OnCourse Software

Greetings,

I am currently trialing PF3 as a replacement for my current ATC and have come across a recurring issue with my VFR flights where I am being constantly relayed between control and approach during my flight.

I have attached a copy of my logs, these a really basic flights mostly made up of a single waypoint but i am being transferred between the two repeatedly. As VFR support is my main interest with PE3 I hope this is something I have missed that’s causing this.

It also appears the whole of Oceania is serviced by a single control center, is this something that will be corrected in a future update?

Thank you.

knocks wrote: *

Sat Mar 25, 2017 7:19 am

I am currently trialing PF3 as a replacement for my current ATC and have come across a recurring issue with my VFR flights where I am being constantly relayed between control and approach during my flight.

I have attached a copy of my logs, these a really basic flights mostly made up of a single waypoint but i am being transferred between the two repeatedly. As VFR support is my main interest with PE3 I hope this is something I have missed that’s causing this.

Your cruising altitude was 5000 feet and the center altitude was 5000 feet. Your aircraft oscillated around this altitude, so sometimes was few feet above (being handed over to center) and sometimes few feet below (handed back to approach)

I think PF3 needs a hysteresis filter to require a significant change in aircraft altitude to warrant a hand-off, I'll add a corresponding entry in the wish list.

Meanwhile I suggest you select a cruising altitude different from center altitude. In Europe VFR flights would be at 4500 or 5500 feet as 5000 would be reserved for IFR flights. How is the regulation in Mexico?
Alternatively you can change the center altitudes in the options.
I suggest flying 500 feet above center altitude.

knocks wrote: *

Sat Mar 25, 2017 7:19 am

It also appears the whole of Oceania is serviced by a single control center, is this something that will be corrected in a future update?

I think this is done on a case-by-base basis.
Can you load a flight plan that is affected by this into PF3 and attach the Flight/FPP and Logs directory, as you did for the flight above?
You can load the *.json file from Flight/FPP/ in http://geojson.io/ to see the center sectors.

Thanks for the quick reply,

I have not changed the center altitudes and all are at the default of 8,000 as far as I am aware. Is this something I need be editing for each flight? I have had this behavior on several flights now at various locations and altitudes.

With regards to the control centers it doesn’t affect any specific flight plan just an observation for example Australia is split between Brisbane and Melbourne control centers PF3 as neither. At a glance it would appear the whole of Asia, Australia and Africa is missing.

Oh, sorry ... center altitude was indeed configured at 8000 feet. Maybe my brain saw the center number (50) and combined it with FL50/5000 feet being the transition altitude over here in Germany. I don't know

For now I'd recommend to adjust the center altitude to be below the cruising altitude (or the cruising altitude to be above) until whatever causes this is resolved.

As far as I'm concerned this has been fixed and is currently with the Beta team

dmarch wrote: *

Sat Mar 25, 2017 7:09 pm

As far as I'm concerned this has been fixed and is currently with the Beta team

Ah, I did not notice that fix before. I just flew VFR at 4500 feet from EDDG to EDDL, no handoff to Center and no other problems.

Thanks, ill give the suggestions a try.

I couldn't edit my previous post to add include this.

Is the missing control centers something that is likely to be addressed in a future update?

Thank you.

knocks wrote: *

Sun Mar 26, 2017 2:50 am

I couldn't edit my previous post to add include this.

I think this is only available for few minutes.

knocks wrote: *

Sun Mar 26, 2017 2:50 am

Is the missing control centers something that is likely to be addressed in a future update?

I can't promise it, but I think it is more likely if you show Dave an example (as described above), maybe add a screenshot of the geojson.io map for such a flight

Thanks for the reply,

I don’t understand the confusion. You only have to look at the control canter mappings to see many of the world’s largest and busiest FIR’s are omitted from PF3 such as Cairo, Mumbai, Tokyo, Bangkok, Nairobi, Dakar, Brisbane and Melbourne to name a few.

As the majority of my flying is in the southern eastern hemisphere I had hoped some of the more popular/fundamental ones would exist to break routine and add variety, it obviously would be impossible to include every FIR world wide with such a program.

I’m simply just interested if such areas are being added over time or if the program is considered feature complete.