Confusion about being off-course.

[Guest Agrajag]

I'm having some trouble flying a plan from KPHL (Philly) to KBWI (Baltimore). The plan was created in FS Nav and I use the Fly Plan feature of FS Nav to fly much of the route. A few questions arise out of this. Here's the data from the PLN file edited down to the core waypoint into:waypoint.0=KPHLwaypoint.1=MXEwaypoint.2=GLOMOwaypoint.3=BELAYwaypoint.4=TRISHwaypoint.5=KBWII take off and follow published departure procedures as directed and head towards MXE. All is fine.I then cross MXE and head to GLOMO. All is fine. While on the way to BELAY (about half-way), ATC cuts in and tells me to fly heading xxx (today it was heading 150 which is perpendicular to the course I was on). I'm assuming this is because they want to vector me in for some reason. Then, after a few miles flying this heading, NY center comes back on saying that I'm off course! They then say something like, "Fly heading XXX until receiving suitable for navigation."I then wait for further instruction but then, the next interaction from ATC is them telling me I'm once again off course and to fly a new heading with the same wording as before. Given this, I've also tried flying the assigned heading and then, once I cross the flightplan route again, turning to rejoin it. Soon thereafter ATC cuts in warning me that I'm again, off course.I have yet to be able to fly this course.First, what is the meaning of the instruction I'm getting? Am I supposed to rejoin myself or await instruction?Second, why is this happening?Third, the closest I've gotten created one other point of confusion. My flightplan, as submitted, has ascent and descent logic in it. If I use FS Nav's "Fly Plan" feature, my plane will start descending exactly when the submitted plan shows me descending. However, ATC has told me to maintain FL140. If I understood this right, ATC has control and I need to wait for them to bring me down regardless of my flightplan. Thus, that whole piece of FS Nav is more of a hinderance than a feature, correct?Finally, one minor element on departure John gave me a comment on and I've lost my notes on it. I'm told that I should climb to 4,000 on departure and expect 14,000 within 10 minutes. So I take off and being climbing. During that I'm passed to departure, usually around 1,500 feet. However, when I contact departure, as instructed, my response is always the same and it's something like, "AGR27 with you at 4,000". The problem is, I'm not at 4,000. I'm climbing to it. John mentioned that it's supposed to say the actual altitude I'm at but that I needed to do something to make that work. What am I missing?

[jd 57]

first) if you look at your options page, you probably have the traffic slider set to something other than 0. that means, i'm going to vector, while enroute. what you are seeing are random traffic vectors.second) i guess i just answered the why is this happening, so here is what you are supposed to do. you're flying along, direct next checkpoint is 180 degrees. i vector you to 150 "for traffic". you should dutifully turn 150 degrees. (if you have fs nav or something else flying the plan, this is going to be a problem, since that software doesn't know you were just told to turn to 150. that is why there is the rc co-pilot, so he can fly and react to these instructions). after a random period of time, i tell you to traffic is no longer a factor, and to resume own navigation.that does NOT mean, turn to a heading of 230 degrees, and try to get on the original heading (or green line as i like to refer to it). it means, fly direct the next checkpoint. the advdisp will show you exactly what that heading is. so fly it.third) yes, fs nav fly flight plan is confusing the matter, and making problems for you. why not use the rc co-pilot if you don't want to fly the flight plan? he can fly the flight plan, and react to the real time variations perfectly.finally) i can't imagine what is happening. i'm sure it works correctly, or i would have heard about it before, or i would be seeing this in v4. but i'm not. maybe, while you are on tower frequency, just after you take off, you can save a .dat file. (ctrl-shift-; by default).then send me the rcv4savedxxx.dat file, and the xxx.flt and xxx.wx files in your my documentsflight simulator files directory. i'll try to duplicate the problem here.jd

[Guest Agrajag]

JD, thanks for the response. I really have read the manual. It's my lack of being a polished pilot that's not helping. My Traffic V setting is set to OFF. So, I guess in this case the plot thickens a bit. Sounds like I may have tripped over a bug as it appears something else is triggering the traffic vector and, since it really isn't set, I never get the other piece telling me to come back.Thanks for the second part as far as what to do once I get released (assuming I do in the future). On using the co-pilot vs. FS Nav, I understand. It's much like I mentioned in my e-mail. In my fictional world, I'm the only one in my small plane (I don't fly jets) so that would somewhat blow the whole story I have going with myself. heheh I was just using FS Nav because I really like the flightplans it builds though perhaps now is the time to move over to FS Build and fly them myself. On the "with you at 4,000" issue, I've now flown about 15 RC-controlled flights and have NEVER heard anything at this point that was accurate. My pilot is always providing the assigned altitude and not the actual one. I'll get you the files and send them off.I'm going to try and duplicate the flight yet again (about my 9th attempt) and see if I can note anything else I may have missed.

[jd 57]

you will also find in the flight simulator files directory a yyy.pln and yyy.rc3 file which are the .pln file that you used to load rc.you are using the .pln file, right? you're not exporting from fsnav to radar contact format (.apl) right? really need to use the .pln format?bug? possible. between all the hours others have flown, and all the beta testing, i think we would have caught something as obvious as this.once i can load the .dat, it will take less than an hour to figure out what is going on.jd

[Guest Agrajag]

I MAY have found this.First, yes, using .PLN, INITIALLY my first 2 or 3 flights I was using APL until I finished reading the manual.Okay, don't ask me now but I'm certain I did this while not paying attention, enter this into your Deviations for Altitude.... ready? Put in 9,000. Yes, 9,000. I just caught it while looking at Traffic V setting. Set it to 300 and, the first thing it fixed is that upon getting passed to departure, he read the current altitude right!I'll report back on the vector issue shortly but see if putting in 9,000 there screws up your pilot reading back altitude.

[Guest Agrajag]

BINGO. I'll know for sure when I finish this flight and put 9,000 back in to see if it causes the same trouble but now, when I used to get the vector I instead got a directive to descend to 9,000 within 30 miles. Never got that before.The odd part is, I'm pretty sure that 9,000 was in that field for nearly every flight so I'm confused as to why ANY flight would have worked and all but this have with the exception of the incorrect departure altitude.