Is there a way to acquire the runway landing clearance options prior to seeing the actual airport listed in the ATC window?
In general is there a way to pull up ATC options on demand such as having shortcuts or do you always have to wait for them to be showing in ATC?
You have to wait unfortunately.
Check on the maps for the tower frequency and manually dial this on the COM radio you’re using. This should allow you to request clearance if you can’t find it in the list. And actually this is more “real” than using the ATC window.
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Even if you manage to dial in the tower for the field, there is an ATC flow logic that won’t hand you off from sector (i.e., Approach) to the tower if you have a pending action - like the common “Climb to Cruise” despite the fact that you’re almost atop the field.
It literally will not give you a choice to talk to tower even though you’re dialed into the frequency and inside VHF range. The only way to do it then is to cancel IFR with Sector and talk to tower under VFR. That may work, but then they’ll make you do a VFR pattern entry to landing.
Worst case is they refuse you because they’re operating under IFR and you’ll have to go back to Sector, refile the IFR and follow the directions, as crazy as that is.
The above also applies (but is easier to remedy) if you were VFR but requested Flight Following from Sector. The right way is to cancel FF, squawk VFR, then select the field you want. Or you can jump directly to talk to field, and the sim assumes you want to cancel FF without talking to Sector.
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ATC logic flow is very flawed. If you follow the flow perfectly without any deviation, typically it will do ok. There are issues, but at least in my experience, it’s workable most of the time. At least if it doesn’t assign you vectors to an approach. Then all bets are off. lol If you have to deviate from that (like when ATC tries to crash you into a mountainside), you’re in for a bad time. It’s not a very flexible system.
That said, after using Pilot2ATC for the last week or so, it would be hard for me to go back to the default ATC now.
Just a brief jog Off-Topic, does Pilot2ATC acknowledge the existence of AI Traffic/Live Traffic?
It does for traffic on the runway (and tells you to go around if necessary) and will give you warnings of live traffic planes in your proximity while in flight (traffic at X o’clock, Y miles). But it doesn’t communicate with said traffic like in-sim ATC does. That last part is a bit of a bummer, but I can deal with it. I use ATC Chatter to fill the void of having a completely silent radio.
The fact P2ATC is voice activated is awesome. Takes a bit to get the phraseology correct and to say things just right, but once you have it, it’s quite nice.
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Thanks. Appreciate the PMs as well. Back to topic!
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Thank you all for the follow-ups!
It would be nice to get landing instructions further away from the airport than what is currently available. I rarely if ever see anymore the ATIS option to get wind direction and see what runways are operating.
Atis doesn’t on approach ( you can’t get it till you land 
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