OnCourse Software

Whenever someone has a spare minute or two (?), I'd love to know why I couldn't get any response from ATC on my previous flight when I hit the usual keys to ask for clearance. I tried both Ground and Tower, checking that my radio frequencies were correctly set (121.80 Ground; 119.70 Tower at EDDP). I restarted PF3 more than once, but although I got the affirming 'beep' to show the input had been received, I couldn't get anything from ATC.

Thanks!

Hi Martin,

For some reason your user frequencies for EDDP don't seem to have been saved. Could you send me the following file please

PF3\Data\User_Facilities.dat

Did you add these changes just prior to starting your flight?

Thank you very much for taking a look Dave - I do appreciate the time you take helping me (and others, when I am not hogging the forum!! ). I attach the dat file.

I didn't make any changes: given that COM frequencies used in PF3 are nearly always different from those in X-Plane/Little Navmap, before every flight I verify and note down the COM frequencies in the f5.csv file, which is what PF3 reads when it creates a new database, in X-Plane at least. I also have PF3 set so that the initial clearance/ground/departure frequency is already loaded into the radio at startup (very useful option BTW!).

Usually it all works just fine; the problem I have at EDDP is very unusual, which is why I am interested to know what was happening.

Okay, well EDDP has some invalid frequencies in your facilities file which I can see hasn't been changed since 20/12/2020 !!!

If you change the EDDP frequencies from 137+ to 0 then all will be okay. I then need to make sure the 'add a new facility' is checking for invalid entries correctly so it doesn't happen again

[EDDP]
0=EDDP
1=137.00
2=0
3=119.70
5=137.05
6=137.07
7=137.02
11=125.95
LatLon=51.424,12.23639

Hmmm... I don't remember ever even opening the user_facilities.dat file. Does that mean that I must have made that entry myself, back in 2020? Why would I have done that, if so? If there are any COM frequency errors (or, far more often, missing airports) in PF3, I edit the f5.csv file and recreate the PF3 database. Works fine 99.9% of the time. What is the function of the user_facilities.dat file? There's no mention of it in the user guide. Is it an alternative then to editing the f5.csv file, over-riding the PF3 database??

What if I just deleted the entry for EDDP in user_facilities.dat (and EGSS - no idea why that is there either)? Would PF3 then read the COM frequencies from its database as with any other airport?

I've just refreshed my memory... had a look at the user guide. There's no mention of that facilities file because it's maintain buy the 'Add a new facility' feature in PF3, which you access from Options #2.

The section to check in the user guide is 7.1.21 Add a New Facility Frequency or mark Airport Closed although the actual section number may have changed since I'v been doing a lot of work with the guide.

Here's the part I saw which refreshed my memory, as the change was made in April 2017 !!

Quote:

Since PF3 3.4.0 there is a new feature which allows you to 'virtually' remove
an FS facility. If, for instance, you select EGSS, which has two Tower
frequencies in the default FS9, and enter a frequency of 137 against 'Tower',
when you start your flight the COMS display will show that the Tower at EGSS
is no longer available. This allows you to basically remove any facility for any
airport.
Because PF3 does not allow duplicate frequencies you need to make each
137 frequency unique if you wish to remove more than one facility per
airport. eg. 137.02, 137.05, etc.
You cannot remove the ATIS, Departure or FSS facilities and we do not make
any alterations to FS at all, this is merely a mask whilst PF3 is running.

So I guess sometime back in 2020 you did use this feature to remove some facilities from EDDP and that's where the 137 frequencies came from.

That all makes sense! Thanks again.

That way, I don't need to run the database creator for entries made in Options2 to be recognised and used (a 'mask' as the user guide puts it). Would be simpler than my editing the f5.csv file and having to rebuild the PF3 database every time I change something (which I have been doing for years now!).

Yes, a useful feature of PF3 I had completely forgotten about! I wonder how many others there are?

(I am assuming BTW that a zero means no addion to the database, rather than that there is no associated frequency. EGSS in my file, for instance:

[EGSS]
0=EGSS
1=0
2=0
3=0
5=0
6=0
7=119.02
11=0
LatLon=51.885,0.235

I'd forgotten it too... but thanks to the User Guide...

Quote:

but thanks to the User Guide...

I'm hopeless at searching, be it on Google, the PF3 User Guide (I never seem to choose the 'right' search term)... or for stuff in my fridge, come to that!

It is INCREDIBLE how many times I have to close down X-Plane before I have even got the engines running because something has gone wrong - usually a completely new problem. SOOOO frustrating!!!!

Very coincidentally, immediately after the above exchange about adding COM frequencies, I set up a flight from ZBAD to ZSPD. At ZBAD I noticed that the VHF1 radio showed 122.20, so I set frequencies via the GUI, Option #2, as discussed above. Result: PF3 crashes!! Restarted PF3 to be sure, but same result. If I manually delete the entry that was created in the user_facilities.dat file, there's no crash.

Sent the crash report just now via the PF3 GUI.

Can you see why PF3 is crashing Dave? Is the absence of a LatLon value the problem? PF3 didn't add anything to that line; maybe it doesn't know the airport, though ZBAD is in the runways.csv file which PF3 accesses to create its database.



[ZBAD]
0=ZBAD
1=127.22
2=0
3=0
5=121.62
6=118.37
7=121.87
11=0
LatLon=