Moose4

Actually, that's accurate. The LDA/DME runway 19 approach at Reagan Washington National is offset and points up the Potomac River to the northwest. There is restricted airspace a couple of miles north of the airport, directly in line with runway 01/19; the airspace over the White House, National Mall, Capitol, Naval Observatory (the Vice-President's residence), etc., is a restricted area from the ground up to 18,000 feet. It's a no-fly zone, so they have to offset the approach to avoid it.All approaches to KDCA 19 (the LDA/DME and the River Visual) are flown down the Potomac on a roughly 145-degree heading until just north of the airport, where a hard right turn has to be made to line up with the runway. It's one of the trickier approaches in the country. Lewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South CarolinaDVA 1427/Solent 644

>LOL Moose, ;-)>>Where have you been, Sir?Flying your Howard 500 all over the freaking virtual Caribbean!! :) I'm addicted to the thing!After the job you've done on the Commander series, the Dash-7, and the Howard 500, I do hope you tackle a B18, I'd love to see what one from your team would come out looking and flying like!Lewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South CarolinaDVA 1427/Solent 644

>Scott's been after me for 2 years to do a Beech 18. I think>he is trying hard to "nudge" me there. LOL>>Well, after the Dash 7 VC .... maybe. ;-)>>But first, we have to get this Shrike out the door. :-)*perk*Shrike? As in Shrike Commander?Lewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South CarolinaDVA 1427/Solent 644

It just landed after a successful flight. They aren't sure whether it made the X Prize required altitude of 100 km, but it definitely went high enough (> 50 miles) that test pilot Mike Melville is an official astronaut!Lewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South CarolinaDVA 1427/Solent 644

OK, this may seem silly for somebody who's been flying for VAs for months, but...I decided to go back and work my way through at least some of the Rod Machado lessons built into FS2004. So I did, I flew all seven of the student pilot lessons. Completed the first solo, twice. Both times, I stopped on the runway and got patted on the head and told what a great job I did...so now how do I get this alleged "certificate" I'm supposed to be able to print out? The flight ended and all I got was the normal flight analysis replay screen, and when I clicked "OK" it just dumped me back to the lesson menu.Yeah, I know, it's weird, but I want to go ahead and work through all the lessons. :) I expect I'll actually learn more than my usual method--bull through it with brute force, and if all else fails, use the autopilot! :-hahLewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South CarolinaDVA 1427/Solent 644

FS2004 default doesn't do a half-bad job with Washington, so I second flying the LDA 19 or River Visual 19 into KDCA. The LGA approaches mentioned above are also good ones. Be sure to wave up to the people in the Gannett building in Rosslyn as you go by. :) (You can try the runway 1 departure if you want a takeoff challenge, you have to make a hard left turn to 328 degrees immediately after takeoff to avoid flying over the National Mall and White House and busting restricted airspace.)Juneau is really pretty, especially at sunset.Never tried Innsbruck, but Zurich at night was gorgeous.And whoever suggested Ranger Creek is dead on the money. Even without add-on mesh it's really neat to shoot the approach down the valley and squeeze in there, with some 38m mesh it must be jaw-dropping.Lewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South CarolinaDVA 1427/Solent 644

I just checked my settings, and yep, I've got Squawkbox disabling its weather.BTW, when I started this thread, I wasn't flying online. However, right now I'm flying a flight from KDCA to KATL, and about 175 miles NE of Atlanta I'm getting those same wind shifts, 090-270 at 60 knots every second. It makes for an interesting ride. :)Lewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South CarolinaDVA 1427/Solent 644

>Hi,>>You could use:>> (A:GENERAL ENG ELAPSED TIME:1,hours)>Um...that's total Greek to me. :) Is that something that I would put in a panel.cfg file? How would I use it? I thought there might've been a .gau file already built out there that utilized that function in FS2004.Sorry I'm such a noob... :-newbieLewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South CarolinaDVA 1427/Solent 644

I'm kind of shooting in the dark here, but does anyone know of a standalone (i.e., not embedded in a tach) digital Hobbs meter or engine hour meter for FS2004? I just need something, a .gau file I guess, that I can "plug and play" into a panel; simple modification of a panel.cfg is about all I can do, I know nothing about actually designing and building a gauge.I'm looking for something to graft into a few panels that I have, that I don't want to use the C172/182 tach on (Milton Shupe's Aero Commanders, for example, assuming I can find room on the panel!).Thanks!Lewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South CarolinaDVA 1427/Solent 644

Hi all...like a lot of people here, I am plagued with massive wind shears at high altitude while using AS2004. I am using the latest release version, VATSIM weather, online updates every 10 minutes, and on a cross-country flight at FL350 last night (KATL-KVCV), around the DFW area, I was getting hammered by near-constant 90-120 degree wind shifts at 70 knots, every 5-10 seconds. Tonight, though, I'm seeing a different problem.As I type this, I'm flying a Baron 58 along the Alaskan coastline near Sitka. The active METAR is showing this:PASI 100153Z 00000KT 10SM FEW007 OVC026 07/06 A3038 RMK AO2 SLP288 And the winds aloft are showing this:FL030: 265/02 (1.6) FL060: 219/08 (-2.7) FL090: 212/12 (-4.8)FL120: 206/26 (-15.6) FL180: 209/53 (-27.0) FL240: 212/76 (-38.0)FL300: 214/87 (-44.1) FL340: 219/93 (-53.7) FL390: 215/50 (-52.6) What I'm seeing are weird wind behaviors at about 10,500 feet. The wind direction and speed should be from the southish at ~15-20 knots. What I'm seeing instead is an average of about 135 @ 21 kt. But, every couple of seconds, for a split-second, the wind will shift 100-180 degrees while remaining constant in velocity. So, I might be at a nice steady 125/21, then for a half-second or less the wind will spike to 280/21, and then shift back for about 2-5 seconds before spiking again. The degree of shift is not constant. It's almost like the two wind numbers are trying to average out to what's on the winds aloft section of the weather display; as the southeast wind shifts around toward south, the little spikes shift around toward the south too.Needless to say, these little micro-shears make it basically impossible to hand-fly the airplane.Has anybody seen behavior like this before? This is a first for me.Lewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South CarolinaDVA 1427/Solent 644

The odd thing is, I *am* using Chris's clouds, if those are the FSW replacement clouds for FS2004! I even switched from the "FPS and Fix" clouds to the "Highest Performance" clouds and got only a tiny improvement (0.5 fps).In the situation like your screenshot above, I could probably lock mine at 30 fps. The 5-7 fps I get is only when I am penetrating a solid overcast, or anytime a solid overcast is filling my screen. Honestly, I may have to look at some settings in ActiveSky 2004, it's possible that AS2004 is building some tremendous number of cloud layers to simulate a thick solid deck. When I cut the cloud layer limit in AS2004 from 5 to 3, pull the draw distance back to 50 miles, and change the coverage from "Maximum" to "High" along with using the "Highest Performance" clouds, I can roughly double my frame rate--from 4 to 8--during a penetration of a solid overcast. So that's a marked improvement, still not great but better. I can *almost* hand-fly at 8 fps. :)I'm not running any AA, either hardware or in FS. My 4200 really won't handle it well. I run 1280x1024 windowed because my desktop is 1280x1024, and I'd rather not resize; and windowed because I fly online with VATSIM a lot and need to keep FS2004 windowed to access other software (Servinfo, HostSB, etc.). Most of my other display settings are at or pretty close to max, I may tweak some of those as well.Thanks for the tips. And if you're getting good frames like that with a P3/800, I salute you! You've definitely got your settings tweaked correctly!Lewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South CarolinaDVA 1427/Solent 644

I think I have a fairly fast system for FS2004, as follows:Asus A7N8X Deluxe moboAthlon XP 2500+2x 512MB PC2700 RAM (1 GB total)GeForce 4 Ti 4200 128 MB 4x AGPWindows XPWeather add-on: ActiveSky 2004My problem is not with ground framerates, it's 3D clouds. I am running the supposedly frame-rate-improving FSW "FS2004 fix" clouds, and I'm *still* only getting 5-7 fps in 2D cockpit views when penetrating them, in any plane, whether stock FS2004 or add-on. In spot view outside or in VC view, it drops to 4-6 fps and causes severe sound stutters with ATC traffic.I've tried tweaking the graphic settings thusly:Cloud draw distance: 80 down to 50 miles3D cloud percentage: 100% down to 80%Cloud coverage density: Maximum down to HighEven at the lower settings I'm only gaining about 1 fps. If I switch over to the crappy-looking "simple clouds", I can easily lock my frame rate at 30.0 in most situations. But anytime I have 3D clouds mostly filling the screen, I'm guaranteed to get single-digit framerates.Is there anything I can do to improve my 3D cloud performance, other than dropping the settings so low that there's no point in using them? Is an older 4x AGP GF4 Ti 4200 simply not enough card anymore?Lewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South CarolinaDVA 1427/Solent 644

For what it's worth, I've been having the same problem Saturday and today (Sunday), always within about 20-30 nm of my landing destination.Lewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South Carolina

Hey there...I have two wxRE questions.1) Right now I'm using Weather Center 2.3.1 when I fly online on VATSIM (with FS2004), and am suffering through sudden and massive winds-aloft changes. We're talking winds going from, say, 220 at 105, to 110 at 70, instantly, or just dropping out altogether. (And this isn't in the middle of the Atlantic, it happened last night all along a route from KDTW to KLAX.) Does the current, or will the new v2, of wxRE fix that? Kinda makes it tough to fly when you're getting 140-knot wind shears...at least the passengers get a plane ride *and* a thrill ride for the price of one virtual ticket. :)2) I ordered wxRE 1.91 through eMetrix on Saturday. They charged my credit card, but I haven't gotten the download instructions yet, and I verified I gave them the correct email address. Is there normally a delay in getting that info, or did something get hosed in transit?Thanks, looking forward to trying the product. I wish I'd tried it before using WC...then again, you guys ended up with WC anyway, so maybe it's destiny that I buy wxRE, I dunno. :)Lewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South CarolinaSolent 644

I fall a bit low on the realism scale compared to most on this thread, apparently...no charts, rarely use checklists, I pretty much just fire it up and go, using the built-in route planner (or FSNav if the built-in planner chokes, like on trans-Atlantic routes).I do like flying on VATSIM, however, for the increased realism. My first VATSIM flight was KSEA-KLAX in the B737-400, and the poor guy manning LAX approach must've thought I was a total idiot. It's quite a step up from the normal FS2004 ATC to somebody rattling off rapid-fire commands to "cross Santa Monica at eight thousand and two three zero knots," especially when you're a dodgy pilot like me. :) Lewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South CarolinaSolent 644

The longest I've done with FS2004 without any time compression at all is about two to three hours, including a night VATSIM flight from Seattle to LAX in the default 737-400, which was very cool. I had a flight take about four real-time hours once, but that was taking a B377 Stratocruiser EGKK-KEWR. 12:36 in-game. :)Back in the ancient days of FS4, and the old Compuserve Flight Sim Forum "Fly-Ins" (geez, I feel old), they did a Fly-In to KDCA. One of the participants flew a 747-400 real-time from somewhere in Australia and managed to actually land it at KDCA after four missed approaches, with about 25 of us in the chat room urging him on. :)Lewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South CarolinaSolent 644

Jon flies for our VA (Solent), he did that little program up to generate charter routes for our expanding Caribbean charter service. Neat, isn't it?I never understood the whole VA thing until I joined one, but now I see that it really is a great way to make messing with FS seem more "meaningful", if that makes any sense. Then again, making sense is not something we do well at Solent... :+Lewis "Moose" GregoryColumbia, South CarolinaSolent 644http://www.solentairvirtual.co.uk/images/solentbanner.jpg

Same thing here--gotta love a flight route from EGKK Gatwick to KPHX Phoenix Sky Harbor via Sweden, then Iceland, then the magnetic north pole!I think the built-in flight planner has a brain cramp when it has to plot long trans-Atlantic routes, I haven't seen it do one right yet. FSNavigator does a much better job, and I'm sure most of the other third-party flight planners do as well. FSNav's payware, but well worth it.

I'd highly recommend Milton Shupe's Aero Commander series--520, 560, and 680 Super, each with multiple paintjobs and working VCs (or not, if you choose). They're available here in the FS2004 library.

>LPMA funchal madiera, specifically runway 05 but 23 has it's>charms ;)>I just flew a Captain Sim 727-100 into LPMA runway 23 last night after a 1300-mile flight from Gatwick. You're right, that's a fun one, especially when the FS2004 ATC puts you at 3800 feet, right in the middle of a cloud, and you break out of it 2 miles from the airport. :/Circled back out 15 miles from the FUN VOR, turned in again at 2200 feet, managed to get under the cloud, and made a passable visual approach and landing (well, passable for me, unacceptable for anybody else :) ). That is quite a fun one, maybe I'll get to see rwy 05 on takeoff tomorrow. :)I haven't tried the KDCA 19 approaches yet...does FS2004 offset the runway 19 ILS 30-35 degrees to avoid the DC protected airspace like in real life?

Try Milton Shupe's Aero Commanders here in the AVSIM forum. You might save yourself some money. :)

>you will hear traffic advisories to the nearby aircraft. rc>will also "yell" at ai traffic who taxi onto the runway when>you are landing :-)>>which VA?>>jdSolent Air Virtual--www.solentairvirtual.co.uk.Sounds good, thanks. That's exactly what I was curious about. :)

Thanks Scott. I was curious if I'd hear chatter from the ATC to other AI aircraft in the area, that's why I asked.I'm looking forward to the product, it came highly recommended from some folks at the VA I fly for.

Just a quickie question while I'm waiting for my RCv3 order to get here...I was thinking about buying an AI traffic program, MyTraffic or something similar. Will RC handle the radio calls to MyTraffic AI traffic properly, or does it only work with internal FS AI traffic?

I've used Mike Stone's 757-200 and it seemed to work OK. I downloaded and have installed Lonny Payne's 757 panel but got the same graphical glitch that you did (the last time I flew the 757 I used the default 777 panel).