I started using RC years ago (RC v2or 3) and rarely had problems. Now however, with RC4 and FSX along with the fastest PC I have ever assembled, things are going wrong far too often. Here are examples of what is happening:IFR- Honolulu to Kalulia, all ok until approaching the STAR location of "camp". Lots of vectors that led me to the south of the airport, turned me north to intecept the approach, and directed a descent that was directly into a mountain.IFR-Hilo to Kalulia, everything perfect except constant nagging when I was only 20 feet from correct altitude. Looked good until I was descended into a mountain south of the Airport. Waited as long as possible then turned. no further contact from controller.Tried this same route late and it was perfect all the way.IFR-Seattle to Vancouver, Same as above until approach control gets into the act. Two flights I was sent on a heading and never contacted again ( even when I cheated and turned toward the field from 50 miles away). Two other flights to the same airport and I am vectored to witin 4 miles of the runway and then cleared to intercept glideslope, etcIFR-McClarran to KLAX, As usual all went well until I passed Palmdale on the way to next vor on heading of 230. Was told to take up hdg of 105 (active runway was 24) so the 105 seemed ok for inital vector. At the time, distance to KLAX was 42 miles. Cleared to descend to 10000 ft. Copilot was flying so we started down. There were no other contacts and at a distance of 82 miles from KLAX and the very big mountain at 12 o'clock (See the JPG) I took control and turned west just clearing the crest.Sorry for the long post but I really enjoy FSX with RC4 and IYP. Without RC4 working properly at least half the enjoyment is lost for me. I flew many hours of IFR as an active pilot but can no longer fly except sitting at a computer.Should I reinstall RC4? Can some other program be causing the problem? Any help appreciated.

For my reference, what was your destination in the Hawaii area. Is it in this list? I could not find the name Kalulia. ICAO please.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_IslandsRC4 establishes an MSA average peak around destination. You can see the value on the controller page and change it if necessary. If you are going through mountainous territory via corridors to destination, then be sure all the STAR waypoints and IAF are in your plan. You should declare an IAP approach and navigate on your own in such conditions. It could be the terrain database used (it is not derived from your scenery) for RC might have been off especially with add-on terrain packages or the increased resolution of FSX's terrain. You also have the NOTAMS option to use your own altitudes with vectors. I need to see the IFR charts.KLAS to KLAX. As a guess, was this your route?KLAS BOACH2.HEC GRAMM.RIIVR2 KLAXhttp://flightaware.com/resources/airport/L...R/RIIVR+TWO/pdfThe fsbuild plan exported for FS9 is:[flightplan]title=KLAS to KLAXdescription=KLAS, KLAXtype=IFRroutetype=3cruising_altitude=32000departure_id=KLAS, N36* 04.48', W115* 09.08',+002181.00departure_position=25Rdestination_id=KLAX, N33* 56.33', W118* 24.25',+000126.00departure_name=MC_CARRAN_INTLdestination_name=LOS_ANGELES_INTLwaypoint.0=KLAS, A, N36* 04.48', W115* 09.08', +02181.00, waypoint.1=RBELL, I, N36* 04.34', W115* 15.08', +04000.00, waypoint.2=ROPPR, I, N35* 58.16', W115* 18.05', +06000.00, waypoint.3=RODDD, I, N35* 51.26', W115* 18.54', +09000.00, waypoint.4=BOACH, I, N35* 40.41', W115* 17.40', +14000.00, waypoint.5=HEC, V, N34* 47.49', W116* 27.46', +32000.00, waypoint.6=GRAMM, I, N34* 06.32', W117* 06.24', +23000.00, waypoint.7=RUSTT, I, N34* 02.53', W117* 14.32', +20000.00, waypoint.8=HABSO, I, N34* 02.24', W117* 19.51', +19000.00, waypoint.9=RIIVR, I, N34* 01.42', W117* 27.23', +17000.00, waypoint.10=KLAX, A, N33* 56.33', W118* 24.25', +000000.00, RIIVR is 47 nm west of KLAX. Either way you entered the vicinity if you got a 105 vector to the east you were entering above and west of the runway approach and being set up for for maybe a base entry east of the airport. You must take control of the aircraft (and for best results comms) when getting that close. That may be why further comms were not heard. I don't recall if RC automatically turns the comms over to you but if so and there was an outstanding ack on the menu that would stall comms. It is also possible that when the copilot has the comms he might have acked a command that you did not catch. If you have the comms you can ack after you start activating the procedure commanded a short time after you have entered it and the aircraft is behaving.I don't think 10,000 is used as a crossing restriction but if so you might have gotten a delay vector and RC would wait till you are at altitude before issuing further instructions. For some reason, RC may not be getting the correct altitudes some of the time as stated in your Hilo to Kalulia paragraph.Be sure you have current FSUIPC and makerwys from the link at the forum top. Among other things this insures RC gets your correct position and altitude. If updating makerwys be sure you run the scenery rebuild again from within RC so it has current airport facility locations.

Sorry for my delay in responding. My destination in Hawaii was to OGG on the NE side of Kalulia. Since the last goof-up I have not retried the flight again.On the other hand:Yesterday I reflew the Las Vegas KLAS to KLAX flight again using low-altityde airways. Enroute Altitude was 12000, cleared to descend to 7500 shortly after passing POM, I was then vectored to heading of 320 (from course of 225 or 235). I barely leveled at 320 degrees when I was told to turn to 165 and descent to 7500 feet for Runway 7L. A quick look at a chart clearly shows that this set of instructions will not get me near the approach for 7L but it is great for 25R. Shortly thereafter I was cleared to maintain 7500 until intercepting the glidepath.Once again I cancelled IFR and landed on 25R.I have rerun the "makerunways" program again and will give it another try today. I almost wish we were back in the days of GCA and those newfangled VORs were few and far between.

Sorry for my delay in responding. My destination in Hawaii was to OGG on the NE side of Kalulia. Since the last goof-up I have not retried the flight again.On the other hand:Yesterday I reflew the Las Vegas KLAS to KLAX flight again using low-altityde airways. Enroute Altitude was 12000, cleared to descend to 7500 shortly after passing POM, I was then vectored to heading of 320 (from course of 225 or 235). I barely leveled at 320 degrees when I was told to turn to 165 and descent to 7500 feet for Runway 7L. A quick look at a chart clearly shows that this set of instructions will not get me near the approach for 7L but it is great for 25R. Shortly thereafter I was cleared to maintain 7500 until intercepting the glidepath.Once again I cancelled IFR and landed on 25R.I have rerun the "makerunways" program again and will give it another try today. I almost wish we were back in the days of GCA and those newfangled VORs were few and far between.

when you heading towards the airport, is nearly the same as the runway heading, you will have to pay close attention to the instructions. when the bearing display in the rc menu window is the same as the runway heading, turn to the runway heading, and wait for the localizer. when you start receiving it, adjust left or right as necessary to join it. then wait to capture the glideslope.jd

It is getting worse and the frustration level is climbing:Frustrated: :( .I keep trying to get a successful flight from KLAS to KLAX but still no go.Flight plan is using Low Altitude Airways:LAS>IDALE>OASYS>CLARR>DAG>BASAL>APLES>HESPE>CALBY>>>>>>etc>>>>in to KLAX.Approaching HESPE, 12 miles NE, on course of 215 hdg cleared to descent from 12,000 t0 10,000, was still descending at 700fpm, at HESPE when controller told me I was supposed to be at my "assigned altitude of 7,000 ft". That was the first mention of that altitude (I was in complete control of flying and coms the entire flt). I continued the descent knowing full well that I was being flown into a mountain. Waited as long as possible hoping to get some comms ( I was still descending passing through 7500and was already a couple of hundred feet below the ridge line. I aborted the descent, poured ,on power to the Beechcraft Duke and climbed while maneuvering around the high points. The ONLY comms during this period was the controller telling me I was supposed to be at 7000.After clearing the area and got to 7000 ft was directed to fly 125 deg. to intercept the glide path for runway 24L. Everything was looking good for a perfect approach on 24L and without warning my runway changed to 7L. I requested a runway to undo that change but when the list popped up it had only 7L, 7R, and two other westerly to easterly listed....no 24, or 25 on the list.I cancelled IFR.Something is really wrong here and I don't have a clue. I reinstalled FSUIPC and MAKERUNWAYS yesterday again then ran mkrunwys.exe hoping that might solve it. Unfortunately they are worse today and IFR is losing its appeal after all these bad endings.

It is getting worse and the frustration level is climbing:Frustrated: :( .I keep trying to get a successful flight from KLAS to KLAX but still no go.Flight plan is using Low Altitude Airways:LAS>IDALE>OASYS>CLARR>DAG>BASAL>APLES>HESPE>CALBY>>>>>>etc>>>>in to KLAX.Approaching HESPE, 12 miles NE, on course of 215 hdg cleared to descent from 12,000 t0 10,000, was still descending at 700fpm, at HESPE when controller told me I was supposed to be at my "assigned altitude of 7,000 ft". That was the first mention of that altitude (I was in complete control of flying and coms the entire flt). I continued the descent knowing full well that I was being flown into a mountain. Waited as long as possible hoping to get some comms ( I was still descending passing through 7500and was already a couple of hundred feet below the ridge line. I aborted the descent, poured ,on power to the Beechcraft Duke and climbed while maneuvering around the high points. The ONLY comms during this period was the controller telling me I was supposed to be at 7000.After clearing the area and got to 7000 ft was directed to fly 125 deg. to intercept the glide path for runway 24L. Everything was looking good for a perfect approach on 24L and without warning my runway changed to 7L. I requested a runway to undo that change but when the list popped up it had only 7L, 7R, and two other westerly to easterly listed....no 24, or 25 on the list.I cancelled IFR.Something is really wrong here and I don't have a clue. I reinstalled FSUIPC and MAKERUNWAYS yesterday again then ran mkrunwys.exe hoping that might solve it. Unfortunately they are worse today and IFR is losing its appeal after all these bad endings.

without logs, i can't help youbut if you are manually running makerwys.exe, that is a big problem. you have to click the rebuild rc scenery database from within the rc database. running it manually does nothing for rc.make sure you have the latest fsuipc and makerwys. rebuild the rc scenery database by clicking the button, and make a log. quit flying these without logs. it's equally frustrating not being able to help you, because i have not logs.instructions pinned to the top of the forumand be sure to click debug BEFORE loading your .plnjd

I entered your oute into my FSBuild planner with a Feb10 AIRAC. All of your waypoints were there except CALBY. First, you state that HESPY is 12 NE of xxx. I show HESPY at 53 nm out from KLAX.RC has a default MSA of 3200 MSL for KLAX. You are flying on your own route through mountainous territory before the MSA points in RC's data base. I recommend you use one of the NE arrival STARS shown on flightaware.com which account for safe altitude corridors and use their altitudes since they show the MSA for each leg. They are runway dependent but do come to a common waypoint fairly close in before dispersing to a runway specific leg. Use the NOTAMS option to fly higher than the altitudes commanded by RC.It also appears something is slowing RC's recognition of where you are and communications. Be sure PreRecorded Chatter is off (it has no function other than ambiance and slows the AI present RC communications to you and AI). Other considerations are resource grabbing add-ons. You'll have to evaluate your PC capabilities. Some weather add-ons if you are using them grab a lot of resources. You also should not be running a weather add-on that forces the use of global weather (meaning the same weather everywhere in the FS universe as exists at the location of your aircraft). That can cause sudden shifts in AI as you fly toward your destination and RC gives runway priority to the ones AI uses.I don't know why your westerly runways disappeared from your selection menu. Did you notice a "9" for the next menu continuance? The abrupt runway change you experienced might be the sudden appearance of AI in the pattern or change in their pattern.The only way to find out what is happening RC wise is to start an RC log when you are about 100 nm out of KLAX. You can alt-tab to get RC on your screen and click the Debug button and after confirmation of the performance caution alt-tab back to FS all in a quickly executed sequence. FS itself probably would continue to work best if it were set to not pause on task switch in its setup options. See the topic at the head of the forum regarding creating and sending logs.With a change in spelling and you providing the IATA OGG code (PHOG IACO in FS) I now know the airport you were referring to in your earlier posting. "Kahului Airport (IATA: OGG, ICAO: PHOG) is a regional airport in the state of Hawai'i, located east of the Kahului CDP in Maui County on the island of Maui near Haleakala." I'll look at these charts later:http://flightaware.com/resources/airport/PHOG/procedures

Thank you very much for the help, particularly about running makerunways (it went through the dialogue so I thought it was doing its thing). The KLAS to KLAX flight plan I have been using is the Low Altitude Airways Plan created by FSX. Is it no good? Anyhow, MY position was 12 miles NE of HESPY when the first descent was directed. Sorry my post was not clear about that. Tomorrow, time willing, I will try it again using a STAR. I will NOT surrender! :(

Just to clarify, be sure you run the scenery rebuild from within RC. Do not run makerwys directly in your FS folder as the RC data files in its folder will not be updated.Regarding OGG here is the link to the procedures:http://flightaware.com/resources/airport/PHOG/procedures

Your crossing restriction of 12,000 feet should have occurred just SW of HESPY and at that point Approach would take over further descending you as required. At this point if you had requested NOTAMS on the controller page in RC prefight you could deviate from RC ATC commanded altitudes without RC complaining.As far as FSX's planner its waypoint and some items in its AIRAC database are from around 2002 but will match its scenery. In this case the plates from current sources such as I've been illustrating would not necessarily show the routes FS would use nor would all waypoint labels and in some cases NAVAIDS match.Any procedures in the FSX default GPS would also not be synchronous with current published plates as that has its own fixed database. The default GPS will show your plan waypoints and labels as in your plan, however.I use FSBuild because its developer provides free AIRAC updates usually once each quarter. There are some tricks to using it but you can get used to it. Therefore the expansion of its terminal database into flight plan waypoints during exporting the plan to FS9, FSX, or one of many proprietary FMC/GPS should be pretty close to current procedures database waypoints.BTW, in your plan, if VOR LAS is on the airport unless you are going to loop back over it, not usually done, leave it out of your plan file.The plan I posted from KLAS to KLAX was done with FSBuilds Autoroute feature shutting off its "SR" or stored contributed route database as it is old. I specified the runways and it built the route as shown picking the correct most efficient STAR.There is a freeware planner, Super Flightplanner, that will build its waypoint database from your scenery but then we are back at the question of using current published material.Many like the payware FlightSim Commander, http://www.fscommander.com/ , which also offers a moving map. However, you need a paid subscription to Navigraph to update its database if you wish to match current publications.FSBuild does not offer a moving map and is just a standalone planner but in its fuel planning it can couple to Active Sky products so winds aloft come into play. FSBuild is here:http://fsbuild.com/My criticism is that its tutorials and documentation are not up to date but close enough to get it going. It has a very supportive forum.I am attaching a .txt file that you can change the extension to .pln to put in your Flight Simulator X folder in under your documents folder. I took out the zig-zag to enter the HEC transition of the RIIVR2 STAR. This should keep you out of the hills some what by a slightly more easterly route with a turn to the west just south of where you were before. I used 12,000 as the altitude. The Saab 340B was the slowest twin I have for this so don't pay attention in the attached navlog.pdf to fuel, etc. See how this works out. Don't edit this .pln file in FSX or it won't work in RC.

Thank you very much for the help, particularly about running makerunways (it went through the dialogue so I thought it was doing its thing). The KLAS to KLAX flight plan I have been using is the Low Altitude Airways Plan created by FSX. Is it no good? Anyhow, MY position was 12 miles NE of HESPY when the first descent was directed. Sorry my post was not clear about that. Tomorrow, time willing, I will try it again using a STAR. I will NOT surrender! :(

make a log, or it will be a wasted flightjd

First of all, you guys really deserve lots of praise for the timely and patient help you provide through this forum. I truly appreciate it and I hope the other poor souls like me appreciate it too.So...today's flight from KLAS to KLAX using the plan ronzie provided was flawless from start to finish. Clearances were timely and the couple of heading changes set me up for a perfect approach to 25L. I did remember to run the update from RC4 before the flight.This was the best flight in the last ten days. I will continue to plan with STARS and SIDS until they are second nature.I must say though: In the "good old days" (1956-1962) things were simpler. VORs were few and far between (especially where we needed them) and GCA was favored over ILS (we didn't trust it at first). GPS?? no such animal.Anyhow, modern flying is a bit more complicated but is more fun. I love a tough ILS approach in tough weather with Radar Contact in the background. Thanks again.Neal Howardold retired Capt. USAFold retired Math. Prof.old humbled PC Sim Pilot

Your reference to GCA is Ground Controlled Approach, correct? This is a controller using a precision surveillance radar approach where the controller advises the pilot in real time whether the aircraft is left or right or up or down from the established glide slope and continuously advises heading and altitude changes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_Radar_Approach (No glidepath guidance)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrument_approachhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-controlled_approach (Includes glidepath guidance)In military setups in hastily established airfields portable radar was set up offering either type of guidance. This was often seen in World War Two movies where sweating pilots and controllers participated in dramatically bringing a crippled aircraft in in bad weather.In the US controllers are still trained in its use and some especially at shared military/civilian airports practice it occasionally. There are civilian airport cases documented where aircraft that lost nav equipment in low visibility were safely brought in with these techniques. I myself during CPL training at a light traffic time as an introduction performed such an approach at KMSP with the "hood" on. All I had to do was follow instructions. The controller also included heading estimates correcting for crosswind.Will RC do that? Maybe in version 9 or 10. All RC knows is the runway heading and surface altitude so it would have to assume a standard three degree approach. This may not fit all cases. It might stress jd too much :)