FlyVFR Anywhere 2.0
By Louis Betti (1 July 1999)
can understand why the U.S. Navy is investigating the benefits of
programs like Flight Simulator 98. The last time I checked, their
recruiting slogan was "It's not just a job, it's an adventure".I've never owned Flight Shop, perhaps because I have no interest in designing aircraft, and have never been a big fan of flying "adventures". While I certainly endured some rather adventuresome moments while flying for real, my biggest adventure in real life flying was the drive to and from the airport! I just assume leave the adventures to the Navy.
 Even with a 21" monitor, it was quite a job to squeeze myself inside the PC-12's cockpit, but FlyVFR added so much to the realism, I just had to make the effort! |
Enter FlyVFR by Ron Broyles. Although it is NOT an IFR flight planner / adventure generator, when I was offered the chance to do this review, I jumped at it. At this point I am desperate for anything that would give me some ATC interaction without too many hassles.
What FlyVFR is, is an on-the-go, or better yet on-the-"fly" adventure generator that uses both sounds and keystrokes that will be familiar to those of you who use Flight Shop adventures.
Unlike other adventure generators, there is no software interface, no program per-se. You need do nothing prior to starting FS98 (or if you have the popular Combat Expansion Pack, CFS). With FlyVFR, you can decide when you want your ATC, and just how much you get.
The reality of VFR flight depends on just where you're flying VFR. There are still many areas where the need for interface with ATC is minimal, or non-existent. On a relatively short flight, the most radio use a pilot might see is on Unicom, and the pilot will do most of the talking. This is quite the case when flights are between un-controlled fields (those without towers). Flying out of a major general aviation airport such as Teterboro, as I did, things were a bit different. Here, I would need to contact clearance delivery first. I would advise them of my route of departure, and they would clear me. Next, of course, came ground and tower. After take-off, I was on my own, but I could have contacted departure, or an en-route facility for flight following. In busy terminal area, this isn't always possible, as the controllers are too busy, so I could simply monitor the frequency. If my arrival airport was an uncontrolled field, my next call would be to the field's Unicom, where I would inquire as to the active runway. Depending on traffic, this wasn't always necessary, as I could determine this by other aircraft using the field. All I would need to do is give the standard position reports, which I would do with great frequency, in order to be sure others knew where I was, and what I was doing.
The reality of VFR or IFR flight in FS98 is somewhat different, as I'm sure most of you are aware. For unless you are using a custom adventure, with specially recorded wav files (you know, the adventures that come in 5 separate download files!), there is always going to be some compromise in the FS98 world. What I especially dislike are adventures that fly the plane for me, and/or set radio frequencies and autopilot for me; I prefer the workload. FlyVFR does allow you to set autopilot parameters via the keyboard, but as I have already customized my keyboard to make this easy, I elected not to use this particular feature.
FlyVFR comes with rather extensive documentation. Ron Broyles makes no assumptions about your knowledge of either FS98 or ATC, and will very often not just tell you what to do, but why you must do it. He also has no qualms about pointing out what is, and what is not realistic about the resulting adventure. In essence, FlyVFR depends heavily on everything that is/was a Flight Shop adventure, right down to ground control thanking you for flying this "Flight Shop generated adventure". It was Ron's goal that FlyVFR would use only Flight Shop provided voice messages, and as such, there was no other message that could be realistically used in place of this. I have already cut out the offending part of that wav as it exists in my files (FSgrd132 is the filename).
Installation is a snap. There are two adventure files, one for the full registered version of FlyVFR, and the other for the demo version, which is essentially a flight from Meigs to DuPage county airport.
Copy these files to your adventure folder. Next, there are two sets of wav files. One is your pilot's voice (this is Ron's voice), and the next is a voice file for the ATIS messages. These voices are truly synthesized, electronically generated voices. All these WAV files obviously go to your adventure / wav folder. That's it!
It should come as no surprise that Ron tells you that you can re-record the pilot's voice with your own, and even suggests an inexpensive make/model of microphone that will do a good job. It turns out that is the same microphone I have! Although the scripts were not included in my pre-release version, there was mention of them being made available in the final release. I just made a back-up copy of these files, and recorded over them with my voice. You will also need to have the Flight Shop wav files, which are not included, but are available from all popular FS web sites. I would dare say that most of you, including myself, have these already. If you prefer not to have a pilot's voice, simply do not use the pilot's voice wave files, and you'll get silence instead.
All right, time to fly, and as there is no actual program that I can show you screen shots of, you'll just have to live with the photo of me at the controls.
We'll fly a route I know well, and use for all my testing: New York's JFK, to Boston's Logan. Not exactly VFR airports, but hey, this is FS98!
Once seated in my PC-12 cockpit, it was simply a matter of starting the FlyVFR adventure, at which point the scrolling text messages on the top of the screen prompt you for required information. Let me also point out that it is only during interface with the adventure that you see text messages, as all ATC communication with you is via voice. This "programming" part reminded me of "Ultimate Airliner Adventure", and didn't bother me in the least. I just considered it a routine part of my pre-flight preparation. Once you learn the questions asked, and what key "chords" to press, you'll move very quickly through this. I would also suggest to Ron that he add Pilatus to the list of available aircraft makes, and perhaps if possible, make it easier to enter aircraft call signs with numbers in them.
I used my Piper's registration number, 15265, which was easy to enter. Entering a registration number with letters in it requires you to enter a number for that letter, eg: A=1 and Z=26. Fortunately Ron provides a scrolling prompt for this purpose. Quick, what number is "Q"?
You will be asked to enter the make of aircraft, call sign, desired departure runway, and the frequencies for clearance, ground, tower and departure, plus airport (chatter) activity. You are given a choice a several default frequencies for each of these authorities, you can enter one of your own (I would presume this would be the authentic frequency), or let the adventure choose a random one. You also do not need to specify a clearance delivery frequency, as this would only be appropriate for busy airports. However, if you select a high chatter activity level (a very busy airport) you will be required to enter a clearance frequency. Yes, runway choice is up to you, and I would certainly hope you set it based on the winds!
The adventure will next ask you for arrival airport information, identical to that for departure. Here, you can elect not to enter an arrival airport. In this case it would be presumed that you might just want to fly around a bit, and decide where you want to land for that hamburger later! I've done that on more than one occasion in real life.
I recall taking off from Teterboro once for what was supposed to be a sightseeing flight down the Hudson River. Well, it was, but we ended up having our burgers in the cafeteria at the Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.! We monitored ATC on the way down, and our next call was to Unicom at College Park, Maryland. Just like real life, FlyVFR allows you to choose an arrival airport at anytime during your flight.
Once this data is entered, you'll be told to either contact clearance delivery, or ground control, depending upon whether or not you entered a clearance delivery frequency. After this, it's pretty standard Flight Shop. Ctrl-K is used to make contact, and many other keystrokes will be familiar to you. Ron has also added a response delay that simulates the fact that the authority might be a bit busy, and not able to respond right away.
The "synthesized" voice ATIS feature is accessed via one frequency only, for all airports, 133.80. If you want the traditional text ATIS, you can still use the frequency particular to that airport. Frankly, the voice ATIS is one weak spot. The synthesized voices are very difficult to understand (at least for me), and I re-recorded them with my own voice. Well, at least that's how ATIS was recorded back in the good ol' days! However, the synthesized voice is authentic to what is in use today.
Once through the routine of contacting clearance and ground, I taxied to my chosen runway, 31R at JFK. Here a call to tower did not produce a take off clearance, but a clearance to hold short.
Within about half a minute, I was given clearance to roll. I found it especially nice that not only did my pilot voice acknowledge, but also once I advanced the throttle, it told the tower that I was rolling--not exactly unrealistic.
After take off, I was instructed to contact departure. Departure assigned a heading, and within a minute I was released to go on my own. In this case, direct Carmel, direct Putnam and direct Boston. I now tuned my radio to FSS on 122.2, and hitting Ctrl-w had FSS give me the current weather. Throughout the rest of the flight I remained on the FSS frequency. Here, I had more than enough chatter to keep me happy. While the standard Flight Shop wav files may not be the most authentic sounding (they're too clear!) I found the "company" they kept me to be just fine.
I kept busy for the next half-hour or so testing my new PC-12 panel, and seeing that all was well with it and all the pop-up windows I installed. I turned on my weather radar, and examined all the gauges for proper operation. I even fiddled with the condition lever on the pop-up throttle console I installed. Yes, I let the autopilot do the flying!
At Putnam VOR, I began my descent from 15,000', and tuned to the ILS frequency for my chosen arrival runway, 4R. Once I began to receive the localizer, a quick tap of Ctrl-I requested an instrument approach. A text message then asked me to choose a downwind length in miles. Actually, this would seem to be more of a final approach length; I chose the next to highest value, 9 miles. FSS then gave me an approach frequency.
Approach control assigned a transponder code, altitude, vectored me to the localizer, and gave me the tower frequency.
I established myself on the LOC, contacted the tower and hand flew the ILS (I had already tested APR mode on a previous flight). Basically it was all standard flight shop, but with my voice responding as the pilot.
Once on the ground, I was told to exit the runway at the next available turn-off, and contact ground. Ground control "welcomed" me and had me taxi to the terminal; the basic Flight Shop end of adventure. Now, I just have to go back and clean up my pilot's voice wav files a bit.
I have to tell you, this was great! Now, had I wanted to, I could have requested a visual approach, and rather than fly from one major airport to another, done the same between two smaller airports, and dispensed with clearance delivery on the departure end and landed without an instrument approach.
With the exception when I fly true IFR flights with Proflight 98, this is how I like my flying. FlyVFR basically lets me do my thing, and call the shots when I want to. Is it 100% authentic? Of course not, but neither was Flight Shop, or any adventure program based on it. I can only imagine what Ron could do if he abandoned those Flight Shop wav files, and did a whole new, expanded set. I don't know the limitations of adventure programming, but I would dare say that FlyVFR could go even further, if there is support for it. Virtual Unicom perhaps? How about requesting permission to transit an airport traffic area, or other controlled airspace?
FlyVFR retails for $19.95, and as far as I'm concerned is worth every penny. Ron seems to be the type of person who will listen to advice, and improve the product (free upgrades) down the line. Do not say to yourself, "oh, it's just Flight Shop", because aside from the wav files, it's not. Also remember, this is version 2.0, and I would dare say that if this program proves popular, there could be a 3.0. I see great potential for this program, and since I do not see a dramatic improvement in ATC in FS2000, Ron's efforts will not be wasted if he continues improvement of it. Although I have no interest in programming adventures, I took a look at the MS adventure SDK and the programming language. Trust me, Ron deserves his $19.95, as I found it preferable to go back and read my book on C++!
As far as I'm concerned, FlyVFR is a keeper, and joins the list of some pretty heavy hitters in my FS "bag-o-tricks", such as FS Clouds, Real Weather, and Proflight 98. I can no longer imagine VFR flight in FS98 without FlyVFR. It takes a lot to please me, and FlyVFR did!
Louis Betti
Download FlyVFR Demo.
loubetti@earthlink.net