I was not intending to post here again, given the attitude of a certain beta tester - who continues to spout the same self-satisfied nonsense: no, I agree with Thomas, the insulting tone used to Oncourse customers ("there will always be people using PF3 who really don't know much about what they are doing or what's happening around them") is most definitely not helpful at all.. You may think that if you like but don't actually say it on the PF3 forum for God's sake!! Talk about how to win friends and influence people....
However, having come back to look at the thread, simply because I want to see if this is anywhere near being sorted out, it seems to me, now that now the log has been 'translated' so that one can read it (I still think that having the logs in gibberish for the user is a bad idea - had I seen that log after the flight I would have twigged what was happening straight away, but that must be Dave's decision of course) that I can see the problem... so not to post a reply would just be childish (which I like to think I am not!).
The fact is that I did reach the cruise altitude of 34000', and a long way before the TOD. However, there is a known 'glitch' in FS9, about which I and others have posted on AVSIM in the past, in which the change to the 'Standard' QNH of 29.92 is not always recognised properly by FS9. (I stress that this does not happen every flight, so please no one - you know who you are! - post back saying your altitude data agree just fine; so do mine most flights).
That is easily demonstrated: on passing 18000' (or whatever the transition altitude is), the aircraft's altimeter (and my FS Nav/F-Plan etc.) all agree on the altitude at which the aircraft is flying. But FS9 has a different value, still that of the QNH below transition altitude, as can be seen by the FS9 onscreen menu (in red). When I used the default FS9 ATC, I was not infrequently asked to descend or climb to my cruise altitude, which at first confused me, as at, say FL390, my a/c instruments showed 39000', and so did F-Plan or FS Navigator. The FS9 onscreen menu however showed an altitude different by as much as 400 feet.
So, now that I can see the altitude I supposedly attained on the flight in question from the log, it seems almost certain to me that it is this glitch in FS9 that is causing the problem. For FS9 and so (presumably) for PF3 I never reached FL340: ATC, waiting for me to climb a few hundred feet further, didn't ask me to descend because I had not, it assumed, reached my cruise altitude - whereas, as I say, according to all the cockpit/flight planner data in front of me (I don't often call up the FS9 onscreen data), I had actually been at FL340 for a good while.
Though maybe a slightly lower altitude would have been better, the chosen cruise level of 340 was not the issue (I knew it wasn't - I reached it, I repeat, in perfectly good time, quite some way before the TOD - my VNAV in that a/c gives me a pretty steep climb). The same thing would have happened at FL240, if the difference between the instruments and the FS9 menu had still been more than 300'.
I am fairly sure that this must be the cause of the problem (though not at all sure why ATC finally does call for descent at a later stage, or why PF3 doesn't 'nag' you to climb that bit further) - I have seen this discrepancy over the QNH/QFE values literally hundreds of times since I started flying FS2004 some 12 years ago - and that value of my altitude in the PF3 log (33660) is totally typical of what happens. How it can be addressed in PF3 I don't know.
If this is not the cause, then I am back to being nonplussed again...
Quick links
FAQ
Login
![[ img ]](http://www.oncourse-software.co.uk/forum_images/ocs-beta-test.gif)
![[ img ]](http://www.oncourse-software.co.uk/forum_images/pf3_new_banner.gif)
Best of luck with sorting it. We're all rooting for you!
ATC requests descent from 36000' to 6500' only 50nms from the airport, after the last waypoint 'CHIPO'. Then in quick succession several small descent instructions - from 6500 to 6000' and so on. I started descent at 2000ft/min as soon as requested. At 32000' ATC starts giving me speed restrictions, which I can't comply with and descend too (unless I put up full spoilers. Not very realistic at that speed and altitude). ATC tells me to descend on the ILS as I approach, when I am at 27000'. I pass over the airport, having descended at 2000'/min since ATC's instruction, at 23000'. After passing the airport I circled whilst I lost altitude. Not much chance to lose air speed until the last leg...