I recently got my copy of RCv3 and have discovered a couple of problems.1. I often use Vectorial Designs' gauges on my panels and I discovered that when I hand over the plane to the CP my ND gauge loses it's VOR1 pointer and comes up with a message saying 'Nav Database Error 131'. Has anyone else had this happen and how did you fix it? If I fly all the way to the destination without the CPs help, this problem doesn't occur. It's only when I hand over.2. I was flying, earlier today, from Seattle to Ketchikan. Towards the end of the flight, on the descent, the controller kept berating me for not being at FL070. The QNH was 1010 and all my gauges were telling me that I was within about 10 feet of 7000, but the controller kept insisting that I was 600 feet low! The only indication I had that this may have been the case was when I pressed shift Z and saw that according to that, I was indeed at about 6400feet. Now... which reading should I take to be true?No doubt, I'll have some more questions as I get further into this great program.Thanks for your time.Keith....Wherever you go, there you are...

Keith,2. If you are at FL070, then you've set your transition level to less than 7000'. So you need to have your altimeter set to 29.92 (1063). Anytime you are above the TL, you set to 29.92, and when below, to QNH.One note. In N America the TL is 18,000' (should be 180 in the TL box).

Keith,I'm delighted to see you've made it to AVSIM despite your reservations - it didn't hurt a bit did it? ;) Lars was quite right in telling you that this was the place to get your RCv3 answers but...I've been trying very hard to educate the RC beta team in matters of altimetry but reading Scott's first sentence, it looks like I've failed! :-lol :-lol It certainly seems as if you're confusing altitudes with flight levels but the figures you give - ie a QNH of 1010 - certainly wouldn't explain a difference of 600ft. FL70 is always 7000ft above the 1013.2mB (29.92 in/Hg) pressure line. In this case, with a QNH of 1010, the 1013.2 pressure line would be about 90 ft below sea level so FL70 would be about 6910ft above sea level. For FL70 to be at 6400ft, the QNH would need to be (very roughly) 993mB (approximately 29.32 in/Hg). Looking at those figures, the only thing I can think of is that you confused millibars with inches of mercury and set 992mB on your altimeter sub-scale thinking it was 2992 in/hg. Have a look at the altimeter you were using and see if this was the case - doing that would certainly give an error in the region of 600ft low. If that was, by some slight chance, what you did, then you're in good company - it happens in the real world too. To avoid possible confusion between millibars and inches of mercury, UK controllers are required to always add the word "millibars" when passing pressure settings of less than 1000mB.PeteP (one of the original FlightSim Vets);http://jdtllc.com/images/RCbeta.jpg

Yeah yeah...Transition ALTITUDE. But on the interface it says Level. ;-)Bad typo on the millibars - should have been 1013.

Hi, Pete and Scott,Maybe I didn't explain myself properly. I had flown from Seattle at FL330 and was cleared down to FL260. From there I was cleared down (in stages) to FL070, which is when I had the problems with the controller. (I've just checked the setup pages in RC3 and the TL is at 180. It was always my understanding that at levels above 180 the altimeter should be reset to 29.92 (1013mb); and below, to whatever the local pressure setting is). In this case, the controller told me on numerous occasions that the setting was 1010 (29.83), which is what I had set (I've got a dual read-out altimeter giving both inches and millibars). So I'm still not sure what I did wrong, if anything at all!Another, totally separate incident occurred that left me wondering what on earth had happened. I had just handed over to the CP (call of nature!) and when I got back I saw this on my GPS... http://members.madasafish.com/maddog/image2.jpg Any comments?Thanks for the help, guys.Keith....Wherever you go, there you are...

you/co pilot didn't make their crossing restriction. that is the explanation for the gps window.

Hmmm... very puzzling, Keith.It was always my understanding that at levels above 180 the altimeter should be reset to 29.92 (1013mb); and below, to whatever the local pressure setting is). Yes, for flying in the US that's correct. If you had FL180 set as your TL, then you would have been cleared to 7000ft and not FL70 but so long as you had 29.83 set then there shouldn't have been a problem. Even if you'd have left 29.92 set by mistake there would only have been an error of about 90ft so that doesn't explain the 600ft error you were getting. Sorry, can't help with that one I'm afraid.http://jdtllc.com/images/RCbeta.jpg

Keith,As Pete says, if you are at or above the TL, then it's Flight Level (FLxxx). If you are below, then it's just altitude (xxxx feet), not FLxx.So from above, you are saying that you have TL set to FL180, and that you are cleared to 7000', but for whatever reason, even with the altimeter set to local QNH, then you are still at the wrong altitude.As you descend below 18,000', press the 'B' key and see what happens. Tell us if you are still getting altitude busts.Other than that, I'm like Pete, and don't know without actually seeing what you are doing.