OnCourse Software

Hi. Been meaning to ask this for, well, some years really. There must be others who have asked the same thing before, but searching for 'center' (or even 'centre') doesn't give me any useful answers.

So how does PF3 choose the ATC centre that it asks you to contact? Many times, like today, I am flying happily connected to a fairly local ATC frequency, but am then asked to contact a centre hundreds of miles away. For example, I was just flying around the Swiss/French border heading south.. but was requested to contact Paris Centre. Or 'Contact London Centre on...' when I am approaching Newcastle..

Any way to make this a bit more logical? Thanks.

(Hope everyone at OnCourse managed to have a good Christmas, in spite of it all...)

See p. 181 of the User Guide for a discussion on this topic. You have a choice of using the Original or Extended Control Sectors file (the selection is made on the screen where you load the flight plan). I think the Extended Sectors File is fairly accurate with respect to boundaries, though we still have constraints due to the available voice files. The section in the User Guide has more information.

Thanks Dan.. will look at that and post back if all is not clear.

This is a screenshot of how the GUI appears - looks lioke I do not have Extended sectors enabled. But when I click on 'Extended' I get a runtime error and PF3 crashes. There is a file called CenterSectors.dat (293kbs) in the PF3/data folder..

How do I fix this problem and activate the Extended Centers?

Thanks!

.. here's the debug log

In your PF3\Data folder you should have Extended_Centersectors.dat, Original_Centersectors.dat and Centersectors.dat. It would appear, from the error message, the first one (Extended_Centersectors.dat) is missing for some reason. Easiest way to rectify is to download and install the latest cumulative updates package.

Thanks Dave, installed that and now the 'Extended' button works.

Installing the update seems to have deleted all my saved FP adjustments. I have a backup of the PF3 folder, but I can't locate the file(s) which would have stored that data. I can presumably restore the FP changes I have made by copying back the file .... (??)

Thanks.

Hi Martin,

If you mean the *.ADJ files in the Flight\User folder then no, the update does not touch those

What I meant was the window labelled FP Adjustments when you load a flight plan from the main interface. None of the altitude changes in the 'NEW ALT' column are now there - all blank; I had a lot of them - I edit perhaps half of my flight plans in that window. When you choose a flight plan, PF3 asks if you want to use the adjustments made previously...

I have looked in the Flight folder. If I create a new waypoint file, three files are created in the FPP subfolder (*.FPP, *.json, *.pln). Not sure what the .adj files are in the ADJ folder?

Thanks Dave.