Cas141

On 4/3/2024 at 11:30 AM, paul92 said:

Hi all

Recently returned to FSX after a prolonged absence. 

I found I needed to touch up on my ILS. I'm more or less a beginner, but have been able to land previously fine, but now the life of me, I cannot get it right. 

I have followed numerous videos, but none of them work.

Here is what happened - for now I am using the stock B737-800. I also have the rikooo 737-800, and a few scenery packages

I fly with IFR, and enter the headings the controller provided, and descend when I am asked to do so. Upon approach when the ATC gives me the runway for landing, I check the map, and then enter them in my radio stack, eventually I hear the morse code beeps, I wait for the "Below G/S" to light up, and then  indicator to go down to the middle, I ensure my GPS/Nav switch is set to Nav, that my FD is on, and the AP master switch is on, I lastly push the "APP" button, This, from what I have seen should then deactivate heading & altitude, and should line the plane up with the runway, and I would then guide it down, however when I push APP it doesn't switch off the other two, and my plane just carries on. I have declared several missed approaches they all don't guide the plane to land. Eventually after trying, I gave up, and decided to get help. 

I learnt today about setting the course indicator, but I have never had to use that. Usually the ATC's instructions, and what headings to use was enough, and even that didn't do much. 

If anyone can provide some insight it would be much appreciated.

Thanks so much

Do you enter the runway ILS frequency into the Nav 1 radio, e.g 110.50?
Each runway that uses ILS has its own frequency to be entered into the Nav 1 radio.

The ATC puts you on the flight path to intercept the beam if you follow their instructions and enter the heading (whilst using the autopilot of course) ,and if you have entered the

relevant frequency as above , and if you are in NAV ( as opposed to GPS).
When you intercept the beam, the AP will turn the aircraft to line you up with the runway.

Pressing APP button will then pick up the glide slope if your height is at or below the required height, I.e. the height the ATC told you to approach at.

You should then find the plane will descend down that glide slope.

When you start to do that ( or even before) you may wish to switch off AP and auto throttle and land manually

Hi, 

Silly little question really, but I would like to know,please.

after take off , when are the switches taken off-IRL.

Cruise altitude? Or 10000ft, or pilots discretion..?
Thanks

Thanks guys, I have also googled it and it seems for safety’s sake that highways are still used. 
Makes sense I think. Putting the planes “on roads” makes for less chance of collisions?

As Viper says, leave the direct stuff to small planes and VFR with the assistance of Mr Garmin

Hello

Anyone in the know please.

I have been making flight plans for airliners using “high altitude routes “.

Is it the case now, in real life,  with GPS as good as it is, that Flying from A to B is done directly. As can be chosen in flight planner?

Or are most flights still using high altitude routes..

cheers

Cracked it!!! I’ve managed to get it working.

What I have done is this. 
The keys I used for pause and centre, in my case f9 and f12, I removed from the FSX controls.
Then I went into the Trackir Profiles and edit the Hotkeys.
On the “change” button for Pause I press it and then click the button on my joystick .
Same for the Change button for centre, ie, another joystick button.
That’s it.
Those buttons on the joystick now activate the Trackir functions.

Unlike the other buttons on my joystick, these buttons have nothing to do with FSX,!
 

8 hours ago, f16jockey_2 said:

 

 

 

 

Probably needless to say F9 and F12 should be freed from any FSX assignment.

 

Wim

Yes, agreed. I will double check, nut I think that is already the case.

when any key is selected to be used for any FSX function,then if it is already in use then you are told and asked if you wish to change it.

so, when told it is available then that indicates it isn’t already being used in FSX.

i have also found out that the centre and pause functions can be allocated buttons in Trackir 4 in similar way that you show in Trackir 5.

its a bit Grrrr

12 hours ago, f16jockey_2 said:

 

IMO you're trying to stick to the F9 and F12 keystrokes, and you want your joystick to emulate F9 and F12.

That's not the way to go.

 

 

Choose the action in the green drop-down menu, then click the button in the red area. It'll prompt for a keystroke or joystick button.

Press the joystick button of your choice and you're done.

As you see in the blue area, there's no need to stick to F9 and F12.

 

Wim

 

Thanks for your reply Wim.

However, first I’m on Trackir 4 software, not 5 as in your answer. 
It worked before, in a similar way to how you describe, except the. “Other way round”,

ie in the  sim I choose the action, e g centre, and then I am invited to press the button or joystick button for that action. ( I pressed the joystick button)

It appears to accept ( as it does for all other sim actions, e.g. ATC window), but when the joystick button is pressed with the sim running there is no action.

I have tried changing the f9 and f12 , I haven’t stuck to them, but the result is the same with other buttons used as hotkeys in the Trackir profile 

So, to sum up, it seems Trackir 5 lets you map within Trackir 5, whereas using trackir4  software lets you select your hotkeys and then using those to map within the sim.Doing it the latter way it seems  they do not “take”:

So the question is, will my not new Trackir unit work with Trackir 5 software, in windows XP?.

And there is still the niggle that it did work with the Cougar, 

Wim, clearly you know your Trackir stuff.  Do you have any other suggestions on this,please

Any experts on Trackir 4 software?

1 hour ago, lnuss said:

It's been a long time since I messed with that part of it, but I think I use FSUIPC to properly map the buttons.

Do you mean just the Trackir buttons?

The other buttons map very well within the sim controls, but it’s just the two buttons that are being used for “pause” and “centre” in Trackir.

I know that somehow it can be done cos I had the same issue with the Cougar.

I have recently changed my HOTAS from Cougar to Saitek X45.( the former seems to have died).

Set up has been fine in Windows XP.

However, when mapping buttons I cannot get the mapping to work on the two keyboard buttons which are used by the Trackir. In my case F9 and F12.

I had the same problem initially when setting up the Cougar, but I managed to get them working. But it was so long ago I can’t remember what I had to do to achieve that.,!
 

The Trackir uses two keyboard buttons , one for centring , and one for toggling static / movement view.

When I map these to my X45 they do not activate the Trackir,

the keyboard buttons , however, still do work.

All other buttons in the sim can be mapped to the X45.

ANY Trackir user able to assist please?

Edit to above…

I-have got the X45 working fine. I am  especially pleased with the throttle smoothness.

It was a straightforward set up via the Game controller icon.

I have a slight problem mapping a button to activate my Trackir  I will ask on a separate thread.

Ta

Hello

My Cougar HOTAS has given the ghost apparently.

I have. Saitek X45 HOTAS.

I do not have the cd with the XP drivers .

can anyone point me to where I may download them,please?

OR

failing that, will the joystick work by just plugging in and letting windows drivers work.

Does FSX recognize the HOTAS and allow mapping within the sim?  This would be sufficient without the SSE drivers, actually?

advice please would be appreciated.

Thanks

19 hours ago, loki said:

I would suggest trying the sim for yourself before getting too far down in what you've read online. There are some valid criticisms of the sim, and then there are some overreactions to it as well. MSFS does have a new interface, and does do things differently (much like X-Plane does things its own way), however, it isn't an arcade sim. You can try MSFS for $1 by signing up for the Xbox Game Pass one month trial. If you do like the sim, you can either keep the subscription going (not worth it if you don't play any of the other games), or cancel the Game Pass and buy the sim outright.

 

https://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-game-pass

So, hang on. Are you saying that a flight simmer , like me, using top joysticks etc flying it  as a “Study” sim and not a game, and who hasn’t been within 100 miles of an X Box, can get a trial of the sim in the manner that you suggest and I would be able to fly it, I.e. without an X box, ?
That is an academic question , by the way, because in order to use MS 2020, I would need (want) to buy a new top end computer, and other stuff,( exactly what I do not know.i.e what of my peripherals is compatible)

Because at present I fly FSX offline on a Windows XP computer.

So quite an investment would have to be made before I could play or trial the sim.

Hence the comments  re attending a flight sim club meeting

5 hours ago, loki said:

 

FSX was developed with the understanding CPUs would be heading for 10GHz, which we are no where near, and likely won't be for a long time yet, if ever. Between improving multi-core support, moving to 64 bit processing, the streaming scenery support and other graphical improvements, as well bringing the sim to Xbox consoles, FSX with a new graphics engine wasn't an option.

Wow,! 10Ghz… Now, that would be something. I didn’t  know that.                 I  take your points, but many are disappointed (I’ve read) with the apparent “arcading” of MS2020. I mean, as soon as you are flying with an X box, any pretence of a flight simulator is greatly diminished. 
And , Ok, there is the Market argument….that the  X box  function helps to achieve. Which is to sell more and make money.

I’ll wait to see with interest what  MS2024 brings .

Depending on my stamina I might then attend a flight sim club, which is some way away,  to see for myself what it exactly can do. Something I was able to do in the past, with FSX, and which I found to be an excellent way to find out about a sim’s capabilities - and my own

10 hours ago, JSkorna said:

1. You can speed up flights just as you can in FSX.

2. You can save a flight just as you can in FSX, but not every piece of data is saved just like in FSX.

3. Because FSX is old computer code and MSFS 2020 has been re-coded from the ground up. 

Reference #3, yes , ok ,they have done that, but you saying they have done it that way doesn’t mean they had to do it that way.?

My question remains…..Why not FSX with the only change being  better graphics.

With computer processors now running at 5 ghz and over, then surely they would have been able to give us FSX maxed out. ?
They are clever people, just change the graphics , and off we go.

Good FPS on very fast computers, as they now are.

Oh, Lordy… Another reason why I haven’t “upgraded”. from FSX.

Most of my flights are airliners, and I can either “speed things up” or Save the flight and resume later ….

This thread tells me that this is not possible in MS 2020 and thus has no attraction to me.

From what ( admittedly, little ) I know of MS 2020, I am at a loss as to why MS couldn’t have just given us FSX with the fantastic graphics of MS 2020.

On 12/16/2023 at 2:15 PM, Honus said:

I know.  I cheated a bit and added one  108.35 PDD           I've  done that at many airports using ADE 1.78.   It's range is set to 24 mi.

Don’t know about this,  but anything like that is probably going to not work.

If the (real)approach doesn’t have a glideslope, then why are you trying to force one?
 

I reckon zippy is right- you must be too high.

1. Your dial should show where the indicators are, if they are in the upper half then you are below the glideslope beam - and that is fine . Keep flying level and you will hit the beam.

if the marker are below the horizontal in the dial the you are too high.

2 Also, if the runway has red and white lights, then majority of whites means too high..

calculate 300 ft up for each mile from runway. ( roughly)

Jgf

Thanks for your input and offer of further help, but it isn’t really that important, I.e., I fly VC and use the instruments as they are in the cockpit. 

anything different, even if it worked, would spoil the authenticity of the cockpit.

i posted in case anyone who flew the plane was aware of a possible update that meant the ADF worked.

i just don’t think it had been modelled by Jens.

Never mind, I can work around it.

I do appreciate your offer, but I’ll leave things bas they are at the moment

Thanks again
 

Thanks for your input ,but you’ve lost me a bit. 
Have you used Jens DC4.  The version I have is meant to be for FSX.

I don think this is important enough for me to try things I’m not fully understanding, but Thanks for your help.

7 hours ago, jgf said:

Check the radio section of aircraft.cfg that ADF is enabled.  And are the radios and indicators the same as used in the other aircraft?

Thanks-   Yes, done that. The ADF is shown as =1.

radios and indicators?   No. They are as they were in RL. The. ADF is a dial. You turn to locate on a dial. E.g  If you’re looking to select 337 then you move dial to  between 330 and 340, find halfway, then edge just past to where 337 might be. 
I’ve tweaked around there but no reaction on the gauge.

Im pretty sure it’s not modelled in. In the original, there was no DME gauge. A later amendment has enabled one to be added.

I wondered if same had been done for the ADF.

16 hours ago, jgf said:

Are you close enough to receive the NDB signal?  Most only have a range of 25-30 miles.

 

(And yes, never extract the cab files for gauges;  they're designed to work as is.)

Yes, they work fine in the Beechcraft and Mooney. In the DC 4 , of course, they are dialled, and accuracy comes into it

But, I’ve double checked that, adjusting the dial etc, but not a glimmer from the gauge.

I am really pleased with the DME ability now in my DC 4.

But I have started  using the “green” NDB beacons more and more for navigation, in other planes, but the ADF dials etc do not work on the DC 4.

The VORs work but not the ADF.

Has anyone managed to get them to work, or know how to get them to work?

Thanks. That’s worked great. 

Thank you. I’ll see what I can do. 
much obliged

Hello.

I am having problems getting the glideslope when using this plane.

on the Mooney Bravo, or  Cessna, or the airliners,there is a Nav/ GPS switch.During the flight I am in GPS mode. I have put in the runway frequency in the Nav1 radio and,shortly before I am approaching the ILS beam ,I change to Nav.

I am still flying on the Heading button in autopilot, but when I see the “lines “begin to move, to indicate that I have hit the beam, I then click the Nav button in the autopilot stack and the plane begins to turn into the beam to line up with the runway.

BUT, with the Beechcraft, I do not see a Nav/GPS switch in the cockpit for me to use.

so, what happens?

I approach the beam, but of course I don’t know when I’ve hit it.

if, however, I managed to guess right then if I change from heading to nav in the autopilot, the plane will turn.

but it will also turn ( when I change buttons) at any time before I hit  the beam…..arrggh.

But , why, just this plane, apparently?

Or am I missing something?
cheers

Seen this late. Maybe I’ve got “hold of the wrong end of the stick”, but is the problem here  one of running the sim without it being “Activated “?

Thus it runs for a while before stopping. The systems specs are such that if it is fully activated it should run ok, in any event not regularly shut down after 30 mins