[Euroscope Sector Files and Primary Radar]

10 hours ago, William Teale said:

I note in the currect sector files for Sydney (and so far as I could determine, all airports in aus), that there is no primary radar coverage.

Good pickup William. They accidentally disappeared when the RADAR data was updated. I'll add them back in.

[Alias File Required]

1 hour ago, Bradon Kendall said:

Okay thanks for the info, I have decided to change over to euroscope so it already has one but thanks for the help.

As you have used the VATPAC Euroscope Package, there is also an explanation of the alias file provided with this package in the file:

Documents\EuroScope\VATPAC\Data\Documents\Alias guide.pdf

[Sector Files]

The prf files Cam is referring to are only available if you have installed the Euroscope Installer (VATPAC Euroscope Package).

All the prf files are in folders in Documents\Euroscope\VATPAC. eg you will find Melbourne Aerodrome.prf in the Class C folder within the VATPAC folder.

[AIRAC2003]

Ahh, I see the problem. The oceanic sector files are treated differently.

All the Australian sectors are correct.

Only one set of Euroscope sector files are produced and they are used for both the standalone and packaged version of Euroscope.

I'll look into the issue for future AIRAC updates.

 

[annoying problem]

You're seeing the Flight Plan symbol (a box) which for some reason has not automatically correlated with the radar symbol. To manually correlate the two, double click on the flight plan symbol (blue box in this case) and single click on the radar symbol (which will be in the correct position). 

[AIRAC2003]

30 minutes ago, William Teale said:

My confusion is that my AIRAC2003 includes air routes which were deleted in the SUP.

Thanks William, SUP 135/19 was included. Can you let me know which air routes are incorrect. It's possible I missed some when doing the update (I did a quick check and the deleted routes W233, J43, W282, W295 are not in the sector files).

[AIRAC2003]

Yes, unfortunately it seems to be a trend where many AIRAC updates appear in the AIP Sups with AIP DAP, ERSA and DAH updates not occurring until the next AIRAC. All of these documents are available from https://www.airservicesaustralia.com/aip/aip.asp?

To complicate matters, many of the AIP SUPs get reissued with a different number if there are minor changes or a change in the implementation date. The numbers below will not exist on the AIP site after a period of time as they are updated or cancelled when they are incorporated into the AIP documents.

Here is a summary of the AIP Sups included in the Controller client and ATC Assist AIRAC2003 update

IFR Waypoint updates

• Sup 155/19 - HB VOR procedures
• Sup 156/19 - AV RNAV-U RWY36
• Sup 11/20 - IFR waypoint updates
• Sup 03/20 - YGLS RNAV updates
• Sup 26/20 - YCEE RNAV updates

NDB's Decommissioned

• YAMB - Sup 152/19 navaids update,  IFR wpt update, airways updates, ERSA Flight Planning Requirement(FPR) updates
• YPED - Sup 159/19 navaids update, IFR wpt update, airways updates, FPR updates ATIS: 126.25

SID/STAR Updates

• Sup 141/19 YMML ARBEY 6A
• Sup 153/19 YSSY BOREE 2 and MARLN 5
• Sup 166/19 YPPH AVNEX 3 and OTLED 3

I haven't included SUP 135/19 in the list above as the Tasmanian air route updates where included in AIRAC 1912 and remain in 2003

For pilots who use the Navigraph FMS updates, they usually contain the AIP SUP updates that are valid for each AIRAC, so will align with our Controller client updates.

[airac update]

37 minutes ago, Nick Falcione said:

why post 2 files then

Nick, the second file is the Euroscope sector files only and is not required if you use the VATPAC Euroscope Package which includes the sector files along with many other files used to setup Euroscope with a specific profiles and display options.

The second file is only required for Euroscope controllers that don't use the VATPAC Euroscope Package.

[Tailem Bend Sector File Extensions]

Thanks for the feedback Angus. I've fixed the sector file so that EXTEND-WOL is now an option and the fix will be in the AIRAC 2003 update this Thursday.

I can't fix the AFV coupling and will leave that to others.

Cheers

[Setting up an ATIS with Audio for VATSIM]

20 minutes ago, Kirk Christie said:

Perth Profiles with common runway configurations.

Thanks Kirk, I'm sure this will help controllers using vATIS. When you have time, can you please export the facility configuration from vATIS and add the .gz file  to your post. Others can then just import the .gz file to use your configuration.

[Setting up an ATIS with Audio for VATSIM]

12 hours ago, Kirk Christie said:

how do i get rid of that?

It's built in unless you select International in the configuration which removes it, but International also causes all the numbers to appear in the text as words.

[Setting up an ATIS with Audio for VATSIM]

No sorry. Only did this one to understand what's possible. If it's updated to the handle the OZ standard, then I'll gladly spend the time to do all the airports if no one else has completed them by then

[Setting up an ATIS with Audio for VATSIM]

2 hours ago, Nicholas Gilbert said:

End of the day if you can get vATIS to work instead, that's fine too, but I guess we're kinda beholden to the vATIS mob on that front.

Path of least resistance for me at present

If nothing happens with vATIS and I get some free time, I'll try and help with what your doing (if nobody  else steps up).

[Setting up an ATIS with Audio for VATSIM]

1 hour ago, Nicholas Gilbert said:

Let me know if you want any of these updated scripts. My aircrafts.json (which governs the specific options for places like YSSY, YMML etc) just lives in the Generator's AppData file (%appdata%\VATPAC\ATIS), but I think all the other scripts (for winds, temperature, qnh, and all rwy config for non custom airports e.g ymay) I think need to be done at source level and then built.

Thanks Nick. Like you I had a look at modifying Eoin's work and yes you would need to set up an Electron dev environment to modify and test the code. I didn't proceed any further for two reasons

• I don't have the time to do it
• The  AFV ATIS bot speech translator can't be controlled easily as it can be in vATIS (using contractions) and that stopped the use of the normal abbreviations used in our ATIS standard, resulting in very long ATIS text messages (vATIS generates a .wav file and sends this to the AFV network for the voice ATIS).

I'm hoping the vATIS developer will find a way to support our standards which will provide the correct voice and text messages. I've also asked for cloud report filtering so it only includes cloud below 5,000 or the airport MSA whichever is the greater as per our and the ICAO standard

[Setting up an ATIS with Audio for VATSIM]

13 hours ago, Nicholas Gilbert said:

@Peter StoryWhat issues had you mentioned?

They are on Eoin's github as issues 4 and 5 https://github.com/EoinAviation/VATPAC-ATIS-Generator-V2/issues

Just minor enhancements.

I have contacted the vATIS developer by PM a week ago and he has agreed to look at adding an option to provide ATIS output using the VATPAC standard. No promises or time frame as yet.

[Setting up an ATIS with Audio for VATSIM]

Great Nick. If you do update the code can you please look at a couple of issues I raised on the GitHub site to improve the program.

[Setting up an ATIS with Audio for VATSIM]

Here is a vATIS facility config file for YSSY where I have used all the runway modes and applied the required operational info to the ATIS message.

vATIS Facility - SYDNEY (YSSY).gz

The facility configurations in the dropdown list are in runway mode order of preference for noise abatement. If you click on the ARPT COND label when the YSSY facility is open you will have the option of setting the runway conditions. If you use this, always select SFC COND and the appropriate item for the current runway condition and then "Apply". The words SFC COND will appear in the ATIS text, but not the voice ATIS

[EDIT] NOTE: the above does not work as planned as the SFC COND items are inserted after any operational info that appears in the ARPT COND window as below. If you use surface conditions and the ARPT COND window contains existing information you will instead need to insert the text SFC COND DAMP (or the appropriate surface condition) before the existing information in the ARPT COND window for it to appear in the correct sequence

The runway modes are pre-configured with the required Operational Info. OPR INFO appears in the ATIS text but is not spoken.

When RWY 07 is selected, only "runway seven" is spoken instead of "zero seven" - this is an issue with vATIS

If you want to have "Sydney" spoken as the airport name instead of "Sydney International Airport", you will have to modify (at your own risk after making a backup) the Airports.xml file in the folder you installed vATIS into. The default folder is AppData\Local\vATIS. If you don't understand how to find this file, then you are best to leave it alone.

I did this as a test to see how reliable vATIS is once many different controllers try and use it. NOTE: it uses the "International" configuration option which results in all numbers in the text to be expanded into words which is not what is normally used in Australia. 

[Setting up an ATIS with Audio for VATSIM]

23 hours ago, Nicholas Gilbert said:

Is there any reason we can't just reconfigure Eoin's Generator?

Could be done, the only issues I'm aware of is you don't get a choice of voice and the experience to date has been unreliable in activating the bot voice...and it doesn't work for VRC

[Setting up an ATIS with Audio for VATSIM]

34 minutes ago, Greg Barber said:

Old quote but just noticed this stuff myself.  Try putting "CURFEW OPERATIONS IN PROGRESS".  You get "Cur....Few clouds operations in progress."    Had to mispell the word to get it to work!

 I have been testing ideas to configure vATIS to our standards and have been using YBAS as my test bed so I don't annoy pilots. Apart from bot errors after disconnecting and trying to configure vATIS (plan to advise dev of this) , I've found the connection reliable using YBAS during all my connection attempts. As I progress I'm building a list of bugs and changes for the dev to consider.

I've figured out how to change the spoken runway names so they follow our standard. "Sydney" instead of "Sydney International Airport". "Alice" instead of "Alice Springs Airport" etc. I have used the [ARPT COND] item (positioned after RWY) for Runway Conditions and Operational Info and set up the ARPT COND check boxes to cover all runway conditions and other operation info normally used. I also created silent contractions for SFC COND and OPR INFO so they appear in the text but are not spoken and so 34 LR is spoken as 34 Left and Right and many others. I've had no problems with "CURFEW RWY IN OPER TIL TIME 1900Z" being spoken correctly (only had to add TIL to the contractions).

There is an issue with using mag var as the exact variation is subtracted resulting in winds 96 degrees when METAR is 100 degrees and mag var is -4. This is easily fixed by setting up the mag var for each airport to the closest 10 degrees.

I'm working my way through all the runway modes for YSSY and will publish the file once I'm finished testing.

There are a number of annoying aspects which I plan to ask the dev to address

• correct use of CAVOK to replace vis > 10km, no prevailing weather and no cloud
• add  an option to abbreviate numbers in the text for winds, visibility, temperature, QNH so they are shown in the text as 1013 instead of ONE ZERO ONE THREE
• Can SURFACE WINDS  be changed to WINDS? Can TEMPERATURE in text be changed to TEMP?

In terms of distribution, importing the individual facility files to set up vATIS for VATPAC will be painful. If we commit to vATIS, I'll build a small installer that will update the app's config file with all VATPAC ATIS facilities, but will leave alone any non-VATPAC facility already configured.

[Setting up an ATIS with Audio for VATSIM]

@Sean Harrison and @Richard Quigley  Keep up the good work guys. It would be great if we can create facility configurations for vATIS that match our standards.

Quote

Importing a facility configuration file will also import all configuration profiles associated with each facility within the import file.

As you progress, I'm interested to understand if one facility configuration file can be created for distribution that covers all our ATIS airports as implied in the quote above from the vATIS site. This would be better than having to provide a facility configuration file for each ATIS location. If you can succeed in meeting our ATIS standard then we can look at hosting and supporting the configuration file.

[AIRAC1912]

Good find @William Teale  You are the first to report the error since it entered the sector files in the first half of 2018. After quick check of the .sct/sct2 files, I found the DOSEL and NONIX RWY 27 SIDS are missing the PEBTO fix, but have ATNOL and PARSI, so VRC will be affected as well.

I'll repair the files and discuss with Harrison the best approach to publish updates.

[Removal of certain SIDs at Sydney]

Thanks for the advice @William Teale. We have the review of the Sydney LI in our "pending" list of work and will also update 5.1.1.3 to refer to Section 7 instead of Appendix A

[Sydney Sector Files - Kilo Apron & Taxiway B4]

Correct, it contains the YSSY update.

[Sydney Sector Files - Kilo Apron & Taxiway B4]

The VATPAC sector files have been updated to include a refreshed YSSY airport layout. As a number of sector files include the YSSY airport layout, it was easier to produce a complete updated set of sector files for Euroscope and VRC.  From the time of this post the updated sector files and Euroscope Package are available. The Controller Client Updater beta testers will automatically receive the updates.

As this is only an YSSY layout update, the use of these sector files instead the previous AIRAC1912 release is optional.

 

[Marshall Islands]

Sean, Tristan is not involved in this any more. I researched the Class D differences between ICAO and FAA and found it was mainly phraseology, the latest update available is the Q2 VATPAC board minutes.

I'm sure when Callum has time he will provide an update. As you can appreciate there has been a lot on lately which impacts the limited amount time is available to support this hobby.