Complaint about the Go Flight Review

[MarkW 1,493]

Doyle,Thanks for your response to my question. Please do not mistake my comment...I have no doubt that your products are of high quality and that you are indeed making these products as a fan of the hobby. I for one would love to get them. I was simply trying to get a list of know compatible addon planes (I also don't buy into the whole GF/Avsim marketing conspiracy theory).You message highlights the inherent complexities involved in making such products and what you are attempting to do to overcome these obstacles and for that I say thanks!. I have two suggestions:First, is that you increase the promotion of your product at the major payware vendors ( I would suggest giving them your stuff but you don't have the resources that make that practical). Second, maintain a database on your website and on the forums that list compatible aircraft with information based on feedback from your customer base. I would imagine this would list many of the freeware and payware planes out in the markeplace.regards,Mark.

[Guest]

Barry,>1. Any timescales for extending the button mapping to the MCP>(I am not after a date, just: this month, this year, next>year?)>There is a stand-alone key mapper that I have a summer intern working on right now -- building on the "beta" that is now slightly more than a year old -- and that update will include GF-MCP support. Key mapping will also be expanded in GF-AC 1.27, but the MCP will probably not be key-mapped until at least 1.28, I'd guess this release will be out sometime late July or early August. Note that key mapping is only a partial solution though, since it's one-way communication and thus doesn't update the displays.>2. Have the third party panel designers been willing to give>you the information you need to be able to make them>compatible and it is only a matter of getting the time to>implement it, or are they keeping the information from you?>It's really more an issue of time, and also of trying to settle on the "right" solution and propose it to them. As I mentioned in my earlier post, none of the solutions that I have control over are perfect ones, and the amount of effort to implement any of them is substantial. The developers I've contacted regarding this issue, with rare exception, have been very responsive and helpful. To date the best support has come from Laurent Crenier at Wilco, who has developed an interface SDK that I can use to make the 767PIC autopilot work 100% with the GF-MCP. Laurent did a great job on this SDK, I just haven't had a chance to post the app I wrote to use it, still needing a bit of polish, but that will be a nice addition to our utility apps. I have it scheduled for release after 1.27, likely mid-July.In my opinion, the best solution is for the developers of planes with self-contained autopilots to allow sim pilots to select between two different autopilot modes, one that is for compatibility with hardware and uses the FS autopilot, and the other for realism that uses their self-contained logic. That way, when operating in the compatibility mode, everyone's hardware is compatible to the degree that it communicates with FS data and it relieves the aircraft developers from having to "special case" support for each hardware vendor. You might mention this to a rep from your favorite aircraft developer... :-)>3. Is it possible to update you web pages to let people know>that the MCP is not compatible so they can make an informed>decision to buy or not to buy.>Yes, to a point. I can put a small blurb there, and in fact that is an excellent suggestion. But I simply don't have time to test all of the add-on aircraft for which there may be issues. If any of our customers supply this sort of information, I'll be happy to compile it and post it on our Support page though.>Hopefully these are not too controversial a questions to>ask...>Not at all, this is a subject that I hope starts getting more attention from the whole community and this is as good a place as any to bat ideas around!>Just to make it clear, as I have indicated before, the>GoFlight MCP is great and would be well worth the money (and>the 5 stars), if I could just get it to work with the aircraft>I use.>Understood. We'll be building GF-MCPs for a long time, so no rush -- maybe there will be an even fancier one by the time your piggy bank gets full -- and eventually these compatibility issues will become part of the history of flight simming, the same way we fondly remember those monochrome, chunky gauges on the panel in the Apple II SubLOGIC sim!Cheers,Doyle

[Guest]

Tom,>Doyle, thanks for posting. Looking forward to seeing you at>Reading! BTW.. please bring my fully equipped, no options left>out, stack would you? :-)I guess I better get started on that... :-) I assume this means the diamond-tuck, cup holders and cigar lighter options also?Cheers,Doyle

[Guest]

Hi Doyle,Thanks again for posting :-)OK, will look forward to the key mapper working with the MCP (understood on the display front, but it is a good start!)Well on the "which add ons are not compatible" I can verify the PSS A320 and Dash 8 are not compatible (I suspect all PSS autopilots are the same), you know about 767PIC and I have seen that the Dreamfleet 737 is in the same boat. So a thats a good start for a list :-)The piggy bank emptied a bit a few months back (i.e. I already have an MCP), hence my interest on when I can use it with PSS aircraft. But I am a patient person :-)RegardsBarry