Steffenm

Thanks, Matt. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. From the presentation on the website (and the prices) I take it these products are meant to function as a serious training tool for the real counterpart. Is it safe to assume that some good documentation, or even a digital copy of the actual 430/530 manual, is included in the purchase? The PDF available for download only gives instructions for installation/setup as far as I can see.

Thanks a lot for the thorough instructions! I don't own any RealityXP products yet, but the results from the others look great. The Avidyne is indeed a FPS killer and I understand the 530 (and /430 combo) is much easier on frames. I do have one question for the RealityXP users though. I visited the RealityXP website/shop and was a bit surprised by the prices. I am a GA/VFR rookie, having flown mostly big metal like the NGX until now, but the raving reviews for the C90B drew me in and now I'm hooked. I must however be missing something. Each of the GPS units (430/530) is $50 each in the webshop, and the unlimited package is $100! Does this mean the 530/430 combo users have paid $200 for this setup? I'm genuinly curious what the appeal is and how it enriches your flying experience. In any case, I think I would start off with only the 530 to replace the Avidyne. -Steffen

EZdok overrides the 2D panel and throws you into VC just a few seconds after loading is finished. ezdok stopped launching together with fsx a good while ago for me so it's not a problem for me anymore. Since I run in windowed mode anyway, I just start ezdok from the start menu or taskbar once the fs2crew panel is started (clicking the hidden click area around the stby instruments while in 2D view) which then puts me into the VC after some seconds. If EZdok does in fact launch together with your fsx, I suppose you'd have to quit it manually (should be a gray EZ icon on the right on your taskbar) before loading the flight and then restarting it once in 2D and fs2crew is started. Which certainly is a pain in the &@($* if you don't use windowed mode. I hope you find another way around it or if works for you anyway and that you share it when you do. edit: spelling and also what Peter said, of course. I'm so used to my issues right now I'm assuming everyone's having them. -Steffen M

I have this problem as well sometimes and I think I've managed to locate the fix (for my case, at least). I'll start by describing my observation on the issue. The first sign for me that something is off is if the fs2crew PA graphic button panel does not show up when you have your intercoms set up and click the far right 'PA' button in the VC. When this is the case, I know the FO is going to act drunk and/or dumb for the rest of the flight and I might as well restart. He will do his flows normally as far as I can see, but during the preflight checklist he will insist that window heat is off when it is indeed on and do the same for one or more items. During the before start cheklist he will insist that the CDU preflight is not done and the anti-col light is off, regardless of their state. He will not start the engines because "we are not configured for that", so I start them myself. When both engines are started and stable I have to manually switch down to the next flow/checklist item ('TO flaps' in this case) and say "Flaps 5". He will then report "Takeoff flaps set" but he will not start his B.taxi flow so I have to switch generators, set the aircon, turn on pitot heat/anti-ice and turn off the APU myself. He will then move on normally to the B.taxi checklist and that one has worked fine for me so far. Fast forward to the takeoff roll with everything working fine in between, he calls both V1 and Vr way too early and the fs2crew panel switches to "initial climb" while I still might have 10-40kts to go for Vr with a heavy load. His after takeoff and 10k climb/desc flows are all good, same with checklists. The only hitch while in the air is that I can't use him to set anything on the MCP as he will, by magic, start the value at 0 and go infinitely upwards. Which means that using him to increase altitude altitude from TL 7000ft to 21000ft during initial climb results in the plane snapping down to level off while vnav disconnects. His adjustments of flaps, radio freq. and gear up/down are all good. What works for me: After a lot of problem free flights recently, until today, I am pretty convinced that loading the fs2crew panel (which intializes voice recognition) BEFORE switching to the 3D cockpit prevents the problem I'm having. I read this in another thread here a while ago which I think is buried by now. Test it by seeing if the VC 'PA' button actually brings up the fs2crew PA panel. That's how it seemingly works for me anyway. I uninstalled the old fs2crew before reinstalling the SP1c for 8-900 and 6-700 before installing the new fs2crew SP1 the day it was released. I hope this helps at least some other experiencing similar issues. I use exclusively the B738 out of the NGX models because of my virtual airline and the problem does not seem to be related with airport, time of day or any other factors, but I'll pay extra attention the next few flights to confirm what I've just written. I use EZdok (I load the flight with EZdok off and start EZdok after fs2crew is loaded to get into the VC) and GSX and a registered copy of FSUIPC 4.81. I can also confirm that "EnableDataBroadcast=1" is present in the .ini-file. -Steffen M

These look great. Thanks a lot!