OnCourse Software

Hi! Just wondering if any update is planned for the foreseeable future - been a while. PF3 continues to work pretty well in X-Plane, thanks to the available plugin, but I am still hoping and praying that an update will alter the behaviour of the VCP when I receive a landing runway from ATC. To repeat ..

At take off, PF3 waits for confirmation of the runway to be used. Good. When it comes to approach though, the VCP immediately confirms the runway that ATC has indicated. This is very often not the runway that I have set up, with STARs, ILS approaches and son, and programmed into the FMC. In the real world, landing runways are scheduled of course prior to departure (as I do in the sim). If it's not possible to enter this selected runway into PF3, so that ATC will always call it, OK. But in all PF3 modes, it would be so much more realistic if the programme waited for confirmation, or a requested runway change, rather than automatically accept whatever ATC instructs. As I say, that is what happens at takeoff, so why not on landing too? Real-world pilots do not confirm the runway and then immediately change their mind

Some change to planned landing runways does of course happen, real world) if the wind veers round for instance (stating the obvious here!), but it's not the norm - and there is another pilot there to make the changes in the FMC. I have to pause the sim to do that - it's not always possible to get the a/c ready for landing and at the same time have your nose buried in the FMC...

So how about it Dave? Please??

Martin

What would really be great, IMHO, is if, like real-world flying, the landing (and departure) runways could be chosen along with the flight plan, at setup stage...

If before the flight is loaded you are certain which runways you want to use (irrespective of AI activity or wind direction), you can force the runway assignment by designating runway use on the SID/STAR page after entering the ICAO code for the airport. For example, when landing at KLAX, I want to land on 25L whenever the airport is landing to the west, so I have set the other runways (25R, 24L, and 24R) as either T or X.

I haven't been able to make SIDs/STARs work in X-Plane. Should it? Thanks.

martinlest wrote: *

Fri Aug 09, 2019 7:45 pm

I haven't been able to make SIDs/STARs work in X-Plane. Should it? Thanks.

Afraid I can't be of much help there. It would depend on your PF3 database so it looks like your previous issue, and I'm not sure if any progress has been made in that area.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2882

martinlest wrote: *

Fri Aug 09, 2019 7:45 pm

I haven't been able to make SIDs/STARs work in X-Plane. Should it? Thanks.

The FS you're using shouldn't make any difference as it's all database related

Quote:

The FS you're using shouldn't make any difference as it's all database related

OK, I will try it out again; maybe I did something wrong during the setup... Many thanks (will report back!).

Well, two flights later and to my pleasure this does indeed seem to work (unless it was a fluke!). I tried it out when I first flew X-Plane and I seem to recall the runways weren't assigned properly (must have done it wrong), so I assumed that the function was not compatible with XP11 and never tried again. I wish I had now, of course (as you say, it's database related - I should have thought it through!): this solves the problem that's been (unnecessarily) 'bugging' me for two years! I shall set the runways like this in PF3 as a matter of course now before every flight.

I wonder what other neat tricks PF3 has that I either never knew, or have forgotten since I changed from MSFS to XP11!

Thank you Dan!!