as "Spitfire" by the airshow ATC.

I think,as I run a modern set up,that's the kind of thing I shall aim for,thanks for your tips and ideas gents.

[Miggers]

After a bit of rummaging(reading "First Light",Geoff Wellum's book),92 Sqn callsign at the time was "Gannic"