Pro Flight Emulator thoughts

[kiwiflyer45 123]

It went a bit better this time- I did get cleared to my cruise altitude. I set the 6000 foot restriction on my SID, and last time I must have forgotten to reset my altimeter leading to me not reaching that height. The only gripe I have is that departure didn't clear my to a higher altitude after contact, but waited until I had leveled off at 6000 to trigger my higher clearance. Is there any way for PFE to clear you to higher altitude as you're approaching the initial restriction, as opposed to waiting until you reach it, so you don't have to level off at low altitude?

In a perfect world, ATC will always be able to clear you to a higher altitude before you reach your assigned height. But in reality, it's not that uncommon to have to level off and await further clearance. So as frustrating as it may be, it's actually quite realistic as long as it doesn't do it all the time...CheersIan

[MeneMene 1]

Your SID will always have an altitude limit. You can find it in any SID plate. Once PFE ATC has acknowledged that you have reached your SID ceiling they will give you an altitude of their choosing.Here is the initial part of a FP from EGLL to LIMZ:-EGLL 80MID DP 4000 26nmHAWKE FL250 75nmXAMAB FL290 87nmVEULE FL390 112nm Quite often if the airspace is busy I'm not cleared above FL60 until MID (which is actaully quite realistic!!). But sometimes I might even be cleared up to FL170 before MID. Also when there is little traffic PFE ATC will give "No Speed Restriction". So each flight varies. Having said that the step downs usually follow the FP exactly.vololiberista

OK thanks- I've only done two of the same flight so I didn't know if this sort of thing happened all the time or if it did in fact vary. So two questions:1. If the descent clearances pretty much follow the flightplan, does that mean I have to assign an intermediate altitude for every waypoint in the FP past the TOD? I mean, calculating those are what the FMC is for. Let's say my cruise altitude is FL350. My first initial constraint is FL180 at a certain waypoint. If the waypoint before that is 5 nm away, do I really have to do the math and set it to FL195 or so? If so, that seems like a pain. 2. On both of the flight's I've done, PFE has missed me going past a waypoint. At least I assume it has, because it kept me on Madrid control all the way into France when I gave up and quit, and kept reporting my position as 4XX miles from an intersection over Spain. Is the report position option the easiest way of finding out which waypoint PFE thinks is next in line? The first time, it missed me going past my first waypoint, and I was able to fix it by requesting a direct-to. However, the second time, with the intersection in the middle of spain, the direct-to feature was unresponsive, and hitting ctrl+shift+w didn't do anything. Hopefully a reinstall will fix the certain commands becoming unresponsive, but are there any tips on how to get PFE to correctly keep track of which waypoint is next? thanks

[John Hinson 22]

The only gripe I have is that departure didn't clear my to a higher altitude after contact, but waited until I had leveled off at 6000 to trigger my higher clearance. Is there any way for PFE to clear you to higher altitude as you're approaching the initial restriction, as opposed to waiting until you reach it, so you don't have to level off at low altitude?

This is because you are climbing faster than your Flight Plan allows for - i.e reaching your waypoint altitude before the waypoint. If you have waypoints during the climb, PFE will stick to them. If you set them all to your planned cruise altitude, PFE will not bother you like this. This never fails me. Of course, like so many things in FS, we all have different ways of wanting to do things and my methods (such as that described above) may not suit others. It is unfortunate that PFE does do odd things with your flight plan (mainly caused by the PF2000 generator, I suspect) and personally I find the learning curve on how to manipulate it for the desired results heavier going than learning to use the software itself. John

[MeneMene 1]

This is because you are climbing faster than your Flight Plan allows for - i.e reaching your waypoint altitude before the waypoint. If you have waypoints during the climb, PFE will stick to them. If you set them all to your planned cruise altitude, PFE will not bother you like this. This never fails me. Of course, like so many things in FS, we all have different ways of wanting to do things and my methods (such as that described above) may not suit others. It is unfortunate that PFE does do odd things with your flight plan (mainly caused by the PF2000 generator, I suspect) and personally I find the learning curve on how to manipulate it for the desired results heavier going than learning to use the software itself. John

OK- so I should keep all the climb waypoints to the cruise altitude. What about the descent? Do I need to manually calculate a descent profile and set each waypoint to the desired height, or can I leave them all at the cruise height except for the ones with constraints? thanks

[vololiberista 205]

You set your descent wypt heights depending on a/c type, weight and terrain clearance. For example if I'm flying into LIMZ from the NW I have to maintain clearance above the Alps. So I go from FL20 to 4,000ft in just 50nm.If your a/c can perform well then write that into the FP during the climb. Again for example a VC10 which is a high performance heavy will easily attain FL390 from EGLL to over the French coast. With PFE if you reach your last altitude clearance quickly you will have to wait until the next ATC instruction. If you are flying into WSSS Singapore you will have minimums set so your FP has to reflect that also.When you make a FP you have to take into account lots of different variables especially weight, performance and restrictions. So you will almost certainly have to adjust PFE's FP altitudes.vololiberista

[nam1394 10]

Here is a link to the video I promised:

[vololiberista 205]

Not a bad video. I liked the Italian pilot flying with Korean!! Also you need somebody else in the cockpit!! To call out your Vref speeds and when to rotate etc!!vololiberista

[nam1394 10]

Not a bad video. I liked the Italian pilot flying with Korean!! Also you need somebody else in the cockpit!! To call out your Vref speeds and when to rotate etc!!vololiberista

I think the Pilot flying the Korean is supposed to be Arabian. I do have fs2crew you can hear it in my other videos, but I chose to remove it for this video because it is with an American accent.

[vololiberista 205]

You do need to add "V1" and "Rotate" calls at least. It's not difficult.vololiberista

[John Hinson 22]

OK- so I should keep all the climb waypoints to the cruise altitude. What about the descent? Do I need to manually calculate a descent profile and set each waypoint to the desired height, or can I leave them all at the cruise height except for the ones with constraints?

As I say, my way of doing things might not suit all because (being an old codger) I navigate by beacons and don't use FMCs SIDS and STARS and posh stuff like that. I find that if my descent point is the last waypoint, PFE will actually start my descent at the previous one which might be 100 or more miles away! So I put an extra waypoint in on the descent. Then, after compiling I change the penultimate waypoint (the ToD) to cruise altitude and leave the next one at whatever it has calculated. That usually does just fine for me. If you find in practice that brings you down too late I'd suggest setting that final point really low, say 2000. PFE will be talking you down the that height but you won't get into trouble for not achieving it. Beware, of course, that PF2000 when compiling tends to drop waypoints it thinks are too close so don't put that extra one in too near your destination. John

[BenW 0]

Here is a link to the video I promised:

Nice vid and demonstrates how immersive PFE can be on the ground with all the other traffic around you. Your vid did highlight the frustrations of ai though in that crossing the runway you came face to face with another aircraft which of course would just come barrelling towards you. I'm also pretty sure that had you not got rolling when you did then the ai 747 you missed would have taxied straight in front of you, Tenerife '77 style.

[nam1394 10]

Nice vid and demonstrates how immersive PFE can be on the ground with all the other traffic around you. Your vid did highlight the frustrations of ai though in that crossing the runway you came face to face with another aircraft which of course would just come barrelling towards you. I'm also pretty sure that had you not got rolling when you did then the ai 747 you missed would have taxied straight in front of you, Tenerife '77 style.

Thank you.You are right about the head to head plane. But not the 747, because eventually it would have stopped until I have taken off.

[nam1394 10]

Here is my thoughts about PFE: When I first tried I liked but I had some issues. 1. Approach vectoring to final was not that good. It would vector me too close to the runway.2. TOD is too close to the destination resulting in being very high on final and I had to do 360 turns just before final. The good news is that those two issues are solved. Yesterday, I discovered that you can change the default FAF value of 7 miles. So, I changed it to 11 miles. Also, I changed the rate of decent from 3500 FPM to 2500 FPM. I did two flights after the changes and the result is WOW! I love it. Cheers

[psolk 3,037]

Phenomenal NAM!!! So glad to hear it, thanks for sharing!

[nam1394 10]

Phenomenal NAM!!! So glad to hear it, thanks for sharing!

You are welcome.