Visual Approaches - "how Does It Know"

[Guest mickp]

Hi all, newbie here. Had the ATR for a while but decided to give fs2 crew a try with some spare holiday $'s. Enjoying it so far, although I'm not confident enough to try it while on line at VATSIM yet! It looks like Bryan provides good, honest support on these forums, which is a big plus!Anyway, there is one thing I'm puzzled by. When going for a visual approach, I set up the approach briefing to be "visual", and the briefing works fine but then, on the actual approach, the voice file calls that get made are those for an ILS approach "localizer alive . From reading the manual, it seems there is a different sequence for visual approaches, although the manual omits to say what "tells" FS2crew that you are doing a visual. Am I wrong in assuming that it's the approach briefing? Maybe it relies on having / not having an ILS frequency tuned?thanks for any help, and glad to be part of the fun.Mick

[byork 2,259]

Hi all, newbie here. Had the ATR for a while but decided to give fs2 crew a try with some spare holiday $'s. Enjoying it so far, although I'm not confident enough to try it while on line at VATSIM yet! It looks like Bryan provides good, honest support on these forums, which is a big plus!Anyway, there is one thing I'm puzzled by. When going for a visual approach, I set up the approach briefing to be "visual", and the briefing works fine but then, on the actual approach, the voice file calls that get made are those for an ILS approach "localizer alive . From reading the manual, it seems there is a different sequence for visual approaches, although the manual omits to say what "tells" FS2crew that you are doing a visual. Am I wrong in assuming that it's the approach briefing? Maybe it relies on having / not having an ILS frequency tuned?thanks for any help, and glad to be part of the fun.Mick

Hi Mick,The sequence of calls is definitely different for a Visual approach:3-3 Visual Approach Procedures Visual Approach procedures are easy to fly in the ATR. Downwind should be flown at roughly 1000 to 1500 feet above the runway at 160 knots (or Red bug plus 10 in icing conditions). Abeam the threshold, call for flaps 15 and gear down. You will then call for the Before Landing Checklist. It is recommended that you fly the approach on autopilot until 500 feet on final, and then disconnect the autopilot by pressing the

[Guest mickp]

Thanks Bryan,I'm pretty sure I did all that, but I will double check one more time. It may be a few days as I think I have to do some XP reinstallation, which will lead to other reinstallation, which might rememdy any problem that might, or might not have been there...anyway, I'll post again probably after the weekend and let ya know.

[Guest mickp]

Ahhh, ok. So here's the story. I think initially I did have the approach briefing set wrong. So, fixed that and flew and didn't get the spurious localizer calls, but something wasn't right. You know it's kinda difficult in the heat of flying an approach to really spot it (at least for a newbie), so, tried it again...What is happening is that AFTER the approach checklist, once we're ready to fly the approach, the next time I click MAIN (which should call for "flaps 15 and gear down"), I get nothing. The next click calls for the Before Landing Checklist (which then has me scrambling to set flaps and gear myself).The rest of it then goes according to plan, until the FO gives the altitude callouts ("100"), right before landing, when suddenly he pipes up with "Flaps 15, gear down set", out of nowhere.I couldn't be sure if this was truly random, or was triggered by a MAIN click by me, but it was a good while after my original call (like, maybe 2 minutes).Am I doing something wrong? Should I reinstall? Should I request a change of FO? :(

[byork 2,259]

Ahhh, ok. So here's the story. I think initially I did have the approach briefing set wrong. So, fixed that and flew and didn't get the spurious localizer calls, but something wasn't right. You know it's kinda difficult in the heat of flying an approach to really spot it (at least for a newbie), so, tried it again...What is happening is that AFTER the approach checklist, once we're ready to fly the approach, the next time I click MAIN (which should call for "flaps 15 and gear down"), I get nothing. The next click calls for the Before Landing Checklist (which then has me scrambling to set flaps and gear myself).The rest of it then goes according to plan, until the FO gives the altitude callouts ("100"), right before landing, when suddenly he pipes up with "Flaps 15, gear down set", out of nowhere.I couldn't be sure if this was truly random, or was triggered by a MAIN click by me, but it was a good while after my original call (like, maybe 2 minutes).Am I doing something wrong? Should I reinstall? Should I request a change of FO? :(

Hi Mick,Well, a bit of progress at least :( I'm going to have to try it myself in the sim to refresh my memory on how it all works. Please give me a few days.Cheers,

[stefltt 11]

I tried with the FS9 version (shouldn't be different from the FSX one), and everything was normal, I've got the F15 Gear down call, set inner 140, etc etc etc

[byork 2,259]

I tried with the FS9 version (shouldn't be different from the FSX one), and everything was normal, I've got the F15 Gear down call, set inner 140, etc etc etc

The FSX version has several internal changes.So I'm going to try to see if I can somehow reproduce it in FSX.

[Guest mickp]

Thanks Bryan, appreciate the attention. It'll probably be the weekend, or at least Friday before I can try it again myself.

[byork 2,259]

Thanks Bryan, appreciate the attention. It'll probably be the weekend, or at least Friday before I can try it again myself.

Hi Mick,Any news? I'm still trying to schedule in some time to check it out. We got a brand new e-commerce system coming on line shortly...Cheers,

[Guest mickp]

Bryan, haven't had much time myself also, due to work, but, I think maybe it was just "one of those things" - it seemed OK last time I flew. Of course, it takes a while to get to that point in the process, so it's not like you can take 5 minutes to check it out!anyway, I would say for the moment put it down to user error or sunspots and I'll let you know if I think anything happens in future.thanks for the replies!