I'm using RC4 exclusively for quite some time (means: I like it very much) but there is one thing I never really understood:What is the functional difference between RC's pilot and co-pilot (aka Otto)?The way I see it, the guy sitting in front of the PC is the pilot. The "RC person" with him in the cockpit for all practical purposes acts as co-pilot handling the comms with ATC (unless he is flying the plane).1. In default configuration he will talk to ATC upon my (the pilot's) instruction: I hit key 1 or say "contact next controller" (I am using IYP) and he will ack the hand-off, change frequencies and contact the next controller. When I say this (or hit key 1) I am in fact giving an instruction to somebody and that cannot be the pilot because I am the pilot and I don't give instructions to myself. So I think functionally the "RC-pilot" is a co-pilot.2. When I hand the comms to Otto not much changes. The only difference is that the "RC person" with me in the cockpit is inter-acting with ATC on his own without my instructions. But then, why is he suddenly speaking with a different voice?So what I did is, I set pilot's and co-pilot's voice to the same person (I agree, it sounds a bit strange when, for instance, "my plane - yours" is spoken by the same person).One might say that this is something coming up when you use a voice interface (IYP) with RC. But I think it doesn't really make a difference whether I use a voice command or hit a key: Either way it's me, the pilot, making a decision (I could hit another key) and issuing an instruction.Does that make any sense or am I completely off the mark?Andreas

Hello Andreas.Err... yes. Off the mark to an extent. If you give comms to the co-pilot, he will make all the correct responses without your prompt, he makes the decisions and will choose 'defaults'. That means you will be expected to fly as ordered and can't ask for any alternatives (no 'pilot's discretion', no 'unable to comply', no 'short final' et c.).It's best to give pilot and co-pilot different voices, and keep comms and controls for yourself if you are expecting anything unusual during any stage of your flight.If you want to hear nothing but your own voice making the responses (through a microphone) there's an option in the RC control panel for turning off the pilot wavs. The co-pilot will still be there if you hand comms to him.Regards,Dave

In addition:http://forum.avsim.net/topic/317969-vp-handover/for some more detail.