I've noted a number of users have downloaded my new program, and I wanted to ask a few questions for those who have tried it and weren't on the beta:#1. Do you have prior experience performing landings using APR mode?#2. Do you have prior experience using Autoland?#3. Does it seem to work?#4. If not, what are the issues?#5. If there are issues, do you have FSUIPC installed (FSUIPC can control some settings that Autoland depends on)?#6. Anyone tried it with FS2000 or FS2002?I'm throwing out the question because out of 2000+ downloads, I've only seen one email seeking help and one email offering support, other than the comments I received when I announced its release in the forums here... Since Autoland is using a new interface (FDSConnection) it would be nice to know how it is performing so I know whether to consider the interface for any more programming projects.Thanks and Regards,-John

I haven't downloaded it but it would be nice to think you have 2000+ happy simmers! Come on folks, let John know.:-)

I have downloaded and briefly tested Autoland 2004I cant say I'm happy as during my first autoland I lost the plane with all the crew ;-)I surely did something wrong but I tried to stick to the very brief info provided with the download.I did hear the sound at about 300ft AGL but then the plane just went nosediving.A few questions:Does the program activate the reverse thrust automatically?In which way it should be better than the autoland facilities provided with the standard FS9 737-400?To note that FS9 crashed while closing, only thing different was autoland2004 running. Maybe just a coincidence or should Autoland be closed first?I will give it another go tomorrow.ThanksPeroni

"I cant say I'm happy as during my first autoland I lost the plane with all the crew ;-) "Gee, I can do that very well (and regularly) without Autoland. :)Seriouslay, haven't tried it, but will this weekend.

LOL... Great response Peroni...To answer your questions--"Does the program activate the reverse thrust automatically?"With most jet aircraft, yes"In which way it should be better than the autoland facilities provided with the standard FS9 737-400"The standard 737-400 doesn't have a true Autoland facility. Some aircraft, if trimmed just right and perfect on APR mode, will land with a bit of a flare and appear to Autoland. But you have to activate reverse thrust, braking, etc. In FS2000, Autoland was available on some aircraft and was driven by some params in the .air files. If FS9 crashed when closing, Autoland's running is the reason why. It must be closed first, which I believe I put in the readme. You don't mention if FSUIPC is installed. It does mess with some parameters (setting them by default) which can cause issues with Autoland and may perhaps explain the nosedive. I don't have the current FSUIPC, but in the FS2002 version there was something called "VSPEED sign correction". You don't want FSUIPC playing with that.The nosedive may be caused by one of the entries (or the lack of one) in the 737's aircraft.cfg (if that's where the problem was). Try different aircraft--I've had good success with aircraft like Dreamwing's 170--but I wrote the FDE for that one :)Try an Autoland with one of the prop aircraft as well--say the Baron as an example. -John

Hi John,1. Experience with APR. YES2. Experience with Autoland. LOTS3. It works.4. No issues so far.5. Have FSUIPC v 2.9.7.4 (old).6. I use FS2002 only.I can only think of one issue simmers might have and that would be finding the elevation of the destination airport. Going through the menus each time can be a pain.I don't have this issue, as I use the 'runway info' gauge and have edited elevation and ATIS freqs into its database for all the airports I frequently fly to. Now I just click the gauge and put in the airport code.. piece of cake.For me, it's a keeper.Thanks so much for another great addon.Bob

John, Possible problem..I did experience a 'serious system error' late last night. Related to Autoland 2004?? I don't know, but after I got the system rebooted and restarted, Autoland 2004 was missing from my toolbar.I didn't think much of it then, and didn't do anything to correct the missing toolbar icon, I just cranked up FS2002 and started a saved flight with an old HJG Boeing 707 (v.1, big mb's). I could not completely finish setting up the flight before FS would crash. Tried it three times, same flight, same aircraft, same problem.This morning, I tried agan, same thing. Then I deleted Autoland 2004 from the 'program files' and 'toolbar' directory and deleted FDSconnection from the 'modules' folder.Restarted the computer, cranked up the same flight, same aircraft..no problem.Just FYI, I wanted to let you know.Thanks,Bob

Since Autoland 2004 doesn't add itself to the toolbar, I assumed you added it manually. It sounds like the dll and Autoland 2004 may have hit some flaky sectors on the hard drive when they originally were copied over--that would explain the missing toolbar entry and MSFS crash.I would do a scandisk, defrag, then reinstall both items in order to get them on some safe & solid sectors. This happened to me once or twice with some large zip files, where suddenly they'd get corrupted. And corruption almost always happened around system errors, even if the zip had nothing to do with the error. It just had to be the most recently installed.-John

John,I thought I replied to this already, must have hit the wrong button.. anyway.. Yes, I manually added it to the toolbar. Easier to get to from there. I haven't defragged in a while, so that sounds like a good idea. I will reinstall both, and keep you posted on the results.Thanks,Bob

#1. Yes #2. Yes#3. Yes and No#4. See Below#5. FSUIPC Registered#6. No.Sorry to be so slow, but I wanted to see how it did with various aircraft. So far, I have found the follwing:A. With default FS9 aircraft, I used the Boeing 737-400 and King Air. It worked perfectly.B. With my default Boeing 717 and custom panel, it also worked perfectlyC. With the Eaglesoft Citation X It works perfectly.D. With the Posky 757-300 and Lonny Payne Panel she works perfectly.E. I could not tell that it worked at all with the Flight One Cessna 121 Golden Eagle.F. I could not tell that it worked at all with the PSS Dash 8.G. Changing aircraft with FS9 live works sometimes, and FS9 crashes at others. I could not tell what the logic was to this. Shutting off Autoland 2004 was not the solution. I got an error window "Autoland 2004; Run-time error 70': Permission denied" and the only way to get Autoland back up was to restart the computer.Looks like a winner to me. I suspect that the problems with some birds, especially third party complex may be a conflict between autoland capabilities.Thanks for the contribution.RTH

John,I did as you suggested, defragged and scanned (I did have a virus).Rebooted, reinstalled Autoland 2004 and FDSconnect, cranked up the same flight, same aircraft, and it worked perfectly. Doesn't get much better than that. Hope it continues, I will let you know if it acts up again.Thanks again,Bob

G. Changing aircraft with FS9 live works sometimes, and FS9 crashes at othersCurious about this one.... Have you changes aircraft while APR mode is active, or is this happening any time? I haven't seen this or have had it reported before. If you could identify an aircraft that always triggers the issue, that may help (assuming I have the same aircraft).I've had it work fine with Flight1's 421, but I find with the props I need a higher speed sometimes before Autoland engages, as many props really bleed speed off too fast when the throttle goes to idle. The alternative is changing the throttle back altitude from 300 ft to something lower. One thing that can mess up Autoland is changing aircraft while it's tracking APR mode, and especially once it's engaged. Always turn APR mode off before changing aircraft, and once it's engaged, you're going along for a ride until the aircraft is on the ground--whether it gets there the right way or the wrong way :)-John

John:Sorry for the delay, but I just haven't the time at the moment to run and rerun the combinations which were causing the FS9 crash. They were involved at least with the aircraft I mentioned in my previous post, but it was intermittent.No biggy in any case. Normally one would not be continually changing planes in the middle of flights when implementing your dandy program.What you say relative to the prop planes makes sense. When I can, I will take another crack at this coming in a bit hot.Give me a few days and I will try to see what I can find.Thanks again for the great and useful program. RTH