Can anyone tell me why, in the middle of a flight (it can be anywhere in the world), my screen suddenly goes black and the loading progress bar appears ('loading scenery, loading weather ...'). It only takes a few seconds, but it has never happened before this week. I then get dozens of ATC instructions (for AI traffic), as the flight carries on where it left off. As I say, it takes less than five seconds, but it's a bit annoying - and I can't think why it has started to happen. Thanks!Martin S.

Did you do a full install? If not, then it will need to go to disk to reload scenery as you fly.My first thought was that you were running out of memory but you have twice the RAM that I have. Are there any big applications running in background?Have you checked your system for spyware recently?Those are places that I would start. R-

Thanks. Yes, I did a full install, no CD needed. I keep spyware tools up to date, so it's not that either. Performance in Task Manager shows lots of spare memory when FS9 is running .... I really don't understand it!!M.

Hi Martin,I have had the same thing happen. Does not happen on every flight but right in the middle of a flight I will get the reload for what appears no reason. Like you all my system resources are OK. I have FSGenesis mesh installed which is really good, that might need a reload. But you are right, does not cause a problem but is annoying.Bob

Glad I aam not the only one. No, it's not on every flight and only once every hour or two... It may well be the mesh (I also have FSGenesis terrain mesh), but the loading indicator shows 'loading weather'' and 'loading aircraft' etc. too. Also, until last week I never had this happen - I haven't changed anything in the interim. Very odd! If it IS the mesh, maybe the forthcoming global mid-resolution mesh file that FSG are soon to issue will cure the problem.Martin

I can't answer specifically, but are you by any chance near the boundary of a time zone?I have heard that FS does funny things with time zones, and the situation you describe is exactly as though you had changed the clock isn't it? i.e. FS reloads scenery.As AI is part of scenery, ATC then has a blitz tidying up all the untidy bits it's presented with. Just a guess......There is a program available somewhere which keeps the clock correct, Timekeeper or something?

Don't know that this means anything, but I have the FSGenesis mesh as well and have never seen this happen. Kind of doubt that is the problem. It does sound like a time zone problem to me.Good luck:RTH

I was getting the same thing flying from CYVR to Calgary. As soon as I hit the time zone it would happen. So much ai traffic that I'd have to wait 5 mins or so before I could contact atc. But didn't happen on other time zones, so kind of weird....billg

This is what I call the "Time Zone Bug". (or at least part of it)It used to happen to me as well. This happens because FS uses GMT (ZULU) time to set textures, etc for specific times of day in specific areas. When you go through a timezone, the LOCAL time should change, NOT the ZULU time. However, with the bug, the ZULU time changes. As a result, there is a reloading of textures to more accurately represent the conditions at that particular ZULU time in that particular area. Also, the AI depends on the ZULU time for their position. Therefore, when the ZULU time changes, a whole bunch of AI aircraft suddenly show up and have to contact ATC.For me, I could always get this bug to happen IF I SAVED MY LAST POSITION AND STARTED FROM THAT POSITION. I usually start FS up to the selection screen with the default Cessna at KSEA loading up. Then I would change airports, time, aircraft, etc. then hit "Fly Now". By doing this, everything is ok with the timezones and you can go through as many as you like without any problem. However, let's say you fly from KSEA to another airport in a different Timezone, land, shutdown and save that position as your default startup position so that you can just jump in and fly next time, when you fly through a timezone you will get the reloading textures everytime because the ZULU time changes, which shouldn't happen.There is a fix for this in the Avsim library. The file is called Timezone 3.0 and there are about 4 updates as well. Make sure you get all the updates. Just do a search for TimeZone. Follow the installation instructions and you will not have those problems anymore.As an added bonus, when you install these files, it will correct some timezones for some areas/airports which show the incorrect timezones in FS. Good luck.

The tricky thing is that, at least on mine, *sometimes* the local time changes, and sometimes the ZULU time changes. If I'm on a flight where having the accurate time on landing is important, I almost need to have both a local and ZULU clock visible on my panel just to watch which clock changes when crossing timezones, so I can go in and reset the ZULU time back to what it should be when the wrong clock changes....Same bug in FS2002, carried over into FS2004.... Let's hope MS squashes that bug in FS10....

Before the FS9 update when I crossed the 180 meridium in the Pacific the onboard clock would loose an hour. You could sit there and watch it happen. It wasn't 180 exactly but in between E179 and 180 going west bound. After the FS9 update, when I watch the clock, it doesn't jump an hour. I do get the loading bar as the textures update when this this happens but it seems the clock stays correct. I remember that the update was suppose to fix a time problem.

It could well be a time zone thing then. I certainly never noticed it before I installed the FS9.1 patch, and not then until I started a 'round the world' trip (so crossing time zones is probably a factor). I haven't checked whether the reload coincides exactly with time zones or not, I'll have to watch out for it. That said, on flights from, say, Auckland to Los Angeles I am not watching the screen the whole time (I'd go blind within a week if I were!) so the programme might reload when my back is turned of course.I'll have a look at the fixes in the AVSIM library..Thanks for the comments,Martin