I am happy to report that I have finally had a chance to test this. My major conclusion is that I am a lousy pilot! But, after a few practice rounds and reading the user guide to figure out the key points I was able to get a pretty decent score when doing pattern rounds at my local airport ENKJ in a Scout with quite severe crosswind. I know it is more like a parallelogram than a rectangle... I haven't been able to participate much in the online stuff yet with only two flights, but I am very sure that this will build up over time.

 

 

 

One comment I have is that going into settings to tweak something resulted in latitude forgetting the early portions of the flight. This means that the final record only contained my descent, approach, and landing and I was not able to upload the flight to the portal.

 

I think this will be a very useful tool for me. I find myself having to think in terms of climb, level, and descent, and figuring out which part of my flight profile (altitude, vertical speed, airspeed) I can safely change within the different phases. This made me realise that I'm not entirely sure when to slow down towards the approach or when I accelerate from climb speed to cruise the. If I slow down in cruise before descent then I get a penalty for changing speed, so I assume that I need to use the descent phase with either constant rate or constant path to change my speed? But is it not quite common to slow down before starting the descent? Also, when is the correct time to establish the approach speed before entering the approach phase. Is it as part of a continuous descent that transitions into the approach phase or some kind of level segment before starting the final approach?

 

These were questions I didn't really care too much about before, but now I do thanks to latitude :-)

 

I hope someone has the time to enlighten me.

 

Thanks,

kolaf

If I slow down in cruise before descent then I get a penalty for changing speed

 

Hm, that doesn't sound too good for my scenic tours and VOR flights... ^_^

 

I am beginning to wonder how I should look at Latitude: imagine there is a person inside that program that judges what I do: is it a passenger (don't think so), a company manager (maybe) or an examinator (looks like it but that makes every flight an exam ride) or are you mainly flying to please the program itself...? I understood the idea was to somehow simulate a real world environment where you get judged on what you do but it seems more as if you have to fly to only please the programs parameters (which you have to find out first). (Thinking out loud here...! ^_^ )

 

I am still very interested but I am having a hard time making my mind up about it without being able to actually give it a try. Will this program be available on for instance Flight1 where you can test things because of its (great) refund policy?

I am beginning to wonder how I should look at Latitude: imagine there is a person inside that program that judges what I do: is it a passenger (don't think so), a company manager (maybe) or an examinator (looks like it but that makes every flight an exam ride) or are you mainly flying to please the program itself...?

You should see it as an instructor. If you feel like learning a bit about flying, you take him along, if not, just leave him at the apron . Even if you're just flying for fun, in the real world you still need to follow proper procedures. So level flight is level flight, not 100ft higher, then lower, then 230ft higher etc. That's one way to look at the basic mechanics in the software.

You should see it as an instructor. If you feel like learning a bit about flying, you take him along, if not, just leave him at the apron . Even if you're just flying for fun, in the real world you still need to follow proper procedures. So level flight is level flight, not 100ft higher, then lower, then 230ft higher etc. That's one way to look at the basic mechanics in the software.

 

Instructor: good one. Sounds better (less stressing) then examinator... ^_^ Looking at it like that is bringing me closer to buying the addon... Do you own it already, by any chance?

Very interesting. That answers a lot of my questions. So it's all about clean flying.

 

One question remains for me: how does Latitude look at the flightplan? When I want to go from A to B, does Latitude expect me to fly STRAIGHT from A to B or does Latitude expect me to follow a flightplan waypoint for waypoint and without straying off? And do you have to fly at a planned altitude all the time?

 

The thing is that I sometimes like to do VOR-flights in my RealAir Legacy (without using the GPS) and this means I will have to intercept radials and use triangulation to get to my destination. This has me flying left and right sometimes... I also like doing some sort of scenic tours, as if I am flying people around the region to show landmarks or whatever and I might leave the plan to check out something in the distance. Or I might even fly very low and then go up again. Stuff like that.

Doing all this results in NOT flying straight from A to B and my flight might take longer then necessary and I might have to load more fuel because it's a bit harder to plan fuel which also means I might land with too much fuel (if the flight went better then expected). And my approach won't always be by the book because I sometimes (when using VOR) have overfly the airport before I can setup the approach (since I have to find the airport first before I can approach it properly).

 

How does Latitude deal with all this?

 

The "profile" path you take from A to B doesn't matter. It doesn't care about your flight plan. You don't need a flight plan. You go from wherever to wherever you want. And "approach" is somewhat of a misnomer. Is rather the "stabilized" part of the "before" landing. So it's not necessarily a full approach, but the part that is normally stabilized and established in the real world (anywhere from 30-60 seconds before landing).

 

The only place the "profile" matters is on takeoff, approach and landing. And in the "approach" the profile can be straight, curved, or a combination of the two. It's about how straight your on and how "perfect" of an arc you fly in your base to final (if it's that tight).

Instructor: good one. Sounds better (less stressing) then examinator... ^_^ Looking at it like that is bringing me closer to buying the addon... Do you own it already, by any chance?

 

Yes, and I think you'll like it though it will probably be a bit overwhelming at first. But since it's entirely optional, I think you'll enjoy it a lot because it will bring more variation.

 

Even if right now you feel it will be some jerk watching over your shoulder, human nature is competetive and there will be days where you wake up and think "I'll show that effin' Latitude fella what a real (sim)pilot can do" ^_^ . And if not, you'll just enjoy flying without it or leave it running for just for the statistics it records. That's my take on it so far, after about 5 flights though, so I'm not a veteran :lol: .

Would love to see a video of how it works, say doing pattern work. I know the manual is out, but can't beleive there are no promo videos. Still confused on what it offers over the competition.

I am happy to report that I have finally had a chance to test this. My major conclusion is that I am a lousy pilot! But, after a few practice rounds and reading the user guide to figure out the key points I was able to get a pretty decent score when doing pattern rounds at my local airport ENKJ in a Scout with quite severe crosswind. I know it is more like a parallelogram than a rectangle... I haven't been able to participate much in the online stuff yet with only two flights, but I am very sure that this will build up over time.

 

 

 

One comment I have is that going into settings to tweak something resulted in latitude forgetting the early portions of the flight. This means that the final record only contained my descent, approach, and landing and I was not able to upload the flight to the portal.

 

I think this will be a very useful tool for me. I find myself having to think in terms of climb, level, and descent, and figuring out which part of my flight profile (altitude, vertical speed, airspeed) I can safely change within the different phases. This made me realise that I'm not entirely sure when to slow down towards the approach or when I accelerate from climb speed to cruise the. If I slow down in cruise before descent then I get a penalty for changing speed, so I assume that I need to use the descent phase with either constant rate or constant path to change my speed? But is it not quite common to slow down before starting the descent? Also, when is the correct time to establish the approach speed before entering the approach phase. Is it as part of a continuous descent that transitions into the approach phase or some kind of level segment before starting the final approach?

 

These were questions I didn't really care too much about before, but now I do thanks to latitude :-)

 

I hope someone has the time to enlighten me.

 

Thanks,

kolaf

 

kolaf,

 

Playing with stuff in Settings should not result in a flight reset. We can investigate more if it happens again.

 

It's not common to slow down in descent, but it can be normal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_Descent_Approach). It saves fuel etc. If you use an FMS and follow it (like the JS41 or larger aircraft) this is planned automatically. The JS41 requires some thinking ahead to slow down. It will slow down most of the time, but you have start about 15 miles before the FAF, and hopefully without a tailwind (since that would require a steeper descent rate to maintain a constant flight path angle).

 

The reason Latitude "asks" you to do this is so you plan ahead. Take for example RealAir DukeT. When starting your descent from 25000 feet, you'd likely pick something like 2000fpm. However, it will be almost impossible for your to slow down at this rate. This means you need to know your plane, or do something else like level at 10000 for a few minutes then continue at 1000fpm. Again, if you didn't plan right you won't make the airport. Know your airplane. It forces you to learn the plane well and be read for anything. It forces you to think ahead, like you do in real life.

 

The approach is not the full approach, so you should be well established at Vapp or Vtarget or Vref of 1.3VS0 by the time this starts. You should be at your expected speed by around 3 miles from the airport. That's a good rule of thumb. Some/most tube liners will slow after an FAF (5 miles usually), but that means slowing from some flap/gear extension speed, not cruise speed.

 

You can change speeds in level, but you may get docked a little. You normally don't change from 250 to 120, but rather 160 to 120. You also have about 10 seconds between transitions to level off, make speed changes etc. It's not a lot but it helps.

 

Would love to see a video of how it works, say doing pattern work. I know the manual is out, but can't beleive there are no promo videos. Still confused on what it offers over the competition.

 

It provides substantially more analysis and complete view of your flight (touchdown rate is just one small aspect), better algorithms, more consistent results, without the "silly stuff" and gives you a community around which you can compete and earn "something" based on how you fly.

 

You can then compare your flight or yourself to others that are like you. If you fly a C172 in MVFR, all you have to do is click the"More Like This" button on the flight and you'll see other flights like so can see how you're doing compared to others flying similar stuff. The same goes for you. You build a pilot profile based on what you fly and can compare yourself to others that fly the same stuff that you fly. Comparing you as a C172 pilot to a 737 guy who flies IFR all the time makes no sense.

Is it just evaluation data or does it also provide in sim feedback on what you might want to improve?

The "profile" path you take from A to B doesn't matter. It doesn't care about your flight plan. You don't need a flight plan. You go from wherever to wherever you want. And "approach" is somewhat of a misnomer. Is rather the "stabilized" part of the "before" landing. So it's not necessarily a full approach, but the part that is normally stabilized and established in the real world (anywhere from 30-60 seconds before landing).

 

The only place the "profile" matters is on takeoff, approach and landing. And in the "approach" the profile can be straight, curved, or a combination of the two. It's about how straight your on and how "perfect" of an arc you fly in your base to final (if it's that tight).

Yes, and I think you'll like it though it will probably be a bit overwhelming at first. But since it's entirely optional, I think you'll enjoy it a lot because it will bring more variation.

 

Even if right now you feel it will be some jerk watching over your shoulder, human nature is competetive and there will be days where you wake up and think "I'll show that effin' Latitude fella what a real (sim)pilot can do" ^_^ . And if not, you'll just enjoy flying without it or leave it running for just for the statistics it records. That's my take on it so far, after about 5 flights though, so I'm not a veteran :lol: .

 

Okay, well... sold. ^_^ I will let you all know how it goes!

John, as you can read above, I'm having a lot of fun with this already just five serious flights in. One thing I would like to see though, is the implementation of a metric system option. Not really for altitudes and stuff, more for fuel amounts and acceleration values.

 

I don't know if you can get it straight from SimConnect in metric format, but otherwise an internal conversion shouldn't be too hard to accomplish I think? Would save me some headaches converting ft/s to m/s to get a bit of an idea as to how serious the accelerations were.

Is it just evaluation data or does it also provide in sim feedback on what you might want to improve?

 

It's not an instructor. With the amount of statistical analysis that needs to take place it's not possible to give you feedback during flight. The only feedback you get in an annunciation that it started recording and what speed it expects you to liftoff at, and another just below "approach" altitude to tell at what speed it expects you touch down at.

 

I can't do it in real time without affecting FPS, so it all has to be done afterwards. For example, when did you really take off (it's not the first time you left the ground, is the second, third) and I won't know when you started your descent for a few seconds, because it could have been an error on your part. As you can see this type of analysis doesn't lend itself to real time feedback.

 

John, as you can read above, I'm having a lot of fun with this already just five serious flights in. One thing I would like to see though, is the implementation of a metric system option. Not really for altitudes and stuff, more for fuel amounts and acceleration values.

 

I don't know if you can get it straight from SimConnect in metric format, but otherwise an internal conversion shouldn't be too hard to accomplish I think? Would save me some headaches converting ft/s to m/s to get a bit of an idea as to how serious the accelerations were.

 

Propane, others have asked and I put it on the feature list. I can't promise when, but it will happen.

Propane, others have asked and I put it on the feature list. I can't promise when, but it will happen.

Thank you sir, what more can a guy ask for :smile: .

Propane, others have asked and I put it on the feature list. I can't promise when, but it will happen.

 

Ouch, yikes, lbs... Another vote for metric here!!! (I'm a bit surprised this isn't implemented right from the start! Put it on the list as high as possible, please! ^_^ Amongst all other things that should be as high as possible... )

You can use VATSIM. Ultimately Latitude WILL inject traffic into FSX (in a future feature direction and our intent). But it's your choice what you use for MP or ATC services right now. An we no plans, or desire, to provide an alternative ATC environment.

 

 

 

There's no VA integration. We wil have "Groups" features (it's a major planned update). However, if VAs are interested in the scores, I would urge them to reach out to me on the REX forums to see if we can make this happen (I don't know much about VAs, so I don't know if there's some common technology platform for this - so educate me please).

 

I would love to see the Groups mirror VAs, and allow VAs to make hiring, promotion etc decision based on how you fly. So if this is of interest to the community, we can make it happen.

 

 

 

Latitude tries to stop most non-essential stuff (like Fuel/Payload updates) when recording starts and simply records data. Analysis and all the statistics are done after you land so it doesn't impact your frame rates.

 

A bunch of the VA Operators are through here... http://www.vafinancials.com/v5/index.php