OK, I did a search for this and didn't find anything specific, so I guess I need a bit of help here.I'm using the latest version of RC with FSX, Windows 7-64. I make a flight plan up in FS Commander that saves it for RC and FSX. That said, I generally select the flight plan from the FSX directory for RC so both are sure to have exactly the same plan.The problem has happened on the last 2 of 5 flights. This is the issue:I am flying under ATC normally. I'm getting instructions for climbs and all appears fine. About halfway along the route, ATC tells me that I'm off course and gives me a new heading to fly. When I check my GPS, I'm actually dead centre on course. In the last case, I was flying on NAV mode while tied to the GPS. The strange thing is, the course is 5 degrees off the reciprocal of the outbound course. Today I was flying on course on 060*, and when they told me I was off course, they had me turn to 235*. In the first instance, this made no sense to me and after them telling me 3 or 4 times to change to the new (reverse - 5* course) I simply stopped acknowledging the transmissions from them which basically stopped the program (it's still running but not giving me any further info). On today's flight, it was only about 85 miles so I decided to follow what they said, and I turned to 235, wondering if they would turn me back very shortly (sort of like a hold, except I have the hold function turned off). Finally I was about 10 miles from my start point and it was obvious they were taking me all the way back to where the flight originated from. I don't know what they intended to do once I passed over the airport, but I wasn't receiving any further instructions up to that point, so I bailed on the flight.In both instances, the aircraft and altitudes this happened at were very different. The first occurrence was in a Lear 24 at FL390 halfway across the Norwegian Sea between Aberdeen Scotland and Stavanger, Norway (bound for Norway). Today's occurrence was halfway between St. Mawgan, England, and Bristol, England in the MilViz 310. The only commonality between the two was that I was at about the halfway point in the flight in each case. In both cases I was right on the centreline of the flight planned course.Any ideas as to what might be happening here?Thanks much.Glenn

It has been mentioned here about FSC problems with flight plans for one thing. I'd check their support forum.In the status window section of RC it gives you the course and the next waypoint. See if that agrees with your GPS heading to that waypoint and in fact you get credit for it by the next waypoint popping up in the RC window. If not, then RC will vector you back to it.Also note that if you recently added some scenery there have been a few that modified the magnetic declaration files in something like magdec.dll that determines the difference between true course and magnetic headings. If FSC prints a navlog see if it lists both items. In addition, depending on your aircraft type, it may read the compass heading which would be off by the effects of crosswind compensation or it may read the track as the GPS does.Extremely short or very long legs can cause problems due to tight spacing for the former and great circle navigation for the latter.In addition in FS realism settings insure that the setting from magnetic headings was not changed to true course.Finally, if you get as resume own navigation command remember that is from your present position to the next waypoint, not returning you to the original path. If you are experiencing a waypoint credit problem (missed waypoint) you have the option to go into the RC window selection (9), the extended menu, select Direct-To, and then pick the next waypoint.The other issue that can cause unexpected vectoring is missing an arrival crossing restriction where RC will continue delay vectors until you meet the commanded altitude criteria.If nothing solves these issues then submit a log as described in the forum head topics.

Thank you for this Ron. Yes, both flight plans were FSC. The other possibilities so far I think I've accounted for and been able to rule out, but I will double check. I did look at the status window and the heading to the next WP agreed with what the controller said (235). I wasn't over a checkpoint when I got the command to turn to 235, so I don't think it's that. Given the issue happened in two distant places from each other, I don't think it's the mag vs. true situation, but I'll look again in my setup and make sure something there hasn't changed. Now there is one other possibility that I just thought of from you suggesting I may not have got credit for a WP. I delayed an acknowledgement shortly after takeoff as I was very busy getting things cleaned up and turned on course. I did pass a WP as I did all that, so maybe it missed that checkpoint. I'll look into that as well.You've given me a lot to work with in trouble shooting this, so I'll take it from here and see if I can sort it out. I'll report my findings here once things get figured out in case anyone else runs into the same issue. Very much appreciate the help Ron. I'll be back in a bit.Glenn

Lack of an ack in RC could stall its monitoring of your path temporarily as you pass a waypoint therefore it would never see you crossing it.In addition, to boost RC performance do not select the random Prerecorded Chatter option (AI chatter is OK) and also avoid the Display Text option.Glad you spotted that.

Lack of an ack in RC could stall its monitoring of your path temporarily as you pass a waypoint therefore it would never see you crossing it.In addition, to boost RC performance do not select the random Prerecorded Chatter option (AI chatter is OK) and also avoid the Display Text option.Glad you spotted that.

if you are still having problems, the best thing to do is make a log. instructions pinned to the top of the forum. be sure to click debug before loading the plan. duplicate the problem, and send me the log, with what happened, where/whenjd

Thanks for this additional info guys. I troubleshoot for a living (Avionics Tech) so with the info you've given me, this should be easy to find the cause, given a bit of time. I'll leave the settings as is for now and deliberately miss an ack passing a WP and see if that triggers it. My guess is it will (it is very likely to be a "finger trouble in the cockpit" thing since I didn't find any similar instances in a forum search), but if not, I can start to eliminate things one by one until I hit on the right set of circumstances. Because it's intermittent, this might take a little time, but that also provides me with a few clues. I'll let you know my findings ASAP. Many thanks for the help - this is great!Glenn

Thanks for this additional info guys. I troubleshoot for a living (Avionics Tech) so with the info you've given me, this should be easy to find the cause, given a bit of time. I'll leave the settings as is for now and deliberately miss an ack passing a WP and see if that triggers it. My guess is it will (it is very likely to be a "finger trouble in the cockpit" thing since I didn't find any similar instances in a forum search), but if not, I can start to eliminate things one by one until I hit on the right set of circumstances. Because it's intermittent, this might take a little time, but that also provides me with a few clues. I'll let you know my findings ASAP. Many thanks for the help - this is great!Glenn

also make sure you didn't change the heading deviation to some wierd value like 90 degrees.if you just make a log of your next flight, good or bad, send it to me. i can verify a lot of information/settings to see if there isn't something obvious with your setupjd

Well Gentlemen, as I mentioned earlier, you folks make it pretty easy to troubleshoot things with the info you gave me. I'm 99.9% certain of the issue now, and that is a missed ack.Tonight I set up a flight from an uncontrolled airfield that was 120nm long. This was from Dease Lake, B.C. Canada (CYDL) to Watson Lake, Y.T., Canada (CYQH). I set my first WP 1 nm off the end of the runway where I would start my northward turn for the on course. My second WP was the NDB, only another 1 nm from WP1. I picked up my clearance via phone and was told to contact Edmonton Centre through 4,000 feet. I knew very well I wouldn't be at 4,000 passing the first WP, and probably not the second as I was in a 185. I took off, neglecting (on purpose) to announce my takeoff, climbed and hit the 2 initial WP's on target according to the GPS. A couple of miles past WP2 I contacted Edmonton and was told I was radar identified. Thence I continued on my trip at my assigned altitude and was even given a traffic advisory. Now, what I did notice this time, thanks to Ron's suggestion about a missed ack, was that while I was dead on course on the GPS, the RC window was showing "<FIX 1> 17 mi / 175* / 0>. Obviously (and understandably) RC did not recognize I had passed the first WP (and presumably the second). At about halfway between WP1 and my next WP (near Watson Lake) I was told ATC was showing me as off course and to turn to 175* then resume own navigation once I had a good signal to proceed. I did the turn, received no further instructions for several minutes and it was obvious they were going to take me back to WP1. At that point I cancelled my IFR and proceeded on course VFR (sort of... ).I have 2 conclusions to draw from this. First is, it is pretty evident that if you miss an ack, and that can include not being under atc at the time due to conditions (such as departure from an uncontrolled field and not yet being at an altitude where you can be received), RC doesn't have any way of knowing that you've passed that WP. The second conclusion is that this is not a bug or glitch in the software. As I recall, I believe somewhere in the manual they recommend not setting the first WP too close to your departure airport. This makes sense for obvious (now) reasons. There seems to be plenty of latitude for flying SID's even under atc without being told you are off course until after some distance from the airport. I believe I have got away with flights with WP's right after takeoff because I was going from controlled fields and keeping up with my acknowledgements, thus atc always knew where I was. It wasn't until I missed an ack, or did a flight like tonight from an uncontrolled field that my "finger trouble in the cockpit" (in the form of setting a WP too close) surfaced.I did log the flight as requested and will file it according to the instructions in this forum, but I suspect that will verify my suspicions of why I was having the issue I was. I would appreciate a confirmation if possible (no rush though) here, but unless I hear to the contrary, I do consider this problem resolved, and again do NOT consider this a bug in the program.Thanks for your help gentlemen. One mystery solved, I suspect.

Comments:If you encounter this situation go to the extended menu and request a direct-to, then from the list presented choose a waypoint that makes sense. When granted proceed direct to it. This will be noted in the status screen.We also recommend for faster aircraft to leave a waypoint 1 nm away off of the plan as usually it can be hard to hit within the allowed 2 nm departure fly-by radius.Thanks for the update.

Thanks Ron, I'll do that. Typically my first WP is about 2 to 3 nm, but I think I'll leave the SID out of the actual plan as ATC seems to allow for that anyway. In retrospect though, the real problem was my missing the ack. If you do that at any point, and pass a WP in the interim, it will mess up the system (understandably). As long as you keep up with the ack's (which is "rather" important whether in the sim or the RW), then all is fine no matter how many WP's you have or where they are.So all is good. Thanks again for the assist.Glenn

I would not leave out the entire SID but just the one or two mile waypoints. I use the FSBuild flight planner. It expands the SID and STAR to individual waypoints. There is a little known option to rebuild from the grid table instead of the route window. (It does not stick between sessions.) You can delete any waypoint in the table before building and exporting.Your planner may offer a similar option.

I would not leave out the entire SID but just the one or two mile waypoints. I use the FSBuild flight planner. It expands the SID and STAR to individual waypoints. There is a little known option to rebuild from the grid table instead of the route window. (It does not stick between sessions.) You can delete any waypoint in the table before building and exporting.Your planner may offer a similar option.

Hi Ron,My apologies for not seeing this sooner and responding. Appreciate the idea there. Yes, I'll have a look at that, and heed the advice here. I've flown a couple more flights since then with no trouble at all. I did have 1 missed WP and that showed on the RC screen, so I requested a Direct To and all was fine after that. With this additional suggestion, it should work just fine now.Thanks again!Glenn