knightracing

Always the way, you spend 3 hours trying to figure something out. Type a post to try and get some help and then find a solution 10 minutes later. Ok, so for all you 767 pilots out there, there may have been a change in Xplane or the 767, who knows but there are now two data refs at work here, not just the one like before. 1-sim/mic_sel/1/1/button controls what you are listening to and now.. 1-sim/mic_sel/1/1/button_volume controls what comm channel P2A is displaying. Set to 0 you get com1 and set to 1 you get com2. These may have been linked earlier but are now separate. Problem solved, sorry Dave for getting you involved..... although I suppose you never really were 😉 Thanks mate, p

HI Dave. Been a while. Just wondering, since the XPlane11.3 run ( currently on 11.33 ) the comm switching seems to be...... kinda broken? I'm not really sure what's changed. I fly the FF767 and P2A used to boot up and follow the radio config I had set up. If I had VHF L Mic Selector selected P2A would display Com1. When I selected VHF R, P2A would switch to Com2. Since 11.3 P2A now boots up on Com2 and seems locked there. The frequencies follow the aircraft but the displayed Com channel doesn't follow the aircraft radio selectors anymore. If I want to have Com1 on P2A I have to go to Config and reverse com channels. If I press the Com1 button on P2A it switches immediately back to Com2. Any idea what may have changed? The aircraft is still using the datafref "1-sim/mic_sel/1/1/button" which it always has for VHF L Mic Selector & "1-sim/mic_sel/1/3/button" for VHF R. P2A has been working flawlessly with this for the 2 years I've been flying this aircraft until now. Any ideas greatly appreciated. p

I could be wrong too ;) but I've seen this behaviour as well but it seems to me to be a function of the length of the STAR, not the TOD point. P2A seems to like to give you the "Expect the xxx arrival with the xxx transition" call a short time before arriving at the first waypoint of the STAR. Then it will give you the descent instructions just before your TOD. If they line up that way. However, if you have a very short STAR where your TOD is before that first waypoint of the STAR, I have had flights where I just blow through the TOD before getting any kind of clearance to descend. It's gotten to a point where if I am planning an arrival with a short distance STAR, I program in one of the hold points into my FMC so that I can use the hold to shed altitude knowing that I will be getting a late clearance. Alternatively, you can always ask ATC for a flight level change to 6000 feet or something just before your TOD, descend and the ATC will catch up with you with descent instructions while you are doing it. p

You are correct. If you have a version prior to 2.4 you must do a full install. There were major changes, not least of which were the 64 bit version. Be sure you are updating from 2.3 and NOT 2.4.0.3. If you actually have 2.4.0.3 then all you need is the updater and install it right over top of what you have. Bottom line, as Bill said, it is spelled out pretty clearly on the download page. Read carefully and you should be fine. p

I notice this will happen mostly over long readbacks like Clearance for example. I figured the "cutout" for the chatter has a time out rather than being directly attached to the PTT button being pushed. p

Hey Dave, I have been using your suggested method listed above for a while now ( Force Runway unchecked at destination ) and it does work amazingly well. Hardly ever have direction issues compared to my WT3 operations files and when there are it's usually at airports where I've programmed complex operations for multiple crossing runways which I couldn't expect P2A to predict. ( see below ) The only thing I notice and I'll use CYYZ as an example as it's my home airport. When P2A chooses an arrival runway, it always chooses the first in order. For example if Operations are East, it seems P2A will always choose runway 05, never 06L or 06R. For West ops it will always chooses 23 and never 24L or 24R. I'd like a little more randomness on that front if it's possible. Small thing but since the topic is up here. Ultimately, I'd absolutely love if P2A could read the Operations file or if Taxi maintenance could let us write our own ops like in Wt3. Wish list? ;) p

Hey Jeb1952. While not addressing particular concerns about future features, I am running exactly the same setup as you ( XPlane, WT3 and P2A ) and have a workflow which eliminates all your issues. I rarely have mismatches and when they occur, they are easily addressed as "runway changes" which to me adds realism. First of all, I never fly to or from an airport which doesn't have a Wt3 Airport Operations file. I also make sure that the low winds in P2A Taxi maintanaince ( under 5 knots ) are set to match the low winds of WT3 so that issue is gone. This ensures that no matter what the winds, I know which runways will be in use in WT3. With the flightplan done in P2A I do my preflight and don't file it until a half hour before takeoff. Just before I need to copy clearance. That way any changes in weather while doing my Preflight can be addressed in the flightplan before filing. Force runway selection is checked before takeoff and after selecting the takeoff runway in WT3. Now they always match. I uncheck this after takeoff so that P2A can assign me a proper runway and arrival procedures based on winds at destination if they change. MOST IMPORTANTLY. I run the Skyvector website on my laptop next to my sim to update me to the weather at my destination and alternates before and during the flight so that I know what's going on before I get there. Doing this in P2A before take off makes the likelyhood of a match at destination greatly increased. When within 80nm I check the WT radar to make sure the WT3 operations match the ATIS at destination. If they don't RESYNC!!!! WT3 needs to catch up. There is no loss in emersion or realism resyncing this far away as the destination is repopulated and running fully in the 20-30 minutes before you touchdown anyways. Most flights this resync is not necessary. WT3 is greatly improved in this area over WT2. Following these procedures I haven't had any mismatches between XPlane real weather, WT3 and P2A as long as I can remember. When the weather does change at destination during a flight, with "Force runway selection" unchecked and ATC assigns Sid/Strs" checked after take off, P2A will assign the proper arrival and after updating your flight plan, things are always good. Hope this helps, p

Could you not just turn off the sound slider for P2A in windows? p

I had brought this up earlier and have thought about it in detail since. Especially since it will be important to have taxi route directions compatible with WT ground routes. Otherwise kaos will rule. Rather than have P2A read ALL the ground routes from WT ( there can be over a thousand ) I was thinking it could be as easy as a dropdown or similar with 3 options for a taxiway. Taxiway segments can only run in two directions. For example, say it runs perfectly North/South. The dropdown would contain "360" ( North Only ) "180" South Only or "Both". Both could be the default but this would make it fairly quick to assign directions where it is important for traffic flow, even for a large airport. p

Hi Dave. I have got the static to play now so I can at least confirm that . Although I actually had the P2A volume in my mixer at 0 by accident, I could still hear my TTS voices properly in my USB headset despite this so I didn't think to check that. My bad there ;) Now the static is playing but it is indeed coming out of my speakers, not the headset. On the Speech Tab of the Config, I have the Speech Output Device set on "Speakers (USB Audio Device)". Is there another setting I've missed to get the staticv to go there also? Right now setup this way I get TTS voices in Headphones and static through speakers. p

Ok, thanks, I'll check. Just want to confirm one more thing first. in my situation I have my ATC coming through my headset and the X-Plane sounds goint through my external speakers ( Plane, cabin sounds and AI sounds ) . If the P2A voices are assigned to my USB headset, is the static also automatically sent to that? If the static is going to the external speakers, I will never hear it. p

Hey Dave, did this actually get patched? I have the static file loaded and just realized after a flight with 2.3 that I still have never heard the static when ATC is talking to me. Just wondering, p

I know this will sound sarcastic so I write this disclaimer because it is not meant to be but doesn't your plane have that feature? p

You just have to turn down com radio slider in the sound menu of xplane, p

Yes you can. <callsign> request climb to flight level xxx p