How to make FSX accept long tail numbers?

[ph-cxz 28]

Aircraft preview window but there is no standard imo. I see what you mean.  The tail number box for ATC. At least in p3d it shows up correct. What does ATC_id show you in fsx.

[Captain Kevin 586]

Okay, so I stand corrected. Did you try doing it from the aircraft.cfg and seeing what happens?

[killairbus 3]

37 minutes ago, ph-cxz said:

Aircraft preview window but there is no standard imo. I see what you mean.  The tail number box for ATC. At least in p3d it shows up correct. What does ATC_id show you in fsx.

It changes randomly, sometimes it uses the one next to it, sometimes it uses a tail number from a PMDG 737 that's two rows up. All my PMDG planes have this quirk so before I fly I have to re type the tail number. 

-Angelo Busato

[killairbus 3]

27 minutes ago, Captain Kevin said:

Okay, so I stand corrected. Did you try doing it from the aircraft.cfg and seeing what happens?

No I have not, I didn't want to mess something up and I am away from my sim for the week.

-Angelo Busato

[kevinh 409]

28 minutes ago, killairbus said:

It changes randomly, sometimes it uses the one next to it, sometimes it uses a tail number from a PMDG 737 that's two rows up. All my PMDG planes have this quirk so before I fly I have to re type the tail number. 

-Angelo Busato

This is an FSX issue, not PMDG. FSX remembers tail number changes made in the details screen according to the variation number (FLTSIM.xx in aircraft.cfg). If you delete a 737 texture in the OC the variation numbers for other liveries will change. This confuses FSX and it may apply any tailnumber changes you made in the details screen to a different livery to the one you altered. This is why Kyle was so adamant that you should not do this. There is a solution to reset this so you don't have to keep changing tail numbers. Navigate to this folder on your system (use your username and drive letter of course).

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX\SimObjects\PMDG 737-800NGX WL

You will find a file called state.cfg there. Delete it and all the tail number and callsign changes FSX has recorded will be deleted too. You should find PMDG aircraft now load as intended (assuming you havent changed aircraft.cfg).

I don't have the NGX installed in FSX any more but it appears to me that it is FSX which truncates tail numbers to eight characters if you change them in the details screen.

 

Edited December 3, 2018 by kevinh

[killairbus 3]

1 hour ago, kevinh said:

This is an FSX issue, not PMDG. FSX remembers tail number changes made in the details screen according to the variation number (FLTSIM.xx in aircraft.cfg). If you delete a 737 texture in the OC the variation numbers for other liveries will change. This confuses FSX and it may apply any tailnumber changes you made in the details screen to a different livery to the one you altered. This is why Kyle was so adamant that you should not do this. There is a solution to reset this so you don't have to keep changing tail numbers. Navigate to this folder on your system (use your username and drive letter of course).

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX\SimObjects\PMDG 737-800NGX WL

You will find a file called state.cfg there. Delete it and all the tail number and callsign changes FSX has recorded will be deleted too. You should find PMDG aircraft now load as intended (assuming you havent changed aircraft.cfg).

I don't have the NGX installed in FSX any more but it appears to me that it is FSX which truncates tail numbers to eight characters if you change them in the details screen.

 

Sorry I forgot to mention it that this tail number switching happens to my non-PMDG addons as well, I dont want to bash PMDG for everything which is why I used the word "quirk" and not "bug" because I assumed this was an FSX effect. 

Nontheless thank you for the detailed response and for clarifying what Kyle meant.

-Angelo Busato

[kevinh 409]

On 12/2/2018 at 3:47 AM, scandinavian13 said:

You can't do it in the sim, and you shouldn't attempt to change it. It will cause the aircraft to stop working.

Even if you don't change anything there is a problem in the NGX with long tail numbers (both P3D and FSX). I just reinstalled the NGX for FSX to see if I could replicate what the OP has reported. When you first load the Copa aircraft (either P3D or FSX) it shows the full length tail number HP-1526CMP in the preview or details screen (P3D or FSX respectively). However, in the CDU under PMDG SETUP/AIRCRAFT it shows the aircraft to be HP-1526CM. There is no aircraft.ini file for this tail number so it uses the default PMDG options (also creating an aircraft file called HP-1526CM.ini). You can select LOAD FROM ANOTHER and HP-1526CMP is listed. If you select that the appropriate Copa options appear.

FSX will further confuse things if you try and edit the tail number in the details screen, as the OP did. It seems the FSX UI can't cope with more than 8 characters as an input for a tail number and PMDG has a limit at 9 characters. This may also apply to the 747 and 777 too.

Edited December 3, 2018 by kevinh

[kevinh 409]

37 minutes ago, killairbus said:

Sorry I forgot to mention it that this tail number switching happens to my non-PMDG addons as well, I dont want to bash PMDG for everything which is why I used the word "quirk" and not "bug" because I assumed this was an FSX effect. 

Nontheless thank you for the detailed response and for clarifying what Kyle meant.

-Angelo Busato

If you delete the state.cfg file as I mentioned there will still be a problem with this livery as described in the post above. In the short term the simplest workaround is each time you load the Copa livery load the aircraft options for HP-1526CMP from the CDU. It won't change the ATC id for FSX but that isn't very important.

A semi-permanent workaround involves changing the tail number for the Copa livery to HP1526CMP (i.e. delete the hyphen). This makes it 9 character long and the NGX will be happy.

1. Delete the state.cfg file for the 737-800NGX WL (if there is one)
2. In FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG 737-800NGX WL edit aircraft.cfg, replace HP-1526CMP with HP1526CMP
3. In FSX\PMDG\PMDG 737 NGX\Aircraft folder rename file HP-1526CMP.ini to HP1526CMP.ini.
4. Delete any related truncated .ini files in the Aircraft folder so they won't appear in the NGX CDU menu.
5. Copy the renamed file to the backup folder.

This is a bit more involved but will mean you can load the aircraft as normal and not have to remember to select the correct aircraft options every time.

Edited December 3, 2018 by kevinh

[killairbus 3]

On 12/3/2018 at 11:27 PM, kevinh said:

If you delete the state.cfg file as I mentioned there will still be a problem with this livery as described in the post above. In the short term the simplest workaround is each time you load the Copa livery load the aircraft options for HP-1526CMP from the CDU. It won't change the ATC id for FSX but that isn't very important.

A semi-permanent workaround involves changing the tail number for the Copa livery to HP1526CMP (i.e. delete the hyphen). This makes it 9 character long and the NGX will be happy.

1. Delete the state.cfg file for the 737-800NGX WL (if there is one)
2. In FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG 737-800NGX WL edit aircraft.cfg, replace HP-1526CMP with HP1526CMP
3. In FSX\PMDG\PMDG 737 NGX\Aircraft folder rename file HP-1526CMP.ini to HP1526CMP.ini.
4. Delete any related truncated .ini files in the Aircraft folder so they won't appear in the NGX CDU menu.
5. Copy the renamed file to the backup folder.

This is a bit more involved but will mean you can load the aircraft as normal and not have to remember to select the correct aircraft options every time.

Thanks for the solutions, I'll probably leave it as is since there's no 100% fix for this.

-Angelo Busato