I have recently gone through an extended reinstall of FSX on new hardware which has been extended further by some months away from Australia in NZ and North America.  I have just about finished this exercise but have yet to reinstall my FS Dreamteam stuff and other products that use the same install process.  I  have actually spent quite a bit on FSDT airports over the years but, due to concerns over VAS, the FSDT install activation process and in particular the associated software that also gets installed, I don't have their stuff in my new FSX install yet.   I guess my feeling at the moment is that I have a nice newly minted FSX and I don't want to muck it up and the FSDT install/reinstall activation process does seem very intrusive compared to that used by other vendors.

 

There was a long thread on AVSIM about 4 years ago devoted to this issue but do I have any reason to be concerned now? Have things moved on?  Thanks

 

Bruceb

I don't think there's anything to be concerned about Bruce. I have just about all their products and have installed on two different rigs over the past 7 years, as well as Flightbeam products which also use Couatl.

 

I've never had an issue with anything they've made and installed on either rig. That's not to say that no one ever has but Umberto is one of the best in the business at providing customer service and is VERY patient. He also does live trouble shooting for people if they have an issue that can't be solved via their forum using TeamViewer.

 

I know that a hand full of people have a problem or don't like Couatl and there DLC method but it's never caused any problems for me. I actual can't imagine FSX without them and Flightbeam due to the fact that most of my airliner flying is done in the US and they make the majority of the larger US hubs.

 

If you run into a problem just give Umberto a shout and I am sure he will be able to get you sorted out.

 

One word of advice, actually two, before you proceed to install. 1st download all the installers rather than using backup installers you may have saved. This way you make sure to get the latest versions and updates all in one. I've seen people reinstalling older versions of airports and having it causing issues.

 

Secondly, don't disable these airports when not using them. The way they are designed, Couatl won't load them when your outside of the scenery radius and won't cause any VAS issue if you keep them loaded. If you insist on disabling them, then start FSX and enable one of them and go to the airport you will find nothing but ground textures and jetways. FSX will have to be restarted one more time to get Couatl to recognize that they have been enabled and they will now work. I've seen this happen many times where users have nothing but jetways showing and they freak out thinking something is wrong. The best course is to just leave them enabled all the time. I've tested both ways and they don't cause a VAS increase when you are not near them like photoscenery does.

I have everything from FSDT too and had no problems reinstalling everything on my newly built system.

 

Best regards,

I don't think there's anything to be concerned about Bruce. I have just about all their products and have installed on two different rigs over the past 7 years, as well as Flightbeam products which also use Couatl.

 

I've never had an issue with anything they've made and installed on either rig. That's not to say that no one ever has but Umberto is one of the best in the business at providing customer service and is VERY patient. He also does live trouble shooting for people if they have an issue that can't be solved via their forum using TeamViewer.

 

I know that a hand full of people have a problem or don't like Couatl and there DLC method but it's never caused any problems for me. I actual can't imagine FSX without them and Flightbeam due to the fact that most of my airliner flying is done in the US and they make the majority of the larger US hubs.

 

If you run into a problem just give Umberto a shout and I am sure he will be able to get you sorted out.

 

One word of advice, actually two, before you proceed to install. 1st download all the installers rather than using backup installers you may have saved. This way you make sure to get the latest versions and updates all in one. I've seen people reinstalling older versions of airports and having it causing issues.

 

Secondly, don't disable these airports when not using them. The way they are designed, Couatl won't load them when your outside of the scenery radius and won't cause any VAS issue if you keep them loaded. If you insist on disabling them, then start FSX and enable one of them and go to the airport you will find nothing but ground textures and jetways. FSX will have to be restarted one more time to get Couatl to recognize that they have been enabled and they will now work. I've seen this happen many times where users have nothing but jetways showing and they freak out thinking something is wrong. The best course is to just leave them enabled all the time. I've tested both ways and they don't cause a VAS increase when you are not near them like photoscenery does.

 

Thank you for these helpful suggestions as my FSDT (and Flightbeam) backups are all more than two years old.

 

Bruceb