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Guest jsolson

The Cabin is Ready for Landing

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Guest jsolson

Twice I've had a problem with the flight attendants taking far too long to come back with the cabin is ready for landing message. I notify Vera 30 minutes prior to landing. Notify the attendants, put the seat belt sign on and do the TOD announcement at 30 to TOD. Landing card comes in right on schedule with 20 to go. We do the approach briefing and decent checklist and head down. 10,000 landing lights on. Then it's quiet all the way down to level off at 4,000 (there's terrain, I can't go lower). 10 miles upwind still nothing from the rear. Finally at 20 miles upwind I'm ready to give up on the flight crew and the bell rings and the cabin is ready for landing call comes. Then I can do the approach checklist and move on.This is on a short flight (KALB-KMHT and back) at 12-13,000 feet cruise. I dont have the problem on a longer flight at a higher cruise. Then the call comes in right around 7,000. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or I need a "I need the cabin ready right now" button.

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Hi,This is how the FA's "Cabin is Ready for Landing" dialogue works.That dialogue will start 27 seconds after you descend through Arrival Runway Elevation (that info is taken from the FMC) plus 7000 feet.The reason for the delay is because I don't want this call to interfere with the FA's cabin announcements if you are monitoring the PA channel (in other words, prevent her from talking to you and the pax at the same time... doesn't sound good).A suggestion:1. Don't use time acceleration because the 27 seconds is based on system time not flightsim time. So if you're using time acceleration on the descent your alt could be way low before the 27 seconds is up.Hope that helps,Bryan

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Guest jsolson

Thanks Bryan. Now I know what to look for.I wasn't using time acceleration at all in the flight. There was terrible weather sending framerates down into the single digits. That's the only thing I can think of that might screw with timing. We'll see if it happens again.She does talk over herself with the PA on. That cabin announcement is a bit longer than 27 seconds.Great work on this. I was getting worried - you're not kidding when you say the learning curve is steep. It took about 8 trys but once I got through a complete flight without getting out of sequence things really started to fall into place.John

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Guest jsolson

A little follow up on this. I've flown 7 more flights since, including recreating the ALB-MHT-ALB route and one flight with a cruise altitude below destination + 7,000, and all worked as advertised but one. This time I was on a long ATC directed decent from 24,000 down to 3,000 at about 1,000 fpm. There was never a PA announcement from the rear (the PA was on), and she gave the Cabin is Ready call between 5 and 4 thousand (this is flying into KBUF at 730 feet). However, this time I was able to do the Approach Checklist before she called so it was really a non-issue. The only thing unusual was I was messing with the FMC on the way down trying to fly a direct KBUF routing given by ATC and ended up reloading the flightplan after I mangled it. I may have been messing with the FMC changing the approach on the prevous problem decents, but I don't remember for sure.I did a three hop flight using Thru-Flight mode and that worked flawlessly with one exception. The Off Blocks call to Vera never worked (I am on 131.95).It would be nice if there were an option to default auto takeoff calls to on. I like using that and have some really confused takeoffs when I forget to turn it on.A typical accent for me goes like ths: 10,000 feet click the altimiter "10,000 landing lights off". 18,000 feet click the altimiter "10,000 landing light on", opps!, turn off the landing lights and click the standby attitude indicator "Transition, altimiters". Then on the way back down at 10,000 I click the altimiter and get "10,000 landing lights off". Could it could recognise the difference between climbing through transition altitude and decending through 10,000 and not make an out of context call?There will sometimes be a Glideslope Star call very early in the approach. I think this is happening when I switch from RNAV and we're too far out for a glideslope to be recieved.John

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Hello John:1. Vera: That one I can't reproduce. I'll keep an eye on it though.2. Auto takeoff calls to "on" by default: Trouble is, then someone will complain that it's defaulted to on.3. 10,000 landing lights call: I just tightened the code a bit with your suggestion in mind. Now you can only make the Landing Lights on/off call if you're below 10,300 feet. So if you accidently click it at 18,000 feet nothing will happen.4. Glideslope Star: I never experienced that problem; nevertheless, I just tightened the code so it shouldn't happen to you again.Items 3 and 4 will be in the next Service Update, which I hope to release very shortly.Take care,Bryan

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Guest Lobaeux4

I just look at any idiosyncracies as "human error" personally. If the PA doesn't get the cabin ready, she just messed something up. I actually like some things going wrong, gives me a chance to act as "Pilot-In-Command" and make some decisions.

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Guest lbb

Hi guys,First of all, Bryan, my compliments to you. I bought FS2Crew a week ago, have made a number of flights now and I think it is a great addition to a great aircraft!However, I too find the FA a bit slow during the approach. Yesterday I made my first flight with FS2Crew plus MSFS ATC, to see how that would work out, and while being vectored for the approach into RKPK it took until about 2,500 feet for her to get the cabin ready. I don't know if MSFS ATC has anything to do with this being the slowest so far, but even without ATC it quite often takes until around 5,000 feet for her announcement. I would prefer to see this a bit sooner, so that I can finish the Approach check a bit earlier in the approach.Leo Bakker

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Hello Leo,Take another look at my first reply in this thead. It explains how it works.If you're too low when she tells you that the cabin is ready, the usual suspects are: 1) You're speeding up the simulation (2X, 4X, etc), or due to heavy weather and demands on your computer your computer is getting bogged down causing which it seems can also slow down the timing mechanism.Cheers,Bryan

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Guest lbb

Hi Bryan,I did indeed read your comment. However, I was not speeding up the sim, and the weather was the standard MSFS clear weather. There didn't seem to be any "bogging down", so to speak. That's why I wondered how this could happen.Thanks,Leo Bakker

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Guest lbb

And to add to this: on a recent flight back into EHRD, which is slightly below sealevel, ATC gave me an early descent to FL60. I should have adjusted my VS I suppose because I spent about 6 minutes there. But believe me, even so I never got the FA's announcement, until I was even further down in the descent, at about 4,000ft. So all in all from FL70 it didn't take 27 seconds, but well over 6 minutes.Now I know you wrote it so this might sound a bit presumptuous, but are you sure there is no other factor involved? I was thinking that perhaps the distance to the airport could have something to do with it?Leo Bakker

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Hello Leo,The trigger for the FA's announcement is very simple form a code point of view. When you descend through runway elevation plus 7000 feet the timer starts. You also need to be in the right mode, but if you completed your descent checklist prior to starting your descent that should not be a problem.My thought with EHRD is that since it's below sea level, there is a chance that FS2Crew may not be reading the runway elevation from the FMS correctly since it's below sea level.That's just a wild guess though.Please take a look at the FMS and see what value it gives you for the runway elevation for EHRD.Also, make sure you're not forgetting to inform the FA prior to starting the descent; that is a necessary condition.Thanks,Bryan

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Guest lbb

Hi Bryan,For EHRD the FMC gives ----- :-)However, while the above-mentioned extreme example was at EHRD, it also happens at other airports. I was flying into EHBK (elevation 364) twice today, and the first time it took well over 2 minutes and until about 4,300 ft and the second time no problem. The only difference between the two was that the first flight I started descent earlier and at a greater V/S. And I have noticed this kind of behaviour before, that's why I thought perhaps distance to the airport might have something to do with it.In case you wonder why this is so important to me, it interferes with a nice approach flow. I prefer to wait with the approach checks until after the cabin report is obtained, but quite often I have to start ahead of that.And now that I'm at it, I have noticed that the FO sometimes asks for the approach checklist while we're going through it. Again, I don't want to sound presumptuous, but is it possible that perhaps the FO asking for it is only de-triggered so to speak after completion of the checklist, rather than at the start? Or could starting the checklist above 5,000 ft have anything to do with it? In case GS intercept is at say 4,000 ft I like to do the checklist above 5,000 ft so that I know for certain the altimeter will still be going down.Anyway, I'll try to see if I can come up with a pattern for the FA's announcement.Regards,Leo BakkerP.S. How do like my new banner :-)

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Guest jsolson

>And now that I'm at it, I have noticed that the FO sometimes>asks for the approach checklist while we're going through it.Seen that too. I had noticed the first indication that the delays from the cabin crew was going to occur was before TOD when the FO would ask for the approach briefing after we've done it. I never took notes and connected the dots, but there are also times when the takeoff briefing is asked for after it's done. I have the impression something small I am doing or not doing in the pre-takeoff process is leaving things out of sync but I was never able to put my finger on what it may be.John

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Hi,For the FO to remind you about the Approach Checklist, you need to be lower than runway elevation plus 3500 feet and you must still be in "Approach" mode. Basically, you need to be in "Landing" mode as displayed on the Approach Brief Page for this call *not* to trigger, so make sure you've completed the approach checklist prior to descending through runway elevation plus 3500 feet.For the FO to remind you about the Approach Briefing, you must not have played the STAR brief with your distance to the TOD being less than 4 miles. Hope that helps,Bryan

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