04.0 User Guide - Features, Functions + Operation

User Guide
Part 2: Features, Functions + Operation
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v.1.1 – 15 Sept 2020 | ©2014-2020 – P2A | All rights reserved.
User Guide
Contents
Overview ...................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Screen Overview .......................................................................................................................................................... 5
Multi-Function Display (MFD) Screen ................................................................................................................................... 5
TOP SECTION ................................................................................................................................................................................. 5
CENTER SECTION ............................................................................................................................................................................ 6
BOTTOM SECTION .......................................................................................................................................................................... 6
DISPLAY PANELS ............................................................................................................................................................................ 7
MAP PANEL .................................................................................................................................................................................. 7
MAP DISPLAY BUTTONS .................................................................................................................................................................. 9
MAP FUNCTION BUTTONS ............................................................................................................................................................. 10
Flight Plan (FPL) Panel ................................................................................................................................................ 11

ENTERING A SIMPLE FLIGHT PLAN ................................................................................................................................................... 11
ENTERING LAT/LON WAYPOINTS FOR TRANS-OCEANIC FLIGHTS .......................................................................................................... 15
ENTERING ALTITUDE AND GROUNDSPEED ......................................................................................................................................... 15
ENTERING CUSTOM GROUND SPEED FOR WAYPOINTS ........................................................................................................................ 17
VALIDATING AND FILING THE FLIGHT PLAN ....................................................................................................................................... 17
A FLIGHT PLAN WITH SIDS, STARS AND APPROACHES ....................................................................................................................... 18
ADDING THE SID .......................................................................................................................................................................... 18
FLYING THE SID ........................................................................................................................................................................... 20
ADDING A STAR .......................................................................................................................................................................... 20
FLYING THE STAR ........................................................................................................................................................................ 23
ENTERING AN APPROACH .............................................................................................................................................................. 23
IFR FLIGHT PLAN WITHOUT AN APPROACH ...................................................................................................................................... 25
AUTO PLAN BUTTON .................................................................................................................................................................... 25
A WORD ABOUT TOD (TOP OF DESCENT) ....................................................................................................................................... 28
ADDING AIRWAYS TO A FLIGHT PLAN .............................................................................................................................................. 29
IMPORTING FLIGHT PLANS ............................................................................................................................................................. 33
EXPORTING FLIGHT PLANS ............................................................................................................................................................. 36
Info Panel.................................................................................................................................................................... 38
Direct To Panel ........................................................................................................................................................... 43
SAMPLE DIRECTTO ENTRY ............................................................................................................................................................. 46
Grammar Help (GRMR Help) ..................................................................................................................................... 47

PRACTICE SPEECH ......................................................................................................................................................................... 48
SPEECH RECOGNITION TRAINING..................................................................................................................................................... 49
PERSONALIZED SPEECH TRAINING ................................................................................................................................................... 50
LISTEN BEFORE YOU SAY ............................................................................................................................................................... 51
ATC Interaction Area .................................................................................................................................................. 51

USING THE SAYIT FEATURE ............................................................................................................................................................ 53
USING THE SAYIT PLUS (?+) FEATURE .............................................................................................................................................. 54
Radio Stack Area ........................................................................................................................................................ 56

Nav Frequencies .................................................................................................................................................................. 59
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TERPs (Terminal Procedures) Panel ........................................................................................................................... 60
GRABBING CHARTS FROM THE WEB ................................................................................................................................................ 61
CHARTS FROM CHART TOOLS ......................................................................................................................................................... 65
CHARTS FROM SIMPLATES ............................................................................................................................................................ 65
Auto Pilot .................................................................................................................................................................... 66

Configuration Panel ................................................................................................................................................... 67
P2A SETUP ................................................................................................................................................................................. 68
ATC SETTINGS ............................................................................................................................................................................. 73
SOUND SETTINGS ......................................................................................................................................................................... 75
VOICES ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 81
SPEECH TAB ................................................................................................................................................................................ 82
AI TRAFFIC .................................................................................................................................................................................. 85
AI TRAFFIC RANGE ........................................................................................................................... ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.
FLIGHT PLAN ............................................................................................................................................................................... 87
WX (WEATHER SOURCES) ............................................................................................................................................................. 90
BUTTONS (BTNS) ......................................................................................................................................................................... 91
Taxiway Maintenance ................................................................................................................................................ 94

VIEWING TAXIWAYS ..................................................................................................................................................................... 95
VIEWING GATES ........................................................................................................................................................................... 96
IMPORTING AIRPORT TAXIWAYS AND GATES..................................................................................................................................... 96
Import Taxiways ................................................................................................................................................................. 97
Gate Imports ....................................................................................................................................................................... 98
IMPORTING ARTCC CENTER INFORMATION...................................................................................................................................... 99
EDITING ARTCC CENTER NAMES AND FREQUENCIES ........................................................................................................................ 100
TAXIWAY MAINTENANCE ............................................................................................................................................................. 102
Taxiway Editing Rules ....................................................................................................................................................... 102
Taxiway Edits .................................................................................................................................................................... 103
Adding Taxi Paths ............................................................................................................................................................. 104
EDITING GATES AND PARKING ...................................................................................................................................................... 108
RUNWAY PREFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................................... 115
SAVE AND LOAD ......................................................................................................................................................................... 118
Saving Taxiways ................................................................................................................................................................ 119
Loading Taxiways ............................................................................................................................................................. 119
Saving and Loading Gates ................................................................................................................................................ 119
Testing Taxi Paths ............................................................................................................................................................. 120
Test Taxi To Runway ......................................................................................................................................................... 120
Test Taxi to Anywhere on Airport..................................................................................................................................... 121
Test Taxi To Gate .............................................................................................................................................................. 122
Reference Documentation ....................................................................................................................................... 123
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User Guide
Overview
Pilot2ATC is a companion Windows® application for use with any flight simulator (SIM) compatible with FSUIPC
(Microsoft® Flight Simulator X, Prepar3D®) or XPUIPC (X-Plane). It provides 2-way voice radio communication
between you and simulated ATC Controllers, making your flight simulator experience much more engaging and
providing an opportunity to learn ATC radio procedures without having to “go live” on-line.
P2A also provides numerous other capabilities intended to make your flight more enjoyable and realistic:
• VFR and IFR Flight Planning – including Airways, SIDs, STARs and Approaches;
• Moving Maps (Worldwide Satellite, Street, Hi and Low IFR Charts, Topographical maps and US VFR Sectionals);
• Airport Diagrams and Approach Plates (US Only);
• PDF File viewer view any Diagram or Approach Plate you can download to your PC, enabling global coverage
for charts and approach plates, etc.;
• Built-in browser capability for worldwide airport and approach plates;
• Airport Information;
• “Glass” Radio stack with Frequency Finder;
• Real Time Weather;
• Selectable Radio Chatter;
• Automatic Pilot (works with most aircraft);
• Flight Performance Information (Speed, Distance, Time, etc.); and,
• And much more… .
The user interface for the Multi-function Display (MFD) is inspired by the Garmin® G3X Touch™ and, if needed,
can be opened and closed by the user to conserve screen real-estate. The MFD function is independent of the ATC
Controller functions and makes the experience much more realistic than in previous versions of the program.
This User Guide will attempt to cover all the features of Pilot2ATC v.2.0+ so you’ll have a good reference manual
when learning the program. For the most part, the program is intuitive enough you should not need to refer to
this manual very much after a little time using the product.
There have been many users involved in testing Pilot2ATC and making suggestions for new features. I would like
to thank all of them for their valuable contributions – especially the following individuals for their active and
continuing participation in this process:
Germany United Kingdom United States
Bill Clark
Helge Tessmar Clive Joy
Maury Pratt
Thanks again to all for your contributions!
NOTE: Throughout this document, the term P2A will be used as an abbreviation for Pilot2ATC.
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Screen Overview
Multi-Function Display (MFD) Screen
When P2A first opens, the main MFD screen pictured above will be displayed. This is the main window for
interacting with the program. The user interface for this was inspired by the Garmin® G3X™ Touch glass panel,
though it doesn’t attempt to accurately simulate that device.
The MFD screen provides all the map and flight planning features, situational awareness aids and much more. If
screen real estate is limited, it can be opened to set up your flight plan and then closed and recalled later, as
needed, or it can be minimized to show only the bottom section containing the speech interaction and radio
control functions.
The sections that follow go into great detail on how to interact with the main screen and other supporting
screens. For explanation purposes, we’ll divide the MFD screen into three [3] sections:
• The top section provides location information and some control functions such as altimeter and Transponder
settings.
• The large middle section provides all the map and flight planning functions as well as most of the situational
awareness capabilities.
• The bottom section provides control of the Com and Nav Radios and the ATC Interaction. Now let’s go a little
deeper into each section.
Top Section
Starting in the upper left corner, here are the highlights:
1. Timer – click the timer window to start and stop the elapsed time. click the Redo key beside it to reset the
timer to zero.
2. WPT – Displays the next waypoint identifier in the flight plan. (Read Only)
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3. DIST – Displays the distance to the next waypoint. (Read Only)
4. DTK – Displays the desired track to the next waypoint. (Read Only)
5. ETE – Displays the estimated time enroute (ETE) to the next waypoint. (Read Only)
6. Dest Dist – Displays total distance to the destination airport of the loaded flight plan. (Read Only)
7. Dest ETE – Displays ETE to the destination airport. (Read Only)
8. TOD Dist – Displays distance to Top of Descent (TOD) point.
9. TOD ETE – Displays time to TOD point.
10. TAS – True Airspeed (Read Only). clicking on this area, when connected to the SIM, will change the displayed
airspeed from TAS to GS (Ground Speed) to IAS (Indicated Airspeed) and back to TAS (True Airspeed).
NOTE: This feature only works when connected to the SIM.
11. Altitude – Altitude is displayed in one of three [3] modes – Indicated MSL, Actual MSL and AGL.
a. Indicated MSL is the height above mean sea level adjusted for the current barometric clickure setting.
b. Actual MSL is the height above Mean Sea Level
c. AGL is the height above ground, sometimes referred to as Radio Altitude.
NOTE: Like the airspeed feature, this change of display only works when connected to the SIM.
12. Altimeter – Altimeter setting. Click this display to bring up a dialog to enter a new setting.
13. Mode – Transponder Mode. lick this display to change the transponder mode: OFF – Standby – Active – Test.
NOTE: This may not work with all aircraft.
14. XPDR – Transponder Code. Click this area to open the transponder control panel.
TIP: If you type numbers on the keyboard and click, the new code will be entered and the panel will close.
Center Section
15. Map Panel – A sizable panel on the left side of the center section of the MFD window displaying the moving
map and other important information. This will be covered in another section of this manual.
16. Display Panel – A panel to the right of the Map panel displaying the flight plan and providing the functions
needed to build and modify the flight plan. It also displays:
a. Direct To pane enabling you modify your Flight Plan in flight to go Direct To a NavFix or Airport.
b. Info Information pane displaying information about a selected airport.
c. TERPs (Terminal Procedures) pane showing approach plates and other terminal charts.
d. Config Configuration pane enabling you set numerous options controlling P2A’s operation.
17. Display Buttons – To the right of the Display Panel are several buttons used to select what’s displayed in the
Display Panel or in separate windows. These will be covered separately.
Bottom Section
18. Com Radio – Provides a way to control the Com Radio. These functions will be covered in a separate section.
19. Nav Radio – Provides control for the Nav Radios.
20. Call Sign, Connect, Pause and On Top – The Call Sign box displays your call sign to be used with ATC. The
Connect button connects P2A to your simulator. The Pause button stops event processing while still
connected, and the On Top button will keep the MFD on top of all other windows on your desktop.
21. ATC Interaction Area – This area will be covered in detail later. It provides all the functions related to speech
recognition and voice interactions with ATC. The SayIt functions allow you to do much of your
communications using the computer’s voice rather than having to speak yourself. This is especially useful if
you’re having trouble being understood by the voice recognition system.
Much of the rest of this User Guide will go over the use of the MFD’s features in detail.
DEVELOPER NOTE: In version 2.0, P2A separates the Controller interaction and related functions from the MFD
functions like flight planning, moving map, etc. This provides a more realistic experience. Those of you familiar
with version 1 will recall that if you changed your flight plan or requested an approach from ATC, the new course
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would show up on the map automatically in many cases. In version 2.0, like in real life, you must enter any new
flight plan information into the MFD.
Another point to bring out here is that the controls in P2A, like the Com Radio controls, are there as a convenience.
The controls in the aircraft still work and if you change the frequency in the aircraft, it will change in P2A. Likewise,
changing frequencies in P2A will cause the aircraft frequency to change. Due to some differences in SIMs, some
radio and auto Pilot functions may not be controllable from P2A, but that’ll not affect what the aircraft can do. A
good example of this is in X-Plane you can’t change between Com1 and Com2 in P2A. However, when you make
that change in the aircraft, it’s reflected in P2A and works fine.
The MFD window is the main window for doing everything in P2A. The program separates the Controller
interaction and related functions from the MFD functions, like flight planning, moving map, etc.
If ATC gives you a modified clearance, you’ll need to make any changes to your flight plan or selected approach in
the MFD yourself.
Now let’s dive into the details of the MFD!
Display Panels
The center section of the MFD contains two [2] display panels displaying maps, Flight Plan, Charts, Radio Panel,
etc. The left panel is dedicated to displaying maps; the right panel displays all other types of information. The
panels and other areas of the MFD are synchronized in terms of displaying the same Flight information (Location,
Radio Frequency, etc.) and Flight Plan Information.
EXAMPLE: If you make a change to the Flight Plan in the Right Panel, the map is updated with the new flight plan
in the Left Panel.
The vertical bar between the panels is adjustable to allow you to get a wider screen on either side.
Map Panel
The map panel provides a great deal of situational awareness to enhance your flight sim experience. Five [5]
different map modes are currently available:
1. Sectional Chart (Cht) – VFR sectional charts for the US, while somewhat outdated, are useful for VFR Flight
planning and flights. Unfortunately, these aren’t currently available for other parts of the Globe.
2. Satellite (Sat) – Gives you a sense of flying over the terrain and is great when looking for VFR landmarks.
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3. Terrain (Ter) – Provides a “3D” view of the terrain, complete with contour lines and elevations.
4. Street (Str) – While not an aeronautical map, the Open Street Map provides a great deal of detail that’s useful
in VFR navigation. It also has a surprising amount of detail (when zoomed in) about airport layouts.
5. Relief (Rlf) – Provides a different “3D” view, without contour lines and more road details, etc.
6. High Airways (Hi) – Provides IFR High Altitude route charts.
7. Low Airways (Lo) – Provides IFR Low Altitude route charts.
The map mode can be changed by clicking on the Map Mode above the map or by selecting the desired mode
below the map on the right side.
When in Sectional Chart mode (as above), if you zoom in too far, the map will switch to Street mode. Zooming
back out will bring you back to the Sectional chart.
When in Satellite Map Mode, clicking on the Sat button changes between Bing Satellite Map and Google Satellite
Map.
Zooming can be done using the + and – buttons (red box) or by using the mouse scroll wheel while the mouse is
over the map. By default, the point where the mouse is positioned will be snapped to the center of the map panel
when zooming with the mouse wheel.
When using the Hi and Lo IFR Charts, as you zoom out, the level of detail is reduced significantly – and even
eliminated at the longest range zoom. As you zoom in, the reverse is true – you’ll get more and more detail. So,
for example, to get the names of the airways, intersections or VORs, you’ll need to zoom in pretty close.
The map can be scrolled by clicking it with the left mouse button and, while holding the left mouse button down,
dragging the map around on the screen.
Clicking on the Search button (red box) opens a keypad allowing you to enter the ICAO code for any airport in the
world. When you click enter, the map is centered over the entered airport and zooms in to show runways,
buildings, etc.
Map Ruler: If you want to get the distance between two [2] points on the map:
• hold down the Ctl key and click the right mouse button over the first point;
• move the mouse to the second point and release the right mouse button.
A dialog box will pop up showing the distance between the points in nautical miles (NMs).
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Map Display Buttons
Beneath the map (red box below) are a series of buttons controlling many of the Map’s display functions.
From left to right, the buttons are:

1. Airports – Displays airports. Successive clicks display different types of airports. (Due to the large number of
airports in the Database, the first use of this feature may take several seconds before the airports appear.)
a. First click displays airports with ILS instrument approaches.
b. Second click adds airports with long, hard surface runways but no ILS approaches.
c. Third click adds airports with shorter hard surface runways.
d. Fourth click shows all airports, including grass and gravel strips. (Selected Above)
e. Fifth click hides all airports.
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2. VORs – First click shows all VORs without the Compass Rose. Second click adds the Compass Rose. Third click
hides all VORs (Showing above with Compass Roses).
3. NDBs – First click shows all NDBs. Second click hides them all.
4. Intersections – First click shows all named intersections. Second click hides them all.
5. Center on Aircraft – Centers the map on the aircraft and moves the map with the aircraft remaining centered
on the panel. clicking again allows the aircraft to move across the map.
6. Center on Airport – If an airport is selected, centers the map on the airport and zooms to a level that shows
the runways and other features clearly.
7. Center on Route – If a route is entered in the Flight Plan, both the Departure and Destination airports will be
visible on the map, with the connecting route centered on the map.
8. AI Traffic Airborne (Red) – Shows or hides airborne traffic.
9. AI Traffic Ground (Blue) – Shows or hides ground traffic.
Map Function Buttons

To the right of the map are six [6] function buttons. Each button controls what’s displayed in the Map Information
Panel above the map or directly on the map.
From top to Bottom:

1. Info – Displays information about the item (Airport, VOR, NDB, etc.) selected in the map in the Information
panel above the map.
2. Freq – Displays a list of nearby Com frequencies in a pane on the right side of the map.
3. Rwys – Displays the runways on the map.
4. Taxi – Displays the active taxi route on the map.
5. WX – Displays the weather of the selected airport in the Map Information panel.
6. Appr – Displays the active ATC vectored approach, which may be different from the one in your flight plan.
When flying the approach, click the APPR button after you get the first vectored heading and you’ll see the
exact route to which you’re being vectored.
7. Max/Nrml- This button maximized the map, hiding the bottom and top areas of the program. You can hide
the Flt Plan by pressing the FPL button to the right of the Flight Plan and have an almost full screen map.
When maximized, the name changes to Nrml and pressing the button again, returns the view to the normal
view.
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Flight Plan (FPL) Panel
The FPL button hides and displays the Flight Plan Panel. This is the default view for the MFD.
To see more of the map, either:

• resize the panels using the splitter bar in the middle; or,
• click the FPL button to totally hide the right-hand panel.
Let’s take a look at how to create a flight plan.
Entering a Simple Flight Plan

NOTE: The User Interface (UI) shown in the screenshots may be slightly different than the UI you see on your
screen, but that should not affect understanding.
The first task in creating a flight plan is to enter the desired waypoints. Add waypoints by:
• clicking on the + Waypoint button in the flight plan; and,
• using the keypad, enter the ICAO code of the airport or navaid, as illustrated below, in the “Add Waypoint”
box that opens.
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ALTERNATIVE METHOD TO ENTER A WAYPOINT: To add a waypoint:

• right-click an airport, nav-aid or even an empty spot on the map (for a user defined waypoint); and,
• select the type of waypoint to add. This can be the Departure Airport, Destination Airport or an Intermediate
Waypoint. Below, Los Angeles (KLAX) has been selected as our Destination Airport.
Once we click the destination airport, it’s added to the flight plan – and the route is displayed on the map.
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To make the trip a little more interesting, add a VOR as an intermediate waypoint. To do that:
• click the VOR display button in the map two [2] times to show all VORs with their compass roses; and,
• select the desired VOR in the same way we did so with the Destination airport.
NOTE: If the VORs don’t display, zoom in until they do.
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After adding the VOR, the screen should look like the one below. Notice how it added the waypoint right after the
Departure airport (red box).
Additional Nav-Aids (VORs or NDBs) will be added in sequence between the Departure and Destination airports.
To change their order in the Flight Plan, select the NavAid you want to move and use the Wpt Up and Down arrow
keys (red box) to place it in the right order.
In this case, we select PRB in the flight plan and click the Up Wpt button. The flight plan now looks like the screen
below.
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Entering Lat/Lon Waypoints for Trans-Oceanic Flights

P2A supports the entry of the standard Trans-Oceanic Latitude/Longitude (Lat/Lon) waypoints. These are in the
AIRAC database and can be entered by entering their Identifier – like 5240N, which translates to a Lat/Lon of
52N/40W. This is convenient when entering a flight plan having these standard names included. You can also
enter a waypoint in the form of 52N040W and P2A will find the standard fix and use that as the waypoint. If
there’s no standard fix with that Lat/Lon, P2A will create a User-Defined Fix with a name and identifier equal to
52N040W.
Entering Altitude and Groundspeed

Once you’ve entered your waypoints, enter the Climb Rate, Cruise Altitude and Planned Groundspeed. Click on
the Climb Rate, Cruise Alt and Plan GS displays (red box in the image at the top of the next page) in the top of the
Flight Plan pane and you can enter these values in the resulting numeric pad or using your keyboard.
• Climb Rate – It’s measured in feet per minute (FPM) and is determined by your aircraft’s performance. Typical
GA aircraft climb from 500 to 1,500 FPM; jets typically climb at 2,000+ FPM. This value is used only to
calculate planned altitudes during the climb, so if it’s off, it won’t be critical to the flight, though your
estimated altitudes will be off.
• Cruise Altitude – It can be entered as a flight level (FL) or altitude in feet. 100 is interpreted as FL 100 – or
10,000 feet. If the number entered is less than 501, it’s assumed to be a flight level.
• Planned Groundspeed – It’s used to calculate the Top of Descent (TOD) – the estimated True Airspeed
adjusted for Wind. Once in flight, the program will recalculate the TOD based on actual Groundspeed, but
you’ll get a more accurate initial plan if you’re close on this estimate.
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In this case, we entered 240 (for Flight Level 240). P2A added the altitude to the flight plan and used a default
Groundspeed of 250 knots to calculate the TOD (Top of Descent). Changing our GS to 450 will cause P2A to [1],
recalculate TOD, and [2], calculate the ETE of each leg and of the entire route.
If you don’t get a TOD calculated, it’s likely because the combination of your Cruise Speed, Descent Rate and
Altitude would require more than the total distance of the route to descend. Changing the descent rate – by
clicking the Dscnt Rate display and entering a faster descent (larger number) or decreasing the cruise speed – will
provide a TOD shorter than the route and allow it to be displayed as above.
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DEVELOPER COMMENT: The TOD doesn’t always move when you change GS or Altitude. While at first glance this
seems illogical, it makes sense once you figure it out. If the STAR has a speed restriction of say 250, it uses those
speeds to calculate TOD. If you then increase cruise speed to 900, the Descent is still all or mostly done at 250, so
the change if any is minimal. Altitude changes have a little better chance of making a difference, depending on
how much of the descent is in the STAR. The biggest changes are seen when changing Descent Rate since it
impacts the entire descent, regardless of whether or not it’s speed restricted or not.
If you’d like to start down before reaching the TOD on your flight, verbally request an enroute descent with a call
like “<CallSign> request enroute descent”. The Controller will clear you to descend at Pilot’s discretion to the TOD
calculated altitude. Be advised, this altitude may be below the minimum altitude along the route, so it’s up to
Pilot Discretion not to run into any mountains.
Entering Custom Ground Speed for Waypoints

In some situations, it might be appropriate to enter a groundspeed other than the planned route groundspeed or
250 knots. For example, if you’re flying a Heavy aircraft, your minimum maneuvering speed might be 275 knots.
To enter a custom waypoint ground speed, double-click the GS cell of the waypoint you wish to change and enter
the new speed. Doing so will likely improve the accuracy of your TOD calculations.
If the waypoint is part of a SID, that new GS will be entered in the waypoint you double-clicked and all waypoints
prior to it. If it’s part of a STAR or Approach, it’ll be rolled forward to the destination. Also, if the target altitude is
below 10,000 feet, 250 is the maximum GS you can enter, unless your call sign is a “Heavy” call sign, in which case,
the maximum is 280.
Validating and Filing the Flight Plan

Notice the Validate button is White, indicating the Flight Plan isn’t yet validated. When done entering the flight
plan, click the Validate button. If we’ve configured P2A to Calculate Safe Enroute Altitudes, it will check the flight
path for minimum safe altitudes on each leg of the route and enter that or the flight plan segment altitude,
whichever is higher, for each leg of the flight, other than the last leg, where it uses the elevation of the
destination airport. Because it does this by “flying” the route, it may take some time to complete. In our example
here, minimum altitudes were not a problem and we were given our requested FL180 cruise altitude. If you know
your altitudes are safe, unchecking the Calculate Safe Enroute Altitudes can speed up the validation process.
The default flight plan type is IFR. If you want to file a VFR flight plan, simply select the VFR button in the Plan
Type box.
Click the Save button below the Flight Plan and save it for future use. We can also Export it (Expt button) into
either an .fms file format (X-Plane) or a .pln format (FSX or P3D). Name it appropriately and P2A will save it in a
format consistent with the file name extension (.fms or .pln).
Finally, we’re ready to file the Flight Plan. Click the File button and you’re ready to call for clearance. The File
button will turn green to indicate a successful filing. If flying IFR, an Approach at the destination airport will be
added or you’ll be required to add it manually. The Filing process re-validates the plan and does calculations to
determine active runways and recommend a SID, STAR and Approach. It can take up to a minute or so for this
process to run on longer flight plans.
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A Flight Plan with SIDs, STARs and Approaches

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s try a flight plan containing SIDs (Standard Instrument Departures) and
STARs (Standard Terminal Arrival Routes). Click the New key in the Flight Plan pane to clear the previous flight
plan. We’ll try a flight from Heathrow (EGLL) to Edinburgh (EGPH).
Adding the SID

Once you’ve the Departure and Destination airports in the flight plan, you can add intervening waypoints as
before. In this case, however, we want to use a Standard Instrument Departure (SID) out of Heathrow. Most
major airports have dozens of SIDs and STARs and selecting the correct one to get you to your route the most
direct way can be a major pain. P2A takes most of that pain out of the process.
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Click the SID button at the bottom of the FPL panel and the SID
pane will appear over the Flight Plan.
At the top of this pane, the basic airport information is
displayed. The active runway is displayed here if you’re
connected to the SIM while planning. Below that information
are three [3] drop-downs.
First, enter the Runway you’re expecting for departure. That’ll
limit the number of SIDs available to you and display them in
the SID Dropdown and on the map. Notice the Active Runway
(RW27R) is displayed in the Information Panel. We’ll use it for
our flight plan.
After selecting RW27R, all the enroute transitions for SIDs
available from RW27R will be displayed on the map and listed in
the Enroute drop-down. Each SID Name is displayed in a
rectangle and colored the same as the corresponding SID
routes.
Since we know we’re going north to Edinburgh, it looks like the
WOBU3F (Dark Green) SID will work. Clicking the Green
rectangle with the SID name it removes all the other SIDs and
shows us just the WOBU3F departure.
In this case, there’s only one [1] transition, WOBUN, so our

selection is done. In other cases, there might be multiple
transitions from which to choose on a SID. It that case, we
would just select the desired transition from the Enroute
Transition dropdown or just click on that waypoint on the map.
In fact, we could’ve just clicked on WOBUN on the first panel
with all the SIDs and had the same result.
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To add the SID to our flight plan, we simply click the Load button (red box) and the SID window will close. The
flight plan is updated with the SID route, including any altitude restrictions imposed on the departure.
After zooming in on the map, our screen looks something like the one above. We’ve added the SID. Notice the SID
name and Runway are displayed below the SID button.
You’ll notice the SID has altitude restrictions to be above 4,000 feet at LON10 and at 6,000 feet at LON14 and
WOBUN. Once past WOBUN, we can expect to be cleared to FL240. We can fly that altitude until our TOD, at
which point, we’ll get clearance to begin our descent.
If we want to spend more of our flight at FL240 to take advantage of lower fuel burn rates or more favorable
winds, we can simply increase the Descent rate, as before, and the TOD will be recalculated.
Flying the SID

There has been some confusion about how to handle the climb out, so here are some basic pointers.
• No SID – If no SID is specified, expect ATC to give you altitude instructions up to Cruise altitude. A Step-Climb
if cruise altitude is hight enough.
• SID with no Altitude Restrictions – Similar to no SID. Expect ATC to give you a step-climb. And expect your
clearance to include “… Fly the xxxx departure…”
• SID With Altitude Restrictions – Expect your clearance to give a “… Climb via the xxx departure with the yyyy
transtion…”. Also, it will include an initial altitude higher than normal “Maintain zzzz feet…” This altitude is
the ultimate clearance altitude for the entire SID. You’re expected to adhere to all altitude restrictions in the
SID on you way up to zzzz feet. So, for example, you might be cleared to “Climb via the xxxx departure with
the yyyy transition. Maintain 12,000 feet. Expect higher altitudes 12 minutes after departure…”. If the SID has
an “At” or “Below” 7,000 ft altitude restricition at the 4th waypoint, you must stay at or below 7000 until past
that waypoint. Then initiate the climb to 13,000. You’ll normally get a step climb to cruise altitude as you
reach 13,000. You must start the climb to 13,000 on your own.
Adding a STAR
Next, let’s add a STAR (Standard Terminal Arrival Route) for Edinburgh. Since the active runway may change while
enroute, we can’t be sure we’re selecting the STAR we’ll actually fly. Entering our STAR now is for planning
purposes. We can change it if we get cleared for a different arrival while enroute.
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We can get the currently active runway at Edinburgh by clicking
on EGPH on the map and looking in the information box above
the map or use the RW displayed in the Airport information box
of the STAR panel. It gives RW06 as the active, so we’ll use that
in our planning. Just click the STAR button in the Flight plan
pane to open the STAR pane.
Notice it’s very much like the SID pane. We’ll use it in much the
same way.
It’s worth noting at this point all maps in P2A can zoom and
pan/scroll in the same manner as the main map. It’s sometimes
helpful to zoom or scroll in the SID or STAR panels to find a
desired Transition point or see the details of the SID or STAR
before loading it.
First, we’ll enter RW06 as the Runway.
NOTE: It may take a few moments for P2A to calculate and
display the new set of STARs for this runway.
We’re approaching from the south, and it appears there’re several STARs that might work, yet they’re all bunched
up. Let’s zoom in using the mouse wheel and position the map to see the southern transitions more clearly.
We see that ESKDO and HAVEN seem to be the best possible enroute transitions. Knowing we’re coming from the
Southeast, we’ll choose HAVEN by clicking it on the map.
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We see the first STAR route (EDN2E) will take us east of the airport
when we’re landing to the west. Checking the Arrival Drop-down, we
see there’s another STAR (TWEE2D) that’ll take us west of the airport.
To ensure we get the TWEE2D arrival, click on the green rectangle on
the map – or – select TWEE2D from the SID dropdown.
We then get the following and can click on the HAVEN transition on the
map or select it in the Transition dropdown.
Clicking Load and zooming in on the main map reveals the selected
STAR gives us a route to a position setting us up for an approach to
RW06.
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Flying the STAR
Similar to flying the SID, if you’re cleared to “Fly the xxxx arrival…”, expect to receive altitude instructions from
ATC. However, if you’re cleared to “Descend via the xxxx arrival…”, you’re expected to follow the altitude
guidance in the STAR – you won’t be given any altitude guidance from ATC.
Entering an Approach
Again, for planning purposes, enter a desired approach. ATC may not give it to us, but for fuel calculations and
other planning activities, we should enter it now. It only takes a few seconds, much like the SID and STAR. Begin
by clicking the APPR button to open the Approach panel. It looks a great deal like the other two and we’ll use it
the same way.
For now, just select our RW06. Then, we’ll choose the ILS approach if
there’s one available for that runway. Be patient here. P2A does a lot of
calculating after you select the runway.
Notice two [2] other approaches to RW06 are available, but we’ll take
the ILS for planning purposes.
Notice the initial display of the approach shows it with no transitions

(The red lines are part of the missed approach path).
The transition dropdown shows one transition available – and it appears
it might fit nicely into our plan.
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Click LOAD and the approach will be added to our flight plan so we can
see if we’re going to keep the TLA transition.
It appears this transition would have us doubling back on our course, so

open the APPR window again and select Vectors to IVG12 in the
transition dropdown.
COMMENT: Be sure to select RW06 and the ILS approach again.
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Clicking Load and zooming in, we see that the route looks reasonable. We’ve all our procedures selected.
The flight plan route is now complete and we can enter the Cruise Altitude and Groundspeed as before. If all looks
good after that, we can save the Flight Plan, export the flight plan and finally file it with ATC. All as before in the
simple flight plan discussion.
One other thing to point out before we move on is that the names of the SID, STAR and Approach that are in the
current Flight Plan are displayed below the corresponding buttons. This may come in handy if we’re trying to
determine if ATC is clearing us for the procedure already in the plan or a different one.
IFR Flight Plan Without An Approach

If you’re flying without a STAR, enter an IFR flight plan with no approach specified. The route will be direct from
the last waypoint to the airport. Usually, this is useful for GA Flights from one airport to another. As you approach
the destination, ATC will assign an approach and either give vectors, or clear you for the approach. In either case,
enter the approach into the aircraft GPS, and optionally, also into P2A.
To enable this behavior, you must:
• check the ATC Assigns Approach option on the FltPln tab of Config; and,
• un-check the AutoLoadPlannedProcedures option on the same tab.
Auto Plan Button

Since we now know how to plan the flight, let’s mention the Auto Plan button. It’s located in the upper right of
the Flight Plan window and is meant to give a reasonable set of procedures for an IFR flight, given the Departure
and Destination airports and any intermediate waypoints you’ve entered.
NOTE: It doesn’t plan the Airways or enroute waypoints.
To try this feature out, let’s enter a route from San Diego, California (KSAN) to Phoenix, Arizona (KPHX), with a
single waypoint of MOHAK.
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Before we click the AutoPlan button, we must choose – on the

FltPln tab of Config – what procedures we want to have added
for us. In this case, we choose all.
Click the Auto Plan button and wait a minute or two while P2A
does its magic.
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In this case, it takes less than a minute and we have a complete and flyable Flight Plan. Here’s a closer look at the
arrival. Note it found a STAR with the MOHAK transition.
Now, a few notes on how to get best results:

1. Be sure the SIM has been running for a while so the active runways are more likely to be correct. Connect to
the SIM before using Auto Plan.
2. Auto Plan gives procedures for the ones you’ve selected on the FltPln tab of config for ATC to assign.
3. Auto Plan will give you the same procedures ATC would’ve assigned you. If you don’t like what’s given, make
the changes manually (as described earlier) and be sure the “Force Pilot Runway Selection” is checked so
you’ll get the procedures you expected.
4. Auto Plan will do its best to give a good combination of STAR and Approach. Sometimes, the best STAR is no
STAR at all, so don’t be surprised if you don’t get a full set of procedures, even when ATC Assigns xxx check for
all.
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A Word About TOD (Top of Descent)
The TOD calculated by P2A is used by ATC to start the descent, and, if you’re flying a plane without a fancy FMC,
for you to know when to start down. Successive altitudes are calculated so you’ll know at what altitude you need
to be for each waypoint after the TOD.
P2A now calculates the TOD dynamically while you’re enroute, adjusting it based on the aircraft’s actual
Groundspeed. You’ll see the Distance and ETE to TOD at the top of the main window and the TOD to Dest value in
the upper right of the flight plan will change as airspeed changes during cruise. You’ll also see the TOD displayed
on the moving map as a green arrow like below:
But what if you’re flying an aircraft with a full-function FMC? Here’s a short write-up by Maury Pratt, a P2A user
and Beta tester giving a great explanation when flying the PMDG 737 NGX.
PMDG 737 NGX Procedure Notes

To Establish VS Descent Rate:
We're accustomed to setting up the plane's FMC with our flight plan to include a suitable STAR to the destination
airport; consequently, the FMC will compute a TOD point that enables descending according to desired crossing
altitudes at the various arrival waypoints. The descent begins automatically at the TOD; we need to do anything
further to manage the arrival except monitor airspeed.
But what happens when you're flying with an ATC add-on, such as P2A? This obliges you to follow Center's
instructions, which might include a “descend now” call. So what rate of descent (VS) will you need to hit the STAR
chart's required crossing altitudes? What's more, that descent rate will likely change as you progress through
subsequent waypoints.
So here's the situation: Suppose ATC has instructed you to begin your descent at other than your FMC-calculated
TOD. For example, the current Center might say (in this example, a flight from KSAN to KPHX). “Descend to cross
MOHAK at Flight Level Two Five Zero then descend via the GEELA6 arrival with the MOHAK transition…”. Our
question now is what VS setting(s) will produce these results? Well, if you're flying PMDG's 737 NGX, you're in
luck.
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There’s a graphic buried deep in the ND display panel that, in addition
to showing the usual plan view of the flight path (magenta line)
through the STAR's successive waypoints, also includes a graph of the
computed vertical path (much like that in an approach chart) showing
waypoint crossing altitudes (adjusted to comply with at/above/below
crossing restrictions at subsequent waypoints). By adjusting the
MCP's VS descent rate a projected flight path is superimposed on the
graph, which then moves dynamically either above or below the
computed path line as you adjust the VS value. This allows you to
place the setting where the dynamic line matches the computed path
line, thus achieving an accurate and timely arrival.
To call up the ND’s Vertical Situation Display (VSD) view: While in the
usual MAP mode, click on the EFIS CTR button (the one that selects
the ND's APP/VOR/MAP/PLAN mode) until the ND appears as shown above. This must be one of this plane's best
kept secrets!
NOTE: See the PMDG NGX FCOMv2 Chapter 10.10 pages 36-40 for VSD operational details.
Adding Airways to a Flight Plan

Once a basic flight plan has been defined, add Hi or Low airways to it. Let’s say we’re planning a flight from KLAX
to KSFO and have entered our departure and destination airports into the Flight Plan. Opening the “Lo” airway
map, our screen would look something like this. The magenta line represents the flight plan.
Zooming in the map on KLAX, the names of the VORs, Airways, etc. can be seen. SMO is a nearby VOR, so let’s see
if there’s a SID taking us to that VOR.
Looking at the map and flight plan, it looks like the preferred SID will take us further North to the GMN fix. So we
load that SID into the plan.
Moving the map to see more of our route, we can see that V137 seems to be the airway that’ll take us in the right
direction. In fact, we should take it to the ROM VOR, then take V485 toward KSFO. We can either see what STAR
we want for the arrival or take V485 all the way to the SJC VOR.
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Entering the STAR, we see that the Transition fix is the CZQ VOR. This is a more inland route than we might plan
had we been flying VFR or not doing a Standard Arrival. If we want to use this arrival, the V23 from GMN to CZQ
will work perfectly. Let’s choose that and enter it.
To enter the V23, we can click on the image of the GMN VOR in the Flight Plan (red box above) which opens the
Waypoint Options menu. On this menu, we select Load Airway which opens the Select Airway menu.
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LEFT IMAGE
Once the “Select Airway” box opens, the available airways
are shown.
RIGHT IMAGE
Select V23 as the Airway and all possible Waypoints on
this airway will be listed to the right.
Select CZQ as the To Wpt. click Load, and the flight plan will be modified to add all the waypoints between GMN
and CZQ along V23. Each waypoint will also be shown as being Via V23, rather than Direct.
We now have a flight plan using the GMN4 SID, V23, and the LOCKE1 STAR. All we need to do is add the desired
Approach.
The process above demonstrated many different features around airways, including viewing them on the map. If
you want the minimum effort way to enter an IFR Flight Plan with airways, follow these simple steps:
1. Enter your Departure and Arrival airports into the flight plan.
2. Select the desired SID.
3. Select the desired STAR.
4. click on the image to the left of the last SID waypoint to see what airways are available.
5. Select an airway that’ll get you to your STAR transition point (First waypoint in STAR) if possible.
6. Select that waypoint and you’re done.
7. If you can’t get directly to your STAR transition point, use the Hi or Lo map to find a suitable intermediate
point and proceed as in the full instructions above.
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Let’s take a slightly more realistic example where we’ve a route we found on one of the Internet sites like
FlightAware® – KMCO SAV J55 CHS J79 JFK DPK KSWF.
1. Enter the airports and waypoints – KMCO SAV CHS JFK DPK KSWF.
2. Click on SAV’s VOR image; select Load Airway.
3. Select J55 and then choose CHS.
4. Click the Load button.
5. Click on CHS VOR image and select Load Airway.
6. Select J79 and choose JFK.
7. Click Load.
You should see the following:
When loading airways, be sure to go in the proper order – from departure airport to destination airport – of the
Flight Plan. Otherwise, you may get unpredictable results, similar to the following.
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This “mess” was achieved by the following steps:
1. Enter the airports and waypoints KMCO SAV CHS JFK DPK KSWF.
2. Click on CHS’s VOR image, select Load Airway.
3. Select J55 and then choose SAV (going backwards toward the departure airport in the flight plan).
4. Click the Load button.
5. Click on JFK VOR image and select Load Airway.
6. Select J79 and choose CHS (again, going backward).
7. Click Load.
This could be a very long flight!
Importing Flight Plans

There’re two [2] ways to import flight plans. First, you can import an X-Plane (.fms) or FSX/P3D (.pln) plan from
hard disk by clicking the Impt button and selecting the file to import.
Another way to import flight plans is to use the Importer

button just under the FPL button to open the import window
where you can paste a flight plan, in the proper format, from
the Internet and have P2A import it for you.
This feature currently supports flight plans from FlightAware®,
SimBrief, Flightplan Database, PFPX, OnlineFlightPlan, Real
World Flightplan Database websites as well as the Navigraph
Charts Flight Planner.
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Taking an example from Real World Flightplan (https://edi-gla.co.uk/site/index | free registration required), you’ll
see a screen like this:
Click Search in the left pane to open the Search window and enter the Departure and Destination airports.
click Search and you get:
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Select the Flight Plan by clicking on the Blue Callsign.
Highlight the entire route (red box) in the bold font. Click Ctl-C to copy it to your clipboard. Then, place your
cursor in the P2A Flight Plan Copy/Paste Importer window and click Ctl-V to paste it into the white text area.
Be sure you’ve Real World Flightplan Database selected in the drop down window. Then, read and follow the
instructions beneath the drop-down before you click the Import button. In this case, we need to add the Airport
ICAO codes separated by slashes (“/”) in the text window:
Then, click the Import button and your flight plan should be imported into the FPL window.
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If you get an error message, find another flight plan and try again. It reads the first time most of the time, but
sometimes, there’s an anomaly in the flight plan route line and you have to find another one.
Exporting Flight Plans

Export flight plan files you’ve imported or created by clicking the Expt button. This’ll bring up the Export Flight
Plan dialog:
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Set up the destination directory for each of the flight plan types you plan to export by specifying the full path to
the folder. In the example above, the P3D and X-Plane flight plans will be exported to the standard folders for
those SIMs. The Flight Factor flight plans will be exported to the 757….routes folder, which is where the FMC looks
for company routes.
Place a checkmark next to each flight plan type to which you want to export the current flight plan.
NOTE: Multiple flight plans can be exported at the same time.
X-Plane Notes There’re two [2] X-Plane formats – one for XP-10 and the other for XP-11. The XP-11 format is
a new format that, at present, isn’t used by many, if any, X-Plane 11 aircraft. It stores the
procedures (SID/STAR/Approach) in addition to the route. Future GPSs and FMCs may use this,
but for now, most X-Plane 11 aircraft still use the XP-10 format’s .fms file.
FF A320 Notes There are two [2] separate entries for the Flight Factor A320. At present, if you have Navigraph
as a data provider for the A320 data (nav.db files), the format of the exported routes is slightly
different from the ones that work with the NavDataPro-supplied nav.db files. Be sure to check
the appropriate one. If you check both, you’ll get two [2] new routes if they’re different. When
appending routes to the corte.in file, if there’s already an identical entry, the new entry won’t
be made. Finally, if you want the export to include the procedures, you must check the “Export
SID/STAR/Approach Waypoints” option on the FltPln tab of Config. Otherwise, only the
Departure and Destination airports and enroute waypoints will be exported, letting you enter
the procedures in the FMC.
Base File The default Base File Name is the Departure Airport code + “-” + Destination Airport code. You
Name can set this to anything you like. For example, some FMCs prefer the 8 character name with
the “-” omitted.
Overwrite If you don’t want P2A to check for existing files, and overwrite them if they are there, you can
Existing Files check the “Overwrite Existing Files” option. In the case of the FF A320, multiple routes are
stored in a single file named corte.in. If you check this option for that type of export, the
exported route will be appended to the end of the existing file. Otherwise, a new file with a
different name and only one route will be created.
Export Some aircraft cannot import flight plans with procedures, so if you don’t want the procedures
SID/STAR/ to be exported to .fms or .pln and some other plan types, uncheck this box. This does not
Appr apply to some specific aircraft formats that require the procedures to be dropped.
Export Button When you’re ready to export and close the dialog, click this button. It will check for valid folder
paths and create the flight plans you’ve specified. If you haven’t checked the “Overwrite
Existing Files” option, it will add numbers to the end of the name and allow you to store up to
ten [10] files with the same Base File Name.
Only the “enroute” waypoints will be exported. Some formats allow inclusion of procedure
names and in those files, this information will also be included. If you’ve the “Export
SID/STAR/Approach Waypoints” option checked in the Config->FltPln tab, then some export
formats, including the Text Line format, will include the waypoints associated with the
procedures in the plan.
If the flight plan is exported successfully, a message with the exported name will appear in
aqua in the Speech Text Information window in the bottom right of the main P2A screen.
NOTE: User-defined waypoints are not exported except in the .fms formats.
Close Button If you decide not to export, click this button to dismiss the dialog window.
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Info Panel
The Info button brings up a panel with information about the airport currently selected in either the map or flight
plan. If none are selected, it’ll display the current airport (if on the ground) or the Destination airport (if in the air
with a flight plan entered). Enter an Airport Code in the text box underneath the Panel name AIRPORT and it will
show that airport’s information. In the screenshot below, we’ve entered the code KSAT for San Antonio, Texas.
This is the airport we’ll use later in the section on Taxiway and Gate editing.
There’re three [3] tabs along the top of the Info panel – Airport, Runways & Gates and Weather.
Airport Information
On the left side of the Airport panel is some basic information about the Airport including the Identifier, Name
and Elevation, Magnetic Variance, Transition Level and Altitude, Arrival and Departure Runways, Distance and
bearing from the aircraft, if applicable. These last two [2] fields with show NA if not connected to the SIM.
The current arrival and departure runways displayed on this panel may show dashes if there isn’t an active
runway designated. If weather is available and winds are out of limits based on the Max Crosswind/Tailwind
limits, the runways will be shown in red.
COMMENT: The Transition Level is the lowest usable Flight Level and is based on the Transition Altitude, which
can vary from region to region (this is always 18,000 feet in the US and Canada) and the Altimeter. Here’s a
discussion of the concepts: http://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/Transition_Altitude/Level
If you’d like information on a different airport, click on the airport identifier – KSAT in this case – and enter the
identifier of the airport you want to display. You could also just click on the desired airport on the map in the Map
panel and it would change the display as well.
Frequencies
Also on the Airport panel is a display of all the frequencies
associated with the selected airport. Click on any of the frequencies
to select it as the Standby frequency.
If Com1 is selected, clicking on KSAT ATIS will set Com1 Standby
frequency to 118.9. Very convenient!
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Runway & Gate Information
The Runway & Gates Tab provides information on all the
runways at the selected airport. clicking the Arrow keys in this
panel moves the display to the next or previous runway, cycling
through all the runways. For each runway, it displays the Name,
Surface Type, Length and Width, Crosswind and
Headwind/Tailwind components, and Pattern Direction and
Altitude. If the runway has an ILS, the frequency, bearing and
identifier for the ILS are also displayed. If a runway has more
than one ILS, all of them will be displayed (This is fairly rare, but
EDDF RW 25R/07L have multiple ILSs).
For additional situational awareness, the Runways Names and
Gates are also shown on the Satellite view below the
information panel.
The Gates dropdown displays all the valid gate names for the airport. These can be used when requesting Engine
Start and Pushback on departure or for requesting taxi instructions on arrival. The Filter to the right can filter the
gates and parking areas by Airline or Parking Type.
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In the screenshots below, all Gates and Parking Types are being displayed. On the right, only gates for American
Airlines are displayed.
Checking the checkbox next to UAL in the Filter box applies a filter to just show United Airlines we get this:
When setting up for arrival, pre-select a gate or parking spot by clicking on the dot or selecting it from the list. If
you do this, when you call for Taxi after landing, parking will be assigned as follows:
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If You Preset Gate or Cargo Ramp or Military Ramp Position
• Request Taxi to the Gate or Taxi to the Ramp without being specific, you’ll be assigned the Preset if it
matches the requested type (Gate or Cargo Ramp or Military Ramp). Otherwise, you’ll get a random
assignment.
• Request a specific Gate or Ramp position, you should get that gate or position if the speech is properly
recognized and the position exists at the airport.
If You Don’t Preset the Position

• Request Taxi to the Gate or Ramp and you’ll get a random gate or ramp assignment. If you have an Airline
call sign, you’ll get one selected from those allocated to that airline; otherwise, it’ll be from all Gates or Ramps
of the requested type.
• Request a Specific Gate or Ramp Position and you should get that gate or position if the speech is properly
recognized.
If You Preset a GA Ramp or Water Dock position

Request Taxi to the Ramp or Taxi to the Water Dock and you’ll get taxi directions to the GA ramp or water dock
containing the preset parking spot. You’ll not be assigned a specific parking space as you would with Gates and
Cargo Ramp spaces.
If You Don’t Preset GA Ramp or Water Dock position

Request Taxi to the Ramp or Taxi to the Water Dock and you’ll get taxi directions to a random parking spot on
the field if it has one of that type. Otherwise you’ll be told there’s no parking of that type at the airport.
SPECIAL NOTE: These are gates that are added in the section on Taxiway and Gate maintenance later in this User
Guide. These won’t be in the default data. In fact, the default data has no information at all about Airlines. You
must edit the airports – or – import the data from scenery files in order to add this information.
Weather
The weather panel displays the most recent METAR and TAF
(Terminal Area Forecast) for this airport, obtained from the NOAA
site on the Internet. It may vary from the information being given
on ATIS in the SIM because it’s pulled independently, directly
from the website, whereas the ATIS information is provided
according to the settings on your SIM.
The bottom half of the Info panel displays a close-up of the

airport runway layout with the runway names displayed for
situational awareness. If an ILS is available for that runway, its
frequency is displayed below the name.
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Direct To Panel
Sometimes during flight, you may need or want to deviate from you flight plan. Perhaps you get a clearance to
bypass some out-of-the-way waypoints or perhaps you need to land for an emergency at a different airport than
your destination.
The Direct To panel allows you to quickly modify or replace your flight plan to reflect these changes. Clicking the
Direct To button (red box) will open the DirectTo or DTO panel. In the upper right, you can select the source to
search for the point you want to fly direct to.
If you’re flying an already-filed Flight Plan and want to modify it to go direct to a waypoint, you need to contact
ATC and get permission for the DirectTo route before actually flying the revised Flight Plan. You’ll need to say
something like “<CallSign> request direct to XXX…” where XXX is the ICAO code for the direct to identifier spelled
phonetically. For example, it might be “Beech One Victor Bravo request direct to Sierra Gulf November” to go
direct to a VOR or NDB with identifier SGN.
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You can go direct to:
• FPLN – A waypoint in your flight plan. All the waypoints in your flight plan will be listed in the Top left drop-
down box. You can select the desired waypoint there or enter it in the Identifier text box and the intervening
• waypoints will be dropped from the Flt Plan.

• APT – Airport lets you select any airport, either from the drop-down or by entering the Identifier in the blue
text box. The second drop-down enables you limit the type of airport chosen – in this case Long Paved.
Once you select an airport, you’ll get a direct flight to that airport, replacing your flight plan if you click the Load
button. Of course, you can click Cancel and avoid any changes to the flight plan.
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After getting the DTO airport selected, you can view VORs, NDBs, and Intersections (INTs) and select one [1] or
more of them to create a “quickie” flight plan.
NOTE: When you choose to view INT, you’ll get a lot of little triangles on the map with no letters. You can roll over
them and see their Identifier, or if you know the waypoint Identifier you want, just type it into the Identifier Text
Box.
CAUTION: Select your Navaids in REVERSE order, starting with the one nearest the Destination. Remember,
you’re saying you want to go from your current position DIRECT TO the selected NavAid.
COMMENT: This is great for emergencies or a quick VFR flight to a nearby airport. The more you use it, the more
you’ll like it.
Once finished entering our changes, click load and it’s entered in the FPL pane and the map, replacing our
previous flight plan.
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Sample DirectTo Entry
Load Flight Plan.
Click DirectTo button.

Select FEPOT from dropdown. Review results. Direct to FEPOT.
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Click Load. Review new flight plan direct to FEPOT.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure to get permission from ATC to fly this new route or you’ll get nagged about being off
course until you get to FEPOT.
Grammar Help (GRMR Help)

Clicking the Grmr Help button will open a screen enabling you to practice saying phrases and also getting familiar
with selecting phrases with SayIt.
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Enter any valid Airport ICAO identifier code for the Departure Airport and Arrival Airport. That’ll customize your
experience to those airports. If you have a flight plan loaded when you open Grammar Help, those airports are
loaded by default.
Practice Speech
To practice speech, click the Practicing button (red box below). Select the Controller with whom you want to
practice, the Phrase type and finally the phrase name you want to practice. All this is done in the drop-downs at
the top of the screen.
Once selected, you’ll see gold text in the upper left “Phrases to Say Box”. Select a phrase. It will be decoded and
displayed in blue in the “Say This” box.
If you’d like to listen to the phrase before saying it, click the Listen button.
Click the large PTT button on the screen to the right of the Practice button and say the Say This phrase exactly as
its written. If you’re recognized, your speech will show up in green in the “Practice Speech” box.
Print All key

To obtain a print out of all
phrases, click the Print All
key.
:: OR ::
Open the Grammar

Phrases .pdf file located
in the Documentation
folder.
If your voice isn’t heard or not recognized, you’ll get the text “Full Txt:” in the window. If this happens, you can
click the Replay button and hear – in your own voice – what the recognizer was trying to interpret. If there was
absolutely no recognition or if there’s something wrong with your microphone settings, you may not hear
anything on replay. However, you should try other phrases and see if something is heard before you assume
something is wrong with the microphone.
This is a great way to learn the language of ATC and to practice and/or test your pronunciation. ENJOY!
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Speech Recognition Training
If you want to improve speech recognition, the speech recognition engine
can be trained to work better with your voice. To start the training, click
the Train button in the Personal Grammar Training Phrases box (red box
in image on the previous page).
Completing that action will open this window.
There’re ten [10] training scripts included with the P2A Language Trainer. For best results, you should work
through all of them.
To begin training on any of the standard scripts, select the Controller you want and click the Train button. The
following screen will appear:
You should recognize this as the standard Windows Speech Training screen. Click Next to begin training.
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Speak each phrase presented to you. The phrases will change when they’re recognized. If the trainer seems to get
stuck, click the Pause button and then the Resume button. That resets the trainer and it usually continues on from
there. On the last screen, after all the phrases have been spoken, click the Cancel button to exit.
Personalized Speech Training

After going through the standard training, there may be some phrases still not being recognized. You can build a
personalized script with just these phrases. There’re two [2] ways to do this.
1. In the Trainer window, type or paste a phrase into the text box at the top of the Personal Grammar Training
Phrases box. Click the Add (+) button to add it to the list of phrases. If you want to remove a phrase, select it
and click the Delete (X) button. Click the Save button to save the script. click the Train button in the Personal
Grammar Training Phrases box to Train on this personalized script.
2. If the phrase you want to practice is in the Grammar Help screen, add it directly from there.
a. Get the phrase into the Say This box. Click the Add (+) button in the Personal Grammar Training Phrases
box.
b. Find other phrases you want to practice and repeat Step a.
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c. Click the Save button to save the script. Click the Train button to open the Language Trainer. Your new
script should load into the trainer window.
Click the Train button in the Personal Grammar

Training Phrases box. You’ll now be able to
train on this custom script.
Listen Before You Say

In the training window, select a phrase from the personalized script and it’ll be placed in the Selected Phrase box.
Click the Listen button below that box and you’ll hear the phrase pronounced.
Unfortunately, you can’t listen to the phrase in the P2A Language Trainer window while the Windows Training
window is open. Listen and practice before you click the Train button. However, if the phrases you’re practicing
are from the Grammar Help Screen, you can go back to that screen and use its Listen feature to listen to the
phrase during the training session.
ATC Interaction Area
The ATC Interaction portion of the screen is at the bottom of the main MFD screen (red box). Starting in the upper
left corner of the highlighted are, here are the features for each item/button:
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1. Call Sign panel displays the call sign entered into the configuration. Be sure to use this call sign when
communicating with ATC or you’ll not be recognized. The simulator-assigned call sign will display here once
you’ve connected, or you can enter a different call sign and P2A will recognize that new call sign for all its
interactions with you. Valid General Aviation call signs include three [3] types. For Beech N31VB, they’d be:
a. Full Tail Number: November Three One Victor Bravo
b. Manufacturer + last 3 of tail number: Beech One Victor Bravo
c. Last 3 of Tail Number: One Victor Bravo
NOTE: For airline call signs, American Flight 365 would be: American Three Six Five
2. Connect – click this button to connect to the SIM. You should wait until your flight simulator is up and running
before clicking the connect button. When connected, you’ll hear a Windows chime and the button
background will turn green, and the text will change to Connected. Also, there will be three messages in the
Speech Text window on the right indicating that the Simulator is connected, the Speech Recognition Engine
has started and the Grammars were loaded successfully. If you don’t get all three – even if the Connected
button turns green – you may have trouble with the speech recognition.
Also, the first time you connect, you may get a Windows Security message like the one below. Select “Allow
Access” so P2A can communicate with your SIM.
3. On Top – click to keep this window on top of all others on the desktop. This makes it easy to place P2A off to
the side of the cockpit/flight deck so it doesn’t obstruct the view of outside or the instruments.
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4. PTT (Push to Talk) – You can use this instead of a joystick button to communication with ATC. If you use a
joystick button, you’ll see this button turn green when the joystick PTT button is clicked. If your joystick
button doesn’t work – but this PTT button does – it indicates the joystick button isn’t configured properly.
5. SayIt – clicking this button invokes the SayIt function of P2A. If the last entry in the Conversation Area is in
gold and starts with a “~” character, that phrase will be spoken by P2A acting as the Pilot and interpreted by
ATC. This feature is to aid those having trouble being recognized by the Controller. You can also say the
phrase yourself to practice speaking to ATC and it should be recognized in most cases.
6. CLR – click to clear the Speech Text window.
7. Recnt – click to bring up recent SayIt phrases after they are not available.
8. “?” Help – click to open the SayIt Speech Assistant panel displaying all the accepted phrases and allowing you
to interact with ATC without speaking yourself.
9. “?+” SayIt Plus – click this button to open the SayIt Plus window.
10. Conversation Area displays your communications with ATC. It’s very handy for helping with read-backs and
getting assigned frequencies correct. Other status messages are displayed here to help in troubleshooting, but
they can be ignored. And of course, the gold text is an integral part of the Speech Assistant. It can be saved to
a file for each flight, if desired. See the Speech Tab in the Configuration Panel for this option.
Using the SayIt Feature

The SayIt function is designed to assist the Pilot in interactions with ATC. There are four [4] types of interactions
supported:
Request Report Information Readback
Pilot initiates a request Pilot reports something Pilot requests Pilot reads back
for some action – such as to ATC – such as position information – such as instructions given by ATC.
altitude change or or altitude. Center Weather or Active
approach type. handoffs are a good Runway.
example of a report.
Readback assistance is generated by P2A in Speech Text window. After receiving instructions from ATC, text in
gold will appear in the window. If there’s a “~” character at the beginning of the text, clicking the SayIt button will
say that text out loud and it’ll be recognized by the speech recognition engine.
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The other three [3] types of interaction are initiated by the Pilot and can be selected in the Speech Assistant panel
to the left of the Speech Text window.
Expanding the area:
The SayIt function only displays phrase options when a valid ATC Com Frequency is active. Tuning in Ground, it will
look like the following.
You’ll notice there’re two [2] dropdowns on the top of the Speech Assistant panel. The left one allows you to
select the type of interaction you want to initiate: Request, Information, Report. Notice Readback isn’t one of the
options because those are generated based on what ATC instructions are given.
To display the Speech Assistant, you must be connected to the SIM and then click the “?” button to the left of the
Speech Text Box. Once the Speech Assistant is visible, adjust the size of the window to suit your needs. Also be
aware you’ll need to have a Flight Plan filed for many of the phrases to be generated properly.
Let’s take an example to illustrate its use. We’re at the gate at WMKK and ready to taxi. We’ve selected Request in
the left dropdown and Taxi in the right Dropdown. A list of possible phrases is displayed in the list with gold
letters. Some of the words are surrounded by < >. This indicates that these values will be filled in by P2A in most
cases. If the value isn’t known to P2A and reasonable choices are not known, the Pilot will need to read the
phrase, substituting the correct value for the words in < >. A good example would be when the Pilot wants an
altitude change. Only the Pilot knows what altitude is desired.
In this case, an obvious choice is the phrase requesting taxi to the <ActiveRunway>. Selecting that line with a
mouse click replaces <ActiveRunway> with Runway One Four Left and places the gold text in the speech text
pane, ready to click the SayIt button. Clicking SayIt will start the interaction.
Remember, in some cases the program won’t be able to figure out what the options are, so you, as the Pilot, may
need to read the phrase.
Be advised that the Speech Recognition Engine takes longer to interpret these phrases than those you say
yourself, so be patient. Also, it’s a good idea to try saying the phrase yourself to get the practice, but if you’re
having trouble being recognized, the Speech Assistant and SayIt function are there to help.
Using the SayIt Plus (?+) Feature

When you click the “?+” button, a separate window – as pictured on the next page – will open. It’s a separate
window that can be left open and placed anywhere on your screens to aid in using the SayIt function.
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Notice there’s an area in the middle where you can supply values for the phrase variables. If there’re any < - ->
words in a phrase, they’re listed in this area. If P2A knows what value to use, like the Call Sign above, it will be
filled in. If not, it will be blank and you can fill it in. As you enter values, the resulting phrase is displayed below the
grid in orange.
Once all values have valid values and you’re satisfied with the phrase, you simply click the Load button. This
moves the phrase to the Speech Text Window on the right and you can click the Say It button to speak it. While
this extra “Load” step may seem unnecessary, it actually allows you to build the phrase while other automated
exchanges with the Copilot and ATC are occurring. Then, when you’re ready to make the call, load it and Say It.
Double-click the load button to load and say the phrase, making the separate clicking of the Say It button
unnecessary.
Also notice that in the screenshot the <ActiveRunway> value is in short form in the grid, while in the bottom Load
window and Speech Text Window, they’re in speech form. If entered in short form, they’ll be translated to the
long speech form.
For altitudes, enter a numeric value like “5,000” for altitudes in feet. Don’t enter the word ‘feet’. For flight levels,
enter “FL” followed by the flight level – like “FL 230”.
You can size the window and the various areas in the window to suit your needs.
To close this window you must click the “?+” button in the main window again.
Recalling Previous SayIt Phrases

Sometimes, you may not be interpreted correctly by P2A and would like to use SayIt instead of your own voice to
reply to ATC. Once you try to respond with your own voice, however, the SayIt phrase is no longer active.
Click the Recent button to the right of the SayIt button or Phrase Name drop-down and a sequential list of SayIt
phrases from previous interactions will be displayed. Choose the last one – or any you want to say – and click
SayIt.
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Radio Stack Area
To the left of the ATC Interaction area is an area where you can control the Com and Nav radios. If you prefer to
control them from inside the cockpit or from other devices such as the Saitek Radio panel, that’s not a problem.
This area will reflect any changes made elsewhere. It’s here for convenience.
Com Frequencies
The left half of this area is for controlling the
Com Radios. When not connected to the SIM –
or – if the Battery and Avionics switches are
not turned on, this area will display dashes
because the radios will be turned off.
Once connected and turned on, though, the
selected frequencies will display. If set to a frequency within radio range, the name of the Controller or Nav aid
will display below the frequency. Otherwise, dashes will indicate that this isn’t a valid frequency at this location,
as in the screenshot below.
Clicking Com1 or Com2 will select the active Com channel.
NOTE: This may not work in some aircraft. If not, select the Com channel in the cockpit or via other means. While
most aircraft implement their radio functions in a compatible manner with P2A, some don’t.
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Clicking on the Standby Frequency, opens the Com or Nav Frequency window.
Once this window is open, use the keyboard or the displayed numeric pad to
enter a frequency. Click the OK button or the Enter key on your keyboard. The
frequency will be placed in the Standby Freq area and the Controller Name will
appear below the frequency.
If you click Enter on the keyboard after using the keyboard to enter a frequency,
the window is closed and perform the swap on the main window Com area.
Great time saver!
You don’t need to enter the decimal point – the program does this for you. To set the radio to 121.975, enter
12197. That’s why you don’t see a decimal in the numeric pad.
Use the XFER key (Swap key) to swap this freq to the Active frequency.
Now you’re ready to communicate…
Notice even though we only entered 121.97 in the top Screenshot, the Frequency selected is 121.975. That’s
because 121.975 is truncated to 121.97, both in conversation with ATC Controllers and in many frequency
displays. Both of them, however, are really 121.975.
Toggle between Com1 and Com2 by clicking the respective button under the Volume control area. This works with
many aircraft in all the SIMs, but may not work with some. This is true of all the radio and autopilot functions due
to various aircraft implementing these functions differently. As long as the values are “settable” using
FSUIPC/XPUIPC, then P2A can set them. And while rarer, it’s also possible something changed in the cockpit won’t
show up in P2A. Be sure to check how your aircraft interacts and adjust accordingly.
Notice the Mute and Volume Dn/Up buttons on the left (red box in image above). This is where you can control
the volume of the ATC Chatter, if you’ve enabled that feature.
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Click the Find button at the bottom and this expands the Com Frequency window
to reveal a search area.
By default, this search is done on the Nearest Controllers. Select a type in the
Frequency Type dropdown and it’ll display one or more frequencies in the Search
Frequency Result (red box). If no frequencies are found within the range
specified, the area goes blank.
If more than one frequency meets the search criteria, you can scroll through
them using the left and right arrows (red box) on either side of the Frequency
window.
Another way to search is using Airport Identifier (Apt ICAO).

Enter the ICAO code for the airport you want to search and click the ICAO button (red box) to limit the search to
that airport.
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In this screen, we can find the Approach Frequency for our destination Airport
EGPH, for example.
The search may start automatically, depending on the options selected. If not.
clicking the GO button will do the requested search.
Clicking the Search OK button moves the found frequency up into the Standby
Freq display at the top of this form and sets the selected Com radio (Com 1 in this
case) to that frequency.
Notice the Controller name is blank because the frequency is out of range.
It might also display a name different from the one selected in the Search window because there’s another
Controller, in range, that has that same frequency.
To dismiss the frequency window, click the Back Key, or as mentioned early, the Enter key when entering the
frequency with the keyboard.
Nav Frequencies
The Nav portion of the Radio Stack area is almost identical in its function to the Com side. The main difference is
in the search window functions.
Like the Com Frequency window, enter frequencies directly using the numeric pad on screen or the keyboard.
Select the Nav Channel Nav1 or Nav2 and swap active and standby frequencies.
Looking at the search portion of the screen, you see we can select VOR, NDB or ILS either by clicking on the
appropriate button at the very bottom of the window or by selecting one of them in the Freq Type dropdown.
Once we do that, we’ll search for the nearest navaid to the aircraft if the NRST button is clicked – or for the navaid
nearest to the airport whose ICAO code is entered in the Apt ICAO text box if the ICAO button is highlighted.
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Clicking the Lower OK button places the frequency in the Standby Freq window and
changes the Nav radio standby frequency. Depending on where the aircraft’s
location, whether on the ground or in the air, you may or may not get a Navaid name
to display.
TERPs (Terminal Procedures) Panel

Clicking the TERPs button (red box) opens the TERPs Panel.
When not connected to the SIM, it will appear as a large blank display area below the controls area.
The Terminal Plates for the US are built-in to P2A. This is because they’re readily available on-line from the FAA in
.pdf file format.
COMMENT: If you want to display charts from other countries, see the instructions for the TERPs PDF File Folder
Path in the Config section of this manual.
Clicking on the ICAO selection area will enable you enter a US ICAO code – like KLAX – which will populate the
drop-down with the charts available for that airport and the first Approach chart displayed.
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The buttons above the ICAO selection area allow you to select Approach, Airport Diagrams, SIDs or STARs. Doing
so will display the list of that type of plate in the drop-down so you can select it.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE WORLD? For those asking this question, you haven’t been forgotten!
To the right of the ICAO selection area, are three [3] buttons. The first two [2] – Open and Save – allow you to
open any .pdf file from your local hard drive; the Save button will save the currently displayed .pdf to your hard
drive. The third button – Browse – opens a browser window where you can paste a web address or browse the
web to find charts.
Grabbing Charts from the Web

There’re many free sources of plates and charts on the Internet for personal use. With a little BING search on the
ICAO code + “ILS plates”, I’ve found many free sources for these charts. Let’s try and find some plates for
Singapore Changi Airport (WSSS). Doing a Bing search on WSSS ILS plates yields the following:
The very first one is a .pdf from Jeppesen. Navigate to that page in your browser and you see:
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This is a multi-page document with all the
charts for WSS included. Copy the url for this
document to your clipboard by placing your
cursor in the browser address (url) window.
Click Ctl-A followed by Ctl-C. Now, click the
Browse button in P2A and paste the copied url
into the Browser Address window (red box) at
the bottom of the panel.
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Click Enter and you now have that same PDF in the P2A browser.
Scroll down and see all the charts included in that document – including SIDs, STARs and Approaches and a lot of
other information on the airport.
Saving To Local Hard Drive

Since the document is a .pdf, it can be saved to your local disk by clicking the Save button (red box), entering a file
name and a folder path in the Save Window. If you save locally, you may want to create a directory structure
that’ll make it easy to find the charts the next time you want them.
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For now, I just save to my NavData folder:
The .pdf can be easily retrieved by using the Open button (red box).
Saving The URL

If you don’t have a lot of disk space – or just prefer to access things on the web – use the Save button to save the
URL in the P2A settings, making it readily available for next time. To do this, enter a name in the small box above
the save button and click Save (red box). The name, along with the associated URL, is then added to the drop-
down list (red box) and will be available next time the Browser area is opened.
To finish off the Browse area, the two [2] arrow keys – Left and Right (area between the red boxes) – are for
navigating Forward and Backward during a browsing session. While they do work, I normally find that browsing in
the browser, finding what I want and then pasting its URL into the window works best for me.
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Charts from Chart Tools
There’re also many services offering charts for a one-time (ex: SimPlates) fee or a subscription (ex: Navigraph and
others). As long as their charts can be saved in .pdf form, they can be stored locally and accessed using the Open
button in P2A.
Charts from SIMPlates

So far, I’m a fan of SimPlates (http://www.dauntless-soft.com/products/simplates/ | payware) because they only
charge a one-time fee and then give you access to their charts forever.
They may or may not be as up-to-date as subscription services, but they’re certainly very recent and more than
adequate for Flight Simulation use. When you want to get a plate, search for the ICAO code. It brings up a list of
all the charts for that airport. Here, we search for Heathrow (EGLL) in London. I further narrowed it to ILSs with a
checkbox on the left.
Clicking on the ILS for RW 27R, it opens the chart in our default .pdf viewer (Adobe® Reader®).
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Now, I can merely save it to my local hard drive – as we did with the one in the browser – and it’s available for the
next time. Again, creating a reasonable folder structure will help you in future searches.
Charts From a Subscription Service

Getting charts from a subscription service may be more difficult, depending on how they’re delivered. I subscribe
to Navigraph (https://www.navigraph.com/), among others, and am able to save their charts using a free Print-to-
PDF tool I found on the web.
COMMENT: There’re many such tools, I just picked the first one that popped up in a BING search and it works
great.
With this approach, you find the chart you want and use the chart application’s Print function to print the chart,
selecting the Print-To-PDF tool printer. This lets you save it to your file structure as before and then retrieve it
later.
Of course, you’ll have to manually update these charts periodically, but this is a mechanism to get them into P2A
to enhance the immersive experience.
Auto Pilot
Below the TERPs button is the Auto Pilot button bringing up the autopilot. It must be connected to the aircraft in
the SIM, and it doesn’t do anything unless you’re connected to your SIM.
This gives quick and easy access to most Autopilot functions of most aircraft. Unfortunately, some aircraft’s
autopilots have limitations, while others – especially add-on aircraft – may have custom Autopilots that don’t
interact with FSUIPC or XPUIPC. Experiment with your aircraft’s Autopilot before using this convenience feature.
Of course, you can always use the Autopilot in the cockpit and it shouldn’t be affected by P2A.
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Clicking on any of the five [5] settings displays brings up a Numeric pad where the on-screen pad or your keyboard
can be used to enter the desired value. Clicking the Enter key on the keyboard or on-screen numeric pad closes
the window and enters the value.
Below each setting display window are three [3] controls:
• Left Arrow – to decrease the value.
• Pause Button – to set the value to the current aircraft Heading, Course, Airspeed, etc.
• Right Arrow – to increase the value.
I find these setting displays much easier and faster than using the ones built into the SIM. However, if you prefer
to make all your settings in the SIM, they’ll be reflected in P2A.
The eight [8] buttons on the right perform the same functions as buttons with similar names in the SIM cockpit.
Also, if you click the button in the cockpit, the corresponding button on P2A’s Autopilot will be turned on or off.
Again, experiment with each new aircraft on the ground to see what functions work and which ones don’t.
Configuration Panel
To access the configuration panel, click the Config button (red box). It’ll open a panel containing all user-settable
values.
There are nine [9] tabs across the top allowing access to all the settings. We’ll discuss these in order from left to
right.
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P2A Setup
The setup screen has some of the key settings you need to configure before using P2A and some optional ones.
P2A Settings Checkboxes

The ten [10] check boxes in the Settings group enable you to select some common options.
• Ignore Avionics Switch and Ignore Battery Switch – P2A Radio and Nav functions won’t work unless you’re
connected to the SIM. Further, by default, you must have the Battery and Avionics switches turned on. In
most aircraft, this isn’t an issue, except you may think something is wrong with P2A if you forget to turn them
on. Some aircraft don’t have either one or both of these switches. Checking this box will tell P2A to ignore
these switches. So if you don’t have them in your aircraft – or you don’t want to get frustrated figuring out
why P2A radios won’t come on – check one or both of these boxes.
• Calculate Safe Enroute Altitudes – P2A can calculate minimum enroute altitudes for your flight plans.
However, this takes some time. If you’re flying long distances at high altitude, there’s no value in this, so
check this box. If you’re flying at low altitudes, in mountainous terrain, check this box so you get this added
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safety check. When checked, P2A will add the Minimum Enroute AGL altitude (set elsewhere) to the highest
terrain feature for each leg of your route as the Minimum for that leg.
• Reverse Com Channels – In some aircraft, selecting the Com1 Channel in the aircraft causes P2A to display
Com2 as the active channel. If that occurs, check this option to get them in sync. Normally, though, you should
leave this option unchecked. Also be aware some aircraft – including the default Cessna 172 in X-Plane – can
activate both Com1 and Com2 at the same time, as in many real cockpits, to allow you to monitor one
frequency while talking on the other. Be sure P2A is set to the Active or talking channel so it can hear you
when you transmit.
• Silence Connect Tone – Check this option if you don’t want the tone that sounds when you connect and/or
disconnect to the SIM to sound.
• Use Decimal Instead of Point – Checking this box will change the spoken frequencies to use the word
“decimal” (as in Europe and other parts of the world), instead of “point” (as in the USA). Check this box to
hear “Decimal”.
• Show ATC Assignments – When this option is checked, the most recently-assigned radio frequency, STAR and
Approach will show in small white letters below the Com/Nav section of the main window.
• Stay Centered When Zooming Map – If checked, the map will stay centered at its current screen location
when you zoom using the mouse wheel. By default, it’ll center on the Mouse position. Use the Plus (+) and
Minus (-) buttons in the upper right of the Map panel to zoom in and out while staying centered at the same
screen location.
• Show In-Line Grammar Help – This toggles on and off the display of the gold text and the SayIt function. If
you don’t use it, unchecking this box will prevent the Gold text from getting in your way. THIS OPTION MUST
BE CHECKED FOR THE COPILOT FEATURES TO WORK.
• Disable Program Exit Warning – If you just want P2A to exit when you click the “X” close button without
confirming you want to exit, then check this option.
Aircraft Call Sign

It’s crucial the call sign you plan to use with P2A be set up BEFORE attempting to use the voice recognition. The
voice recognition WON’T WORK if you try using a call sign other than the one set up here.
• GA Call Sign – The General Aviation (GA) Call Sign consists of a Manufacturer/Model Name in the Call Sign
area and the tail number of the aircraft in the Flight/Tail Number area. For example, a Cessna Skyhawk could
have either Cessna or Skyhawk in the Call Sign area, but not both. The Tail Number will vary from country to
country. In the US, they all start with the letter N. This must be entered as a series of alpha and numeric
characters with no spaces, as seen above.
• Airline Call Sign – When you want to enter an Airline call sign, selecting the Airline Call Sign Type opens an
Airline Lookup box to the right, as seen above. You’ll need to know the Airline Code and enter that in the
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small text box labeled Code (ex: AAL for American Airlines, BAW for British Airways, DAL for Delta Airlines,
etc.). The full list of codes is available in the Taxi Mnt screen where they’re used for assigning gates to airlines.
The list isn’t available in this screen because it’s over 6,000 entries long.
Once you enter the Airline Code – BAW in this case – that Airline’s assigned Call Sign will be entered
automatically in the Call sign area. The airline name will appear in the large text box of Airline Lookup,
allowing you to confirm the correct code is entered. Notice the Call Sign for BAW is Speedbird.
You’ll then need to change the Flight/Tail Number to a Flight Number. Normally, this is a series of Numeric
characters and again, no spaces are allowed.
• Heavy – If your call sign will include the term heavy like “Speedbird 2333 Heavy”, check this box. This box can
be checked for any type of call sign. You never know, you might be piloting a rich person’s private jumbo jet.
• Military Call Signs – The Military Call Sign option lets you enter any pronounceable word as the Call Sign – as
is customary in a Military call sign – and a small number. Typically, a Military Squadron will have a shared Call
Sign like “Striker”, and then each Pilot will have their number. A full call sign, therefore, might be “Striker 33”.
• Save – YOU MUST CLICK THE SAVE BUTTON. If you don’t click the Save button, your call sign will remain what
it was before. Be sure to save it. If you’re connected to the SIM, it will show up in the Call Sign area at the
bottom of the screen. If not, it will show up there when you do connect.
Aircraft Information
This area allows you to enter the wind limits for the aircraft you’ll be flying. The limits should be available in the
Aircraft Performance information. Default values are: 18 knot Crosswind and 10 knot Tailwind.
When displaying the active runways, if either of these limits is exceeded, the runway names will be displayed in
red and you’ll get a warning message. Of course, P2A must have weather information available before this
warning can be given.
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TERPs PDF File Folder Path

The TERPs window can display .pdf files for the Aeronautical charts in the US. This is primarily because there’s a
single source (the FAA) for all such content in the United States. Other countries, however, have their own sites
with similar .pdf content. The problem in trying to make them accessible is that each site has different content
and formatting. To address this problem, you can now download that .pdf content into a file structure allowing
P2A to open the correct list of .pdfs for each airport for which you have content.
To start, create a main TERPs .pdf folder somewhere on your hard disk that’s accessible to P2A. Usually, having it
in your Documents folder will work. Below, I’ve created a folder named P2A Charts in my Documents folder.
Add a folder for each Airport, using the airport’s four-letter ICAO Code. Here there’s an entry for EDDM and YBBN.
Next, within each Airport folder, create a folder for each type of chart that can be saved:
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• APPR – Approach charts like ILS, RNAV, VOR approaches, etc.

• DIAG – Airport Diagram charts, information documents, etc.
• SID – Standard Instrument Departure (SID) charts.
• STAR – Standard Terminal Arrival (STAR) charts.
Only these four [4] names will be recognized. Also, notice they correspond to the four [4] Chart Type buttons (red
box below).
Finally, find the charts you want to add to each folder and
download them to your PC. Be sure you name them with a
name that’ll be recognizable in the drop-down list. For example,
for EDDM, the names are formatted as follows:
RWName_ApproachType_AirportIdentifier
08L_ILS_Loc_EDDM
Yours can be whatever you want, but starting with the Runway
or procedure type and placing the Airport at the end is a good
way to do it.
After populating the folders, the TERPs panel will function for
those airports just like it does for US Airports.
TERPs Default Open Folder Path
Click the button on the right to set the default folder to use when Opening PDF files in the TERPs panel using the
Open Button. This is handy if you’ve downloaded PDF Approach Plates, etc. Organize them in a folder and have
the Open File button start in that folder each time.
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Com Radio Swap Tone
Selecting a tone and checking the “Play Tone” option will play this tone when the Com radio frequencies are
changed. If you’d like to add a custom tone, create a .wav file for it and place it in the Windows Media folder. By
default this is located at “C:/Windows/Media”.
Plot2ATC Info
The License Key, Activation Key and Hardware Id may be needed by our support team to help you with
registration and activation issues. This is just a convenient place for you to look up that information. You can click
on one of the Copy keys and the corresponding License, Activation Key or Hardware Id will be copied to the
clipboard so you can paste it into an email or other document.
ATC Settings
The ATC Settings tab has quite a few settings affecting how ATC
behaves. We’ll go through each of these settings.
Misc Navigation Settings

• Allowed Altitude Variance – Vertical variance (in feet) allowed before ATC warns you to return (climb or
descend) to your assigned altitude or flight level.
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• Min Acceptable Vertical Speed – The minimum climb or descent rate ATC will accept as being in compliance
with an altitude assignment. If you’re climbing at less than this rate, you’ll be asked by ATC to climb and
maintain your assigned altitude.
• Allowed Heading Variance – The degrees of heading change required before ATC gives you a new heading.
For example, if the bearing to the next point when being vectored by ATC is 270° and your heading is 276°,
you’ll get a heading change to 270°. If your heading is 272°, ATC won’t give you a heading change. This
prevents getting very small heading changes constantly – and 5° seems to be a good setting for this.
• Allowed Course Deviation – Distance in nautical miles the aircraft is allowed to stray from the planned course
before ATC informs you [1], you’re off course, and [2], gives you a correction back to the planned course.
• Minimum Enroute AGL – The minimum altitude (in feet) above ground level on a flight. This is used for
altitude assignment minimums and when validating Flight Plans. If you fly IFR, setting this to at least 5,000
feet is a good idea as it’s used in some cases for initial altitude assignments for SIDs.
• Minimum Approach AGL – The minimum altitude (in feet) above ground level when approaching the
destination airport and before entering the pattern.
• VFR Pattern AGL – The altitude (in feet) above ground level for VFR traffic patterns. Default is 1,000 feet.
• IFR Pattern AGL – The altitude (in feet) above ground level for IFR traffic patterns. Default is 2,000 feet.
• VFR Pattern Size % – P2A calculates a default pattern size based on the airplane being flown when you start
the program. It can be increased using values over 100 or decreased using values under 100, giving you more
or less time to set up and make turns in the pattern.
• Direct TO Pause (Sec) – The number of seconds to suspend the off-course warning after ATC approves a
Direct-To change to the Flight Plan. This should be set to an amount of time you think will be required to set
up the Direct TO changes to the Flight Plan and get the aircraft onto the new course. Remember, the Pilot’s
Flight Plan isn’t followed by ATC – it’s up to the Pilot to ensure their flight plan is in sync with ATC’s
clearances. For example, before changing the flight plan using the Direct TO feature, be sure ATC has either
issued a “Cleared direct to …” command or approved a Direct TO request from the Pilot.
• Altitude Warning (Sec) – Number of seconds between altitude warnings if off altitude and Vertical Velocity is
below the Min Acceptable Vertical Speed. This setting is for enroute altitude. Approach altitude warnings will
have one-half the delay.
• Heading Warning (Sec) – Number of seconds between heading warnings if off assigned heading. This setting is
for enroute heading. Approach heading warnings will have one-half the delay.
• Off Course Warning (Sec) – Number of seconds between off course warnings if off course and not following
instructions to get back on course. This setting is for enroute off course. Approach off course warnings will
have one-half the delay.
• Altitude Change Lead Time (Sec) – This sets the number of seconds, based on your rate of climb/descent ATC
will give you the next altitude assignment. 30 – 60 seconds is about right to provide a smooth climb/descent
without having to level off.
• Frequency Change Time (Sec) – Lets you set the number of seconds ATC allows after giving a frequency
change for you to make the change and contact the new Controller. If you take longer than the specified time,
you’ll get a reminder from the Controller to make the change.
Controller Radius
These settings set the distance in nautical miles of each Controller’s airspace. The ATC Center radius will
determine how often you’re handed off to another Controller. When flying an airliner, it helps to set these values
a little higher, especially for the approach radius. A setting of 60+ nautical miles isn’t uncommon for airliners,
while small GA aircraft might prefer 15 nautical miles – or even less.
The Controller Name Radius is used when searching for names to recognize along the route of a filed Flight Plan.
The default of 25 is normally a good choice. Make this number too big and you could get a longer wait for filing
and not much, if any, benefit.
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Misc
• VFR Squawk Code – Sets the squawk code you want P2A to use for VFR flights. In the US, this should always
be 1200. In other parts of the globe, they have different codes, so set the one appropriate for your area if
you’re going to fly VFR.
• Units of Measure
a. US – Altimeter is in Inches of Mercury and altitude in feet
b. Metric-Feet – Altimeter is in millibars (QNH) and altitude in feet
c. Metric – Altimeter is in millibars (QNH) and altitude in meters
• P2A provides ATIS – This option, when checked, will have P2A provide the ATIS weather rather than the SIM.
This is most useful for P3D and FSX users who have their voices turned off.
• Destination Only Taxi Readbacks – This option lets you do Taxi clearance readbacks without repeating the
route. With this option checked, “Taxi to Runway Zero One via taxiways Alpha, Charlie, X-Ray” can be read
back as “Taxi to Runway Zero One.” It simplifies the read back and can reduce frustration.
• Info Acts as Tower – Checking this option causes Controllers of type Info to perform the duties of a Tower.
This is to accommodate certain regions in the world where this occurs. Default setting is unchecked.
NOTE: If you change this setting while connected to the SIM, you must disconnect and then reconnect to have
it take effect.
• Display Next ATC Waypoint – When this option is checked, the next ATC waypoint will be displayed in the
Speech Text Window in Red, as well as in the Conversation Text File, if the Conversation Text File option is
enabled on the Speech tab.
Sound Settings
This panel lets you set up your ATC Chatter options.
You’ve a choice of how to set up the
background chatter. You may even wish to not
enable it at all.
To disable it completely, just leave the Play
Chatter checkbox unchecked.
NOTE: When you download files for Chatter,
your PC might block the file for Security
reasons. If the files don’t plan in P2A, you
should check this by right clicking on the file
and selecting Properties. At the bottom of this
dialog (See Below), check the Unblock option.
You’ll have to do this for each file that isn’t
playing. Of course, if they’re playing, then
don’t do anything.
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If you want to hear the background chatter, you can either have a single
.wav or .mp3 file for each Controller – or – set up folders for each
Controller having multiple files played in succession – or – set up
folders for each country in which you’ll fly containing files for each
Controller – or – set up folders for Countries and Airports with folders
of files for each Controller.
When you have multiple files, you’ll want to check the “Pause Between
File Playback” option and enter a number for the maximum seconds to
pause.
If this did not confuse you, then you’re a lot smarter than me.
Let’s take a look at some example file structures to make sense of all this.
Here we see the default P2A_200 Sounds folder with the radio-static files shipping with the product. We also see
a folder named ATC_Chatter. If you’re going to use distinct files for each Controller, place those files in the
ATC_Chatter folder and point to them in the Config panel.
Country and Airport Folders Option

If you’re going to use the folder approach, enter one or more Country folders directly in the ATC_Chatter folder.
These folders must be named based on the ICAO country codes. Here’s a link to an article on Wikipedia on this
topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Civil_Aviation_Organization_airport_code
Based on the ICAO table, the UK is EG (Europe-Great Britain), Spain is LE (L for Southern Europe and E for España).
The US is different. It’s divided into sever [7] regions – K1 through K7. For the US, you have a folder named US,
with the K1, K2, etc. underneath it if you want to have different recordings for each region.
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In this example, we have a folder for each Controller type at the US country level, as well as folders for each
region. Each region will then have a folder for each Controller type. Here are the K codes:
K1 K2 K3 K4 K5 K6 K7
United States - United States - United States - United States - United States - United States - United States -
Northwest Southwest North South Central Northeast Southeast
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If we want separate folders for an airport, we can create that separation in the folder corresponding to the
Country (or Region in the case of the US). So, for example, KDFW is in region K4 and we have this:
Now you’re probably wondering why this is so complicated… Well, the AIRAC data and P2A database have a
Country Code associated with each Controller and P2A uses that information to look for the folder you want to
have played for that Controller. If it doesn’t find it, it will look for the designated file and play that single file in a
loop. If you don’t have a designated file for that Controller type, then no ATC Chatter will play for that Controller.
Hopefully, this clarifies how to create the folder structures. Now, for the Root Folder Path. If you use the default
Sounds folder located in the P2A program folder, you can leave the Root Folder blank in the config panel.
Controller Folders Option

If you want to have universal folders for each Controller type, the structure is much simpler. Create a single sub
folder in the ATC_Chatter folder named Controllers. Then, for each Controller, have a folder named, as in the
screenshot below.
COMMENT: In this case, my P2A folder name is P2A_2016. Be sure and place this structure in your installation
folder.
This is the folder structure to use if you’re getting your ATC Chatter from X-ATC-Chatter. Here’s a link to their site:
https://www.stickandrudderstudios.com/x-atc-chatter-overview/
This is the easiest route to getting a very realistic experience with almost no effort on your part.
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The Dep_Uni and Dest_Uni folders are optional if you want to have Chatter on the Unicom/CTAF frequency. You’ll
have to find files to place here on your own.
Set up the folders and choose the Controller Folders option and you’ll be ready to go.
If getting your files from X-ATC-Chatter, just copy and paste the folders from one of the regions into your
Controllers folder.
Controller Folders with Regions

If you only need files from a single region, place the Controller folders (App, Clr, Ctr, etc.), as above, directly in the
Controllers folder. If, however, you want to implement the Regions of X-ATC Chatter, copy the Regions folder and
all of its contents to the ATC_Chatter Folder.
Each Region folder will then have a Controllers folder with all the Controllers listed as above.
Select your desired Default Region from the drop-down
on the Sounds tab of Config (Europe is selected as the
default – red box.). If the program can’t determine
what region you’re in – or if the folder for the desired
Controller in your region is empty – it’ll use this default
region’s files… So, be sure your default region has files
for all Controller types.
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Designated Files Option
This is probably the simplest option. When you select this option, place the name of a file for each Controller in
the text box next to each Controller’s name in the ATC Audio Files area.
COMMENT: The half-hour files at LiveATC.net work well for this option.
Alternate Root Folder

If you want to store your ATC Chatter files on another
drive or in another root folder, click on the “…” button
(red box) and find the folder you’re using as the Root
folder. It’s the folder containing the “ATC_Chatter”. You
must have a folder with that name containing the
country codes, etc. (as explained above) in order for the
ATC Chatter to play the right files.
If you use the default location for these files, leave this
blank as above.
Pause Between File Playback – Checking this option
will have the program pause a random number of
seconds between the end of one chatter file and the
beginning of the next. The random number of seconds
will be selected from values between the Minimum
Pause and the Maximum Pause times.
Minimum Pause Time – This is the minimum number of
seconds for the pause between playing of chatter files.
Maximum Pause Time – This is the maximum number
of seconds for the pause between playing of chatter
files.
Radio Background Sound

Find the static file you want to use for the background noise for the radio. By default, the program uses the
“\radio-static.wav” we saw earlier in the Sounds directory. If you’re operating in a remote region of the globe, you
may want to find a noisier static file for use here. Otherwise, leave this field blank to use the default.
The “%Volume” field lets you control the volume of the static. Set it from 0-100%.
COMMENT: I prefer it somewhere at or below 10%.
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Voices
The Controller voices are SAPI 5.x compliant voices driven by the Microsoft’s Text to Speech or Speech Synthesis
engine. If you leave this section blank – and you have Windows 8 or 10 – you’ll get one male and one female voice
chosen randomly for the Controller when you dial in their frequency.
NOTE: For Windows 7, there’s only one voice by default – Anna.
Of course, you can purchase and install additional voices for Windows 7 | 8 | 10. If you install additional language
packs like Spanish in Windows 8 | 10, you’ll also get additional voices.
COMMENT: Believe it or not, the Spanish voice speaks English with a Spanish accent and makes for a realistic
experience in Latin countries.
Assigned Voices
P2A will search for all SAPI voices installed on your system and display them in the drop-down box below each
Controller’s name. You select which voice to use for each Controller. The speed and volume of the voice can also
be set, which can make it sound like a totally different voice. Experiment a bit and you’ll hear some interesting
results by clicking the Test button (red box) after you make a change.
Random Voices
If you want P2A to select voices randomly for a pool of voices, check the “Use Random Voices” option. Then, you
can Add, Edit and Delete voices to manage the pool. Clicking the Add or Edit button (red box) will bring up the
Random Voice Editor dialog:
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Add virtual voices by assigning them a name, selecting a “real”
installed voice and then adjusting the speech Speed and
Volume to make them sound different from the default. Use
the Test button to hear what they sound like. When you’re
satisfied, click the Save button.
Be sure to give each virtual voice a unique name.
Clicking the Delete button will delete the entry from the
Random Voices list – and if it’s a Virtual Voice, the definition of
that voice is lost. You can “delete” real voices, but that only removes them from the Random Voice list. It doesn’t
uninstall or in any way affect the actual installed voice.
Radio Test
And finally, the “Press to Test…” button (red box) at the bottom of the Voice tab can be used to hear if the main
program radios are working. When clicked, it will announce the currently-active Com Controller and the frequency
on which they’re transmitting. It should correspond to the Controller you’ve dialed into Com1 or Com2,
depending on which Com channel is active.
Speech Tab
Speech Recognition Settings

There’re three [3] settings here, but they can be critical to Speech recognition. P2A listens to what you’re saying
as long as you’re holding down the PTT button. However, these settings can affect how it listens.
• Initial Silence Timeout – The number of milliseconds (1,000 ms = 1 second) after you click the PTT button the
Speech Recognition Engine stops listening. The default for this setting is 500ms (1/2 a second), which is about
right for most users. You shouldn’t have to adjust this setting.
• End Silence Timeout – The number of milliseconds the Speech Recognition Engine waits to see if you’ve more
to say after it’s sure it heard something it understands. The default here is 300 ms. If you find you’re being
recognized for the first part of a statement and P2A isn’t getting the second part, it could be you’re pausing
longer than this and not long enough for P2A to begin another Recognition cycle.
• End Silence Timeout Ambiguous – This is the number of milliseconds the Speech Recognition Engine waits to
see if you’re going to say more when it’s not sure it understands what you’re saying. It hopes you say
something more that’ll improve its confidence in accurately understanding you. The default setting is 200ms.
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NOTE: In most cases you won’t want to change any of these. Leaving them at 0 uses the defaults. If you set them
and want to return to the default settings, just reset to 0.
DEVELOPER COMMENT: Speech recognition in Version 2.0 is vastly different than Version 1.0. So even if you’d
adjusted these settings in Version 1, try the defaults in Version 2 before you start making changes.
Speech Output Device

If you want the output sounds – including the Controller voices – to go to an output device other than the default,
select that device from the drop-down. This is useful when the SIM uses only the default output device and you
want the engine sounds going to the speakers, but want the P2A Controller voices in your headset. Select the
headset in this dropdown.
Speech Output Device Hot Key

Set this Hot Key to cycle through the available Speech Output devices. This would be most useful for those who
have multiple sound outputs and need to change the selection while flying… perhaps in a cockpit environment.
Copilot Options
To relieve the cockpit workload, you may want to take advantage of the P2A Copilot. They can respond to radios
and change radio frequencies.
NOTE: IN ORDER FOR THE COPILOT FEATURES TO WORK, YOU MUST HAVE THE “SHOW INLINE GRAMMAR
HELP” OPTION CHECKED ON THE P2A Setup TAB.
• Respond to Radios – When this option is checked, the voice set up for the Pilot in the Voices tab – or the
default voice, if none is set up – will say all the automated read-backs posted to the Speech text window. If
this isn’t checked, click the SayIt button manually to say these phrases. The Copilot will also handle the initial
calls to Departure, Center, Approach and the Arrival Tower on IFR flights.
• Changes Frequencies – With this option checked, if ATC tells you to contact another Controller on a different
frequency, the Copilot will automatically set the new frequency in the standby Com window and swap it to
active, relieving you of the work of twisting the dials or typing in the frequency.
This feature only works after the spoken read-back phrase is recognized. If, for any reason, the phrase isn’t
recognized, you can set the frequency manually.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You must also have the “Show In-Line Grammar Help” option on the main P2A Setup Tab of
Config checked for the Co-Pilot to work.
If you have the Changes Frequency option checked, the Copilot will attempt to set up the frequencies for ATIS and
Clearance Delivery when you connect to the SIM with the aircraft on the ground at an airport with those
frequencies available.
How it Works – The Copilot generally doesn’t initiate any requests. They only do read backs of calls from ATC or
many of the initial contact reports. The Pilot (you) must initiate any requests. So, on a typical flight, you would:
• Listen to ATIS to get the weather.
• Tune to Clearance Delivery and say “<CallSign> ready to copy”.
• Listen to the clearance and set up your squawk code, etc. based on the clearance.
• Your Copilot will read back the clearance….you just keep working.
• Your Copilot will tune the Ground Frequency after receiving the “Readback Correct” call from ATC.
• You must call for Pushback, Engine Start and Taxi. The Copilot will do the readback and make the frequency.
change if a new frequency is given.
• Similar interactions occur during the flight and arrival phases.
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Conversation Text File Path
If you want P2A to create a text file of your ATC Conversation for a flight, set the file name to which you want it to
write and check the Enable option. Be aware this’ll save the conversation for a single P2A session. If you
disconnect or close P2A and start a new flight, the old file will be replaced. If you want to record and keep
multiple flights, be sure to rename the old file before starting a new flight.
Speech Recognized Tone

If you check this box and select a tone from the dropdown, P2A will play that tone whenever it recognizes your
speech input. This is useful for those who hide P2A during flight and only use the ATC and voice functionality. You
have a choice of all the .wav tones P2A finds in your system’s tone folder.
Clicking the Tst button (red box) enables you listen to
the tones so you’ll be able to select one you like.
After you set the tone AND CHECK THE CHECKBOX – if
you’re connected to the SIM when making this change
– you’ll need to RE-CONNECT to the SIM for this to take
effect. Click the Connect button twice to do this.
Speech Assistant Window

Launch as Child Window – Checking this option will keep the Speech Assistant window connected to the main
window.
EXAMPLE: If in a VR environment with the main P2A window inside the cockpit, click SayIt+ and the Speech
Assistant Window will open in the VR Environment. Unchecking the option will have the window behave
independently from the main P2A window.
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AI Traffic
The AI Traffic tab gives you the ability to tailor the
Traffic alert experience. The settings are:
• No Joy Traffic Alert Interval – The number of
seconds after the Controller is told you did not see
the traffic (“No Joy”) you’ll be given another alert.
The default is 30 Seconds.
• No Joy Traffic Alert Distance Interval – The number
of nautical miles the traffic can close on you before
you receive another alert. A fast-moving target may
trigger this distance alert before the time alert is triggered. The default is 1.5 nautical miles.
• Sighted Traffic Alert Interval – The number of seconds after you tell the Controller you have the traffic (“Tally
Ho”) you’ll be given another alert. The default is 120 seconds.
• Traffic Alert Proximity – The distance, in nautical miles, from your Aircraft a target must be before you
receive an alert. The default is 15 nautical miles.
• Traffic Alert Vertical separation – The maximum altitude difference between your aircraft and the traffic
before you receive an alert. The default is 5,000 feet.
• Airborne Traffic Alerts On – Determines if you’ll receive verbal traffic alerts while airborne. The default
setting is On, but this feature allows you to turn off traffic alerts if you desire. The default is “On”.
The default values work well for GA aircraft. For fast GA aircraft and airliners, it’s suggested some of these limits
be increased. For example, if you’re traveling at 500 knots toward another target traveling at 400 knots, you’re
closing at 900 knots. The 1.5 nautical mile distance interval would result in approximately 10 alerts per minute…
not a good idea.
X-Plane XP-Link Setup
X-Plane 11.5 and up enable AI Traffic up to 63 aircraft instead of the old 19 limit. To enable this new X-Plane
feature, you must install a custom P2A_XPLink plugin and do some additional setup in the above panel.
• IP v4 Address – If you are running Pilot2ATC on a networked client, you need to enter the IP v4 Address of
the X-Plane host machine here. Then press the ‘Save IP Addr’ button to save and validate the address.
• Use XP 11.5x Traffic – Check this box if you want to enable this feature.
• X-Plane 11.5+ Root Directory-Use the --- button to browse to the Root directory of the X-Plane
installation you want to enable. That is the folder that contains the X-Plane exe file.
• Install Plugin- After you have entered the X-Plane Root directory, press this button to automatically install
the P2A_XPLink plugin. If X-Plane is running, you will have to restart it to activate the plugin.
Enable New AI Traffic Feature in X-Plane
Each traffic engine may differ, but for most, you need to remove the 19 AI Airplanes in the AI section of X-Plane’s
aircraft selection. Then, enable TCAS mode in the traffic engine. This works in Traffic Global and something
similar should work in other engines. A little experimentation may be required.
When connecting for the first time, depending on how/where Pilot2ATC is installed, you may get a Security
Firewall warning asking for permission to let Pilot2ATC communicate with X-Plane. Allow this connection.
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Flight Plan
This tab has the options associated with Flight Planning and the Flight Plan.
ATC Options
ATC Options are used in determining what procedures are assigned by ATC. Most of the options only apply to IFR
flights, but some, like the “Force Pilot Runway Selection”, apply to all flights.
If none of these options are selected, ATC will use the procedures selected in your Flight Plan if they’re for the
arrival airport’s active runway or if you have the “Force Pilot Runway Selection” option checked. If you try and file
an IFR flight plan without a valid Approach specified, you’ll receive an error message at filing time.
If you’re flying General Aviation and want to take off without the approach, file a VFR flight plan and then request
your desired approach in the air.
ATC Assigns SIDs – Check this option if you want ATC to assign your SID and give it to you during the Request for
IFR Clearance. Remember to update your flight plan and your FMS/GPS so you fly the assigned SID. It may be
different, however, from the one for which you planned. If this option isn’t checked – but you have a SID specified
in the flight plan – ATC will assign you a SID aligned to the active runway.
ATC Assigns STARs – This option will have P2A determine what arrival procedure (STAR) is best, based on the
active runway, and assign it to you while you’re enroute. If you prefer to fly the procedures you have in your Flight
Plan:
a. uncheck this option and the following one; and,
b. check the “Force Pilot Runway Selection” option discussed below.
ATC Assigns Approaches – P2A ATC will assign the recommended approach procedure for the arrival airport.
This’ll be the highest precision IFR approach available for the active runway at the arrival airport. Be sure to
modify your Flight Plan and enter the correct Approach into your FMS or GPS unit. Also, remember a valid IFR
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Flight Plan must contain an Approach. You’ll get an error message when you try and File the Flight Plan if it
doesn’t.
Force STAR Assignment – P2A will not normally assign a STAR if the it causes a much longer route or very sharp
turns over just connecting directly to an approach with a transition. If you prefer to have a STAR assigned when
they’re available, check this option and this check for a better route without a STAR will be bypassed and you’ll
generally be assigned a STAR if it exists for the destination runway.
ATC Gives Vectors to IAF (Removed) – If you’ve been using P2A for a while, you’ll notice this option is missing. It
was the source of much confusion. Vectors will be given by ATC:
a. When requested by the Pilot for a published approach or visual straight-in. If an approach, be sure it’s to the
active runway for that airport or you have the “Force Pilot Runway Selection” option checked.
b. When the assigned approach is a precision approach without an enroute Transition Point or STAR available for
the approach runway. This is most likely to occur when flying in the US to small airports with precision
approaches, but no STARs.
c. When the active arrival runway has no precision approaches, vectors to a visual straight-in will be the default
approach type.
ATC Ignores Published Speed Limits – This option will stop ATC from directing you to slow to the speeds
published in the SID, STAR or Approach procedures you’re flying.
NOTE: Aircraft designated as “HEAVY” in the call sign will be given leeway to exceed the published speeds for
safety reasons.
ATC Ignores Below 10000 Ft Speed Limit – There’s a pretty much universal ATC rule to fly at 250 knots or less
when under 10,000 feet MSL. If you want to fly a low level bombing run at 500 knots – or just don’t want to be
nagged about your speed – check this option.
NOTE: Aircraft designated as “HEAVY” in the call sign will be given leeway to exceed the 250 knots speed limit for
safety reasons.
ATC Ignores Bearing Based Altitudes – The rule enforced by P2A is Easterly routes must use Odd Thousand foot
increments or Flight Levels and Westerly use Even Thousand foot increments and Flight Levels. While this is
common in much of the world, some countries have “North-South” rules, and some even allow any altitude. So,
checking this option lets you select any cruise altitude and not have it checked for compliance with the standard
rule.
Force Pilot Runway Selection – By default, P2A selects active runways based primarily on wind direction, as is
done in the real world. However, there’re many circumstances where you might want ATC to let you select a
different runway. By checking this box:
a. If you ask for a specific runway when you call for Taxi, ATC will assign you that runway.
b. If you request a specific approach at your arrival airport, you’ll be given that approach even if it’s not to the
active runway.
c. If you have a SID, STAR or Approach specified in your flight plan to a runway that isn’t the active runway,
you’ll be given that SID or Approach. The STAR will be assigned to align with the Approach.
Auto Load Recommended Procedures – Checking this option will have P2A determine the recommended SID,
STAR, and/or Approach for the flight plan when you “File” it and add it to the filed Flight Plan. The procedures to
be added are determined by the values of the ATC-Assigns SIDs, STARs and Approaches options. The procedures
loaded for the Arrival airport may change enroute, but this way, you know what to expect while still planning the
flight. Also, if you have the option to Export Cleared Flight Plan and Load Cleared Flight Plan checked, this full
Flight Plan will be exported and loaded for you.
If you want to fly an IFR plan where the route is direct from the departure airport to the arrival airport, un-check
this option and check the “ATC Assigns Approaches” option. That way, your approach won’t appear in the Flight
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Plan and you’ll not be called “off course” when flying this direct route. As you near the destination airport, ATC
will assign your approach and give you vectors or clearance direct to the IAF for the approach.
Randomize SIDs and STARs – This option will provide a little more variety to your flight plans. If the Flight Plan has
multiple SIDs (or STARs) for a connecting waypoint in the flight plan, this option will randomize (mix up) the
selection of the recommended SID or STAR. If there aren’t any connecting waypoints in the flight plan, it will be
ignored. This option will be applied to the selection of procedures using Auto Plan and when ATC is assigning
them.
Randomize Approach Types – This option will provide even more variety to your flight plans. Instead of always
being assigned the most precise approach type – usually an ILS approach – you’ll be randomly assigned the RNAV
or even the VOR approach for your destination airport.
Randomize Vector Approaches – This option will have ATC provide vectors at random, even on approaches where
vectors are not indicated, based on the procedure or rules for the approach.
Match SIM Runway if Known – If this option is checked, the program will attempt to determine the SIM runway in
use and force that runway as the active, regardless of winds and other factors. However, the SIM runway isn’t
always known by the program. So, it may not be chosen in all cases where this option is checked.
Ignore Airway Altitude Restrictions – If checked, this option ignores the enroute airway altitude restrictions when
calculating the Planned Altitudes and descent. If False, then planned altitudes will be modified in the Flight Plan to
conform to the airway max and min altitudes.
NOTE: If the Cruise Altitude isn’t within the max and min altitudes of the airways on the route, either the airways
should be changed or the Cruise Altitude altered to keep the cruise altitude within limits.
Export Options
Import-Export SID/STAR Waypoints – When checked, an export of a flight plan will export all waypoints visible in
the Flight Plan window, including those associated with a SID, STAR and Approach. By default, exported flight
plans only include the Departure and Destination Airports and the Waypoints in between added by the user.
Exporting them all will work well for importing the flight plan into the SIM or, for example, into the default FMS of
X-Plane, which doesn’t separately let you add the procedures. Most GPSs and third-party FMSs do allow you to
enter the procedures separately, so use the default option for those devices.
When importing .pln files from P3D or FSX, if this option is checked – and the plan includes SIDs, STARs or
Approaches – they’ll be added to the Flight Plan. If an imported waypoint is invalid, the identifier will be flagged
with “**” so, if desired, it can be deleted or changed. If an airway or procedure is no longer valid, it will also be
flagged with “**”.
Export Cleared Flight Plan – This option exports the flight plan to the folder designated in the Flight Plan Path for
the active SIM. This’ll occur when ATC reads your Flight Plan clearance to you. If the Flight Plan path isn’t set, the
export won’t take place. Once the flight plan has been exported, use the Flight Plan Load function of the SIM to
load it into the aircraft. This works for all SIM types. The Flight Plan will be saved with a name of “Current Flight
Plan XXXX-YYYY”, where XXXX is the departure airport ICAO code and YYYY is the destination airport ICAO code.
Load Cleared Flight Plan into P3D/FSX – Check this option if you want P2A to load the flight plan into the SIM for
you.
Misc Options
Vector Leg Distance (NM) – When you get vectors to the IAF, it will be to a point before the IAF in order to give
you time to get aligned on final before passing over the IAF. This number is the distance before the IAF to which
you’ll be vectored. If you’re flying a large aircraft at higher speeds, make this a little longer – like 4 nautical miles.
If you’re flying a slow GA aircraft, make this very small – like 1 nautical mile.
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Flight Plan Folder
Set the default folder for storing your flight plans. When you Open, Save, Import or Export a Flight Plan, the file
dialog will go to this folder – or the last Flight Plan folder you accessed.
WX (Weather Sources)
The WX tab allows you to choose the
weather source you want P2A to use.
By default, it will download Real
Weather from NOAA (red box). If you
check this option, no other information
is required.
Weather Refresh Interval

Weather Refresh Interval (Minutes) – The amount of time between trips to the NOAA website to download
METAR and TAF information. The default setting is 15 minutes, primarily because that’s how often the data is
updated in the real world. You can set it longer or shorter here, but unfortunately, it won’t affect how fast NOAA
(or your chosen weather engine) updates their data. You’ll also want to close and reopen the weather display
window to refresh the display if it’s open while you’re flying.
Max Nearby Weather Distance (NM) – Specifies the maximum distance P2A will search for an active weather
station. In remote areas, you may not be able to get a weather report if this is set too small.
Weather Source
Check the weather source you want P2A to use.
NOAA Weather – Check this option to continue retrieving real weather from the Internet.
SIM Weather – This option uses weather information provided by the SIM. In the case of FSX and P3D, it pulls it
directly from the SIM using FSUIPC, so no additional information is required. In the case of X-Plane, it pulls it from
the METAR.rwx file in the X-Plane root directory, so you need to specify the X-Plane Root directory information for
this to work. You also need to verify that the METAR.rwx file exists there. Check X-Plane documentation on how to
create the METAR.rwx file for custom weather. The short version is “Real weather files are initially downloaded
via the last tab in the Weather screen in X-Plane.” Once downloaded, this file can be modified and stored to
provide custom weather scenarios.
Active Sky, OPUS, FSGRW and REX Weather – These options let you pull your weather from one of these popular
weather engines. When using FSGRW, you’ll need to be sure the “Export Data” option is checked so it will export
the weather data to a file that can then be pointed to in the appropriate file selection area. Active Sky for X-Plane
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also places the current_wx_snapshot.txt file in an App Data folder at C:\Users\<UserName>\App
Data\Roaming\AS_XPL\Weather or C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\HiFi\AS_XPL\Weather.
Be sure to enter the file location for the sources
you want to use in the appropriate box in the
lower section of this tab. The file name
example for each type of weather engine is
given in parentheses () after the engine name.
Buttons (Btns)
This tab is where you set all the Joystick buttons and Keyboard Hot Keys.
PTT Button and Hot Key
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Joystick PTT Button – To set up the joystick, click on the Set button in the PTT Joystick box.
In the resulting window, select your joystick or yoke
device in the Drop-Down. Click the button you wish to
use as the PTT (Push to Talk) button. The button
number will automatically appear in the Button
Number text box when you do this. As luck would have
it, I use the trigger button on my joystick and its button
number is 0. So, the first time I set this, I wasn’t sure it
was working. If this happens to you, click another
button, see that the number changes and then click the
button you want again.
PTT Hot Key – This sets the hot key on the keyboard you can use as a PTT button.
You don’t have to set this, but some users find it helpful
to be able to use an alternate means of clicking the PTT
button. You might also use this to map a custom
hardware button to a key and then set that key here to
operate the PTT button. To set the PTT Hot Key, click
the Set button in the PTT Hot Key box.
In the resulting window, click an Alpha-Numeric key
you want to be the Hot Key. This letter or number
should display in the Key Code text area.
Click the Clear button to disable the Hot Key feature.
SayIt Settings
The next two [2] boxes allow you to set up a HotKey or
a Joystick button – or both – to perform the same
function as the SayIt button on the screen. If you use
SayIt a lot, having one or both of these enabled would
probably be a good idea. Check the “Enable” check box
to enable them. This avoids inadvertent activations.
To set either the Joystick button or the Hot Key, click
the respective Set button and follow the instructions
from the PTT settings paragraph above. click the Clear
button to disable the Hot Key or Button.
Speech Assistant Window Hot Key

This sets a Hot key to Open and close the SayIt+
Speech Assistant window.
Minimize Button and Hot Key

This sets a button or Hot Key that’ll toggle the view of
P2A. When you click the hot key, P2A will display in
the minimum window size, taking out the map and
flight plan. Click again, and it’s restored to full size. Be
sure to select a hot key not used by other programs
because this hot key, unlike the others, is always hot.
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Setting the button and Hot Key is done in the same way as the PTT Button and Hot Key.
Minimize To Task Bar Option – Checking this option will toggle P2A between visible and totally hidden instead of
between minimized and full.
Transponder Button and Hot Key

This sets a button and/or Hot Key to toggle through all
four [4] Transponder modes: Off | Standby | Active |
Alt. This action is the same as clicking on the
Transponder mode in the upper right of the main
window and is primarily useful to those users flying
with P2A not visible.
Play ATC Chatter Hot Key

This hot key allows you to toggle the ATC Chatter on
and off, avoiding the need to go into Config to
accomplish this during a flight.
Hot Key Settings

This area has settings applying to all enabled hot keys.
Require P2A or SIM Focus – If this option is checked, either P2A or the SIM must have the focus in order for the
Hot Key to be active. This option is useful if you have other programs that might use the same Hot Key and you
want to be able to use them while P2A is running. The PTT Hot Key isn’t affected by this setting and so should be a
unique key across all applications.
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Taxiway Maintenance
Taxiway definitions in the database are usually close enough to provide a good ground operation experience.
Sometimes, however, airport taxiway names change or new taxiways are added that aren’t in the database. In
these rare cases, changes can be made to the default taxiway configuration using the Taxi Mnt button.
NOTE: This feature makes changes to the P2ABaseData.mdf database file located in the Data subfolder of the
P2A installation folder. Be sure to make a backup of this database file before beginning to use Taxiway
Maintenance. ALSO, only use this window when NOT FLYING as it prevents using the main window while open.
Click the Taxi Mnt button to the right of the flight plan on the main P2A Screen. The following window will open.
Enter the airport code (EGPD) in the ICAO text box and the map will zoom into the desired airport.
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Viewing Taxiways
Click the Show Taxiways button to see the taxi paths and runways.
Each of the green “push pins” represent a taxi point; each green line represents a taxi path. A collection of same
named taxi paths makes a taxiway. Near the runway, you should see the “Hold_Short” taxi points displayed as
orange pins.
The green taxi paths are active taxiways. The red lines and push pins are runways.
To work on an area of the airport, use the mouse wheel to zoom into a level that makes the area you want to
work on visible with adequate separation of the pins to be able to select items.
If you haven’t yet imported taxiways, there may be extraneous green lines (taxi paths). We’ll clean these up when
we import the taxiways.
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Viewing Gates
To view the gates, click the Show Gates button.
The Purple “push pins” represent Gates, including Ramp parking spots.
Importing Airport Taxiways and Gates

We can import the taxiway data from our FSX or P3D installation using Pete Dowson’s MakeRwys tool. Download
that tool here: http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html
IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure and read the documentation, especially if you’re using it with P3Dv4 as things have
changed in the newest version 4.8.
After you’ve run MakeRwys according to their instructions, you’re ready to import Taxiways and Gates into the
P2A database. While there’s a facility to do this for all airports in a single import, realize any prior changes will be
overwritten and it may take a considerable amount of time to do all the airports (10 to 20 minutes). Also, many
airport sceneries don’t have enough valid taxiway information to enable P2A to create taxi routes. You should
BACKUP your P2ABaseData.mdf and P2ABaseData_log.ldf files before importing. Then, test the ability of P2A to
create taxi routes before you import another airport. Again, importing one airport at a time is highly
recommended. We’ll demonstrate importing just the taxiways and gates for EGPD.
If you’ve added scenery that includes airports not in the AIRAC data, if they have defined runways and taxiways,
they’ll also be imported from MakeRwys.
For X-Plane, the import can be done for a single Airport at a time and the airport must exist in the database. You
should only import an airport you’re confident has good taxiway and gate information in a Custom Scenery file or
the default scenery, but be sure and backup your P2ABaseData.mdf file in case the imported data isn’t as good as
the default data.
When you import taxiways or gates, a save file is created (See Save and Load section for details) in the
P2A_Backups folder of the Data file. If you don’t like the results of the import, load the backup file and you’ll be
restored to the condition before the import. This saved file is replaced each time you import. If you want,
manually save the existing taxiway or Gate data to different names to create multiple restore possibilities if
making changes or importing from various sources.
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To get started, click the Import Scenery tab (red box) and you’ll be presented with this screen.
To start, enter the folder where your MakeRwys.exe file was run. Usually, this is the SIM root folder. You also
need to select which source you want to use by checking the button next to the desired SIM. Make sure you have
ALL scenery layers active before running MakeRwys.exe.
COMMENT: If using X-Plane, be sure and enter the X-Plane root installation directory.
Notice the green and purple boxes beneath the instructions.
• The green box is used to import Taxiway and Runway data from the t5.csv and r5.csv files created by
MakeRwys or from the X-Plane scenery files.
• The purple box is used to import Gate data from MakeRwys g5.csv file or X-Plane scenery files.
Import Taxiways
To import the taxiways for the selected Airport (EGPD), click the “Import Single Apt Taxiways” button in the
Import area at the bottom of the left pane. Answer “Yes” to the Data Loss Warning message and “No” to the Run
MakeRwys message, unless you want to run MakeRwys again.
NOTE: If you’re running P2A on a remote PC, you can’t start MakeRwys from P2A. You’ll just get an error no
taxiways were found.
The program will now import the taxiways listed in the t5.csv file and the runways listed in the r5.xsv file. For
EGPD, it goes quickly since this is a small airport. Large airports might take several minutes, though most will finish
in less than a minute.
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When done, the map will zoom out to show the entire airport and our screen now looks like the following. We’ll
edit these taxiways later.
For X-Plane, the program will read the scenery_packs.ini file. If the airport is listed as active, will import the
apt.dat file in the specified folder – or – if none is found in the scenery_packs.ini file, from the global default
apt.dat folder.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If importing from Custom Scenery, the folder name that contains the Earth nav data/apt.dat
file must include the Airport ICAO identifier in the folder name and that folder must be listed in the
scenery_packs.ini file before any other folders that have the airport identifier in its name.
For example, of the following five [5] scenery_packs.ini entries, only the three [3] bolded ones will be looked at
for import.
• SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Aerosoft - EDDF Frankfurt/
• SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/X-Plane Landmarks - Chicago/
• SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/X-Plane Landmarks - Las Vegas/
• SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/KCLT/
• SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/KACT/
If you have the following entries, you’d have to reverse the order so KBPT_Roads, which doesn’t contain airport
data, comes after KBPT_Scenery_Pack containing the apt.dat file.
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/KBPT_Roads/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/KBPT_Scenery_Pack/
Many X-Plane scenery artists don’t specify which taxi points are “hold short” vs “normal” points. If that’s the case,
import and manually change each taxi point next to the hold short lines of the runways to a type of “Hold_Short”.
COMMENT: If you’re modifying an airport using WED, put the phrase “ hold short “ in the name of the appropriate
points / vertices and it will be read in with the import by P2A.
Gate Imports
Before moving on to editing the taxiways, let’s import the gates. To do so, select the Gates Tab in the left pane
and the screen will look like the following.
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Click the Import Single Apt Gates button in the purple area of the Import tab, answer “Yes” to the Data Loss
Warning message and “No” to the Run MakeRwys again message.
The new map is displayed as before, but with just the Gates showing. If you have custom scenery, it could be quite
different from before. We’ll edit these gates a bit later.
• In the case of P3D/FSX, the data is read from the g5.csv file created by MakeRwys.exe. Airline associations, if
they exist in the g5.csv file, will be imported along with other gate information.
• In the case of X-Plane, the data is read from the same apt.dat file that was used in the Taxiway/Runway
import. These files don’t contain airline assignments, so these will have to be done manually after import.
Importing ARTCC Center Information

ATC Centers (or ARTCCs), control IFR traffic outside areas controlled by Towers, Approach and Departure controls.
The boundaries of these Controllers’ authority and their frequencies are included in the P2A Database. However,
this data may become outdated.
The ARTCC tab in the left hand pane, allows you to import updated Center data from your P3D or FSX scenery file.
FSAeroData (https://www.fsaerodata.com/) offers a subscription for updated P3D/FSX data that includes an
updated bvcf.bgl file.
This file is located in your P3D or FSX scenery folder at ….\Scenery\World\Scenery\bvcf.bgl.
To accomplish this do the following:
• Download the BGL2XML utility (http://www.scruffyduck.org/bgl2xml/4584282773) to convert the scenery file
to an .xml file which can be read by P2A.
• Run the utility to create a file named bvcf.bgl.xml
• click the Import ARTCC Centers button and point to the file that you’ve converted to xml in the previous step.
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Editing ARTCC Center Names and Frequencies

Edit the Controller names and frequencies if needed on this tab. The boundaries can’t be edited here. Follow
these steps to edit a center Controller’s data:
• Zoom the map in to the area in which the Controller boundary will be. The smaller the area displayed, the
faster the boundaries will render.
NOTE: Large areas can take a LONG time.
• Click the “Show ARTCC Airspace” button (red box) and wait for the boundaries to show. This area took about
20 seconds to show the following.
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• Click on the Controller name you wish to edit. This’ll populate the edit area on the left with that Controller’s
Name and Frequency.
• Now make the desired changes and click Save. In this case, we’ll change the frequency to 133.5. After clicking
Save, the new information is displayed on the map and saved to the database.
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Taxiway Maintenance
Taxiway maintenance completed in P2A only affects the determination of taxi routes for ATC and the drawing of
taxi routes on the map when you click the Taxi button. Therefore, it’s only worthwhile when your taxi instructions
are not in sync with the depiction of the airport in the SIM. To affect the smooth movement of AI Traffic, etc.,
edits should be made in a tool designed to modify the SIM’s scenery – such as WED for X-Plane.
Taxiway Editing Rules

Here are some rules or guidelines to follow when adding or editing taxiways in P2A.
1. Keep it simple. Don’t try and smooth out curves with multiple taxi points etc. Remember, aircraft won’t be
following these lines. They’ll only be used to determine a route. If a curve is already defined, it can be left
unless it’s violating one of the rules or causing some other problem. For example, a large curve could cause
the most direct route to appear longer to the program and cause it to create a route that seems illogical.
2. SAVE OFTEN. If you’re adding and deleting taxi points and paths, they don’t get IDs assigned until you Save.
This can cause some confusion when certain actions are taken, resulting is errors or lost work. SAVE OFTEN.
3. Hold Short points should be associated with one and only one Runway.
4. Hold Short points should only be used adjacent to runways that’ll be crossed or entered into directly. No
intervening taxi points should stand between the Hold Short point and its associated runway. The taxi point
highlighted below should be removed so the Hold Short Point connects directly to the Runway taxi point.
5. Runways should extend beyond any Hold Short points that attach to the runway. In the first screenshot
below, the runway end should be extended into the overrun so the two [2] Hold Short points are adjacent to
the runway rather than behind it, as in the second screenshot.
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6. All taxiways crossing or connecting to a runway should have one [1] Hold Short point adjacent to the
associated runway and a connecting taxi path to the runway taxi point. And remember rule 3. In the following
screenshot, the taxipoints in red boxes should be deleted. The taxi path and Hold Short cutting across the
grass (Blue Box) should also be deleted. The remaining Hold Short point can be moved back to the line also.
When done, it would look like the left screenshot below – or – if you want to add the diagonal taxiway, the right
screenshot below.
Taxiway Edits
At Aberdeen, the database has the main taxiway parallel to runway 16 and named W. On the chart, it’s named M.
We’ll merely rename the taxi paths that make up that taxiway to make it conform to the current Airport Diagram.
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To change the name of the taxiway, follow these steps:
1. Select the first taxi path to be renamed by clicking on the green line while the cursor is the small hand symbol.
The line turns yellow to indicate it’s selected, and the Taxi Path Name on the left is W.
2. Change the Name of the Taxi Path to M. Click on each Taxi Point, and if they’re named W, rename them to M.
Note not all Taxi Points have names – that’s okay. You can leave these blank.
3. Select the next Taxi Path. Repeat the steps above until all taxi paths named W have their names changed to
M.
4. Click the Save Changes button (red box).
5. You can click the Hide Taxiways button and then the Show Taxiways button to see if the changes are saved.
You’re done, so close the window and respond Yes to the dialog on whether to save changes or not.
Adding Taxi Paths

Notice the taxi paths going to the Departure point for Runway 16 are missing. The hold points M8 and M9 in the
airport diagram are not represented in the database, so let’s add some taxi paths.
First, we want the new taxi paths to connect into the existing Taxiway M. So let’s choose the taxi point in taxiway
M that we can use to start from.
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Notice it’s not lined up quite right... Select it and move it slightly to the left to be in the middle of the taxiway.
To create the new taxi path:

1. Right-click the selected taxi point and choose “Add Taxi Path – First Taxi Point” from the drop-down menu.
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2. Right-click in the middle of the taxiway near the turn to the right and select “Add Taxi Path – Second Taxi
Point” from the menu.
3. A new taxi point and a connecting taxi path will be drawn on the map.
4. Name the new Taxi Path M – if it’s not already named that. It’ll take on the attributes of the connected taxi
point.
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5. Connect our new path with the Runway. Move the TaxiPoint at the very end of the runway back to the very
start of the runway. Like before, select the new taxi point and right click, selecting Add Taxi Path – First Taxi
Point. Then select the Green Taxi Point at the very end of the Runway and right click, selecting Add Taxi Path-
Second Taxi Point. Our Taxiway now looks like:
NOTE: If this were a parallel runway

situation where the taxiway needed to cross
over this runway, instead of connecting to
the taxipoint at the very end of the runway,
we would need to add a taxipoint to the
runway just before the very end and
connect our taxipaths on either side to that
taxipoint. For example, RW19R at KSFO in
the screenshot to the left needs to be
modified.
To look like the following screenshot with

the changes highlighted in yellow and also a
new taxi point added between the 2 Hold
Short taxi points. Hold short taxi points
should connect directly with the normal taxi
point that’s part of the runway (yellow
below). Also, Hold short taxi points should
always be separated by at least one normal
taxi point so the program treats them
separately (Green taxi point with red box
below).
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User Guide
6. Now we can add a Hold Taxi Point by first selecting the new taxi path, right clicking and selecting Add New
Taxi Point, as in the following screenshot.
7. Now select the new taxi point and change the taxi point type to Hold Short, as in the following shot:
8. Click the Save Changes Button, close the window and choose Yes to the prompt. Then, reopen to see that the
changes were saved properly. Finish editing the airport by dragging taxi points to their proper locations and
renaming taxi paths to match the airport diagram.
Editing Gates and Parking

Now let’s take a look at editing Gates and Parking areas. We’ll use KSAT – San Antonio International Airport in
Texas.
The first task is to find an airport diagram with Gate, and preferably Airline information. Here’s the one for KSAT:
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User Guide
This is better than most as it has both gate names/locations and assigned airlines. Most major airports have such
maps, but some are easier to find than others.
Enter KSAT in the ICAO text box in the upper left of the Taxi Mnt Screen and click Enter. As you can see in the
screenshot below, the Taxiways and Gates from FSX have already been imported, so we have a nice clean airport
to start with.
On the left side of the screen, you’ll see the selected gate shows Name, Type and ID. The ID is only for trouble-
shooting and can’t be changed. There’s also a list of Airlines we can associate with each gate.
The Airline list is a small subset of the full airline list that’s found in the Airlines Tab, “behind” the Map tab.
Let’s first take a look at the Airlines tab then come back to the gates.
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User Guide
Airlines Maintenance
Click on the Airlines tab above the map and you’ll see the following:
This is a comprehensive list of airlines from around the globe. It includes the Airport Code, Name, Call Sign used
by their flights, and Country. There’re well over 6,000 airlines in this list!
Normally, you’ll be interested in working with a very small subset of these at any given time. The Favorite column
allows you to place a checkmark next to an airline and add it to the list of “favorites” that’s displayed under the
gate definition in the left pane.
Above the list, you’ll see a Filter area that’ll help you find the Airline(s) you want to add to the favorites list.
Looking at the KSAT Terminal map, you’ll see there’s a gate for Alaska Airlines, which isn’t in our favorites list, so
let’s search for it and add it to the list.
First, enter Alaska into the Filter Value. Then select “Contains” as the Filter Type so it will search for any value that
includes the work Alaska. Finally, select Name as the Filter Column.
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Click the Search Button and you get this:
Only 11 of the 6,000+ airlines contain the word “Alaska”. The one we want (red box) has an ICAO Code of ASA.
Check the Favorite box (red box) and click Save. It will be added to our favorites list on the left.
Now we’re ready to edit the gates, so click the Map tab at the top and we’ll start editing.
Moving, Adding and Deleting Gates

We interact with Gates in about the same way as we did with Taxi Points.
Select – Click on the Push Pin
Move – Place the mouse over the marker so you see the Gate name; click the mouse button; move the push pin;
and, release the mouse button.
Delete – Select the Gate Marker, then right-click and select Delete Gate from the menu.
Adding – Place the mouse where you want a gate, right click, and select Add Gate from the menu.
Let’s try adding some gates to the Terminal at KSAT.
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First, zoom in so you can see the terminal area. Notice it looks a lot like the Terminal map. You’ll also notice
there’re no Gates at the Terminal. Moussing over the few purple markers near the terminal, you’ll see they’re all
misplaced parking areas. Click on them and you see they’re of type Ramp_GA_Large. You can move them to an
appropriate area for now… almost anywhere will be better than the middle of the food court!
Also notice the taxiway to the Southeast of Terminal A… It needs to be moved out to the Ramp Taxiway line so we
can add gates there. Practice your moving skills and get the taxiways near the terminal all lined up properly. If you
click on a marker and the map starts moving instead of the marker, click on the map. Then, try clicking and moving
the marker again. Below is what mine looked like, but I didn’t finish with cleaning it all up.
We’ll start adding gates at B1 (red box).
Notice the Satellite Photo makes it easy to see exactly where each gate should be placed. Just put your mouse
where you want a gate, right-click and select Add Gate.
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User Guide
The Gate Marker is added and the Gate information on the left shows the new gate’s data.
Change the name to B1. Leave the Type as Gate_Medium. Put a check next to United Airlines (UAL) since this gate
is assigned to them. Click Save and you’ve added your first gate. Repeat for all the other gates and you’ll be done.
I’ve added Gates B1 through B8. Notice the markers are placed at the end of the Gate Taxi line on the concrete,
not on the empty gate. B7 is placed over the aircraft that’s parked on the line.
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User Guide
You’ll also notice the ID of each gate when you first create it is 0. It’ll change to a valid ID value after you save your
work. We check our work in the Info Panel. Filter on UAL for the airline and Gate for the type and we get this:
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User Guide
Runway Preferences
To use the preferred runway capability, open the Runways tab in the Taxi Mnt window with the desired airport
selected. Here, it’s Gainesville, Florida (KGNV).
When runways are imported from P3D or FSX, the program picks up the CT (Closed for Takeoff) and CL (Closed for
Landing) markings, if any. In the default P3D and FSX – or in X-Plane – there’re none of these. All runways are
designated as available for Takeoff and Landing. So it looks like the markings above.
If we want to never use Runway 07/25, then remove those check marks and that’ll eliminate them from
consideration as active runways. If we always want to use RW 11 when winds are light enough to allow that, we
check it as the Preferred Light Wind runway, as below.
COMMENT: You’ll see an error message if you uncheck all runways from the Takeoff and Landing columns since
that would leave the airport useless.
We need to define “Light Winds” for our preferred runway. By default, light winds are defined as crosswind and
tailwind components less than or equal to 5 knots. If the Preferred runway meets these criteria, it’ll be used
instead of other runways that might be more favorably aligned. You can change these default values in the
Preferred Runway Light Wind Parameters area below the list of runways.
This less-than-optimal wind alignment runway usage is common at large airports when winds are light and
variable and normally would favor the availability of Instrument Approaches, proximity of the runway to parking
areas, etc.
Information about preferred runways, if any, is normally available in the Airport’s Operations Information (AOI)
charts.
Misnamed and Missing Runways**:
When importing runway information, P2A also compares the runway names to those available in the installed
AIRAC data. If there’s a discrepancy, “**” is appended to the name, indicating you should do some research and
either rename the runway – or – if the runway no longer is in use, uncheck both Land and Takeoff boxes.
When renaming a runway, be sure to remove the “**” and include the RW in front of the runway number.
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User Guide
Save your changes.

Let’s take a quick look at Atlanta Hartsfield International (KATL) in Atlanta, Georgia.
There’re a lot of parallel runways here. So, for efficient airport operations, preferred runway rules sometimes
exist, as outlined in the AOI document below.
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User Guide
To see runway names, click the Show Rwy Names button at the top. This’ll make it easier to visualize the rules and
make the correct choices.
From the chart, Runways O8L/26R and
09R/27L are preferred for landing. So,
let’s uncheck the Takeoff boxes for
those four [4] runways as shown
below. Looking at the map, these are
the outboard runways from the center
terminal area and this is a common
operational rule.
Now, we can uncheck the Landing
boxes for the “inboard” runways
09L/27R and 08R/26L.
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User Guide
Finally, while it’s not in the AIO chart, we can decide a Westerly flow is preferred in light winds, and so mark all
the Westerly runways (26R, 26L, 27R, 27L) as Pref Light Wind runways.
Now our runway assignments will be closer to the real operations at the airport.
Save and Load

This feature lets you save the Gates and Taxiways from an airport as backup or to share with others. When you
import taxiways or gates, a save file is created in the P2A_Backups folder of the Data file. If you don’t like the
results of the import, load the backup file and you’ll be restored to the condition before the import.
It also allows you to make all the detailed changes needed to get great taxi instructions, etc. at your favorite
airports from P2A and then share those with your friends and other Simmers using P2A.
Click the Save/Load tab. You’ll see the following screen. Follow the instructions in the box to Save or Load files.
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User Guide
Saving Taxiways
To save taxiways at EGPD, click the “Save Airport Taxiways” button and specify the file name and location of the
file to save. A default name is provided, but it can be changed to anything we want.
That’s all there’s to it.
Loading Taxiways
To load the saved taxiways, reverse the process and click the Load Airport Taxiways button, answer “Yes” to the
warning, find the file we saved and click Open.
The taxiways will be loaded into the database.
Saving and Loading Gates

The process for gates is identical to that for Taxiways. Use the Gate Save and Load buttons instead of the Taxiway
Save and Load buttons.
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User Guide
Testing Taxi Paths
Once you’ve edited taxiways and gates, you can test to see that taxi routing will work with the new data.
Test Taxi To Runway

To test taxiing to a runway, identify the starting position of the aircraft and the active runway or other taxi point
to which it will taxi. Do the following using the mouse right-click menu:
1. Click on or near the gate or other area from which you want to taxi and choose “Move Aircraft to Here”. The
yellow aircraft icon will move to that position.
2. Click on the departure end of the desired runway and select “Set Active Runway”
3. Click the “Route to Runway” button on the Taxiways tab on the left of the screen and the taxi route will be
display with small pins and a green line. The first time this is done, it may take several minutes to display the
route because the program has to read in all the taxiway details for the first time. Subsequent routes should
display faster.
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User Guide
Yellow and blue pins are Hold Short and ILS Hold Short points.
a. Red pins are HoldShort or ILS Hold Short points that’ll be used in the taxi instructions for holding.
b. Green pins denote normal taxi points.
As long as the path starts near the aircraft and ends near the desired runway, it should work for getting taxi
instructions. Notice the path may not start in the parking area because, in many cases, there’re no connected
taxiways there.
4. Check to see if the defined taxiways will yield a good route. Notice each pin right before crossing a runway is
red. This is how it should be.
Test Taxi to Anywhere on Airport

Taxi to any spot on the airport – for example from anywhere to a taxiway intersection. To do this:
1. Click on the Taxiways Tab on the left of the screen.
2. Click where you want to taxi from and choose Move Aircraft to Here. The yellow aircraft icon will move to that
position.
3. Click at any location on the airport and select “Set Taxi to Position” from the right click menu. Click the “Route
to Runway” button on the Taxiways tab on the left of the screen and the route will be displayed as below.
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User Guide
Test Taxi To Gate
To test taxi paths from a runway to a gate:
1. Click on the Gates tab on the left of the screen.
2. Click where you want to taxi from and choose Move Aircraft to Here. The yellow aircraft icon will move to that
position.
3. Select the desired gate on the Gates tab – or – by clicking on the displayed gates on the map. Blue gate below.
4. Click the “Route to Gate” button on the Gates tab on the left of the screen and the taxi route will be displayed
as before.
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User Guide
Reference Documentation
Here are some interesting and useful references for our users.
General Reference Materials:

FAA Handbooks and Manuals: https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/
“Flying an Approach with the Garmin GTN 750” by BruceAir
https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=110AA5B593D58477!8858&app=WordPdf
The P2A website: https://pilot2atc.com/

P2A Tutorials
There are a number of videos you may view by visiting the P2A website. They’ll provide an idea of how the
program works.
DEVELOPER COMMENT: Watching them, you’ll notice P2A takes up a significant part of the movie screen. It was
enlarged for movie-making purposes. When in actual use, it’s resizable, and at its optimal size, takes up about
1/4th to 1/3rd of a screen. With a 2+ screen SIM setup, it fits nicely to the left or right of your SIM. It doesn’t have to
be on top of your SIM window.
P2A :: Quick Start - Configuration
P2A :: Sneak Peak - Version 2.0
P2A - Version 2.0 - More Features
P2A - IFR Flight Planning
Pilot2 ATC - SayIt Tutorial
P2A - Version 2.2 - New Features
P2A :: Taxiway Maintenance (KEGE)
P2A :: VFR Pattern Work (KDAB)
Page 123 of 123


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User Guide

Part 2: Features, Functions + Operation

Flight Plan (FPL) Panel ................................................................................................................................................ 11

Grammar Help (GRMR Help) ..................................................................................................................................... 47

ATC Interaction Area .................................................................................................................................................. 51

Radio Stack Area ........................................................................................................................................................ 56

Auto Pilot .................................................................................................................................................................... 66

Taxiway Maintenance ................................................................................................................................................ 94

Reference Documentation ....................................................................................................................................... 123

Thanks again to all for your contributions!

From left to right, the buttons are:

Map Function Buttons

From top to Bottom:

To see more of the map, either:

Let’s take a look at how to create a flight plan.

Entering a Simple Flight Plan

ALTERNATIVE METHOD TO ENTER A WAYPOINT: To add a waypoint:

Entering Lat/Lon Waypoints for Trans-Oceanic Flights

Entering Altitude and Groundspeed

Entering Custom Ground Speed for Waypoints

Validating and Filing the Flight Plan

A Flight Plan with SIDs, STARs and Approaches

Adding the SID

In this case, there’s only one [1] transition, WOBUN, so our

Flying the SID

Notice the initial display of the approach shows it with no transitions

It appears this transition would have us doubling back on our course, so

IFR Flight Plan Without An Approach

Auto Plan Button

Before we click the AutoPlan button, we must choose – on the

Now, a few notes on how to get best results:

PMDG 737 NGX Procedure Notes

Adding Airways to a Flight Plan

Importing Flight Plans

Another way to import flight plans is to use the Importer

click Search and you get:

Exporting Flight Plans

If You Don’t Preset the Position

If You Preset a GA Ramp or Water Dock position

If You Don’t Preset GA Ramp or Water Dock position

The bottom half of the Info panel displays a close-up of the

• waypoints will be dropped from the Flt Plan.

Click DirectTo button.

Grammar Help (GRMR Help)

Print All key

Open the Grammar

Personalized Speech Training

Click the Train button in the Personal Grammar

Listen Before You Say

ATC Interaction Area

Using the SayIt Feature

Using the SayIt Plus (?+) Feature

Recalling Previous SayIt Phrases

Another way to search is using Airport Identifier (Apt ICAO).

TERPs (Terminal Procedures) Panel

Grabbing Charts from the Web

Saving To Local Hard Drive

Saving The URL

Charts from SIMPlates

Charts From a Subscription Service