FS Captain: your opinions please

[Dutch727 543]

Andy,

 

Yes I remember now...we have the altitude (always 18,000) here in the US but not the levels, and we've been kicking around ways to implement, or ignore if that's what we need to do, the levels so you don't get penalized.

 

But right now, all my effort is debugging the FCDU.exe that runs on your desktop. When that's out we'll be looking into all other improvements.

 

I am gutted as I forgot to inform the flight crew just prior to take off or landing in the first couple of flights, and have been marked down severely for it - I am now gradually increasing my score as I get it right each time, & will eventually get rid of the adverse report comment, but this is what makes the challenge worthwhile - if I am failing in a certain area, FSC will pick up on it as my employer and I must put it right or suffer the lower ratings.

 

Keith,

 

Thanks for the summary of FSCaptain and how it works with MCE and RC4. If it helps any, I too have that 'FA complains about not getting warnings' report on my 'Areas of Concern'. For me it's when I'm having to deal with a challenging approach (and there are lots of those in Alaska where my virtual career is based) and I forget to toggle the smoking switch to alert the cabin crew to get seated and belted for landing.

 

That's one of the reasons I like cargo flights. No cabin crew to worry about, just the occasional live animals back there - they don't file complaints!

 

Dutch

[antonmorse 9]

 

That's one of the reasons I like cargo flights. No cabin crew to worry about, just the occasional live animals back there - they don't file complaints!

 

Dutch

 

Haha - between airliner flights I am also flying a Cessna in my new 'Air Hauler' career, and your comment reminded me of a recent cargo:  250lbs of Sheep and 250lb of DVDs! LOL.

I could just see them sitting shoulder to shoulder in the back seat of my Cessna with the box of DVDs in the front seat!

[TravisG 3]

Hi everyone.

 

I have not updated the FSCaptain Transition Altitude database in well over a year.  Mea Culpa.  Mea Lazy-Bast**d Culpa.  (Apologies for my... umm... bad Latin there.  :sorry: )

 

That data file will be updated within a few days on the FSCaptain's support site's File Sharing area - and/or with any new build that Dutch releases.

 

--

 

I will also discuss with Dutch a secondary way (which would not require my involvement) for FSCaptain to get as current as possible Transition data as long as you have access to current Aerosoft or Navigraph NavData in the AivlaSoft format.

 

--

 

But regardless of that, knowing what the Transition Level is does not matter in regards to FSCaptain.  And that's a good thing since the TL can be very different from the Transition Altitude, depending on the country / aviation authority involved.

 

For FSCaptain, when you're climbing through the Transition Altitude, your F/O will call out that you are passing Transition Altitude.  You would need to set your BARO to Standard Pressure ASAP or you will be penalized as long as you allow that penalty.  

 

But with FSCaptain when you are descending, there is no penalty if you do not switch back to Local Pressure.  (Even though your F/O will call out that you are passing Transition Altitude - that is only a reminder to you to set your altimeter's BARO setting).  

 

To be clear, with FSCaptain, you can land at 29.92 / 1013 with no penalty.  (Although I shed a tear each time that any of you do so.  :Worried: )

 

--

 

Finally, yes Dutch and I have discussed the requirements that would be need to have Captains adhere to a Transition Level callout, but that's not in the cards for the next few releases.   :He He:

[TravisG 3]

Keith,

 

I wanted to call you out for your last post.  Thank you, sir.  What you have written is much how I had felt (and after a half-year absence from regular flight operations, still currently feel) when I first began my transition into RJs and other jet airliners.

 

I often get nicked for the odd missed thing and yes, it really helps to make me do better on my next flights  :biggrin:  to see my own score go down a peg or so.  :(

 

Please accept a virtual glass of your favorite refreshing beverage -->   :Cuppa:    or     :p0813:

[akaGandalf 2]

Based upon all the positive comments in this thread and the excellent communication and support from the developers, I tried a flight in demo mode today.

 

After I completed the flight I took advantage of the sale at PC Aviator and purchased FSCaptain.  It is a really good program.

 

I think I will keep flying as Joe Pilot for a couple more flights to get comfortable with the process before launching my "official" career

 

Jeff

[clayton4115 56]

As it incorporates real life schedules it would be awesome if this also could give you the real world flight plan perhaps extracted from flightaware ?

[nam1394 10]

As it incorporates real life schedules it would be awesome if this also could give you the real world flight plan perhaps extracted from flightaware ?

 

You can use AI Traffic's Schedules(WOAI). This is the closest you can get to real world schedules. Unless, you make them yourself.

[clayton4115 56]

no, i mean the flight plans to fly from flightaware.

 

for example

 

CEOLA5 CNX J74 PKE J4 TNP DOWNE4 KLAX

 

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/CPA91

[nam1394 10]

Ah, my mistake. You can use whatever flightplan you want. Once, you select or get assigned a flight, you open the flightplan as a file.

[Boomer 1,619]

Purchased!  Thanks all...!

[nam1394 10]

enjoy!

[mjl1966 5]

I have done nothing but pull my hair out trying to get this product to come close to delivering what it promises.  GREAT idea.  POOR implementation.  I don't know what magic the people who like this are using, but after reading the manual countless times and working with the program for many hours off and on over the past several months, it simply is not close to reliable enough to be sold retail.  When I do get an airplane configured and an airline that likes it and a scheduled flight to actually be available in the CDU when I start the flight, it is a small miracle.  This thing has been nothing but a time sink.  It LOOKS great in the cockpit.  It SOUNDS great in the cockpit.  It RARELY WORKS. Frustrating as hell.  It does work sometimes.  But I never know when or why it's going to.  It's like a hot girlfriend with a drinking problem.  

 

If there is a way to trip over something during the process, I've found it.  I have literally sat with this thing 4 and 5 hours at a time trying to troubleshoot it.  Finally realized I don't work for Dutch and uninstalled it and removed every trace of it from my machine so I wouldn't be tempted to "try again".  Iv'e "tried again" four times now and I wind up the same way every time, severely frustrated.

[xplanery 250]

Works just fine for me as long as I pick up the flight I'm going to fly using the administrator tool rather than cycling the FCOM / CDU thing. 

 

It's not perfect but certainly better than any of the current alternatives out there. What I particularly like is the way how FScaptain allows me to restore my flights whenever FSX crashes for some reason, with FSPAX & Air Hauler I had really frustrating moments when the sim decided to crash on approach. 

[FSDanL 3]

mjl1966:

 

FScamp is right, if you don't launch it by right clicking FSX and choosing "Run as administrator" it won't work. But it sounds like there was something else going on. Unfortunately, it also sounds like you quit before getting help from anyone here. Oh well.

 

I will say this, the latest version is a lot buggier than it was before and I'm sorry I updated it. The worst thing is the lack of FCOM/ACARS installer now. For some reason, it was never installed and now I have to add the guage manually. There's an icon on the desktop, but no program attached and I've tried to install it several times.

 

Also, the announcements are slower to react to commands and the first officer complains on every single takeoff. I also noticed that certain FA announcements (like the welcome announcement) are barely audible now.

[Dutch727 543]

It sounds like something went wrong with your installation, but I'm not sure what.  It's usually something security related when these odd problems you describe break loose.  Is your FSX installed in the default location "Program Files (x86)"?

 

Dutch