What have we added to PFE that was not available in ProFlight 2000

A summary of what to expect

• PFE does not produce FS Adventures. It is a standalone program written in Visual Basic 6 and VB.NET
• PFE provides an all new runways database using data from FS9 or FSX
• Supports multiple flight planners (including FS9 and FSX when using the PFE flight plan converter)
• Active AI detection (both air and ground traffic) during takeoff and approach
• Transition levels can change dependant on your geographic location
• Configurable Transition Altitudes for each of the 26 ProFlight geographic regions
• Altimeter calls can also be made in Millibars as 1013 rather than 29.92
• Use ProFlight’s initial departure vectoring or choose to fly published departures (SID/DP)
• Considerable attention has been given to approach vectoring to provide smooth, realistic approaches to most airports.
• SID (DP) and STAR support
• Departure procedures (SIDs/DPs) are configurable and can be named which is then read out by ATC
• Add departure procedures (SIDs/DPs) to specific airports at runway level if required
• Let ProFlight handle all approach vectoring or choose to fly a published approach (STAR) at anytime.
• Arrival procedures (STARs) are configurable and can be named which is then read out by ATC
• Add arrival procedures to specific airports at runway level if required
• Add missed approach altitudes to specific airports at runway level if required
• Change your assigned departure runway if you wish
• Step climbs and step descents
• Configurable en-route and arrival holds
• Ability to request higher and lower altitudes
• Ability to request visual approach
• Ability to request a different arrival runway
• Active runways (departure and arrival) determined either by AI (if in use) or wind direction
• Departure runway length taken into consideration
• Arrival runway length and ILS equipment taken into consideration
• ATC handles missed approaches and vectors you back into the pattern
• Supports controlled, uncontrolled or partially controlled airports/fields
• Emergencies supported with vectors back to your departure airport or the nearest airport (your choice)
• Configurable Airway Deviation reminders
• Configurable AI detection during takeoff
• Configurable Hotkey assignments
• Automatic updates feature

The following are new items added since PFE's initial release up to and including version 1.9.4

• A complete Tutorial showing you how to make your first flight using PFE/ProFlight
• Database refresh utility to apply any add-on scenery data to PFE's database
• AI Traffic advisories en-route
• All new approach vectoring code
• Approach vectoring options - choose between ProFlight Standard and PFE Enhanced final approach vectoring
• Integrated ATIS for all of the 1200+ equipped airports in FS9/FSX
• You can hear the full airport name announced in PFE's ATIS for all ATIS equipped FS9/FSX airports
• A complete listing of all ATIS frequencies available by ICAO code
• New call signs added for 1Time Airlines, Air Berlin, Air China, Air Europe, Air Finland, Air Malta, Airwave Transport, Atlas Air, Aurigny Air Services, BMI Baby, Cargolux, China Southern, Condor Flugdienst, Contract Transport, Cougar, EasyJet, Estonian, Euro Cypriana, Fischer Air, First Choice, Garuda Indonesia, Global Supply, GOL Transport, Jet Airways, LAN Peru, LOT Polish Airlines, LTE International Airways, LTU International, Malaysia Airlines, Malev Hungarian, Monarch, Oasis HK Airlines, Polar Air Cargo, Pulkova, Qatar Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Ryanair, South African, Spanair, Thai Airways, Thomas Cook UK, Thomson Fly, Titan Airways, TNT Air Cargo, Transavia, Westjet and Wizzair plus many more in the pipeline
• ATC chatter in PFE is now based on AI Traffic, so you actually hear ATC communicating with other traffic around you. Listen to ATC as they give clearance, taxi, takeoff, landing, climb, descend, turn and hand off instructions to AI Traffic.
• AI Traffic call signs which are not (currently) available in PFE are substituted for the airlines ICAO code
• All new step climbs and descents are now fully operational in PFE
• En-route control centres and their frequencies are listed in one of the PFE output files for you to use during your flight, so you know exactly which controls you will be handed off to during your journey.
• Version 1.8.5 introduces the start of our Regional ATC calls and instructions, reflecting the subtle and sometimes not so subtle differences between FAA and CAA contollers.

The following are new items added in version 2.0+

• Full taxi instructions to/from the runway. i.e. ATC instructs you to.... "taxi to gate 27 via taxiway delta, bravo two, alpha one, charlie three" 

• Taxi Guidance System (TGS) which includes a new (optional) panel gauge. The new gauge points to the next taxi waypoint, displays a series of LED's to indicate the distance to the next taxi waypoint. TGS also includes AUDIBLE instructions from your VCP telling you... "next left into delta.... bear right into bravo two... straight on... gate 27 on the right"

• Oceanic Procedures when flying to/from the US (over the pond) and between Gander/Shanwick controlled areas. This includes simulated HF radio transmissions using real world SELCAL sounds when ATC contact you. Your VCP will also radio through position reports at each intersection

• An additional 1,000 new airline call signs so you will actually hear the correct call sign rather than the abbreviated three letter airline icao code, but these would only be heard if using the new (optional) voice expansion pack

• Optional Voice Expansion pack offering an additional 59 newly recorded (specifically for PFE) regional voice sets. Once installed there are new PFE options that allow you to use just the new voice sets, the old ones or a combination of both. The new voice sets include a much wider vocabulary and as such some of the new version 2.0 features mentioned above will only be available when the Voice Expansion pack is installed. The new voice sets cover the following PF regions.... African, Arabian, Asian, Australian, British, Canadian, Caribbean, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latin American, Spanish and US

• 'Push and Start' request options now available

• Added additional info to traffic advisories... you will now hear the general heading of the AI aircraft plus the actual heading... as in, 'traffic at 2 o'clock, altitude 5,000, heading west two seven zero'

• Added the ATIS frequencies for your departure and destination airports to the BRF file

• Added the possibility of ATC giving you a 'no speed restriction' call, which basically lifts the maximum of 250 knots when flying below 10,000

• Added more regional based ATC phraseology

• Added the actual Gate number you're at when contacting clearance or ground. E.g. 'Clearance, Speedbird 2686 at Gate three zero, IFR, with information Mike'

• Added wind speed and direction to ATC's takeoff clearance for both you and AI traffic

• Added a new feature to PFE which will allow you to easily view and/or change any of your flight plan's waypoint altitudes rather than stepping through each one individually via PF options.

• Added a new user option so you may choose if you wish to enforce tuning to ATIS prior to obtaining clearance.

• You can now set your preference for when ATC gives you the Alt Baro reading for each of PF's 26 regions. By default these options will default to OFF so all readings will be given in hectopascals, so you will hear 29.92 rather than 1013. But now you can configure these options so you could hear different calls at your departure and destination airports if flying from one PF region to another.

• Plus many more minor enhancements, fixes and performance updates.

• Closed Caption switch added to the main PFE options page

• Added new hotkeys to allow the pilot to request specific altitude changes from ATC

• Designated Parking - This new feature (and another FIRST for PFE) allows you to 'reserve' a terminal gate or a parking area for individual airports, so PFE will always give you taxi instructions to that location upon arrival.

• ADDED a NEW Feature to enable you to set Transition Altitudes for a specific airport if you wish.

• ADDED full taxi instruction support for your destination airport when there is a tower controller but no ground control.

• ADDED the airport ICAO code to radio transmissions whilst using Unicom/Multicom

• ADDED a NEW Feature to allow you to designate any runway for landings only, takeoffs only, both or even close it completely.

• ADDED a NEW Feature - PFE now uses com frequencies taken from FS.

• ADDED some NEW hotkey functionality specifically for TGS operations.

• ADDED independent voice selection for use with the TGS... this will be particularly useful for those using Game Commander (or similar).

• ADDED a TGS restart feature.

• ADDED optional variable background radio interference noise that changes when you tune to another control centre.n the main PFE Options #1 display page.

• ADDED the airline 'Virgin Blue' (call sign 'Virgin')

• ADDED a new ATC call when being vectored to a non-ILS runway. Previously you would here 'Vectors for the Visual approach, runway xx' which was obviously incorrect if you were flying IFR. The new call will now be 'Vectors for the approach, runway xx'

• ADDED ATIS support for Fly Tampa's wonderful Kai Tak airport add-on.

• ADDED a new option to the Designated Parking options page, which allows you to display a list of those parking/gate locations you may have previously set as reserved.

•  ADDED a 'Heavy' option for your call-sign

•  ADDED a new utility called ATIS_Help.exe. Simply run this program, enter an Airport ICAO code to display the correct ATIS frequencies for any of the supported airports.

• ADDED another NEW option... PFE Resume... This allows you to resume a flight at any point

•  ADDED a 'Quick Entry' mode for the long haulers amongst you who wish to change the altitude for a range of waypoints in one hit.

• ADDED full interactive support for those using PFE and FDC alongside each other

• ADDED additional options so you can now pause PFE and FS and any distance from your destination airport

• ADDED new housekeeping features to reduce the clutter of all those flight plan and associated files.

• ADDED and ACARS ATIS feature so you can obtain ATIS information for your destination airport at anytime on route

• ADDED additional options so you can now apply minimum FAF altitude restrictions for any airport to cater for those hazardous approaches.

• ADDED independent volume controls for ATC and your VCP, giving you much more control and flexibility over the way things sound

• ADDED volume controls for use during your flight so you can adjust volumes for ATIS, ATC, your VCP and the radio background noise at anytime

• ADDED support for our new Voice Set Enhancement Pack (XPack 2)

• ADDED support for PFE (New and FREE) Display utility

• ADDED Initial TOD command from ATC may sometimes be given at pilots discretion

• ADDED more phraseology changes to AI chatter

• ADDED new clearance instructions for your initial heading after takeoff

• ADDED new calls from Tower after you land. Tower will now tell you which side of the runway to exit

• ADDED new ground control monitoring during your taxi when approaching runway intersections

• ADDED a 'Request Direct To...' feature if you wish to deviate from your flight plan

• ADDED two-way AI traffic advisories

• ADDED minimum departure altitude settings

• ADDED the ability to exclude certain voice sets if you hear one you don't particular like

• ADDED the ability to remap ATC control centres if you hear one which is no longer in used

• ADDED the flight plan destination ICAO to the Clearance com's

• ADDED a new call 'Ready for Departure...' rather than ' Ready for Takeoff...' for non US airports

• ADDED the term 'QNH' rather than 'Altimeter' for non-US regions

• ADDED support for the Project Magenta Boeing type MCP

• ADDED a new display for the ACARS report

• ADDED a new feature to display a log of the last 10 ATC transmissions specific to you

• ADDED an optional replacement for the TGS gauge which can be displayed on a second monitor or pc

• ADDED mores options so you can configure the speed of ATC taxi instructions and your readback

• ADDED a new FREE utility called RemoteText for displaying ATC closed caption text

• ADDED a new FREE utility called RemoteRadioStack for displaying/changing COM/NAV/ADF

• ADDED more accurate approach speed calls based on the aircraft type you're flying

• ADDED additional, extended, SID/STAR functionality

• ADDED additional, extended, worldwide Oceanic Control functionality

• ADDED a new feature to simulate bad radio reception during your flight

• Plus much, much more....

A closer look at some of the new additions

For full details on these and all other aspects of PFE please see the ProFlight 2000 Emulator manual right HERE