Nick M

Hello Jean-Luc, I bought the GNS 530W V2 yesterday and early signs were encouraging with (mostly) successful integration into the A2A products I own (in both P3Dv4 and FSX-SE). After a bit of testing, I began to experiment with changes in the configuration panel such as enabling the Ryan TCAD. However, at some stage when testing the TCAD, my system locked-up and a force restart was necessary. Since this point, when accepting the "instrument panel self-test" screen with the "ENT" button, the following error message will always appear (image). Full text as follows. Problem Event Name: APPCRASH Application Name: G530SIM.exe Application Version: 0.0.0.0 Application Timestamp: 4bff0a69 Fault Module Name: cdp_mfd_sim.dll Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0 Fault Module Timestamp: 4bff0a3d Exception Code: c0000090 Exception Offset: 0002b250 OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48 Locale ID: 2057 Additional Information 1: 0a9e Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789 Additional Information 3: 0a9e Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789 I should also add that the error occurs in any default aircraft, so this is not something specific to the A2A add-ons. I have also made sure that in all cases, the "RealityXP.GNS.ini" has been deleted and regenerated so that all settings are default. I understand the following information is required for troubleshooting: "rxpGnsSim.dll.log" content: 17/08/31 09:33:54.479 05648 - ] # rxpGnsSim64.dll version 2.3.0.0 "rxpGNS2.gau.log" content: 17/08/31 09:33:51.710 05648 - ] # rxpGNS2.dll version 2.3.0.0 17/08/31 09:33:51.711 05648 INFO ] (No sign of "rxpGnsSim.dll.log" in "My Documents", even after adding "LogTrainer = 1" to the "[GNS_530_1]" section of the "RealityXP.GNS.ini" in the "aircraft" folder. Is this because the application is crashing before it can write to the log?) One observation which may be helpful is that where I've added two installations of the GNS 530 to a panel, GNS 530 #2 will still apparently operate normally: it's only the GNS 530 #1 which crashes after the self-test. During the self-test, CDI and glideslope needle indications are normal. If it's any help, basic system specs are Win7 Pro, i72600k @ 4.53 GHz and NVIDIA GTX970. FSX-SE and P3Dv4. Hope that info is helpful in diagnosing the issue as I can't use the product as it stands. Thanks Nick

Chris, I think A2A's comment referred to past difficulties in communicating with RXP when trying to integrate the GNS units into their products. (I have read similar accounts from other developers too.) Hopefully now that Jean-Luc has re-entered the market as an active developer, there will be no problem with ongoing communication and support. Thanks, Nick

I'll be following this release with great interest Jean-Luc. It's been several years since I've been a customer of RealityXP (the excellent "Flightline T" and "N" gauges for FS9) but it's very welcome to see you developing these products for FSX/P3D. Just a few days ago, I was on the verge of buying a GNS 530/430 "complete edition" from another developer, but will certainly wait to see the pricing and features on offer here before making any decisions. Good luck with the new release! Nick

Hello Kevin, Do you happen to know if v.2 of EZdok was beta tested with any of the A2A add-ons which have some of their own vibration physics? The interaction between the EZdok software and some of A2A's code has always been a little troublesome; so much so that I actually made a little PDF guide to go on the A2A forums where people were continually reporting issues. (With that "HoyKeySelect=4" entry which EZdok unceremoniously removes from the aircraft.cfg files restored and a couple of other changes, it seems to work okay.) Just wondering how nicely v.2 will play with the A2A stuff? Thanks, Nick

Sean and Rob, Just wanted to add my words of appreciation too. Your products have given me a great deal of pleasure over the years; the SF.260 in particular was a real FS 'game changer' and I absolutely flew the pants off it! Your talent, artistry and attention-to-detail has shone through in each subsequent aeroplane you've released, and with retirement you guys leave behind a legacy to be proud of (and I don't just mean the Lancair one!) Thanks also for taking the time to explain the reasons behind your departure from the scene. Many smaller developers just seem to vanish into thin air. I wish you both, and Carla, all the very best for the future. Thanks again chaps! Nick

Thomas, I can recommend Scan (though I haven't specifically bought Saitek stuff from them). They do the ProFlight rudder pedals for around 90 quid at the moment, and the yoke for about £116. However, looks like no stock until next month. Delivery would be about a tenner by the looks of it. Nick

Pe11e - just wanted to make you aware that leaving "high-resolution 3-D virtual cockpit" un-ticked will cause visual artefacts (enlarged LCD digits) on the radio stacks in the A2A Skyhawk, Cherokee and Skylane. It will also tend to cause some issues with cockpit lighting. Cheers, Nick

Just a brief note to add that there's currently a small glitch with the control panel installation with v1.014 (missing bitmaps). A fix can be downloaded from the link in this post on the Majestic forums and I gather the installer will be updated within a week or so. Cheers, Nick

Hi Poncho - with respect to the S-TEC System 30 autopilot that A2A have modelled so nicely in the Cherokee, there's a good tutorial video here. (It's by another A2A customer/forum member - Scott C.) Well worth a few look if you're fed up with reading manuals for now... :wink: Hi Jim - maybe worth checking to see if you've got a fuel imbalance which is causing this effect (more fuel in the right wing tank?). The Cherokee fuel selector doesn't have a 'both' position and this seems to catch quite a few folks out... Cheers, Nick

Hi Keven, Thanks for the reply. Hope the touchdown smoke does make it into a future product: I'll certainly keep my eye out... Cheers, Nick

Hello Guys! Have to confess I'm not a PrecipitFX customer (yet) but I'm certainly interested for the modest price. I have a quick question though... Does the package enhance the existing FSX touchdown tire smoke effects? As far as I can tell from the website and video, it doesn't. If this is indeed the case, is there any chance that this is something that would be considered for a future update? Maybe I'm a bit of a narcissist, but I tend to watch my landings using the replay function from time-to-time. Typically I fly GA stuff, and I've always noticed that the default FSX "fx_tchdwn_s.fx" effect is a bit odd. Specifically, the puff of smoke generated on tyre contact with paved runways seem to rise vertically whilst actually keeping pace with the aircraft (i.e. matching its forward speed) which is a bit disconcerting. Any technical insight from the FSFX experts would be very welcome. Do you guys also see the effect rendered in this way? I'm also not terribly keen on the touchdown smoke effects for larger aircraft either as they seem a bit overdone; a general overhaul of the three paved runway touchdown effects in FSX would be very welcome! :wink: Thanks, Nick

Christopher, It's not a video, but I can recommend the website Flight Simulator Navigation by Charles Wood as an accessible and entertaining way to get to grips with the subject. The Duke v2 may be great, but it'll be a testing platform as a basic instrument/navigation trainer. Something with a little less performance would make your life easier. Cheers, Nick

Yikes indeed! Actually, I'm not sure whether A2A's simulation of carb heat itself takes into account EGT. Maybe it's a question I should raise over on their forum. From what I've seen, applying full carb heat in the Cherokee is a rather quick and effective remedy, so probably not. Cheers, Nick

I hardly think one can accuse RealAir of "using the simming community as cash cows". In fact I wish more developers would take a leaf out of their book and offer older products at a substantial discount. For example, the RealAir Legacy currently represents the best value pay-ware that can be had in my opinion. That being said, I've yet to go for the updated turbine Duke. That's largely due to the fact that I'm trying to improve my instrument flying skills is lower performance aircraft - I really don't need any more distractions! I always preferred the piston Duke as well for some reason... Cheers, Nick

No - I'm with Great Ozzie on this one. The symptoms described by Elaine sound most like carburettor icing. I must admit I didn't know much about this phenomenon until flying the A2A Cherokee, but I learned a great deal from this thread on A2A's forums. As well as the temperature 'danger zone' for carb icing (well illustrated by the graph in this post by 'ft') one other thing I learned from the discussion was that carb heat should be either fully on or off. Partial carb heat application can actually make carb icing more dangerous! I'll confess I've been deliberately flying the A2A Cherokee in conditions conducive to severe carb icing (e.g. temp and dew point of around 5 to 6°C) to experience some of the simulated 'Accu-Sim' effects. For example, carb icing with high (cruise) RPM as Elaine describes is certainly possible, and it can start of as quite a subtle and insidious power loss. On the other hand, selecting full power after a descent at idle can result in... Well absolutely nothing - no power at all - until carb heat is applied. Of course, improper leaning on the ground can foul the spark plugs, but this will generally be cleared up by running at reasonably high RPM for a while. In other words, if you survive the take-off and climb out with fouled plugs, you'll probably be okay. I couldn't agree more! :smile: Cheers, Nick

I'd love to think so! However, I recently reinstalled my copy of FSX and the frame-rate drop with complex add-on aircraft was apparent from the outset. While my system is not that recent (i72600k@4.53GHz, EVGA GTX570) it's generally pretty adequate for running FSX, and I have't got a host of other add-ons. I think it's likely that the increasing complexity of internal MDL files is the culprit. Perhaps the way that click-spot functionality and animations are encoded into the MDL file? However, some of the add-ons that I use seem to suffer the problem more disproportionately than others. I've noticed the frame-rate drop is more noticeable when the sim is being worked hard, and I wonder if the explains the OP's post? i.e. If Glenn's PC is now having to work harder (perhaps due to an additional add-on), the mouse cursor effect could be the 'final straw' that's pushing his FPS below the locked value. Cheers, Nick

Yes, although oddly it's still seems to rather poorly understood and documented. I say 'oddly' because on my system it's very easy to reproduce and I'll typically lose around a quarter to a third of my FPS due to this 'bug' in the more complex add-ons. I don't think it is a rendering issue as such Martin. Instead, I reckon the FPS drop is caused by the fact that the simulator is performing calculation based upon where the cursor is and how the it interacts with switches and buttons in the VC. I'm basing this idea on some observations in this thread in the A2A forums. It's generally noted that if the cursor is visible but it's superimposed over either a 2D window or the FSX title bar, FPS are unaffected. I've also noticed that if you view the VC in 'cockpit' mode rather than 'virtual cockpit' view (I have to glance to the side to actually see the VC in this mode) FPS are unaffected whether-or-not the cursor is visible. Crucially, in both of these cases, the cursor is visible in the VC but without the click spots being 'enabled' and (on my system anyway) FPS are unaffected. This seems to suggest that it's a 'VC clickspot interactivity issue' which is causing the FPS hit. I'd certainly welcome any more input on this topic - particularly from add-on developers. It does seem to be one of the last great FSX mysteries! :huh: Cheers, Nick

Yes - that's very true as well! I'm no purist and will quite often exit the sim with the Cherokee parked-up with the engine running, flaps set and so on. When I next load the aircraft, everything is remembered, so I can basically just carry on where I left off. Accu-Sim certainly isn't all about damage, wear-and-tear and pesky maintenance. For me anyway, it's more to do with convincing behaviour of the instruments (instruments which are actually worth bothering to monitor), immersive sounds and the feeling that the aeroplane has a bit of unique character. Cheers, Nick

Hey Craig - glad you've seen the light! :smile: The A2A Cherokee certainly wins the award in my opinion and I try not to miss any opportunity to evangelise about it! It's such a charming little aeroplane which is perfect for a cross-country adventure or just a few circuits at the local aerodrome. Beautiful three-dimensional visuals, bewitching sounds, fantastic custom avionics/gauges and the overall Accu-Sim immersiveness that you describe. I could go on, but I sense eyes glazing over... :wink: The Majestic Q400 takes a close second place for me and is perhaps the winner of the 'finest technical achievement' category. I still find its performance in the sim absolutely staggering... My vote for 'best value add-on' would have to go to the RealAir Lancair Legacy: I love it and I wish more developers would discount slightly older products in this way (even though I bought it a full price). Nice thread - don't we simmers just love to vote for things! Cheers, Nick

I don't have any complaints about pitch control in the C182. Actually, the recent A2A offerings have a setting (a custom slider) to allow the user to tune pitch control. Effectively you can reduce elevator authority at higher airspeeds to make hand-flying in cruise flight less sensitive to pitch inputs. Nick

Gregg - I reckon that's really the crux of it... Both simulations are first rate so it's really down to the real world aeroplanes. Are you a low wing or high wing person? Old or new? Piper or Cessna? Lycoming or, er, Lycoming? I'm hoping that A2A's next GA release gives us the best of both worlds... A complex, low wing single with retractable gear and 'retro charm'! For example that Bonanza that TJ had me convinced was on the horizon, or the much-awaited A2A Comanche... Actually, that's not the 'best of both worlds' at all, but hopefully y'all know what I'm getting at... Character and complexity! (Just like a good single malt! :wink: ) Cheers! Nick

Speaking of the Cherokee's 'character', I though I'd borrow this screenshot which is one of my favourites posted on A2A's forums. It's taken by community member 'Papa-Lima' (hope he won't mind me respositing it here) and I think it does an beautiful job of showing the wonderful contoured panel. Prior to the Cherokee I always had a taste for newer GA interiors, but this add-on changed all that... Agree with all that Gareth, except the bit about the turbo engine! A2A modelled the normally-aspirated C182T (though I think a few people are hoping for a T182T as well!) :wink: Cheers, Nick

A2A Cherokee or Skylane? Definitely a tricky question… The Cherokee really reinvigorated my interest in FSX. As some other posters have noted, it’s got a lot of character and the 1960’s interior has a beautiful three-dimensional feel (In fact, it really feels like you can reach out and touch it, which is probably why my monitor's so sticky). Visibility in the circuit is excellent and it seems to model the characteristics of the constant-chord ‘Hershey Bar’ wing very well. Moreover, the Cherokee really does seem to feel more than the sum of its parts. So much so, that I made this rather gushy post about it! However, the C182 is also a real contender. With a constant-speed propeller simulation which seems very realistic, the Skylane also benefits from some nice refinements in terms of avionics and gauges. The CAP 140 autopilot is very capable and this time A2A have modelled the servos moving the yoke during operation which is rather cool. The C182 also features an excellent rendition of the Bendix King KI525A HSI (with a beautifully smooth CDI animation) and enhancements like this make it an excellent IFR cruiser. The ‘custom’ interior trim doesn’t feel quite as authentic as that in the Cherokee (or C172) but in spite of this minor grumble, I’m enjoying it a lot. In fact, I’m determined to become a better (and more handsome) instrument pilot because of it! I realise I haven't actually answered. Hope this helps a bit, though I really have to go with Mauricio’s initial response: get both... :smile: Cheers, Nick I betcha' don't Mr Attwood! :wink:

I think the fuel selector in the Cherokee catches out a lot of people who are used to flying Cessnas and other GA types with a 'both' position. It's easy to overlook switching tanks periodically and I've certainly ended up with a heavy wing on one side and a light one on the other! Hi Ryan - actually I still use use FSX although I did try P3D for a month with the temporary 'developer licence' a few months ago. I'm sure I'll revisit it again at some point. I've also been considering an add-on GPS but haven't bit the bullet with that one yet either... Cheers, Nick

No performance issues to report on my set-up (i72600k @4.53Ghz, EVGA GTX570). In fact, one of the best things about all the A2A add-ons is that they seem to have very good texture optimization (much like the MJC8 Q400). I can run the C182 at 60fps if I don't use complex add-on scenery or weather... I don't use any add-on GPS software though, so can't comment there. This is a handy feature of the recent Accu-Sim aircraft which isn't all that well documented. As I understand it, it can be used to reduce elevator authority at higher speeds whilst preserving full pitch control as slower speed. In other words, it won't make much difference when flaring, but helps with smoother pitch control when hand flying at cruise speeds. Agree with the OP: the Skylane is a great add-on. The Cherokee still holds a dear place in my heart though! Cheers, Nick