Is it only me noticing that ? Bird chirping in the Airliner cockpit in ENVSOUND might be one example, but I don't buy such stuff.

Another example: Airport scenery Santiago de Compostela (LEST) by Pilots Software. I'm in my trusty FSLabs cockpit parked in front of the terminal and notice strange sounds. What the heck is this ? Now I read it in the feature list. Ambient sounds, departure hall sounds. I kid you not. Ouch 😫. So all windows closed, even after pushback with engines started. I still hear departure hall sounds. I mean, hm, how loud must it be in the departure hall, if I hear that in an Airliner cockpit ?

Hopefully such tendencies to include something in sceneries without thinking do not continue.

Mike

Seems a bit over the top if you can actually hear the departure hall from the cockpit I agree. You can't even hear that from the ramp when you're at the (open) door where passengers come out onto the ramp, or even at the top of the air bridge. And as far as hearing birds tweeting is concerned, maybe on a small airfield, but at a big one the only bird-related thing I ever hear is the bang of shotgun cartridges etc from bird scaring activities.

There are plenty of things you can hear on the ramp which could be added if any developer of this kind of thing really wants to go for it. For example...

You frequently hear vehicle horns beep as a warning to people whenever a vehicle moves in order to warn people to watch out for it. Whenever the fuel truck guy opens the big heavy hatch to attach the fuel pump to the underground tanks, that cover makes a dull clang similar to a big manhole cover being moved. If you were in maybe a 737 with the window open, you'd probably hear these things.

The airbridges have either a beeping horn, or a siren, which sounds whenever they move on or off the aircraft, and it's pretty loud. When we hear that, we use it as our cue to remove the nose wheel chocks prior to pushback and to do the last bit of the walkaround check to make sure the forward passenger door is closed properly, so it's quite useful to us. Sometimes we are fooled into thinking that is about to happen when an airbridge on the adjacent stand moves and we hear the beeping sound coming from that one, so it must be pretty loud if you think about how far away from it we are, so you'd definitely hear that in the cockpit.

Whenever a tug moves on a nearby stand, or it drives past the stand you are on, the engines on those things are fairly powerful, so you do hear those from quite a long way off and again, with a cockpit window open, you'd hear it.

As noted, we occasionally hear the boom of shotgun shells (or similar) from the bird scarer guys doing their thing and this is not always near the runway either because those guys have to do pest control if a wild animal comes onto the airfield, and that's quite a common occurrence.

A bit of an odd one we heard this week at Manchester, was the APU 'backfiring' on a FlyBe Embraer 175 on Stand 50. We were waiting for a British Airways Dornier 328 to come onto the adjacent stand and we started hearing a few rapid 'bang-bang-bang' sounds coming out of the Embraer as it prepared to push out, they gradually stopped. I think it perhaps may have been a bit of leaked fuel detonating in the APU. Never heard that before, so I think it would be weird to include it in a sim, but it did happen.

Sometimes when we want to run the loading belt fast to get the bags or cargo on board quickly, we press the button which starts the belt's motion a few times repeatedly which makes the diesel rev and speeds the belt up. If it was on something like a 737 or A320s forward hold, you would hear that in the cockpit for sure.

If there is an AVI (pet, or other live animal) on board, on most airliners they go in the forward hold because that one is heated. If it is a dog, sometimes you can hear them barking from within the cockpit especially if they have a loud bark. You can also hear people talking when they are in the forward hold of some airliners, which is why if any of us lot are in the hold for whatever reason, we make sure we don't use any foul language. I know of occasions where some passengers have complained about ramp guys 'effing and jeffing' when in the hold!

You can definitely hear when the tow bar is connected to an airliner from in the cockpit and often you can also hear when the tug is then connected to that towbar. This is especially true if it is something like an ATR-72, a CRJ or an Embraer 145 because the bars on all those things are a right pain in the butt to connect; you have to do a lot of jiggling to get them secured. You can also hear them move when the walk around is being done because any decent headset person makes sure to give them a good rattle to ensure they are connected properly as part of the walkaround check.

Anyway, just some ideas if anyone is wanting to develop some sounds which you definitely do hear from the cockpit.

 

 

 

 

I like the idea of EnvSound. It works when the engine(s) is/are off when you are located at a small GA airfield - it really adds to the environmen, but only in that limited scenario.

However, inside the cockpit of an airliner or outside at an airport which sees passenger airliners? No. Any nature sounds or terminal announcements are highly unrealistic. You only hear mechanical sounds of your own aircraft or the apron equipment / other airliner movements.

As pointed out, we're seeing a lot more added to products to increase immersion.
I'd query whether we really need the interiors of the airport tower, terminal buildings or MRO hangars to be fully modelled and textured for discovering when in avatar mode?

The problem is that nearly all developers and their customers only experience an airport as a passenger. That skews their thinking of 'extra realism' to mean the replication of the areas that we know or hear those sounds that you would only hear inside the terminal.

Some developers say that's what the market wants, but when customers complain that e.g. the replacement sounds of aircraft (as recorded from a flight deck) don't sound the same as what they hear on-board an aeroplane as a passenger, you have to be concerned by the direction of travel in pursuit of 'increased immersion'.
 

In real life you can't even hear the late passenger screaming and pounding on the window as his flight pushes back from the gate! 😀

4 hours ago, mwilk said:

In real life you can't even hear the late passenger screaming and pounding on the window as his flight pushes back from the gate! 😀

Back in the old days (some 40+ years ago now) I flew many, many miles all over the world. There were usually 4-5 of us on most international/domestic flights. We started a pool. $10 dollars each. The last person to board the aircraft won. I'd love to see someone reproduce those sounds of us pleading to open the door.............

Yes, I very much agree ENVSOUND makes sense to GA or bush flying, but not at all in an Airliner cockpit. Thanks @Chock for the insight what can be heard in the cockpit, I think GSX models some of this already. Not a barking dog though, I guess stuff like get would get old and nerving soon 🙂

However, departure hall sounds doesn't make sense for anyone, neither in a GA nor Airliner cockpit. This is utter rubbish. I mean, FSLabs and others do all efforts regarding an immersive Cockpit sound atmosphere, and then a scenery designer spits these sounds on top of it. Unbelievable...

Mike

I sometimes think that the line between a flight simulator and environment simulator has been blurred.

I personally don't care for this type of "immersion" or "ambience" and disable it all where possible.

Edited February 1, 20206 yr by DavidP