asquel

Pilatus PC-12, because this airplane combines decent velocity, long range, and STOL capability

For information of the readers of this thread, I found that the problem is connected to AS2012. I tried to load FSX with FSX-Jeppesen standard weather, and the contrails were back ! I loaded then AS2012, and at the instant FSX connects with AS2012, pops ! the AI airplanes stop emitting contrails. I suspect this has something to do with the atmospheric temperature at altitude. I submit a ticket to HifiSim to try to correct this minor, but annoying problem. Thanks for reading ! Alain

No ideas, anybody ?

I noticed a few days ago that all my AI aircrafts have lost their contrails. I cannot tell you if this problem was there for a long time, but I noticed it only last week. My configuration is : FSX SP2 + AS2012 SP2 for weather aloft + UT2 for AI. What I already did is the following : I verified that the fx_contrail_l.fx and fx_contrail_s.fx files in the Effects folder are the original ones. I verified also that fx_1.bmp and fx_smoke.bmp textures are the original ones. I tried to change the contrail length in UT2 I verified that the temperature where AI airplanes are flying is less than -30C And up to now, the contrails remain non-existent. Does anybody have other ideas to recover the contrails ? Thanks for your answers. Alain

OK Thanks for the answer, but : how do I do that ? Is there a file converter somewhere that does that automatically, or do I have to de-compile the bgl, correct the problems, and re-compile with a FSX compiler ?Alain

Hello !In a tentative to populate Russia in FSX, I imported from my FS9 scenery a bunch of airport bgl files under the name “Russian light scenery”.It worked perfectly, except for the parking spots, which became strange black squares where the aircraft wheels are half submerged (they are OK in FS9). See attached image.Is there a way to easily correct this problem ? I already re-compiled the airport with ADE, but with the same result.Thanks for answering if you have an idea !Regards.Alain

Hi,The SimConnect method to connect Plan-G to FSX is very well explained in Plan-G's user's manual,

Hi,You can find a partial answer to your wishes with Plan-G, a VFR flight planner, available here : http://www.tasoftware.co.uk/You'll not find a SID/STAR library, and you cannot export a flight plan in special formats (PMDG, Level D...) - it's called a VFR flight planner -, but you can export in FS9/FSX format, and it can operate as a moving map, using Google Maps.Personally, I've installed it on a 2nd PC, connected to FSX through SimConnect, and it works like a breeze !Alain

Thanks for your answers, although there are still pro's and con's buying a GTX 275 or 285.I checked the technical specs for both cards, and I found the following frequencies :Frequency (MHz) 285 275Chipset 648 633Video memory 1242 1134Shaders 1476 1404Are any of these frequencies cause a bottleneck when matched with a Core i7 at, say 3.6 GHz and a resolution 1680 x 1050 ?Will the 10% difference between the two be detectable ?Alain

Hi,Being confronted to the same problem, I would ask the question as this :Are the slightly higher clock rates and larger video memory of the GTX 285 worth the 100

OK, I should have re-read the whole user's manual, sorry...But I agree with you, smoothing should prevent this kind of "hard" transitions.In FS9, we had the "local suppression range" in which all cloud depiction changes were forbidden : I do not understand how this is done in FSX : apparently nothing is done, and visibility smoothing has been preferred to this kind of "cloud pops-in or pops-out".Do we have really to choose between the two ?Alain

Hi,Same problem here on FSX : ASA depicts weather accurately (I'm flying now in Chile/Bolivia/Argentina), but approximately every ten minutes, the clouds flicker to another pattern : sometimes, a thick layer of cumulus appears, sometimes a layer abruptly disappears. In flight, the period seems to be exactly 10 minutes, but on the ground, it seems to be different. I continue testing...What I did up to now : pull the 4 cloud sliders to zero, disable the virtual stations and the flight plan enhanced coverage, and disable the weather options of FSUIPC 4.40, but this behavior remains the same.Please ask if I can help for troubleshooting... ThanksAlain

Dear fellow simmers,I was flying yesterday from Texas to Mexico, and I am using for a long time UTX. I was deeply disappointed when I crossed the mexican border, to find myself back in an environment with coarse coastlines, rivers and lakes, in the middle of the detailed FSGenesis mesh terrain.I read somewhere that Scenery Solutions is not planning to extend the UTX series to other areas than Europe and North America, due to the high cost of Navteq and Teleatlas data. But I would be very pleased to find a product containing hydrographic data only : I mean without the roads data, which seem to me the most expensive ones, since they are used for GPS navigation systems. I think that the scenery realism in Asia, Africa or South America depends more on hydrographic data than on roads. Anyway, there are not many highways in Bhutan, Bolivia or Burkina Faso !Therefore, I would surely buy an add-on improving the details of coastlines, rivers and lakes outside Europe and North America.Am I the only one ? Are there other potential customers on this forum ?If there are enough, will a developer maybe start such a project ? What is your opinion on this idea ?Alain

OK Art,I confirmed this afternoon that UTX Europe was at the origin of the problem. After disabling UTX, the additional coastline disappeared.I will follow your suggestion, and post in the UTX forum.Thanks anywayAlain

Hi,I have noticed the presence of double coastlines in northern Tunisia : see the attached image : the center is located on DTTB airport, and the city in the upper right corner is Bizerte.I have UTX Europe installed : could it be the cause of this anomaly ?Obviously, Tunisia is not part of Europe, but the corresponding terrain file (cvx50180.bgl) includes south Sardinia as well.Can I do something to fix this problem ?Thanks for your answers.Alainhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/190962.jpg

Hi,I just want to share the way I solved my problems of menu CTDs.I have FSX SP2 (without Acceleration), a Dell Pentium D430, XP SP2, a NVidia 6800 video card. I upgraded my video drivers from the original ones (77.74) to the last WHQL (169.21). At approximately the same time, I loaded from this site a free Algeria scenery, with which I had missing textures, and then my problems started : the D3D9.dll errors when saving a flight, changing the airplane's location or modifying the display parameters. I uninstalled the scenery but the problems remained.I uninstalled several times SP2, reinstalled it, installed the newest DirectX9 update, to no avail.Eventually, I decided to clear the video drivers, using first the normal uninstaller, then Driver Sweeper 1.0, found on guru3D.com. You have to follow carefully the instructions, especially execute Driver Sweeper in safe mode. It deleted the following files : Deleted file (C:WINDOWSprefetchNVUNINST.EXE-1E0A4C4A.pf)Deleted file (C:WINDOWSprefetchNWIZ.EXE-2D0F9FBC.pf)Deleted file (C:WINDOWSSystem32driversnv4_mini.sys)Deleted file (C:WINDOWSSystem32nv4_disp.dll)Deleted folder (NVIDIA)Deleted registry (HKCUSoftwareNVIDIA CorporationNVIDIA Control Panel)I then re-installed the 169.21 drivers. I'm running FSX for more than a week now, I saved flights, changed locations and modified parameters without experiencing one CTD.I know that what worked with my PC will not work for all, but maybe my experience will help some of you.RegardsAlain

Sure !Do a Google search on fsxge.zip. The first site on the list (scenery.org) allows you to download that zipped file. Extract it to find the .kml file that includes not only the airports, but also the navaids.BestAlain

Hi S.V.>Is your Excel a Traffic Toolbox airport list dump?No, I found a .kml file (Google Earth file) that lists all FSX airports, and manipulated it to get a .xls file, with runway lengths, latitude and longitude, and ILS or not. From that list, I use spherical trigonometry formulas to calculate distances and headings. > I was wondering if any addon planes have properly modeled extra fuel tanks?No I have never seen any. In FS, the only way to simulate extra tanks is to add fuel in flight !> By the way, is there any weather addon for FSX that uses ocean buoys data?Not that I know. Active Sky X uses virtual weather stations, but I don't think they use buoy data : and I don't think either these data include cloud cover, visibility, or precipitations. What I do is to have a look at satellite photos, and adjust accordingly the ASX settings, by the "no data cloud cover" slider. On the other hand, the winds aloft are properly modeled anywhere in the world, even above the oceans.> 8 hours of flying over the bland water seems kind of boringI rarely fly 8 hours flights. I often cross the Atlantic through the North (Iceland, Greenland), and the Pacific through Siberia, the Bering strait and Alaska. And, well, when I have to do so, I switch the autopilot on and do something else. But have a look from time to time, because the jet streams can significantly modify your ground speed, and your fuel reserves ; at your arrival, the weather can also change, and oblige you to divert to another airport. So, it's not completely boring !RegardsAlain

Hi,I personally fly around the world without formally closing the circle : I choose a distant destination (for example now, from Madagascar to Utah) and cut the flight in 1 - 2 hr. flights. I use an Excel macro with the FSX airport database to define the intermediate airports, with the runway length and the distance as parameters.The airplane I use now is Flight1's Pilatus PC-12 : she has a decent speed (around 220 kts. TAS) and an exceptional range of 2200 NM, which is very useful to cross the oceans. On FS9, I used the Aeroworx' King Air B200, which is slightly faster, but with a shorter range. Both airplanes are exceptionally modeled : the PC-12 exists in FS9 and FSX versions; the King Air only for FS9, but the FSX version is in the works, and promises to be exceptional. (FS9 was !)For the routes, I would suggest you to have a look to http://www.earthrounders.com/ . It's a site devoted to the pilots doing or having done a RTW flight in GA planes for real. But keep in mind that the leg Hawai-California is more than 2000 NM long ; in the real world, those flying this leg have to add extra fuel tanks to be able to fly this distance.For the airports, it depends on what you like. Two of the most difficult ones are Paro, Bhutan (VQPR), and Isafjordur, Iceland (BIIS). For the latter one, you have to fly to the end of a fjord, deep between two huge cliffs, perform a 180

Oops ! Sorry, I missed this one : I was keeping clicking on the switches to no avail : now, they work correctly by dragging them with the mouse.Thanks for the tip !But now that I'm in flight, the warning light "CAB ALT HIGH" remains illuminated. I tried to correct that, but didn't succeed to find the solution. I noticed that the cabin altitude was indeed around 25000 ft, which is too high for a flight at FL300. The differential pressure seems too small (not enough bleed air flow ?) Any hint ? Alain

In my case, the master warning light doesn't come off because the bleed air fail lights are illuminated, and the bleed air valve switches, located on the copilot panel seem to be inoperative. Any clue how to make them functional ?Alain Sq

Hi Chris,Sorry, I have not understood in which file or window I have to make the changes described in your above message. Can you give more details ?ThanksAlain

Hi Luis and other readers,Just to share with you;I followed Luis

Thanks Luis, for helping me again !I read the document you mention, and I understand that I have to redraw the lake with SBuilder and from Google Earth data, and give a "WaterPoly" assignment to this polygon. Is this correct ?I thought it was easier to de-compile the existing cvxXXXX.bgl file, change the polygon type, and re-compile. I do not see any hint in your document to do that. Actually, I'm not sure it is feasible with the presently available tools.Alain

Hi,I was planning a flight to Mackenzie (CYZY), and, as usual, I compared the FSX scenery with the Google Earth view. I was surprised that a large lake near the airport was completely missing.For other reasons, I also checked the same area with TMFViewer, and, second surprise, the lake was there !I quickly noticed that the polygon representing the lake was a WaterPolyGPS, and, according to the SDK, can be seen on the GPS, but not in FSX. (Actually this is so in the cvx1512.bgl file, but the adjacent cvx1412.bgl file seems to be correct.)So I have two questions : is this an error made by MS ? And : is there an easy way to change the nature of these polygons ? (from WaterPoly GPS to WaterPoly). I tried to decompile the cvxXXXX.bgl files with BGL2XML, but it doesn't work. Is there another way ?Thanks for your answers !Alain