OnCourse Software

Hi! I have tried the demo for a couple of flights. Flew BIRK-BIAR-BIKF. Really good first impression. The voices sound very realistic!
I have some questions/suggestions before buying.

1. On my first flight I got a early "descend to xxx at pilot discretion" and then further descend after I started down, but on my second flight I got descend clearance (without pilots discretion) shortly after reaching cruise level. Long before my actual TOD. Wondering why this happened?

2. ATC gave me speed reductions on the approach for both my flights, on the first flight I was number 2 behind a B200 and ATC separated us perfectly. On the second flight ATC also gave me speed reductions, but this time I was first in a line of several aircraft. Are there speed reductions on every flight regardless of traffic? Do PF3 actually separate me from other traffic or was I just lucky on my first flight?
In most of the places I've flown to in RL, speed is normally decided by the pilot if traffic is not a factor.

3. Would be cool with a random chance of being assigned a STAR vs. getting vectored.

4. I only have one monitor and run FSX in fullscreen. Is there some way to get a display that show frequencies and communication options like default ATC or RC4? I'm having a hard time remembering what the different hotkeys do, and have to ALT-TAB a lot to check the user guide.

5. When being vectored on my second flight, the pilot sometimes responded incorrectly. ATC gave me an instruction to "turn right HDG 235" and when I responded my pilot read back "turn left HDG 225". Happened several times, but not every time.

6. Also got a very late approach clearance on the same flight. I was on a good intercept heading for a long time, and didn't get the approach clearance until the localizer was alive, which led me to overshoot the localizer.

Regards Martin

1. the contents of the Logs directory would be needed to analyze this.
2. there are always speed reduction calls to ease you into the landing, you can increase the limits if you like in Advanced Options (Finall App Speed, offset to the calculated limits). I actually don't know if PF3 does this for separation, too. Dave?
3. nice idea. For now you might want to not configure a STAR and if you want to fly a STAR (maybe decided by a die roll ) you can press hotkey 1 while in contact with Approach to "Request Cleared To Final At Pilot's Discretion" and fly the STAR.
4. would be nice, maybe this can be written as a .lua script in FSUIPC? Until then I suggest you print "PF3/PF3_Displayer/pf3_disp.dat", which easily fits on two pages (one back+front). As the numbers often mean similar things, you will not need that much after some practice.
5. oh, I think we have seen this bug during the Beta once. It would be nice if you still have the contents of the Logs directory for this flight.
6. I think you have to be established on the localizer to get the clearance, but I'm not sure what you mean with "until the localizer was alive". Logs might help to explain this, too.

Thanks for the positive feedback and your questions/suggestions.

Thanks for a quick and thorough reply!
Where do I upload the logs?
2. These speed reductions are IMHO not very realistic. There are probably quite a few airports that reduce speed actively as in PF3, but in Norway and Sweden where I fly, ATC rarely issues speed restrictions if traffic permits it. I also think PF3 reduces the speed quite early, but that may be fixed by increasing the final app speed in options.
3. I'm aware of the option to request vectors or request to be cleared to final, but it would be cool to have some randomness to it all. Just like in RL, you can't always plan on getting assigned to a STAR. This should of course be configurable like the "random speed restriction under 10k"
4. Thanks! Will do that! Just thought it would be cleaner and more user friendly with a menu.
6. If that's the case, it's not very realistic. Usually ATC vectors an aircraft to an intercept heading within 30°-45° of the final approach course and then issue the approach clearance. It's a bit too late to receive the clearance when established, especially if the aircraft is experiencing a bit of tailwind.

And BTW: Love that you guys have made a highly functional demo!

Please send them (e.g. in a .zip file) to the PF3 developer: dmarch@oncourse-software.co.uk
and point him to this thread in your email