Ian McPhail

This space is very poorly served regrettably, particularly as the A220 series will be a huge replacement for the older B717 and the CRJ which in the real world lacks Auto Throttle. The VCol version of the A220 is fairly ordinary to put it politely, and the Whiskey Jet version will be initially restricted to FSX and with a dumbed down FMS. Could one of the majors consider taking this job on? It would end up in every simmers library because of its wide uptake by airlines..or do we wait for Flight 1's revision of the Bombardier series to come on to the market and treat that as our 'small' commercial airliner.

Like others, I am a little careful about MSFS 2020. I have invested so much into LM, that I doubt I would want to spend even a portion of that dressing up the new sim. Also where I live in Aus we have lousy internet download speeds, so I might be consigned to a lesser off-line version. Yes, yes, I know this is all speculation as MS extends its brilliant wait and see marketing strategy, but I am feeling exhausted at the thought of new everything again. Consequently I look forward to v4.6 or v5 whenever it or they arrive. Unless MS really forces LM to stop supplying to users like us. Ain't it fun.

Technically, if the scenery is streamed, then add-ons and enhancements would have to be at their choice, and on their servers. Or is this technically naive: could a payware city addon sitting on my computer be linked to the correct geo-coding to bring it into the appropriate scenes. I know this is naive, but we would be at the risk of having one size fits all as the reality from MS.

Yes, and a very good flight model and visuals reduced to not much because of the FMC. We like to fly an aircraft in a roughly similar regime to the real thing, and once again Carenado disappoints.

I do not know who it was, but I am grateful. The blinking and flashing had me seriously thinking of XP11, so continuous and distressing was it in P3v4.5. But regrettably I have forgotten the person but not the advice. Go into your P34 folder, find the exe file, right click brings Properties, choose Compatibility, tick Disable Full Screen Optimisations. This fixed it absolutely. However, I am a firm believer in Newton's third law, and I am sure this comes with a downside. But so far I haven't encountered one, as I tend to leave refresh rates alone.

rj: your observation, wry though it be, is accurate. But that well may mean that those of us under benighted regimes ( I mean broadband) are probably not going to be participants. But recall MS will have the scenery on server, they surely will know the size of it. We can then decide to spend our retirement income on a home server, or stick to what we know and love!!!

What a great discussion, and a few angles I hadn't considered I admit. But Australian download speeds are going to be a real problem. Practically all Australian simmers except some lucky National Broadband Network customers close to critical broadcast centres will be excluded. I know we are a minor portion of the market, but we spend, and spend well on our simming. I am close to the boundary of 5G but I can't find Telstra's future installation plans, and the kids at the local retail shop can only tell me what I can find on the web. I noticed a contributor rejoicing in the fact that 81% of the US is covered, but the pb left out are the ones that start the revolution. 30mbs sounds like one of those dreams that I don't even have these days. MS please consider a DVD option with streamed updates. I have looked at Aerofly 2, and that is restricted to California. That sort of sim is mentally stultifying to me at least. LM stay in the game, or I will have to go to XP11, and find someone to set it up for little old me (sigh)

I have always wanted to test XP-11, but I find its interface daunting, and tuning the sim and controls really hard. I know the purists prefer XP, but even if I got someone to set it up for me, I would still be back buying add-on versions of scenery and aircraft add-ons which I already have. But I realise this is a typical whinge of the elderly, but there are still guys flyiing FS2004, not because they want to (I hope) but because the cost of the upgrade is just too much.

Just to slip away from the above, and might I say useful discussion back to what we might get. I know these speculations are a little crazy when regular updates have been scheduled. Thank you Microsoft. But I have a feeling that there are a number of cards yet to be revealed. If the game can be played off-line what will be the quality of the scenery and the aircraft provided. Also would it then be regionally based or mission based like railroad simulators? We would never go back to a restricted area of operation, nor would we want other than the best add-on aircraft of the style we like. If, as I suspect there will be, an upmarket on-line version subscription based with the scenery streamed, another set of considerations are needed. Frankly the sub is not for me a real issue, but it will be for others. BUT download speed is. At the moment in Australia I am on ADSL2 with a rarely met max DL speed of 1.5mb/s, and when I get access to our vaunted but disappointing NBN cable speeds can still only be around 5mb/s. Will this be sufficient to avoid laggy and stuttering flight? 5G is coming but at the present has a very incomplete network, and IT techs are genuinely concerned about lag when streaming. Also we must not forget that storage is getting cheaper and cheaper. so will there be another option that allows us to download every part including huge scenery volumes. Maybe with an update sub if that is offered. If both versions allow expensive add-ons to improve flying or scenery, what would be the real advantage over LM. I am not sure I want to rebuild a library of add-ons on which I have spent a fortune, unless MSFS2020 is greatly and clearly superior. Maybe LM should hold their horses and not leave the field. There are many of us with a huge investment in them, and for me not one to be lightly thrown away. But if I was LM I would consider licensing some of the Orbx base products, Active Sky, Navigraph etc which really have upgraded your product.

What a heck of a stream this is. I wouldn't blame MSFS for dropping the whole idea. However my views given the hundreds already expressed are simple. Give us the best of P3D4 and XP11 on a new engine that only demands reasonable though high specs. Forget backward compatability and take us into a new world.

Great work and thank you. Time of day, seasons, cloud conditions are all significant and it is hard to get a real comparison. But if diurnal and seasonal changes, along with light and weather are handled competently in the new sim, then I will be delighted. A moment by moment exactitude would be expensive beyond belief so reasonable depictions of season and diurnal times are to me all I would expect. If you want an exact replication of real life situations and colours, go learn to fly. Then you will be so intent on flying the plane and knowing where you are, the details of the outside, except for cloud levels and turbulence become far less important. Said by someone with 2000 hrs+ and a full IFR rating.

I did buy the v2, but of course my expectations have long since changed and this model feels and operates really outdated. Not in the flight dynamics as such, but in the functionality of switches and knobs and all that necessary detail. These we expect to be fully operational in all views, therefore it is well behind the times. The MCDU needs to accept plans from external planners, and be upgradable by Navigraph or similar. I don't look for a study level aircraft but simply one that meets modern standards of FMS, panel and flight deck design. In truth I have only got it off the ground once and after a struggle to prepare it.. Therefore I am looking for a real update in the August release of the latest version......whether discounted or not. But it must not disappoint.

It will only be good news if there has been some serious thought given to a full FMS/FMC...the pathetic flight computer in the ATR 42 is an embarrassment for such a fine company to produce. Also a good setup will make what is a highly saleable aircraft even more attractive. I can survive just without fuel and loading functionality, but to have to put the F1GTN 750 in at the customers expense, then learn how to use it, really pushes the overall effort up. Carenado, the ATR 42 model is a good one, but finish the 72- off properly and you will really find the full market.

My sight regrettably is dimming with age. My eyes are well assisted but it still doesn't prevent small detail being hard to read. How would I go about resizing the panel, to about twice its present vertical dimension?

Before I put in a full Support ticket, I have your version 3.3 (2018) of the MJC 64bit bundle. I have installed it into P3Dv4 and all seemed to go well. C++ did not install but the log file said that as I have a later version it did not install. Direct X installed fine. I enabled FS2Crew in the Config panel. I set up two keys as main and secondary, and I do not intend to use voice. But FS2Crew does not appear in the add-on list in the P3D menu bar, and pressing the keys has no effect. Now have I missed out a simple step, being a little bit stupid is standard for me.

So I gave in and bought and installed the F1GTN750. The installation directions and additions to the cfg file are included in the Simobjects/ATR42 folder. It however effectively doubled the price of the add-on, but I admit to getting a kick out of learning the GTN which is a very complete tool. Because the installation of the 750 is included in the aircraft folder I assume that is all Carenado intends to do about automatic navigatation. With the 750 installed the native FMS is cutout completely of course and the GTN becomes the master device.

NO, slower.

Yes that comes as a big surprise, but obviously there is another waypoint or aid a long way away named POY. So simply delete this one, and the distance scale comes back to something more realistic. A more complete FMS would popup and ask you to choose, but of course not this oversimplified product. Strangely enough the next waypoint though based on POY worked ok for me. However to be safe you can find another SID that does not use POY.

Scaianor: I gave in and bought the F1GTN 750, it came in a bundle in fact with the 600, 500 series etc. Because of the accompanying text in the Carenado download, installation was very easy, (once I bought it). I am using Simbrief to build plans, which is great, and the GTN seems to have a better navdata base than Navigraph even. It took me a long, and I mean long time working through manuals and videos to work out how to switch from VLOC to GPS. Dead simple once I found it. I am also having trouble with VNAV. I found the VNAV Calc in Utilities as described but I cannot make it work as required . Even with VNAV disabled I can't choose the descent point, or distance from or whatever. I'll keep watching tutorials, unfortunately I don't think the manuals have quite caught up with the latest version! But in spite of my learning problems it has proved an absolute delight. Now the ATR45 has become a favourite, and I will need to ask about for the dimensions for the Carenado SF340.

Yes but it has dawned on me that it is not a free gift from Carenado, this is for those who own the danged add-on. Not sure the ATR is worth the investment.

It has dawned on me slowly that these are options for GTN owners. Now I know why I get that blank screen. I'm not sure this plane is worth the investment.

In the simobjects/aircraft/Carenado AT45 ... there are 3 versions of a GTN exe. Which would anyone recommend I choose for P4.4? With the F1 there is text to put somewhere, but where ....is it in the aircraft.cfg or the cfg tor P4? or a somewhere else GTN cfg. I am trying to get a better navigation system going, but there is not a word of assistance in the underdone manuals. Please help, as I have never used GTN. Most modern add-ons don't need it.

I have, and inserted the text into the aircraft.cfg file. The 750 is placed into the aircraft in a good position, but It will not turn on and off. Only the built-in FMS continues to work. Unfortunately the documentation gives no hint as to which exe to use, and no clue how to make one of them operational.

There are three .exe file options in the aircraft folder in SimObjects to install the FMC into the ATR. There is an entry I presume for the Aircraft.cfg file. Which one of these should I install for P3Dv4, and with the text installed will it take over as the FMS entirely and give full functionality to the autopilot. As you can guess I have never used the GTN before, but if it gives a better automatic flight option(s), then I will go find the appropriate manual.

Have given my views in the General Discussion forum. This model is at the same time, excellent and deeply disappointing. The FMS is the greatest weakness, as it is very incomplete. With this brought up to speed, with VNAV etc, and with flightplan import this plane would be a winner. There are other bugs, but more expert people than me have discussed and listed them. I would really hope that Carenado would go one step further than usual and bring the avionics right up to speed. It is a delightful plane to fly, but doing the old-fashioned 3x distance descent calculation wouldn't do for a modern airline trying to save every dollar in operation costs.