question about custom flow

[757FO 143]

Hi All,

How do I trigger an action in my flow based on a certain config? For example, I am trying to automatically trigger the after takeoff flow (FSL A3X) when setting up flaps to 0.  I couldn't find the documentation for this. Is there something I can look at to give me what is possible with custom flows? 

Thank you in advance

[tman41291 4]

As far as I'm aware, and I may be wrong, but I believe the only way the FO will do anything is if you ask for a specific flow or procedure...I don't know if you can do it just based off of the config of the aircraft.

[FS++ 707]

3 hours ago, tman41291 said:

As far as I'm aware, and I may be wrong, but I believe the only way the FO will do anything is if you ask for a specific flow or procedure...I don't know if you can do it just based off of the config of the aircraft.

I assume you're running the latest MCE version.

You can interact with FO either way.

1 - Using direct verbal commands to get him to dial or flip a switch

2 - Call for a flow (which can be customized) to be executed.

In MCE user interface go to <Command> tab and click <Voxscript> button.

If the aircraft is fully supported, chances are you'll find some pre-made flows for it. They are tied to a specific aircraft variant.

If you can't see those, click Windows Start->All Apps->Multi Crew Experience->Run app wizard.

No need to go through speech training. The wizard will just ensure everything is set as expected.

Which aircraft are we talking about here?

[757FO 143]

I am trying to trigger a flow (for example after take off flow after calling Flaps 0, like we do in real life, I dont tell my PNF "after take off flow, the PNF does it automatically as part of his/her flow)...Trying to get this to work with the FSL A32X

Thx

John

 

[FS++ 707]

5 hours ago, 757FO said:

I am trying to trigger a flow (for example after take off flow after calling Flaps 0, like we do in real life, I dont tell my PNF "after take off flow, the PNF does it automatically as part of his/her flow)...Trying to get this to work with the FSL A32X

Thx

John

 

There is only provision for the "gear up" and "gear down" commands to be overridden with custom commands that act as flows including other tasks to perform after retracting or extending gear.

There is no such thing for "flaps 0".

therefore, suggest you create a custom flow that is triggered with "flaps zero + some_)custom_speech_to_Differentiate_it_from_built-in_command"

Examples "flaps zero and clean up" or "flaps up and clean up" or whatever else you see fit.

Then as part of the new flow, have

flaps retract

+

whatever else you need the FO to perform

[757FO 143]

19 hours ago, FS++ said:

There is only provision for the "gear up" and "gear down" commands to be overridden with custom commands that act as flows including other tasks to perform after retracting or extending gear.

There is no such thing for "flaps 0".

therefore, suggest you create a custom flow that is triggered with "flaps zero + some_)custom_speech_to_Differentiate_it_from_built-in_command"

Examples "flaps zero and clean up" or "flaps up and clean up" or whatever else you see fit.

Then as part of the new flow, have

flaps retract

+

whatever else you need the FO to perform

OK thank you Gerald,

I think it would be great if you could add such things to the product to make it more realistic, for example a custom flow could be triggered when reaching a certain altitude (.i.e. when reaching 10K here in the U.S we retract landing lights, and flick the non-smoking sign to let the crew know they can start service, etc.

I also would love to have more professional dialog between the cabin crew and the flight crew (the dialog is highly unrealistic IMO, also the way the FO responds to certain commands is way too long, we dont talk like this in the flight-deck at all).. anyways, I am enjoying the product, just giving you some real life context here. Thanks for your attention.

Regards,

John.

[RALF9636 1,904]

1 hour ago, 757FO said:

OK thank you Gerald,

I think it would be great if you could add such things to the product to make it more realistic, for example a custom flow could be triggered when reaching a certain altitude (.i.e. when reaching 10K here in the U.S we retract landing lights, and flick the non-smoking sign to let the crew know they can start service, etc.

I also would love to have more professional dialog between the cabin crew and the flight crew (the dialog is highly unrealistic IMO, also the way the FO responds to certain commands is way too long, we dont talk like this in the flight-deck at all).. anyways, I am enjoying the product, just giving you some real life context here. Thanks for your attention.

Regards,

John.

 

Automatically triggering a flow when reaching some special condition has been requested several times before if I remember correctly. I guess it should be possible for MCE to achieve this because there already are some condition triggered events like the speed callouts on takeoff or the ten thousand feet callout. On the other hand this would be a new source of trouble if the condition is not recognized properly - and that might be a different problem for every addon aircraft (compare the other thread where a user reports getting the ten tousand feet call at 31.000 ft...).

 

Your real life context is very much appreciated; always interesting to read for armchair pilots like me and hopefully a welcome guidance for the devs.

 

For the 10.000 ft flow I use a flow called "ten thousand" for the climb and "ten thousand feet" for the descend. Is a short verbal interaction like that unrealistic?

 

21 hours ago, FS++ said:

There is only provision for the "gear up" and "gear down" commands to be overridden with custom commands that act as flows including other tasks to perform after retracting or extending gear.

There is no such thing for "flaps 0".

 

Wouldn't it be possible to have some kind of editable ini-file which contains all commands to be overridden by custom flow commands? I also had to work around that on several occasions.

 

[FS++ 707]

17 hours ago, RALF9636 said:

 

Automatically triggering a flow when reaching some special condition has been requested several times before if I remember correctly. I guess it should be possible for MCE to achieve this because there already are some condition triggered events like the speed callouts on takeoff or the ten thousand feet callout. On the other hand this would be a new source of trouble if the condition is not recognized properly - and that might be a different problem for every addon aircraft (compare the other thread where a user reports getting the ten tousand feet call at 31.000 ft...).

 

Your real life context is very much appreciated; always interesting to read for armchair pilots like me and hopefully a welcome guidance for the devs.

 

For the 10.000 ft flow I use a flow called "ten thousand" for the climb and "ten thousand feet" for the descend. Is a short verbal interaction like that unrealistic?

 

 

Wouldn't it be possible to have some kind of editable ini-file which contains all commands to be overridden by custom flow commands? I also had to work around that on several occasions.

 

Technically possible to get FO to perform something at 10 thousand feet.

We don't implement it because we are talking 42 supported complex aircraft here, with airlines doing things slightly differently. Therefore, best to leave it to user to decide what should be done at that altitude.

Not possible to have ini file disable specific commands as the speech grammar is a compiled file from an XML source file, and we'd need to ship and maintain multiple versions of it.

For example, right now there is "vCmdCtrl-NoGear.cfg" (instead of "vCmdCtrl.cfg") to give the user the option to redefine "gear up" and "gear down" when option "useAlternateGrammar=1" in mce.ini

[FS++ 707]

19 hours ago, 757FO said:

OK thank you Gerald,

I think it would be great if you could add such things to the product to make it more realistic, for example a custom flow could be triggered when reaching a certain altitude (.i.e. when reaching 10K here in the U.S we retract landing lights, and flick the non-smoking sign to let the crew know they can start service, etc.

I also would love to have more professional dialog between the cabin crew and the flight crew (the dialog is highly unrealistic IMO, also the way the FO responds to certain commands is way too long, we dont talk like this in the flight-deck at all).. anyways, I am enjoying the product, just giving you some real life context here. Thanks for your attention.

Regards,

John.

You can actually customize Co-pilot behavior.

Go to MCE user interface, "General" tab and click <More options> button.

In "Advanced options" Panel, remove option "Talks a lot".

I assume you're aware that the flows can be executed silently and not loudly as they are by default, mostly so that users can see what Fo is doing, as there is no physical presence. Switch option "Verbose" OFF, for each flow,  for silent operation.

Regarding "flaps 0", my bad, as there is an easy solution.

If you're always flying the same aircraft type, could have an ad-hoc speech grammar posted here that excludes speech command "flaps zero" so you can define it as a flow and get Fo to do what your airline dictates.

Feel free to suggest other commands FO should ignore.

It is just annoying, when you switch to any of the other 42 complex aircraft MCE supports, Fo would ignore command "flaps zero",

Therefore the speech grammar we ship as part of the package needs to have it.