Active Pause: Working correctly?; Theoretical question

[Stanley777]

Hi everyone,

 

I have two questions, please, regarding Active Pause in FS2020:

 

First, I am wondering if Active Pause in my system is working correctly. Let's say that I am flying without using autopilot, and then I hit Active Pause and leave my computer for a few minutes. Apparently, however, my plane is not suspended in mid-air, because when I return to the computer, my plane has crashed to the ground. So, is Active Pause not functioning properly on my computer, is there a known bug with Active Pause, or am I not understanding how to use it?

 

Second, how is Active Pause supposed to work? Let's say that I am flying somewhere and the local time is, just to make up a number, 13:15. Then, let's say that I deploy Active Pause for five minutes. When I turn off Active Pause and return to flying, is the local time supposed to pick back up at 13:15 or would the local time now be 13:20?

 

Thank you.

 

Stanley

[davidc2]

I cannot answer all your questions, however, from reading other posts regarding Active Pause, it is supposedly fixed. For me, (and others), I just hit the Escape key if I need to walk away for a few minutes.

[Stanley777]

Hi davidc2,

 

Thank you for your response.

 

Just hitting the Escape key is an interesting idea. And when you do that, does the local time advance from 13:15 to 13:20 (using the numbers in my example)? Of course, I could test that out myself, and I will do so.

 

Stanley

[gxm149]

From what I understand Stanley, with the active pause feature the world keeps moving around you including time, weather, other aircraft, etc. I think that is why it is called active pause, because the rest of the world is still active. An interesting quirk that I have noticed is that this seems to also apply to your aircraft. The sim will take the state that your aircraft is in and extend it out to when you turn off the active pause. If you are accelerating when you hit active pause you will find your aircraft going faster and if you are slowing down you will be below stall speed and fall to the ground when you turn off the active pause. This is what I have noticed with using the active pause anyway. Before turning it on I make sure that my throttle is at least 60%, enough to maintain airspeed, and then I do not have problems when I turn the active pause off.

[Stanley777]

An interesting quirk that I have noticed is that this seems to also apply to your aircraft. The sim will take the state that your aircraft is in and extend it out to when you turn off the active pause. If you are accelerating when you hit active pause you will find your aircraft going faster and if you are slowing down you will be below stall speed and fall to the ground when you turn off the active pause.

 

Hi gxm149,

 

Thank you for this interesting message.

 

I will try what you say -- stay on straight and level flight with about 60% throttle -- and see what happens.

 

From what you say, the original time of 13:15 should advance to 13:20 if you are on Active Pause for five minutes.

 

I have now done the experiment using Escape, and there I saw that time also stood still -- which I don't like -- so that the original time of 13:15 continued to be 13:15 when you resumed flight.

 

Stanley

[Stanley777]

Hi gxm149,

 

I have now performed the experiment. I flew straight and level with the throttle at a moderate amount.

 

Sure enough, as you said, the aircraft just stayed suspended in midair. Moreover, the time kept advancing. These developments pleased me.

 

On the other hand, as a I released Active Pause, the plane nosedived. I don't know why. So, if I use Active Pause in the future, I need to be prepared to recover the plane right away.

 

The Active Pause feature is nice, but I don't crucially depend upon it. However, the program developers should modify the feature so that users can just hit Active Pause without trying to level out their flight, and also so that the aircraft does not drop out of the sky upon ending Active Pause even if the flight is already leveled out. The fact that time keeps advancing is good -- this does not happen if you use Escape.

 

But your message clarified the situation quite a lot.

 

Stanley

 

 

 

 

Stanley

[gxm149]

I am glad that I was able to help clear it up for you. I have also found that different aircraft stall at different throttle settings. One thing that you could try to keep from falling out of the sky is to apply 100% throttle before hitting Active Pause. If the throttle is at maximum power then the sim should see your aircraft as accelerating and keep it from stalling when you turn off the Active Pause. I think that this might solve the problem that you are having with the aircraft nose diving into the ground when you resume flying.

[Stanley777]

Thank you, gxm149. Very useful advice.

[stempski]

So my question would be... if active pause is not stopping the sim time, or the aircraft in flight... what IS it pausing?

[Stanley777]

So my question would be... if active pause is not stopping the sim time, or the aircraft in flight... what IS it pausing?

 

 

Hi stempski,

 

It is pausing the aircraft in flight.

 

Stanley

[stempski]

But only if your straight and level... otherwise your plane crashes, right?

[Stanley777]

Hi stempski,

 

One way or another, Active Pause attempts to pause the flight. As gxm149 explained, however, the most effective pause occurs when the aircraft is engaged in straight and level flight.

 

Nevertheless, to be sure, Active Pause is an imperfect tool. It should just pause the flight no matter what the aircraft is doing, and it does not. On that, you are correct.

 

Stanley

[roypaglia]

Hi everyone,

 

I have two questions, please, regarding Active Pause in FS2020:

 

First, I am wondering if Active Pause in my system is working correctly. Let's say that I am flying without using autopilot, and then I hit Active Pause and leave my computer for a few minutes. Apparently, however, my plane is not suspended in mid-air, because when I return to the computer, my plane has crashed to the ground. So, is Active Pause not functioning properly on my computer, is there a known bug with Active Pause, or am I not understanding how to use it?

 

Second, how is Active Pause supposed to work? Let's say that I am flying somewhere and the local time is, just to make up a number, 13:15. Then, let's say that I deploy Active Pause for five minutes. When I turn off Active Pause and return to flying, is the local time supposed to pick back up at 13:15 or would the local time now be 13:20?

 

Thank you.

 

Stanley

 

Hi

Now after one of the patches the Active Pause has been put in the normal menu that you get when in the sim, its shown as the pause symbol

[Cavulife]

Here is my test in the glass 172:

Pause with AutoPilot on and straight and level: clock keeps ticking, other traffic moves. No problems.

 

Active Pause with AutoPilot on and straight and level: clock keeps ticking, other traffic moves. After about 30 seconds you’ll see airspeed start dropping. Autopilot starts trimming up to maintain altitude. About to become a lawn dart.

 

Without AutoPilot both Pause and Active Pause worked fine, no lawn dart.

[gallen144]

If Active Pause is working right, I have not found a practical use for me.