OnCourse Software

martinlest wrote: *

Thu Jun 21, 2018 1:03 pm

This is X-Plane 11, not FS9, as you can read in the last few posts I made. The weather is set up before I begin the flight. I choose not use real-world weather is X_Plane (though I used the same addons as you when I used FS9). That does not mean that weather is the same every time I fly of course - wind direction, turbulence, QNH and amny other factors can be set prior to loading the flight.

P3D-FSX-X Plane all the same if you don't use real weather and pre load the weather you want. I like to fly with real weather, makes flying way more realistic.

OK, this really isn't me! Yet again, I am asked by ATC to descend (to FL120 here), and I am left at that altitude all the way to the airport - no further descent instructions. I was in Mode 2 for most of the flight so I wouldn't have missed any frequency changes - they should have been made and replied to automatically (I usually switch from Mode 1 to Mode 2 after takeoff clearance). I also checked on my a/c radio that the frequency changes shown in the COM log window had been made (they had).

After some time at FL120, I switched to Mode 1 and then back to Mode 2 again later, just to see if there were any differences in reponse, but no, there were no further descent instructions. I checked in several times ('Level at Flight Level 120'), and just got 'Roger'. I stopped the flight as I approached the G/S (still at 12000').

What was PF3 was waiting for, can you see from the log? I just followed instructions as given. I attach as screenshot of the COM window - those are the only instructions that came through to me. (There may have been a couple more after the last on the screenshot, which I took a little before I stopped PF3 & XP11).

Hope you can see something as this is getting frustrating. The same thing happens over and over again, and although occasionally I may have missed a frequency change when in Mode 1, flying in Mode 2 as I usually do at the moment (to avoid these kind of problems!) that shouldn't even be possible, should it? I've been flying with OnCourse software since S-Combo - I can't believe that I really am making mistakes myself pretty much every flight! (Unless premature senility is kicking in to an even greater degree than I feared!!).

Thanks.

Can't get the screenshot to upload. I'll try again here.

BTW - if one did miss a frequency change instruction while in Mode 1, would switching to Mode 2 a little later (and checking in again with ATC) have the instruction repeated?

Is your last flight-plan waypoint 80 miles from the destination airport? That can cause a number of problems. I would try the flight with a last waypoint about 25-30 miles out and see if there is a difference.

I use Little Nav Map to make a flight plan. PF3 said that one waypoint was too near the next, so I deleted it. I do try to make waypoints as near as possible to TOD, just before and just after, as far as possible - just for the sake of PF3). I'll try the flight again then and add a waypoint then... it could be just a user-added waypoint if there are no real-world ones in the vicinity?

Part of the problem may be because I nearly always fly SIDs & STARs (that's why the last waypoint was 80 miles from the airport - the rest was a STAR), but I can't set up the PF3 SID/STAR page because (like an ever-increasing number of people I think) I fly X-Plane (and there is no X-Plane PF3 database of course). In practice I just ignore the SID/STARs in PF3 - do I have any other choice? Or would using the FS9 database work OK for the most part? I have been flying XP11 with the PF3 option SIDs (DPs) Active and STARS Active both checked. But that's just a hangover from when I used to fly FS9.

Which makes me think (although the subject is not really covered by the current thread title), but maybe a 'sticky' thread by one of the resident 'gurus' on the best way to set up and use PF3 in X-Plane 11 (via the PFEtoXPlane plugin of course) would be useful. It may well be that I am not using PF3 in the best way, or even have some options set wrongly for that sim?

Thanks.

(What I will try for the next flight is adding all the SID/STAR waypoints manually to the flight plan that PF3 uses (in .pln format), so that it will follow the SID & STAR without 'realising' that that is what they are.. if that makes sense.. (i.e. PF3 will follow the SIDs and STARs as if they were part of the main flight plan).

Only problem is I get a warning that waypoints are too close together and/or near the destination and that that might create issues. I'll try it anyway and see what happens.

Some folks say I should forget PF3 for X-Plane and just use X-plane's own ATC, but I really do not want to do that!!

The problem with your last flight plan is you missed waypoint 4 and waypoint 5

Could you please tell me what those waypoints are called please Dave. I certainly didn't miss them in the flight. Must be that the plan I use for the aircraft and the one for PF3 (they are, of necessity, different formats in XP) didn't match.

Thanks for checking. Seems like this case was an entirely different issue then...

Quote:

Could you please tell me what those waypoints are called please Dave.

OK Dave, maybe that's not necessary. I added all the SID and STAR waypoints to the flight plan which PF3 reads - a bit laborious but at least with that done everything went fine this time round.

Or should I be using the SID/STAR page in PF3, even when flying X-Plane? I am assuming that it won't work.

As I say..

Quote:

... maybe a 'sticky' thread by one of the resident 'gurus' on the best way to set up and use PF3 in X-Plane 11 (via the PFEtoXPlane plugin of course) would be useful. It may well be that I am not using PF3 in the best way, or even have some options set wrongly for that sim?

(time, and inclination, of said PF3 gurus permitting, of course!).

Thanks

Remember PF3 inserts XXX waypoints, which are the ATC handoff boundaries and those are the ones you missed