Mac6737

I must not understand something. Pressing LOAD only displays .flt files. That's because when you save a flight, the sim creates a .flt file. The only .pln files in the sim appear to be canned training situations from MSFS; and, of course, none of them appear when you press LOAD. BTW, I just reviewed my daily notes since January. I had only 2 CTDs that were NOT experienced when trying to open a .flt file.

Thanks for your careful reply. My specs (in as much detail of which I am capable): i7-8700 3.7 GHz GeForce GTX 1070 Ti; 8GB onboard AORUS Z370 Gaming 5 LGA 1151 ATX motherboard 16GB RAM 2 TB hard drive 27” MSI gaming monitor (set at 2560 X 1440) As you may see from this thread, I, too, ran the program without issue (well, not too many) -- all until May 25. So I doubt there's any sort of hardware problem that would suddenly make the sim unusable. I'll add that in the early days, like last fall, I had a lot more CTDs and other stuff than in more recent months, but had long assumed that the substantial improvement in stability was due to Adobo tinkering in the updates. When you say add-ons may haver altered files, do you mean that they may have altered files in such a way that removing the add-on does not correct the alteration? That would explain a lot! BTW, all my add-ons have come from Flight.to, Orbx (a few scenery enhancements) and the Marketplace in MSFS. Should all be safe, no?

I started this thread after the update on May 25, but I now want to look at the forest, instead of the trees: Since my last post, MSFS has become totally dysfunctional. I've removed all my add-ons, then moved a few back. Had 3 days of pretty trouble-free flights, then the CTDs started again. Tried the "Repair" function, to no apparent effect. This morning, I had four consecutive CTDs -- three of them at my home airport, KDCA. (By "CTD," I don't mean in mid-flight. I mean I couldn't get past the "Fly" screen after loading my parameters.) Then (just to complicate things) I went to London City, and flew the default DA62 over what may be the densest photogrammetry scenery in MSFS, with no problem. I am convinced the problem lies in the May 25 update. So here's my question: WILL A CLEAN INSTALL FIX THE PROBLME, WHATEVER IT IS?

I have never used either, so far. But I am conducting an experiment: I want to know if shutting down the sim the lo-o-o-o-ng way (ESC; Main Menu; Shut down) makes it more likely that a saved flight will reopen than shutting down the quick way (go to Windows mode, click on the X). I am also considering trying hopping up and down on one leg and saying "wubba-wubba-wubba" repeatedly.

I usually (>50%) get a CTD when I try to open a flight I saved yesterday!

1. I have indeed downloaded an add-on manager, but the instrux were so complex it seemed simpler to do what I have done (see above). I can put the add-ons back one-by-one from my reserved Community folder. Better yet, I can add a bunch, and then wait and see. Otherwise, it would take months (well, weeks) of constant rebooting to find the culprit. 2, Sounds good, but NO. As you say, there could be several culprits. Also, I have never found the sim completely unplayable, and even in the best of times there are the occasional CTDs. So if you put one add-on back in and you have a CTD after the second reboot, you have no idea. I just want to be back where I was on May 24: no CTDs EXCEPT when trying to reopen a saved flight -- a chronic problem for me, and perhaps for others. But one you can live with -- just don't try to open saved flights.

Yes, I have many add-ons, but had almost no CTDs before the update last week. As suggested by the on-screen prompts, before proceeding with that update, I moved the entire Community folder out of Packages, created a new empty dummy Community folder, then swapped in the old Community after the update. If add-ons are a problem with the "latest updates," that would mean that every update renders thousands of sims unstable. How do you know which add-ons are the problem? I have a few Orbx add-ons, too. Are you suggesting that Orbx add-ons are not problematic?

I had two months of CTD-free aviation bliss until May 25, and installation of the last putative "update." Now, I can't open anything in Alaska, and about half of my other attempts to open the sim result in CTDs -- regardless of weather, location, aircraft. Why is it that the Adobo people cannot learn to leave the well enough alone? Or, barring that, why can't they pre-test and promulgate a bug-free update that does not render the sim totally unusable? This is technically a question: What can I do? (Yeah, I know: Reinstall! But I have no reason to believe that would fix whatever problem they have introduced.)

I don't get that particular error message, but since the update last week I've had nothing but CTDs! Before the alleged "update" I had two months of error-free bliss (except for when trying to open a saved flight, but that's another issue). Now i'm batting less than .500 in opening ANY flight! What is the matter with these people? I appreciate their attempts to upgrade, but it seems to this computer non-expert that they don't know what they are doing. I refuse to believe that my repeated CTDs are unrelated to the May 25 "update." My favorite motto: "LEAVE THE WELL ENOUGH ALONE."

1. When I try to reopen a saved flight, a get a CTD! at least half the time. But not always. Today I opened a saved flight in a 320 from Caracas (SVMI) to Guayaquil (SEGU). Everything was cool, the AP was on ALT and actually heading in the direction of SEGU. BUT the panel showed that I had departed Gibraltar (LXGB) and was destined for Gran Canaria (GCLP) -- which was 3,338 miles away and receding rapidly! But guess what. Two days before, I had indeed flown between those two airports in a different plane (a Beechcraft Baron) and had NOT saved the flight. So -- why does a saved flight open with completely different parameters from those with which it was saved, and how does it come to adopt parameters from a prior unsaved flight (with the sim and computer shut down in between)? (Not the first time this has happened, I might add.) 2. Unable to find out where I was from my lost flight, I looked at nearby airports. I looked in the panel, and also in the ATC "Nearest airports" list. Ten of eleven searches of ICAO codes said there were no such airports! Only one, La Gariota, Colombia (SKGA) was searchable, and another, Orocue, has a real ICAO code (SKOE) but one that differs from the one shown in the ATC panel in MSFS (SXRB). How can the in-flight display be so totally at odds with actual ICAO codes found online? (Don't lose any sleep over this.) Mac6737

None taken.

Everybody knows that. It just made no sense at all to me in this context.

Thanks, Larry. This gives me something to chew on -- tomorrow. Just a few follow-ups for now: What is MP? What is EGT? What does 25" mean? If the on-screen prompt reports mixture as a percentage, of what is it a percentage (if anything), and what has that to do with "gallons per hour"?

I should have asked this years ago, but I have never understood how much to lean my mixture, and when; ditto altering the prop pitch. Earlier today, I was in the Beechcraft Baron, which has controls for both. At c. 15,000, I just could not get it over about 130 knots. Increasing the mixture % decreased my speed. Does it matter if you're ascending, and the rate of ascent? (I'm guessing yes, but how much difference does it make?) Does altitude matter; that is, will the same mixture percentage at 15,000 result in a different speed at 20,000? Are there instructional materials on all this? Thanks all, Mac6737

This, of course, is Ayres Rock. I can find no add-on of Ayres Rock in my Community folder, although I have seen similar irregularities in some add-ons. When I flew closer to the Rock, this anomaly disappeared. (Fortunately, this is not life-threatening.)

I sometimes leave MSFS open and put the PC in sleep mode, mostly when I want to return later to a flight in progress. This saves the loading time (usually about 6 minutes for me), but it also avoids the need to save and reload a flight. I find the saved flight function highly unreliable: It has often caused a CTD! (Although less so, of late.) Many settings are not preserved. (E.g., AP settings.) For some reason, you have no access to "Flight Conditions" in a saved flight. That means you can't adjust the time of day or the clouds, etc. I regard this is a serious and unnecessary flaw.

Oh, never mind! It seems to have stopped doing it.

Ever since the last update, whenever I boot up MSFS, I get an error message informing me that MSFS "does not have a valid digital signature." There is an option to ignore it and load anyway, which is what I have been doing. No big deal (I hope), except you can't click on the sim and leave it to load while you're away from the PC. You'd think MS and Adobo would know how to validate their digital signature, wouldn't you? Any idea what this means, and whether it will persist? Thanks all, Mac6737

See my post yesterday on what sounds like a similar problem. No solution yet, though.

This is new in the past month: Release parking brake, throttle up to max, yet the plane will not budge. The speedometer registers full speed . . . and yet. I thought it might be a problem peculiar to some addon liveries, but sometimes the same livery works fine on the following day; so it's not an addon problem. Yesterday it was the Socata Trinidad GT, and the Diamond D62. Last month, it was the Beechcraft Kingair, Textron livery. It seems reloading the flight (not the sim!) fixes the problem -- at least sometimes. Hard to file a ticket with Zendesk if there's no consistency in the occurrence. Has anyone else experienced this? Mac6737

If that's your biggest gripe, I'd say you are in good shape.

IOW, will MSFS take longer to load if there's a lot of add-ons in your Community folder? It took me over 14 minutes to get to the Welcome screen today. OK, that's more than twice the usual. But still . . . . Oh, BTW, I haven't put a lot of stuff in Community all of a sudden.

OK, I downloaded it. Could not extract to Community ("file title too long," or something, as is often the case). Extracted to Download folder, and moved the extracted folders into Community. CJ-4 did not appear in Sim. Tinkered with file structure to replicate one that works. Still did not show up in Sim, except as a livery under the stock CJ4. Suggestions welcomed. Also, if there's a Manual, it's not in the download.

Today, the "Marketplace" tab in MSFS is greyed out for me. (I wanted to go there in the first place because my purchase of Carenado's Waco Biplane on 02/18/21 has suddenly disappeared from my Hangar and Content.) Any ideas?

OK, I'll try it. As you see, however, my immediate problem appears to have been solved.