REX Lattitude anybody?

[Jarkko 59]

though I'd found something totally awesome, only to find I already have something identical lol

 

What you could do is browse through the manual (at least read page 10 and look at 18-24). Manual can be found here:

 

http://www.rexlatitude.com/Home/REX%20Latitude%20User%20Guide.pdf

 

I think that Latitude has couple of things that I haven't seen before. You need to do your route, weather fuel and weight planning right in order to score well. I personally like the way these things affect the skill, comfort and profit parts of the flight.

 

Climb and descent scoring is quite strict. This has one benefit (at least for me). When using Latitude with ATC and you fly a plane without auto throttle and LNAV, your workload goes way up. You feel how the plane starts to get ahead of you

 

Also the fact that the scores can be seen online (if you wish so), makes you try a bit harder

 

To sum up. Latitude has it's quirks and you might not want to use on your every flight, but I like the way it complements other flght grading/monitoring producs out there.

 

Based on your original post, it might be that REX SimAir should have more of the things you are looking for. At least when compared to Latitude. Just browse through he manual and see if Laitude would work for you.

[pilotjohn 19]

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

 

 

They are not competing products, since Latitude is not real time (it cannot be by the nature of the analysis). It's also not meant to be a flight instructor sitting next to you, and not meant to be a co-pilot. Latitude assumes you already know how to fly, but you fish to tighten your skills and procedures, fly precisely and, and debrief after the flight.

 

I'm willing to advertise the methods I use. To calculate touchdown rates (just as an example) I use multiple (up to a dozen now) different machine learning and other regressions algorithms to find curves (and other shapes) fitted to your flight path and use the best of those (similar to ensemble forecasting in weather) to predict your rate of touchdown (using several different data points, including determining the VSI lag, adjusting for it, and blending VSI, runway closure, and ground closure rates). But that's just one component, and there 36 separate metrics scored, with about 50 things being evaluated (some as blended deductions). I also use a variable-width Gaussian-like signal filtering on the entire recorded data to eliminate jitter and errors due to timing delays and adjusting the width to minimize noise without reducing nuances. Why does this matter?

 

Because if you don't do these things, we've found through lots of testing, that you get wildly different results between different runs, different client machines etc. And if you're trying to judge someone as realistically and consistently as possible, it's pretty darn important. The name of the game with Latitude is being stabilized (which is generally hammered home on any type rating course). Being a R/W pilot, I wanted this type of feedback, and that's what you get. Everything is dynamic, based on the airplane you fly, and relevant to your phase of flight. After having looked at all the products available, I found none of them provided an overall assessment of the pilotage similar to how a R/W pilot would judge an overall flight. It's important to note that Latitude IS about pilotage and not the operational aspect (it doesn't care about landing lights, and transponder setting etc.). It's all about flying.

 

Latitude is not an ego booster. And I will say that for most it's a wake up call. I completely understand that it is not for some people. But if you're flying simulators because you're interested in what makes a flight good, and the things you'd need take into consideration in the real world then it's probably something you'll enjoy. It's also not called Checkride X because there are plenty of planning related metrics (earnings) that are unrelated to a check ride, as well as career concepts.

 

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.

 

Stay tuned for both...

 

The economy is evolving (shortly) to make much better use of the virtual currency, and to eliminate initial losses when starting unprepared.

 

The "true" multiplayer feature is planned for version 2, which will inject all Latitude users into FSX as AI aircraft.

[Guest Mik75]

I bought it yesterday but haven't had the time yet to give it a go. I have a question concerning the flightplan: I use FS Commander to do my planning with SID and STAR. Is there a way to load these plans into Latitude? If it scores my flying, the planning must be an important point, right? How does it work?

Thanks in advance for clarification.

[Jarkko 59]

Latitude doesn't require the whole flight plan. It knows where you took off and where you landed. This can be used to calculate the great circle distance between the airports.

 

Having said that, you should enter the planned distance, cruising altitude and expected head-/tailwind for the flight. This as used to score the flight (I just can't remember how). It's mentioned in the manual somewhere

[Guest Mik75]

Thanks a lot! I'll try to get it working tonight. I'll install it on my networked laptop where FS Commander is running through Wide FS, shouldn't be too hard to do, ...I hope! ☺

[Jarkko 59]

I'll install it on my networked laptop where FS Commander is running through Wide FS, shouldn't be too hard to do, ...I hope! ☺

 

Well... you are half way there Latitude uses SimConnect, not WideFS to talk to FSX. If you read the manual, you'll do just fine!

[simmerhead 885]

Bummer... I too hoped this would be more like a Virtual Airline/FS Captain/Air Hauler/online community thingy...

[Jarkko 59]

For that kind of thingy, I think we all have to be patient and watch closely at this:

 

http://www.simairexperience.com/

[pilotjohn 19]

Latitude doesn't require the whole flight plan. It knows where you took off and where you landed. This can be used to calculate the great circle distance between the airports.

 

Having said that, you should enter the planned distance, cruising altitude and expected head-/tailwind for the flight. This as used to score the flight (I just can't remember how). It's mentioned in the manual somewhere

 

The only reason to enter your planned flight distance/altitude is to get an estimated fuel load required. You don't have to enter it, but then you should be able to calculate your fuel requirements from elsewhere.

 

I bought it yesterday but haven't had the time yet to give it a go. I have a question concerning the flightplan: I use FS Commander to do my planning with SID and STAR. Is there a way to load these plans into Latitude? If it scores my flying, the planning must be an important point, right? How does it work?

Thanks in advance for clarification.

 

It does not require your plan. The earnings are based on the type of airplane, distance flown, and great circle distance between takeoff and landing (the logic is explained in the manual). As long as you land with at least 1 hour of fuel remaining you won't lose a lot on fuel purchases. The "economy" is the only metric for planning. The scores are purely pilotage (skill and comfort).

[Air France 19]

I would wait for SimAir

[pilotjohn 19]

Bummer... I too hoped this would be more like a Virtual Airline/FS Captain/Air Hauler/online community thingy...

 

It's similar but without the micro-management. The goal of latitude is for you to simply load up, plan your flight/fuel and fly well. All the earnings are generalized from those concepts (read manual) without all the business aspects (e.g. it's concentrated on flying, not on managing an airline). Latitude is about FLYING, not MANAGEMENT. So if you're into FSX for flying then it's probably for you. If you're into FSX for the airline experience/business stuff with flying being an afterthought (or "I have to do it") then it's not for you.

 

However, because some users have not been planning well upfront and losing "tons" of money, a new feature will have a slight management components to it. This will mean that you will only have an economy component to planes you "purchase" with virtual currency, so that those that start with big-tin don't lose their shirt when they go with 50% payload and land with 0.5 hours of fuel. This will be announced shortly.

 

Bummer... I too hoped this would be more like a Virtual Airline/FS Captain/Air Hauler/online community thingy...

 

It's not a VA, but you do earn "currency", you do advance a career ladder, and there's an online community around it (sign up to the portal - doesn't require a purchase - and you can take a look at the flights and pilot profiles). You can then decide whether the scoring/earnings (details by clicking on the earnings) is something that interests you.

[simmerhead 885]

Thanks very much John for your input!

[Guest Mik75]

[pilotjohn 19]

Hi!

Ok, that's understood.

I installed it, but it doesn't connect. It took me quite a while until I realised, that I have a 4 week old computer with a fresh install of FSX, but I haven't installed SDK yet... Oh my...

I have FSX Professional Edition and the download version of Acceleration pack. Does this version include the SDK? Or do I have to install the SDK from the FSX DVD, followed by the SP's?

 

If you installed the add-on the client machine, it should have installed SimConnect as a pre-requisite.

 

You DO, however, have to configure SimConnect to point to your FSX machine: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc526983.aspx#Thesimconnectcfgfile

[Guest Mik75]

 

If you installed the add-on the client machine, it should have installed SimConnect as a pre-requisite.

 

You DO, however, have to configure SimConnect to point to your FSX machine: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc526983.aspx#Thesimconnectcfgfile

 

The problem is, that the simconnect files aren't on my FSX machine. I cannot setup the host either. Is there a way around installing the SDK? And if not, which is the correct SDK version for the Acceleration Pack as download version?