REX Lattitude anybody?

[RCITGuy 35]

Hi Folks..

 

Came across REX Lattitude today from an advert here, and after taking a look at it for a bit, from what I can tell, it looks a bit like a Virtual Airline, VATSim, FSFSPro, and FS Captain, with real cash involved.... Does say it needs 15GB for install though..

 

Anybody tried it yet?

Looks REALLY in depth, but what the heck do I know, I get lost @ 500ft within 10 miles of my own house..

[johnbow72 2,722]

Actually it is very easy to setup and use . Instead of just flying around aimlessly , it gives every flight some purpose . Works with either FSX or P3D .

 

John

[RCITGuy 35]

Hi John

 

You have it then?

Am I right in it being a sort of cross between all those different apps/add-ons?

[johnbow72 2,722]

Yes I have it installed . It is somewhat like FSFlying School but it runs more in background and scores your flight after you taxi off the active runway .

 

John

[pete_auau 1,168]

yea no more cheating lol, have to fly by the book or you be penalised, have to work out your correct fuel load for the trip otherwise you get a pen for having incorrect fuel load. As the previous poster has said easy to set up and runs in the back ground, can chat with other users as well if you want to during the flight

[Guest]

Am I right in it being a sort of cross between all those different apps/add-ons?

 

No. What it really is, is a 'flight monitor'. It looks at every phase of your flight (takeoff, climb, enroute, descent, approach, landing) and if will give you skill points and money for it. If you don't fly by the book (go up and down too much or too hard, don't approach straight, etc.) you will get less points and less money. The skill points and money will make you climb (or not) on an online ladder and if you score enough points you will progress a level. That's it.

 

You can't do anything with the money. The 'multiplayer' part is nonsense (and a bit false advertising imho): all you have is that online ladder and a chatroom. So don't expect real multiplayer. Also beware that you get penalized for flying with for instance heavy crosswind: when you perform a difficult landing you will lose points because you didn't stay on a straight line.

 

All in all it is nothing else but a flight monitor: you can see how you did but the rewards are a bit useless: the only thing they do is force you to perform well because no one likes to lose points. ^_^ Of course this DOES give some purpose to your flying. The charts you get after your flight do help you to figure out where you are going wrong and where you should or could improve and so it can be a interesting tool, but after being excited for a week or two I lost interest in it already, mainly because it's a bit shallow: it's a flight monitor and nothing more. It is certainly not all those addons in one. If you want that you better wait for REX SimAir.

 

And there certainly is no real cash involved. Apart from the rather high purchase price, of course.

[Jarkko 59]

A flight monitor is a good description for Latitude.

 

REX SimAir on the other hand should be something similar to AirHauler and/or FSCaptain. It should be released before the end of 2013.

[BartEnder 2]

How's the REX Latitude comparable to FS Flight Keeper?

[Jarkko 59]

I use both Latitude and Flight Keeper. Latitude is more strict in how you fly and Flight Keeper is stricter in how you operate the plain.

 

Just to give you an example of my last flight. Latitude scored my 49% and Flight Keeper gave my a score of 85%

 

Flight keeper didn't like the fact that Landind lights where turned of below 10 000ft and I flew in turbulent weather for more than 30min.

 

Latitude reduced my score because I overshot the localizer, my descent wasn't consistent and my landing flare was too long.

 

Both have their use at least for me.

[Guest]

Flight keeper didn't like the fact that Landind lights where turned of below 10 000ft and I flew in turbulent weather for more than 30min.

 

Latitude reduced my score because I overshot the localizer, my descent wasn't consistent and my landing flare was too long.

 

Yes, forgot to say that: Latitude only looks at your flightpath so not at procedures. It doesn't care if you use flaps or not, if you use the right lights at the right moments, etc. etc. So 'flight monitor' isn't even the right word: it's a 'flightpathmonitor' ^_^ It monitors your vertical and lateral path (taking speed into account) and that's it. This also means it doesn't track your ground movements (apart from the takeoff run and the landing until you reach something like 30 kts), so you can taxi as wild as you want. (And btw when you land you should not turn off the runway before you reached that low speed otherwise you will be penalized for wandering of track!)

[Jarkko 59]

Latitude only looks at your flightpath so not at procedures. It doesn't care if you use flaps or not,

...

btw when you land you should not turn off the runway before you reached that low speed otherwise you will be penalized for wandering of track!)

 

I think that Latitude requires you to set the intended flaps setting for takeoff and landing. This information is used to calculate the correct takeoff and landing speeds that you will be evaluated against.

 

Good point about stopping at the runway! I made a flight to Charles De Gaulle. I landed on a concrete runway and then turned off to an (high speed) asphalt taxiway. Latitude informed me I had completely missed the runway because the surface had changed during landing

[RCITGuy 35]

Ahhhh, blimey, would be nice if Latitude would clarify this then, because it comes across as some sort of "all singing all dancing" addon..

I guess using monitors like this makes every flight sort of like a check-ride huh? You got a virtual cockpit full of virtual examiners itching to score you out of 100..

[Lowflyer 97]

I bought and tried Latitude but uninstalled it after a few days. It seems to me that if you want a good score you have to fly the way Latitude wants you to fly, not necessarily how you would do it in real life. For instance I once arrived at my destination in IMC so I decided to do a full procedure to the ILS with all the twists and turns that involves. As it turned out Latitude didn't detect that I was on approach until I was on final which meant the entire procedure was factored into the en-route score, which turned out to be awfully close to 0%. Comfortability was considered to be over 85% so it can't really be that my flying was bad, and I've also had done several VFR flights with very high overall scores. After that I gave up and uninstalled it as it mainly brought annoyance. If you're mainly into airliners then maybe it's for you, otherwise leave it.

 

While I haven't tested them AirHauler and FSCaptain seems like better options to me.

[Guest]

Ahhhh, blimey, would be nice if Latitude would clarify this then, because it comes across as some sort of "all singing all dancing" addon..

I guess using monitors like this makes every flight sort of like a check-ride huh? You got a virtual cockpit full of virtual examiners itching to score you out of 100..

 

Marketing talk... ^_^

 

Yes, that's how it feels but I also have to say that's not how it is meant: the goal is to score about 50% most of the time: if you do so, you are 'good' and you will get to the next level. But people are people... and we all like to score 100%, don't we...? ^_^ I had problems with that in the beginning but as soon as I started to look at the addon as a monitor that helps you to fly better, I was okay and happy with every score above 50%.

 

However, after a while you see there are too many restrictions (like not being able to fly short flights with the 737 NGX without losing a ton of money) and no matter how you look at it you try to please the system, so you would think twice about doing detours during GA flights, even if you 'don't care' about the score... And my landings were often very bad according to Latitude while I think 'who cares about a too long flare and not staying on track as long as you made it alive after a heavy crosswing landing'. You also get penalized for being too light, so if you take little fuel on a short trip that is not completely 100% loaded with passengers and cargo... penalty. Add to that the rather useless online ladder and money that's worth nothing and there isn't much incentive to fire up the addon.

 

In the end 40 dollars for a flightpathmonitor simply is too much.

[RCITGuy 35]

it runs more in background and scores your flight after you taxi off the active runway

FSFSPro does that too, you can set it to "Full stop / Taxi off runway / Parked at gate" and you can control how much nagging you get, or switch it off..

Sounds more like I'm better off sticking with FSFS Pro then :-)

 

Doesn't have the eye candy that latitude does, not by a longshot, but it works well...

 

Feel a bit disappointed now, though I'd found something totally awesome, only to find I already have something identical lol