JaneRachel

Rob has a really good point (good to see you Rob!) I worked on a product years ago in my Microprose days where we did a Red Arrows simulation. We had for the day beautiful models done by the art guys, really nice panels etc etc, but unfinished flight dynamics. I sat with the entire Red Arrows pilots for that year as some of my devs demonstrated it to them. To a man they were all bowled over and super impressed. I pointed out that the flight dynamics were way off and we got the response that they had no term of reference for how good a flight simulator can be and didn't even realise a sim could have better flight dynamics. So a lot of it is down to perception from pilots when put in front of a shiny new toy. Without knowing what can be done, they had their own internalised quality bar. Pilots who sim regularly are a different story as they have greater expectation based on their experiences. Knowing from personal experience how much hard work goes in to these things, both in my day job and over a decade on the PMDG beta team I just focus on enjoying every minute in the air as we have come such a long way since I started my professional career with the likes of the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum sims!

this really made me laugh, thanks Steve 🙂

there should never be any reason to touch the bar on the autopilot deck in a 737, unless you are dealing with an abnormal situation.

Hey David, Don't use the bar on the autopilot. Assign the "autopilot off" option in controls to a button on your joystick or keyboard. Press that button to disconnect the autopilot. Quickly press again to silence the horn (this is how it happens in real life with an autopilot disconnect on the yoke, including the second press - which confirms your intent) Had to step in here, seeing as you was asking Jane to turn it off ;)) all the best Jane

yep seen this too, if not executing approach mode manually early enough in the MCDU. I went straight to approach speed in clean configuration after passing the approach point without hand executing it first. Speed just dropped like a brick and ignored green dot speed.

thanks again for all your help. Yep, its a crazy approach. Luckily I was only flying in from Manchester (which has a mandatory FL190 to London on the standard routing doc), so managed to get to that FL150 ok. Tried twice this morning and the APPR worked, so no idea why it glitched out on me last night. So grateful for you checking this with me Jane

Thanks Detlef, Tested at various airports here all good, except it did it to me again on the HON1H arrival in to Heathrow (might be the crazy steep path on that STAR or something). Yep, I am aware of the airline limitations and not something I would normally use either, was just testing it out to see how it performed. Really grateful for you testing this out too, thank you! Jane

heya, Yes it was a managed descent, with managed speed, so your guess is as good as mine why the speed plummeted or why the APPR phase didnt properly trigger. I was deliberately hands off letting the aircraft do its thing to see how it handled automatic approach. It was fully on speed and profile on the transition from STAR to the ILS intercept.

Carl so good to see you ! I do miss you from all the betas we did 🙂 Testing this further, but deliberately avoided manually engaging approach mode in the CDU, expecting it to slow to green dot speed and auto engage (was keeping flaps up) over the deceleration point on the ND. APPR mode didnt auto engage and the airspeed plummeted like a rock in to stall protection. CDU was still giving me the option of activating approach mode. all the best JR

and dont forget all the logistics, its not like a small FS developer who can quickly put out a patch on their website any time they want. The Asobo producer would need to get sign off from the Microsoft project manager once they had something. Microsoft would then need to inform retail and get the store ready for the update, Steam would be notified etc etc and everyone sync up. In the land of Microsoft size publishing there are a lot of internal teams, hoops and loops to get through to get something online. It's all a bit of a drawn out process. I think they worked extremely quickly to deal with the category A showstoppers, giving them some breathing space to start looking at content fixes.

I once had the misfortune of spending over a month fixing a bug in a game that I was working on, all the time being pushed for release. Turned out to be a simple array out of bounds error, but wow did it take some finding. It didnt manifest until there was exactly x amount of objects on screen. Just needed an update to one line of code and hey presto a game breaking bug was fixed.

I have been lucky enough to have access to the new HP Reverb headset and it has totally changed how I sim, flying PMDG in high definition VR in P3D. it really is a gamechanger (sim changer?) So I am currently retraining myself to use a monitor again in FS2020, but I have patience and know that the VR support is down the road as are the high def airliners. So, for now, I am just enjoying flying around in VFR and just lapping up the gorgeous scenery. I cant imagine how much that would have cost us to kit out the entire planet with that level of scenery detail in the older sims! PS Good to see you Alan, havent seen you in so long! You are quite right now we are getting there with quality, its all down to price!

Guys, As you know we were very lucky to have Colonel Doug Champagne, America's most decorated contemporary fighter pilot with us yesterday at Flight Angels. He flew 157 combat missions around the world, including both Gulf Wars, Afghanistan and was the response pilot sent after flight 93 at 9/11. His talk using the Aerosoft F-16 was INCREDIBLY popular with everyone who saw it yesterday, so by popular request here are some edited highlights of those talks (he spoke for nearly 4 hours flying the F-16 all time! about his combat missions as an F-16 and A-10 pilot and operations commander) By popular request, here are a couple of videos - (apologies for the quality, it was the best available at the time). Just listen to Doug's stories, he is incredibly engaging and at the end of each video he does an amazing aerobatic display with the F-16 including a vertical climb to 37000 from the ground in less than a minute and "dead stick" power off landing demonstrations in Afghanistan! Anyway, I will let Doug speak for himself, so without further ado, here are Doug's talks yesterday, all filmed in cockpit - https://www.facebook.com/FlightAngels/videos/309022579459213/ https://www.facebook.com/FlightAngels/videos/309017006126437/ Remember, Flight Angels is an ongoing cause - so please continue to donate, especially if like me you appreciate Col Champagne giving us 4 hours of his time to fly yesterday!!) as every penny, cent and euro goes to the kids www.flight-angels.com/donate THANK YOU SO MUCH AEROSOFT FOR PROVIDING COLONEL CHAMPAGNE THE SIM VERSION OF THE F-16! - THANK YOU TOO AVSIM FOR THEIR UNENDING SUPORT OF THIS EVENT! THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR SUPPORTING FLIGHT ANGELS - WE ARE DOING THE FINAL COUNTS AND WILL GIVE YOU THE GRAND TOTAL SHORTLY!

guys Robert Randazzo will be with us around 3PM eastern time, thats 8 PM UK, talking live at www.flight-angels.com

I enjoyed it so much he is fabulous! we are back at 2 eastern and 6 eastern US (7 and 11 PM UK). It really is worth seeing. I am so glad that you enjoyed it Scott!!

the Connie will be with us at 5PM UK, midday US eastern!!

I will ask the web team now for you, if not, its not a problem, if you PM me for anything you signed up for I will make sure you get access. You don't need to register to view the main live stream, it will be playing direct from the homepage for free. Anything else you registered for just let me know PM and I will sort it for you

Guys, Flight Angels starts tonight at 7PM Eastern (midnight UK) and runs for a FULL 24 hours of non-stop streaming, prize giving and interviews. We have over 2000 prizes which will be either auctioned or given away over the 24 hours! including MANY new releases from the big name teams! We are supported by YouTube, PMDG, A2A, Dovetail, ORBX, Turbulent, AVSIM, VATSIM, Just Flight, Aerosoft, IRIS, Airline2Sim, Excalibur and many many other publishers and developers! We have Robert Randazzo from PMDG talking live about their new 747-400 Queen Of The Skies II We have A2A revealing their new Lockheed Constellation We have Mathijs Kok from Aerosoft giving a talk on the state of the industry and entertaining us all We have Colonel Doug Champagne, America's most decorated serving fighter pilot talking with you all live about flying the F-16 on interception flight of Flight 93 on 9/11 and numerous F-16 and A-10 missions in Iraq and Afghanistan We have Colonel Hardy, WW2 Tuskegee airman who flew the Mustang and his team to share their experiences of flying warbirds in combat! We have literally scores of other guests and activities! and of course, we have the finest hosts in fightsim to host this great event, with Froogle, Novawing24, Northern Alex, Bel Geode, Matt Peddlesden, Catstrator, Ben from Airline2Sim What we need is you! Please join us, it is easy - all you have to do is go to www.flight-angels.com and watch the live feed directly from the site, courtesy of our partner YouTube. Please give generously as all donations, auction bids and every cent, penny and euro raised goes directly to sick children around the world - ALL OF EVERY DONATION straight to the charities watch this space for the guest schedule! Again, all you have to do is go to www.flight-angels.com watch and donate using the donate buttons on the website, simple as that! See you there! Looking forward to seeing you all!

its a full 24 hour event Scott

Guys, I am proud to announce that Keystone Publishing (our new publishing company that supports charity and is hosting Flight Angels) is proud to announce that our publishing partner Turbulent Designs have released Angwin Airport for FSX! It is available right now and better still, all proceeds go to Flight Angels! I cannot thank Turbulent enough for donating a whole airport, including significant development cost to Flight Angels! Thank you guys, you are the best! It is with the greatest of pleasure that we announce that Turbulent Designs, the developer of many of the flight simulation community’s most popular airport scenery expansions, including Melbourne, Friday Harbor and other major releases for ORBX, are releasing their latest airport, Angwin! The stunning airport is available now in a single installer for both Flight Simulator X and Prepar 3D. If that is not enough, the amazingly talented team at Turbulent have donated the entire airport to the Flight Angels cause. EVERY single copy sold of Angwin Airfield will directly go to the children, now and in to the future. “We really care about the cause”, said Trevor Linn, CEO of Turbulent, “and we wanted to do something really special, so we have created a fabulous showcase airport purely with the aim of raising money for the kids. It features our whole new Real Flora technology that is already taking flight simulation by storm with massive community response to our previews!” Angwin will be sold directly from the Turbulent website at www.turbulentdesigns.co.uk during the course of Flight Angels 2016, for only £5.99 ($7 USD approx.). “It’s a high definition full price airport”, said Trevor, “but we wanted to really make it available to everyone for this great cause and we hope people pick up a copy to support Flight Angels, whilst also enjoying the craftsmanship that went in to this product” After the Flight Angels event, Angwin will shortly go in to general distribution throughout the industry, led by Keystone, the charity focused publishing company founded by industry veteran Jane Whittaker. “We are putting Angwin out for worldwide retail and we are thrilled to think that all the revenue will support sick children. Every sale from every website and store will support the children! Please give generously. It’s not hard to do so with such a groundbreaking product on offer. It is already my favourite airport in FSX” said Jane. Once Flight Angels is over, this stunning airport will also be available directly from Just Flight at www.justflight.com Angwin-Parrett Field is located in the small town of Angwin in Napa County, Northern California. It is also known as Virgil O. Parrett Field or Angwin Airport. The airport itself is situated atop a hill at 1,848ft ASL, making the approach and departure particularly scenic. Just a small number of aircraft are based at Angwin, using it’s 3,217ft runway. The surrounding area has many valleys and vineyards to explore. This package contains an additional bonus airfield – Pope Lake, located to the north. Features An incredibly detailed, high definition rendition of 2O3 Angwin Parrett Field ground breaking and immersive “Real Flora” technology High definition ground poly and baked lighting Baked ambient occlusion and other rendering techniques 214 square kilometres of coverage at 30cm and 60cm 05CL bonus airport included Modelled from on-site photography Flight Angels 2016 will be broadcast live around the world from September 16-18. A live stream will show 24 hours of flights, interviews, chats and special events. Simply join as www.flight-angels.com and watch the live telethon unfold from midnight UK time (7PM US Eastern)! Flight Angels will be raising funds for three charities in the UK and USA: Over the Wall, the SeriousFun Children’s Network and Vision of Flight. Over the Wall and SeriousFun offer help and support to families of children with life-limiting illnesses. Vision of Flight is dedicated to encouraging young people, often from underprivileged backgrounds, into a career in aviation.

hey Michael, there are three ways you can get software over the weekend. I will say right here and now that there are over 2000, yes 2000 sim products on offer! Thank you so much to the whole flight sim industry! 1) You can bid on a product of your choice - we have ALL the major flight sim companies donated products to us - no exaggeration! We will be doing many by auction, where you bid for what you want. You can walk away with huge bargains and all the money goes to the kids charities! 2) You can end up getting some top flight sim software for free - yes, seriously, the big top name new release products - we have been offered some as FREE giveaways, which we will give away at random to people at the event to anyone who expresses an interest in winning that prize. That will happen every hour or even more frequently. If you don't get the prize you want, it will come around again! Basically if you want what is on offer at that time just put your name in the list and you could win it - there and then! 3) The amazing people at Aerosoft are also running a HUGE MAJOR (did I say big?) sale at their website over the weekend. The proceeds from that sale all will go in to the pot for the kids charities we are supporting too! We are supporting SeriousFun and OverTheWall, providing support for terminally ill, sick children and their families around the world. We are also supporting the wonderful Vision of Flight charity, which helps underprivileged kids to get involved an aviation career including flying lessons for them! Aerosoft will be selling a huge amount of stuff at massive discount, including the F-16 as flown by our guest Colonel Doug Champagne, airport sceneries and just huge amounts of products! All of which goes to the cause! Hope that helps!

just a reminder, the only thing you have to do to enjoy the event is turn up at the website and the live feed from YouTube will be right there for you on screen. Simple as that! There is only an extra donation requested for people attending the many workshops and flying on the multiplayer server. The main event, is completely free and open to all - it will be streamed live across the page on the website from Friday night. PMDG, A2A Connie et al will all be there on the live feed. I am also quite excited by one of the most amazing speakers in flightsim Mathijs Kok from Aerosoft who will be speaking to us on Saturday afternoon. He is VERY enlightening and entertaining, so don't miss his talk with us all! All times of guests - and we have many - product unveilings etc to be announced tomorrow incidentally, we have over 2000 prizes now to share with you guys as you bid and donate! so you can pick up some amazing sim stuff whilst donating! There will also be FREE giveaways of aircraft from the major publishers and developers! Every hour there will be a major FREE giveaway of top selling titles from the top teams! www.flight-angels.com

a thread discussing the A2A unveiling the first glimpse of the Connie! thanks everyone at A2A! http://www.avsim.com/topic/494981-a2a-simulations-lockheed-constellation-exclusive-first-look-at-flight-angels/

Guys, Just had to share this with you, at the Flight Angels mega event at the weekend, A2A and the Flight Angels team are proud - actually very proud, to share with you all the first glimpse of their new Connie! If you want to see it before anyone else in the world come to Flight Angels, watch and donate at the live stream event of the decade. This is the first time the Connie will be shown ANYWHERE in the world, being unveiled completely for the first time at the event!! - yes before the A2A forums too! You really are seeing it here first. Apart from the development team (and myself - sorry I had a sneak preview of how she looks and it is FANTASTIC as you might expect) no-one in the whole world will see it before you guys can at Flight Angels Thank you so much to Scott, Lewis and the A2A team! watch this thread for the time of the big event! How do you get involved with Flight Angels, the biggest charity fundraiser ever in aviation and simulation? Its easy, we are streaming live at www.flight-angels.com from 7PM Eastern (Midnight UK) on Friday for 24 hours, with over 50 companies involved, scores of streamers including big hitters like Froogle (our chief host :-) ) Novawing24, Bel Geode, Catstrator and others! You can also meet and talk live to America's most decorated fighter pilot who flew the interception flights on 9/11 and also chat with world war 2 Tuskegee airmen veterans about flying the Mustang. All you need to do is visit the page and the video will be live! Let me say that again, yes, the world's first glimpse of the amazing A2A simulations Lockheed Constellation! see you there at www.flight-angels.com Jane

yes everything is being recorded, and we will be creating a professionally edited highlights package, available for small donation after the event from the website. Rob, will of course be part of those highlights We have a video production company waiting in the wings to sift through everything and produce a fabulous video for everyone.