OnCourse Software

Hi Dave,

PF3 is does not seem to be behaving the way it used to. For years PF3 has paused at TOD without a hitch. It would give you initial descent and then pause. I know it suddenly stopped working because of a change in an MSFS update and you had to put in a fix for this, but now although PF3 is pausing the SIM OK, sometimes more than once but never at TOD.

I have had PF3 in recent flights allocate a runway that resulted in me not just flying into a stream of departing AI traffic but a runway with a tail wind of 23knots (EIDW) (not in the latest beta I must add). But since this had happened more than once I am wary now of PF3 arrival runway and when PF3 gave me a runway I was not expecting I immediately tried to switch runway using Cntr+Shft+W and I ran into the biggest gripe I have always had about PF3 – using context sensitive commands – instead of clickable menu items. CS+W has umpteen different functions and the number of times I have disabled TGS and entered CS+W to change departure runway and for some reason TGS is not being disabled therefore I can’t select a different departure runway. This had never been a problem for arrival runway until this time when being suspicious of PF3s runway selection I tried to change it to the runway I was expecting but CS+W was giving me the option to warp ahead instead of selecting a different runway. Now the winds were 2 knots so either runway was OK but I didn’t know that and my point is I was not able change runways because PF3 wouldn’t let me.

I have recently switched from FSUIPC to SPAD.NEXT and I have found certain keyboard commands like ALT+2 that spad.next is firing to select a custom camera the 2 is being picked up by PF3 as a hot key command. It has not been an issue up to now because the hot key seems to be just to report position but it could potentially cause big problems depending on what PF3 thinks is being requested.

What I would do to have clickable menu items in PF3.

One other thing I have noticed that has changed is when vacating runway I was previously being given taxi to gate instructions without having to hold position I can’t find what determined the instructions you to got whether to continue or to hold position.

Thanks in advance

Quote:

PF3 is does not seem to be behaving the way it used to. For years PF3 has paused at TOD without a hitch. It would give you initial descent and then pause. I know it suddenly stopped working because of a change in an MSFS update and you had to put in a fix for this, but now although PF3 is pausing the SIM OK, sometimes more than once but never at TOD.

Next time this doesn't work please include the log file so I can check it out as it should be working now.

Quote:

I have had PF3 in recent flights allocate a runway that resulted in me not just flying into a stream of departing AI traffic but a runway with a tail wind of 23knots (EIDW) (not in the latest beta I must add).

Again, next time this happens please let me see the log and I will explain as to why it happened. PF3 will always use the same runway as AI Traffic, if there is any detected at the time, and if not wind direction. Unfortunately AI Traffic does not always use the correct runway and seem to disregard the wind.

Quote:

CS+W has umpteen different functions

Actually it only has three... 1. skip to next taxi waypoint during taxi to/from the runway 2. Warp to a selected waypoint during your flight 3. request different runway for takeoff/landing

I might consider adding the option to disable the 2nd function, as I doubt many users utilise that function, which may make life a little easier for you

Quote:

I have recently switched from FSUIPC to SPAD.NEXT and I have found certain keyboard commands like ALT+2 that spad.next is firing to select a custom camera the 2 is being picked up by PF3 as a hot key command. It has not been an issue up to now because the hot key seems to be just to report position but it could potentially cause big problems depending on what PF3 thinks is being requested.

PF3 only detects keypress which are picked up by FSUIPC and they would only be configured hotkeys. So, if SPAD is utilising the FSUIPC hotkey tables it's not doing so correctly. FSUIPC provides a feature called Hotkeys for Applications, which provides offsets for up to 56 hotkeys which are shared between all applications. The first thing an application has to do, before setting up hotkeys, is to determine which ones are not already in use, otherwise you run the risk of overwriting another application's hotkey slots.

I don't know anything about SPAD but it may be worth trying to start SPAD first before running PF3, because PF3 will only configure hotkey slots that are not currently in use, so it wouldn't read anything sent by SPAD.

Quote:

One other thing I have noticed that has changed is when vacating runway I was previously being given taxi to gate instructions without having to hold position I can’t find what determined the instructions you to got whether to continue or to hold position.

The option is under Options #2, Advanced Options, Misc tab, Max Spd for rolling taxi instructions

You have yours set to ZERO which turns the feature OFF

Code: Select all Max Spd for rolling taxi instructions – New to version 3.15.0 – Normally, after vacating the active runway at your destination airport, you would be told to hold your position when contacting ground, in readiness to receive taxi instructions to the terminal/gate. With this new option you have the choice to set a maximum speed below which, or at, you will receive taxi instructions whilst still moving. The values available are 0 thru 30. Setting the option to 0 (zero) basically turns it off and you will be told to hold your position as normal. However, let's say you set this to 15, that means that provided you are 'at' or 'below' that speed (i.e. taxiing between 1 and 15 mph) ATC will provide you with taxi instructions.

Hi Dave,

The log I attached was for the latest beta, and I believe PF3 paused SIM 188 miles from destination and then SIM suddenly paused again sometime afterwards, which could only have been PF3 that did this. But it did not pause at (PF3 TOD) which is what I want.

My main point re CS+W is why did PF3 think I wanted to warp ahead rather than select a different runway. PF3 had given me my landing runway, there was much scope in warping ahead at that point

Thanks in advance
Mark

Just my 2 cent concerning hotkeys.
If for example you use "ctrl+shift+W" and this key combination is not used in MSFS then it will execute
the next best thing namely "W" !?! How strange is that?
So the way I solved that, and please note I'm not using VR, is to assign these "not" used key combination in the VR controls.
So if you put "ctrl+shft+W" as let's say Zoom in VR then MSFS will not execute "W" but will do nothing as you're not using VR.
Cheers,
Luc

Okay, just revisited your log and I can see we still have a problem. The TOD was not being calculated at all for some reason, so I'm looking into that now. PF3 NEVER paused the sim at all during your flight... it did detect the sim was paused on two occasions but it was NOT PF3

Re C\S\W you hit that hotkey twice, long before you were assigned a runway so the option to change the assigned runway was not active... see below and note the timestamps

02/01/2024 14:10:49: 160 - ****** HotKey #13 detected! <-- 10 miles from INREV (WP #20)

02/01/2024 14:11:23: 210 - ****** HotKey #13 detected! <-- on reaching INREV

02/01/2024 14:17:04: 460 - Transcript: 'Shuttle 8 Hotel expect vectors for the ILS runway 06 '

I didn't want to open an new thread so I captured this one, sorry.
As you see at the screen shot, when loading the FP I got FL 3000' at the beginning of STAR although the FP indicates FL180.
I didn't do the flight, I didn't feel like it anymore
Log's attached
Cheers,
Luc

Unfortunately that log is not the correct one. Could you please attach the OLD debug log if you haven't run another flight since this post

Here you are, but I'm afraid it will not be the correct one, was saved yesterday.
I also included the FPP, maybe there's still something to see there?

No, yesterdays log doesn't help unfortunately. I don't quite know what's happened here but without a log I can't do anything. Perhaps you could try loading the same flight plan, connecting to FS, call for clearance and then disconnect from FS (very important) and finally close PF3 and attach the debug log AND old debug log

Thank you

I will give it a try this afternoon.
BTW, as you have the log of yesterdays flight to EDDF there are some "interesting" things in there too.
Somehow I couldn't get to my assigned cruise altitude which is entirely on me (or the FP) but then I got into a situation where ATC
kept on insisting to climb to FL390. But In order to get down in time I already had to start descent.
This has nothing to do with PF3 but I tried to get out of it but ctrl shft L didn't work so I just kept descending and after a while
PF3 cached up with me an just continued my flight. But then I got assigned runway 36?
Now the good thing about having the STAR active box selected is that ATC will give you clearance for Sierra Tango so after that you
pretty much can do whatever you like So I just was flying a big circle to get down and landed.
Here again you will see that I got stand 0 assigned.
Cheers,
Luc