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Known limitations

xatc is an invitation-only experiment under active development. These are the edges as of 2026-10-19; each will be removed from this page when it is fixed.

  • IFR only. Every flight is an IFR flight. VFR departures, pattern work, flight following and VFR arrivals are not built.
  • The United States first. The FAA's data covers the US only. Elsewhere ATC works from your X-Plane's own navigation data for the airport's procedures, fixes and frequencies, and it has no airspace boundaries, Center sectors or minimum vectoring altitudes for the area, so expect less of it there. The project has not flown outside the US. See Your X-Plane's data.
  • Windows and Linux, and X-Plane 12.1.4 or newer. The client is a Windows 10 or 11 app. A Linux app for 64-bit (x86_64) PCs exists as a prerelease only, not yet in a stable release: see Install on Linux. A Mac app (Apple silicon) is coming soon and is not available yet. The client talks to X-Plane through its own Web API. X-Plane has had that API since 12.1.1, and the client needs the version of it that arrived in 12.1.4. Laminar is still extending it release by release, so use the current X-Plane 12. Tested on 12.4.3. It does not work with X-Plane 11 or other simulators. With an older X-Plane 12 the client shows X-Plane: not connected: see X-Plane too old.
  • The X-Plane data pack replaces the FAA procedure file. ATC flies the FAA's procedures of the current cycle. Settings > X-Plane data can install them into X-Plane's Custom Data folder so your aircraft's FMS and ATC agree. While the pack is installed, X-Plane's own GPS shows the FAA's procedures too, and Remove puts your files back. See FAA procedures for your X-Plane.
  • Some requests are not built. A block altitude, a sidestep to a parallel runway, vectors to the nearest airport and lost-communication routings are not built. ATC answers "unable, I have not completed that training". For an emergency, the first steps are there ("say fuel remaining and souls on board", priority) and not much beyond them. See What ATC can do.
  • Some replies are still intermittent. In a small number of situations the controller answers correctly most of the time, but not every time. The list shrinks with each release.
  • Controller voices. All the voices are synthetic and speak American English; the radio voices add regional American accents. Settings > How ATC sounds has four choices for ATC voices: the radio voices, which give each controller a distinct voice and already sound like a radio, and three standard voices from the most robotic to the most natural. See Settings.
  • Fix names. ATC says a VOR by its name. It says a fix the way controllers say it where a real source confirms it, which so far is a few. Any other fix it says as written ("PANGL" as "Pangl") rather than guess. If a name sounds wrong to you, report it with the time.
  • The downloads are not signed. When you run the Windows installer you downloaded, Windows says "Windows protected your PC". Choose More info, then Run anyway, for a file you downloaded from the pilot site's Download page while signed in. See Install. The Linux AppImage has no signature either: check its SHA-256 against the Download page, as Install on Linux describes.
  • Staying signed in on Linux needs a keyring. GNOME Keyring or KWallet keeps your sign-in between runs. Without one, you sign in each time you start the app.
  • One client per PC. Starting the client again brings the window that is already open to the front.

If you hit something that is not here

Say what you said, what you expected and the time, and send the log file: see Reporting a problem.