Ive been trying to fly with RC a number of times now and each time ive had to just abort RC and do my own thing. Perhaps ive missed something or misunderstood, but its not working out. Here are the issues I face.

 

Not sure if this is realistic, but within a center im being passed off every few minutes to change frequencies. I understand there are sectors and also the low, high and super, so climbing thru FL230 will be a switch as well if you go at or above FL350. My last flight was KSFO-CYYZ. FL350. It had me switch 5 times all within a very short amount of time, and all were centers. Not including departure. Doesnt seem real to me. Or perhaps my ignorance.

 

Im sure I read somewhere in the manual that RC4 handles AI traffic. Well I dont think its normal to notified my Center every few minutes for traffic crossing my path right in front of me at the same altitude all the time. My cockpit warning are always going off for traffic. Sometimes they are even heading towards me at same FL seperated my a few hundred feet. Ive turned off aircraft crash detection off, but I find this annoying and again there is no way this is real.

 

3rd issue I face, is 1/3 of the way through my flightplan, center informs me that im not on my airway and to make a heading 180deg until I can resume own navigation. Im bang on the airway and my flightplan is correct. I went to check this 3 x. All is properly programmed in my MD11 FMC and the same FSbuild plan was sent to flight simulator files and saved where RC4 could retrieve it. So im not sure what the issue is there.

 

Hopefully this is alot due to me missing something rather than idiosyncrasies with fsx or limitations to RC4.

 

Thanks

The 3rd issue is easiest to check. Since you are using FSBuild have you updated to version 2.4 where it uses AIRAC data? Does your FMC have the same AIRAC version?

 

Did you use FSBuild to both export the .pln to FS format for RC and your MD11 FMC to import by the FMC so everything is in sync? RC uses the waypoint coordinates in the .pln file.

 

A 180 turn usually indicates a missed check point so be sure the first checkpoint on your LEGS page matches the next checkpoint in your in-flight RC window in the status area. Outside of the 30 nm departure phase and the 40 nm arrival phase checkpoint tolerance has a 4 nm radius. Departure and arrival have a 2 nm radius. (You have an option to skip in RC a missed checkpoint by choosing menu item 9, then direct checkpoint, select the next checkpoint, and RC will issue the command issue the command. You then go direct from the present position to that next checkpoint without returning to your original path).

 

Sometimes it is possible to be off more than the 15 degrees by default RC heading tolerance. The FSX model is based on great circle navigation and on long legs there could be a devition on RC's linear trig calculations carried over from previous FS versions. I would increase the RC heading deviation up a little bit in the RC options tab. Another case can be a scenery that updated the magdec.bgl in your FS\scenery\BASE\scenery folder. That has been known to upset some FMC calculated paths of heading vs. true. The heading RC wants to see is in the status area of the in-flight RC window. Check that the next checkpoint and the heading there are close to the heading and next checkpoint displayed on your FMC and heading read-out of your instruments. There will be some adjustment in the aircraft due to crosswind correction which will differ from the RC monitored heading.

 

If you choose to use the FMC terminal database remember that some points of SIDs and STARs lie in the non-vectored areas of RC so those most be in the flightplan sent to RC and agree with your FMC data. I use FSBuild 2.4 and here's a sheet I wrote about how to sync it with ATC and your FMC guided aircraft including how to deal with dynamically assigned runways and runway specific SIDs and STARs:

 

 

 

FIRs even at the same altitude are broken down into more than just the major sectors. Version 4 is sensitive to crossing even small areas of another sector.

 

RC does not control AI at all times and does not detect all conflicting AI. RC does not control AI altitudes. It depends on the intercept angle and altitude difference. FS does not use any declared transition altitudes for ai other than 18,000 feet. (Using the 'B' key in FS uses 18,000 feet as the transition altitude anywhere in the world whereas RC uses transition altitude data pulled from a fixed database for each airport region. Always set your altimeter pressure directly.) AI are flown at their ai flight plan data settings and most of them do not follow RVSM rules so within the RVSM window of 1,000 foot separation you might find opposing ai at the same altitude. RC should be directing enroute ai around you but does not always catch them. The only other AI control that RC exerts is when you are on final. It should prevent ai from over running you and steer slower ai in front of you out of your way. When you are on short final in the last tower phase it should freeze ground AI within a certain area to prevent runway encroachment. Make sure in the RC options Interact with AI is enabled which also affects chatter with them.

 

To improve RC performance disable the Display Text and Prerecorded (random) chatter options. Just use AI Chatter and Interact with AI.

 

After a successful install of RC be sure to update FSUIPC and makerwys, then rebuild the scenery. Restart RC after a scenery rebuild. There have been many changes since the RC installation distribution. FSUIPC4 in particular has many performance improvements that gets data to RC faster. All of he necessary links are at:

http://forum.simflight.com/topic/66139-updated-modules/

http://forum.simflight.com/topic/66136-useful-additional-programs/

 

For specific reproducable problems you can enable RC logging (which slows its performance). See the pinned topic.

why don't you make a log, instructions pinned to the top of the forum, and duplicate your problems. i'll tell you why they are happening.

 

rc only reports the conflicting traffic as it sees them. if your ai are being generated in a way that are causing them to be in conflict, i'm going to report them. i don't report conflicts for ear-candy purposes.

 

the frequency changes, i guess if you happen to be flying righ along the boundary, i can see getting swapped back and forth. but again, unless you are always climbing and descending you're not going to get stratum changes. again, rc isn't swapping frequencies on you for ear-candy purposes.

 

so make a log, let me see where your problems are occuring.

 

jd

alright thanks for the feedback. Responses in Bold

 

The 3rd issue is easiest to check. Since you are using FSBuild have you updated to version 2.4 where it uses AIRAC data? Does your FMC have the same AIRAC version? Yes it is the exactly the same AIRAC data installed on both.

 

Did you use FSBuild to both export the .pln to FS format for RC and your MD11 FMC to import by the FMC so everything is in sync? RC uses the waypoint coordinates in the .pln file. Yes they were exported at the same time under FSbuilds export options.

 

A 180 turn usually indicates a missed check point so be sure the first checkpoint on your LEGS page matches the next checkpoint in your in-flight RC window in the status area. Understood however Im not being vectored onto the SID waypoints Im going direct immedietly to the first waypoint. The reason why I brought it up is RC starts complaining about it well into the flight and after I have passed a few other waypoints along the route. Why didnt it mention it earlier? Yet reviewing my route, the waypoint in question by RC I flew right over it. But I failed to implement the option you mention of selecting option 9 to skip and direct to next waypoint. I will use that next time.

 

I will implement both your suggestions and see how it goes as well as trying to make a log of what happens. Thanks

You will only be vectored after approach contacts you and you ack the receipt. This occurs about 35 nm out with all responses. Prior to that you are expected to fly the plan filed with RC which should include the SID waypoints up to 35 nm out. RC dispenses with the SID waypoints when vectoring starts. If you wish to use your full FMC procedure after approach assigns you the runway, ack the first vector and then select an IAP approach and from that the runway you want (best to use the RC suggestion to avoid conflicts with ai as much as possible). In this case you will not here from RC until established on final where you will be contacted by tower. When an IAP is acked by RC the altitude mentioned is the suggested intercept altitude for final.

 

Please also refer to the NOTAMS option in the RC manual about introducing flexibility. Note that NOTAMS does not relieve the hard crossing restriction about 40 nm out.

 

RC only knows what is in your .pln sent to it.

 

A note about FSBuild -- SIDs and STARs labels are shorter than the official number of characters. If in FSB you observe the dropdown for those in the top airports section you'll see the abbreviated names available and versions in the FSB database. These may change with the expected runway you enter for each airport. If you are getting your desired SID or STAR from a chart or on-line route, FSB will not show an error if the name is not in the data base and the waypoints will not get generated in FSB's route table.