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AI air traffic control · X-Plane 12

Talk to ATC. It talks back.

Hold push-to-talk and speak as you would on a real radio. A controller answers in US FAA phraseology, on the frequency you are tuned to, from the gate at one airport to the gate at the next.

Get started What ATC can do

YouSeattle Clearance, November 547 Golf Alpha, IFR to Portland with Charlie.

ClearanceN547GA, cleared to Portland International airport via the SUMMA2 departure, then as filed. Climb and maintain 5000, expect 16000 10 minutes after departure. Departure frequency 119.2, squawk 4521.

YouCleared to Portland, SUMMA2 then as filed, 5000 expect 16000, 119.2, squawk 4521, 547GA. ✓ Readback accepted

  • 128.000Clearance
  • 121.700Ground
  • 119.900Tower
  • 119.200Departure
  • 124.200Center
  • 124.350Approach
  • 118.700Tower
  • 121.900Ground

What it does

  • Every position talks to you

    Clearance Delivery, Ground, Tower, Departure, Center and Approach, each on its real frequency. Tune a frequency nobody is on and you hear nothing. At a field with no radio way to Clearance, you pick up the phone.

    What ATC can do

  • Real procedures

    IFR clearances, taxi routes with hold shorts, SIDs and STARs, climbs and descents, vectors to an ILS, RNAV or visual approach, and handoffs in between.

    A flight, gate to gate

  • Readbacks are checked

    A correct readback gets silence and a check mark. A wrong one is corrected: "negative, squawk six six six two".

    Readbacks

  • ATC calls you first

    Handoffs, a readback you forgot, an altitude you drifted from, traffic, a go-around: the controller speaks when a real one would.

    At every position

  • ATC's plan, drawn

    When Approach vectors you, the window draws the whole plan: the downwind, the base turn, where you join the final, and you.

    The approach plan

  • Any US airport

    Procedures, frequencies and airspace from the FAA's own data. Taxiways and parking from your own X-Plane scenery.

    Your X-Plane's data

What a flight is like

  1. Start X-Plane 12 and the xatc-agent window. Press New flight and enter your flight plan, or load it from SimBrief.
  2. Tune the ATIS and listen. Then call Clearance Delivery, get your clearance and read it back.
  3. Ground taxis you to the runway. Tower clears you for takeoff. Departure climbs you and puts you on course. Center takes you to cruise and brings you down again.
  4. Approach vectors you to final and clears the approach. Tower clears you to land and tells you where to leave the runway. Ground taxis you to the parking you ask for.

Your first flight walks through it step by step.

What you need

  • X-Plane 12 on Windows or Linux

    X-Plane 12.1.4 or newer, Windows 10 or 11 or a 64-bit Linux desktop (the Linux app is a prerelease for now, and a Mac app is coming soon), a microphone, and an internet connection during the flight. The controller runs in the cloud; the window beside X-Plane is a thin client.

  • An invitation

    xatc-agent is an invitation-only experiment. The owner creates your account; you download the installer from the pilot site (app.7110atc.com) once you are signed in. The product's home is 7110atc.com.

    Install and sign in · Linux · Mac, coming soon

Know before you fly

A simulation, and an experiment

xatc-agent is for flight simulation only. It must never be used for real-world flying, flight instruction or navigation. It is not an approved flight training device. It is under active development: what a controller says and does changes between releases, and things break.

  • IFR only, for now. VFR departures, pattern work and flight following are not built.
  • US airports work best: everything outside the taxiways comes from the FAA's data. Outside the US, ATC asks your X-Plane for the airport's procedures and frequencies instead.
  • English, FAA phraseology.
  • When ATC is asked for something it has not been taught, it says so: "unable, I have not completed that training." It does not make something up.

All the known limitations are on one page.