OnCourse Software

Must admit I'm finding it difficult to see what the problem is you're actually reporting. The log shows plenty of ATC transmission to you and when you reached the last waypoint you were cleared for the approach using the selected STAR

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I flew again this morning and got the same "VCP silent" problem.

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VCP still operates "normally"; transmitting and receiving ATC messages

Aren't these contradictory? VCP is silent but he operates normally transmitting and receiving.

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VCP has a voice selected which gets set to "none" once I select the PF3 connect to FS button

How would you know that? You can't see the voice selection screen once you 'connect' to FS. Besides, if you're using MCE then you should have it set to 'None' and you wouldn't here the VCP anyway

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On departure ATC will not issue "cleared to xxxx or cleared own navigation" call.

That's because you were flying a SID so you are already on your own navigation

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On arrival ATC used to call a few miles from my last waypoint "contact Approach on freq xxx.x", once reaching my last waypoint ATC cleared me for the approach to runway XX

Well you were flying a STAR so ATC gave you the following:-

Beech November 6 Alpha Charlie at Sierra Echo Sierra Kilo Alpha Descend 3 thousand Cleared to final for Sierra Tango Approach runway 04 when ready Contact Tower on 118.5 when established. '

I think it may be a better idea to take things one at a time. Instead of flying a SID and STAR and using MCE, why not simply try PF3 with none of them first, just to be sure it's working as it should. The intriduce these additional features one at a time.... just a suggestion

Hello Dave, I'll try keep my response short this time.

On arrival nearing the last waypoint:

It seems to me the time xxxx Center sends you to approach control frequency then approach control issuing you approach clearance has been compressed.

If PF3 has the radio, the frequency hand-off from xxxx Center to approach, switch to approach then receiving and replying to approach clearance is seamless.

IF MCE has the radios, there doesn't seem to be enough time to respond to Center, switch radio, and check in, etc.

The result is getting approach clearance on Center frequency or missing the clearance because I'm in the middle of changing TO approach. When you finally get to approach and check in, they've already issued approach clearance (that you probably didn't hear) so they just tell you to fly present heading.

The approach log do in fact show the clearances being issued properly , but what you get in the cockpit is confusion.
This "compressed timing" did not happen with the last build before the recent updates.

My wing man has experienced the same issue when flying PF3-MCE and MCE has the radios at the last waypoint.

Happy New Year,
AC

This is a workaround our resident PF3/MCE Guru uses... might be worth you trying... I'll look into what we can do going forward.

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My workaround has always been to manually check-in with approach around 10-20 nm before reaching the final waypoint (without PF3 having given a handoff instruction). That always worked fine. I haven't tried that lately though, so I cannot say for sure if this workaround is still possible (checking in with approach without a handoff before - but as it works with VFR flights I guess it also still works with IFR flights.).

Thanks Dave, I'll give that a try.

I appreciate all the time and effort you and your teammates put in to a great program.


Happy New Year.
AC