May the Copilot handle radio contacts with radar, ground and tower?

[levalot]

(this message is a correction of the former, sorry for my english, I´m a spanish speaker, is too late in the night and I´m a litle bit tired, I
pressed the post icon by mistake before previewing it, my apologize)
Hello all:
I will ask for your help, knowledge and experience with FSP before buying.
I already know that through the keyboard the captain may write the frequency numbers for the radios while the copilot read those keys
and
tune the radios for the captain, but: can he handle radio communications like answering to the following centers , tower, clearence and
other services?. This is one of the most boring task for a pilot in FS9 , pressing all the time 1 or 2 as required. Does the copilot give a
hand on this task releasing the captain for other things? (as happens with Radar Contatc).
I will appreciate too much if somebody may answer this specific topic because the available info is a little bit confusing for me.
Warm regards and thanks for your attention.
Mario

[SE-TMA]

The copilot does not handle contact with ATC. THat is still your own task. However he does enter values in radios, altimeter, nav and such.

If you think ATC contact is boring, why not ignore it and turn ATC off in the FS menu? Sure, realism and immersion drops, but since you don't like it
anyway....


And on another note:
You didn't need to create a new post. You can simply edit your existing message.

Welcome to the forums!

[Ehmjo]

I would also like a copilot who answers the radio.

On long flights i keep in touch with ATC untill I'm on crz alt and the controller tells me to change to another frequency.
I tell him that i will, but do not contact the next controller.
En route I tune to the next station so i can listen in, but never contact them.
Only just before i reach my top of descent i contact ATC again.
At first they will give a few turn left/right commands, which i ignore. After a few of those the controller will say something like: turn left xxx
degrees and resume own navigation.
From that point on I answer ATC again.
Works fine for me.

[fruitfly]

SE-TMA wrote:
The copilot does not handle contact with ATC. ........ However he does enter values in radios, altimeter, nav and such.

There's an elegant way of bypassing this limitation: speech reckognition program. You don't have to buy one- the
freeware "SpeechBuddy2" at flightsim.com (3 files) can be used to tune all the frequencies ( No other voice reckognition prog,
-like "shoot"- can not tune the radios. Not even the payware "voicebuddy" can not do this. ).
Of course, it can also read out the checklists and interact with ATC.
So, it would be you who would give orders and FO would do it. Just like in reality. You can also make FO answer the way you want him to
to every command separately! (like "yes master", "your wish is my command" et c. It's good for ego issues and low self-esteem! )

If you choose this approach and want me to explain it step by step, just say so.

[SE-TMA]

I suppose speechbuddy2 uses text-to-speech technology? It's useful but sounds awful. I do not like the way it sounds, unfortunately.

[SWAFO]

Keep in mind that FSP is entirely seperate from FS9's ATC. The interaction would be very tricky.

[fruitfly]

True, but instead of painstakingly trying to keep the mouse pointer over the knob to tune the radios while the VC swings left-right, you just
say "set nav 1 obs heading to blah blah" and that's it
That's the main advantage.

[pagir]

There is another way:

When the ATC is saying "change your frequencie to..." change it. You will have to press "1" to change the frequency, press it. After, you'll
have to contact the new controller. DON'T DO IT NOW. Wait until you are near your destination airport. At this point, contact the tower. Your
flight plan won't be cancelled. (If I remember well... )

Pagir



Post Edited ( 08-28-05 22:46 )

[SWAFO]

That works Pagir! I've used it a few times.

A easy fix for the problem fruitfly brought up is simply not using the VC! Voila! No problem at all!

[Slaghead]

So THAT's how you get around getting your flight plan cancelled... I always ended up re-opening it when I got close but it messes up the
fuel use and speed information in the flight plan. Flying past Los Angeles from San Diego I had constant, and I literally mean constant
handoffs for at least 20 minutes... Grrrrrr... I don't mind the ATC, but when it does that stuff I get annoyed really fast.

[SWAFO]

Yep, that does the trick!