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/images/notams/notams22/feel1123.jpgJudging by a recent twitter post by FeelThere it appears they are close to releasing Tower Simulator 3. Over the years, they have offered a variety of ATC and tower controller simulators, giving users the chance to experience aviation from a viewpoint different from the airplane cockpit. Here's what they have to say: Tower! Simulator 3Introducing the latest generation of ATC simulator, that provides alevel of immersion like no other. With advanced voice recognition,custom modelled and detailed airports and state-of-the-art lighting,geometry and textures. Watch planes take-off and land from the toweror down on the ground and feel like as if you were reallythere. Tower! Simulator 3 is the gold standard for air traffic controlsimulation. Detailed Real-world LocationsUsing OSM (Open Street Map) we are able to model most of thesurrounding area with never seen before detail. Realistic lighting,simulated in real-time, with technology used by movie studios. Tower!Simulator 3 will have the most accurate lighting with cinematicfidelity. We’ve made this simulator to be the true benchmark forvisuals in air traffic control simulation, which will include famousairports from around the world. AirportsSome airports will be included in the game by default, so you willhave them available from the first moment. The first one of the airports to be included in Tower! Simulator 3will be Raleigh-Durham (KRDU) in North Carolina. It has a main runway(5L-23R), a parallel runway (5R-23L) and a short runway (14-32), toserve its fluid regional traffic. Another confirmed air terminal is the all time favorite at our team– St. Thomas Cyril E. King International Airport (TIST), with a singlerunway (10-28) but with the spectacular natural surroundings of aCaribbean island. You can see preview images of this scenario inprevious articles on this blog. The list of airports is not yetfinished… more to come! Radar, Terrain, StripsThe ground and the terrain have 16x more detail than before. Everydetail is sharp and accurate even up close. Content creators andstreamers, make sure to have your streams ready to show off! Imagineyou’re sitting in the control tower with the radars and displays infront of you. That’s right you will be sitting in the tower, viewingall the screens from a first-person perspective. In Tower! Simulator 3 the ground radar has been updated with amodern look and feel, allowing the controller to see the fullairport. Zoom into different areas on sub screens. The whole airportis at your fingertips. The strips have become now paperless. It’s your choice to move andedit them to your liking. Each airport has a customizable digitalstrip display, designed to look and operate like an analogue stripboard. Weather SimulationTower! Simulator 3 has a brand-new weather display designed to seeweather data and to change active runways. Watch as dynamic weathereffects airport operations in real-time. The look and feel of eachweather condition has been fully modeled. Experience dense fog, cloudy skies, rainstorms, and more. All of itwill affect the game, so keep your eyes on the weather! Customize your ExperienceIn response to the requests of our loyal fans, you can nowconfigure and customize the entire simulation to your liking. Would you like to be able to assign different runways for specificaircraft, such as freighters? Now you can! Select the arrival runwayby applying the corresponding filter for freighters, wide or narrowbody, regional, business, etc. Customize the electronic strips of each airport throughconfiguration files (csv). Establish the number of columns, functionsof the electronic strip and even the information of the strip for eachof the blocks. Unleash your creativity and add a background image. You can configure and assign special airline liveries. Define theflight type, such as cargo or regional, or even country of origin,through a fully configurable schedule. Define terminals according tothe name of the airline, international flights, national flights, byspecial colors, cargo or regional. Built For ProfessionalsThis is a detailed simulation also used by professionals fortraining. Use voice commands to communicate with the pilots and sit inthe tower with all the tools that a real air traffic controller wouldhave. Source See FeelThere products at the FlightSim.Com Store

/images/notams/notams22/feel0201/feel0201.jpgDo you want more news about Tower Simulator 3? Of course! (1) On the screen you can select the arrival runway as usual andalso the following filters: C (Cargo), W (Wide Body), N (Narrow Body),R (Regional), B (Business), T (Turbo), or P (Prop). (2) Each airport will have a separate configuration file for theelectronic strip so you can have custom strips for each airport. Youcan set the number of columns, functions, colors of the strip (evenyou can add an image as a background). You can configure theinformation on the strip for every block as well. To make them looklike this: /images/notams/notams22/feel0201/tower3-2.jpg /images/notams/notams22/feel0201/tower3-1.jpgWe are excited to reveal the biggest development of 2021 andintroduce a new generation to the amazing industry of aviation and airtraffic control. Since our last upgrade back in 2017, when we releasedTower!3D and Tower!3D Pro, we've come a long way to announce that thisyear we are developing the next Tower! Simulator 3. This is not just an update or fix. This new version will leave youshocked! Designed to allow aviation fans, enthusiasts, ATC studentsand anyone interested in air traffic control to play and practicecontrolling from their living room. Source Developer Blog

Review: Wilco Tower SimulatorBy Paul Mort /images/reviews/towersim/t/towersim_html_m2fb5af00.jpgHello again and welcome to a review ofthe Wilco Tower Simulator. This is quite different to what I normallyreview in as much as it is a stand alone program and is not allied toany other flight simulator software. Let's begin by seeing how Wilco describes their product... "Tower Simulator puts you in the controller's chair, high atop amajor or complex airport, to choreograph the movements of incoming andoutgoing air traffic." "Tower Simulator takes you into a world of authority andresponsibility, in which the lives of thousands of passengers dependon your ability to make split-second decisions." Very dramatic words for a simulator don't you think? Well, let'stake a look at this simulator and see if it's as high pressured asWilco claim! Initial ImpressionsUnlike the virtual worlds of MSFS and X-Plane which containthousands of airports, Wilco have very wisely added a selection ofjust five locations, and these are as follows: Chicago O'Hare International (KORD)Munich International (EDDM)Orange County Airport (KSNA)Charles de Gaulle Airport Paris (LFPG)Saint Maarten Airport (TNCM)Looking at the supplied airports, it is apparent that Wilco havethought very hard about what airports to include, and these vary interms of the volume of air traffic and geographical location. We donot have the scope to look at all five airports, so for the purpose ofthis review, I will concentrate on Orange County Airport (KSNA). Thisis the airport I would suggest as a starting point for newcomers, asit has the smallest volume of air traffic of the five. /images/reviews/towersim/t/towersim_html_55705b2b.jpgThe initial screen we are presented with, gives us the selection ofour desired airport and runway, the time of day and also the desiredweather. There is also a nice description of our chosen airport onthe right hand side. Having selected our airport of choice, a shortdelay will occur while the loading screen does its work. Whencompleted, we find ourself in the hot seat of the tower of our chosenairport. /images/reviews/towersim/t/towersim_html_2c7f39e3.jpgOur initial view would seem somewhat distant from the terminal asseen in the above picture, but this a good representation of what ATCwould actually see from their vantage point. /images/reviews/towersim/t/towersim_html_m6b114fd7.jpgA 'binocular view' is available by using the mouse wheel. Theability to pan the view is achieved by holding down the right mousekey and moving the mouse around. However, the lateral view is limitedto 180 degrees as viewing behind the tower is not necessary in thisenvironment. As well as our main view, four additional windows appear, and theseare explained below. Command Window /images/reviews/towersim/t/towersim_html_m5883385f.jpgThis is our communication tool between ourselves (ATC) and thearriving and departing aircraft. As aircraft inform ATC that they areready to taxi, their call sign will be heard and also seen in thehistory box (HIS). An aircraft issuing a call "With You", is anincoming aircraft near enough to the airport to either land or goaround, depending on your response. This is carried out by selectingthe desired aircraft from the following 'Strip' window (arrivals ordepartures) and choosing from a list of supplied instructions. Strip Window /images/reviews/towersim/towersim_html_1f862cb2.jpgAs an example, we hear a call from AAL1779 (which we can see fromthe strip is an arrival) and is a request being "With You". From thisinformation, we know that he is requesting to land. We issue thecommand by double left clicking his callsign in the pink section ofthe arrivals window with 'CTRL U', which is the 'cleared to land'command or 'ALT 5' for 'go around'. Note: something which I found to be highly useful, and which helpedme out a great deal, was to print out and laminate the list ofcommands for easy reference. When it comes to dealing with departing aircraft, the format is thesame, but with a larger number of options. For example, ASA499 (adeparting aircraft) issues the call 'ASA499 'ready to taxi'. Wedouble left click on his call sign (the purple area of the strip)followed by a ground command from our list. 'ASA499 CTRL R' would tellhim to 'hold short' or 'ASA499 CTRL 3' is 'taxi to runway'. Air Radar WindowAir radar gives you a visual display of what to expect regardingyour traffic load, and will help you formulate a flow plan knowing thein-air location of aircraft around you. /images/reviews/towersim/towersim_html_3cc66955.jpgIn this window, we see AAL1779, an incoming aircraft, who willshortly be issuing a 'with you' call. This is where the pressurebegins to build, as more and more departing and arriving aircraftmount up! Adirs Window /images/reviews/towersim/towersim_html_a0418ba.jpgIn our final window, 'Adirs', we see an overall view of ourairport, with ground traffic identified by their call signs. The twogreen lines facing out, represents our field of vision, which rotatesas we pan the main view. Zooming in with the mouse wheel will makethem narrow to a smaller field of view. By double left clicking on any of the above windows, we can movethem to a custom position on our screen. There is also the option tomake the text and view larger. One minor negative point here, is thatthe program does not unfortunately remember your custom windowpositions, and so they need to be set up to your liking each time theprogram is run. GraphicsIn terms of graphics, it's true, they are not the most impressive,but the aircraft are good. The traffic and particularly the weathersettings are also very good. The trees have an animated sway in thewind, which is something even newer simulators would be enviousof! /images/reviews/towersim/t/towersim_html_19b3b81c.jpgThe picture above shows Southwest Airlines SWA687 landingperfectly on the runway... CostThe retail price of this package is $US 32.00, £UK 24.40 and$AUS 43.32. Personally I consider this slightly more costly than Iwould have expected, but it's still reasonable, and far fromexcessive. Along with the main program, the package also comescomplete with airport charts and data.Final ThoughtsThe Wilco Tower Simulator is a clever little package with a lotgoing for it. Yes the graphics, in particular the ground textures,are indeed lacking, but the aircraft are all good, and the landing andtakeoff animations are done well. The ground traffic, includingpushback tugs also do a good job at bringing things to life. The spoken requests and commands are first class, and are in factbetter than some of the latest software and plugins found in certainsimulators. The thing to remember is that this is not a 'flying overnice scenery' package but more of a strategy/simulation game, and soWilco can be forgiven somewhat on the graphical front. The VerdictAs is customary with my reviews, I will award in my opinion, ascore reflecting both the positive and negative aspects of thepackage. Wilco's Tower Simulator is a highly engrossing game, and one whichI found to be extremely refreshing. With that said, I award it ahealthy 8 out of 10. /images/reviews/towersim/t/towersim_html_m2fb5af00.jpgPaul Mort Purchase Wilco - Tower Simulator