Boeing Heading change problem

[JonathanRichardson]

Hi

This is a general post to the past comments. (Hopefully my last one!)

We do understand these concerns, and I personally try to put myself in your seat. But I must say again, we do have a mass form of communication, it is called e-mail. As I outlined it is the chosen one for us. But this frorm has a good role to play, I just think energy is wasted bashing us on it. There are actually people who prefer e-mail to forums and vice versa. All updated areas or changes to the software are indicated in the changes.txt and any major news event is usually posted on the website under news. Recently though nothing posted because we are dealing with details not "news events" as such, and mostly we are dealing with details now. What we do not want is to add another level to this because you will be surprised at how much more that adds to the workloads. The whole idea is to streamline as much as possible to allow us time for development not admin. This has worked, we don't want to turn the problem around again. The past few months have been I must say much more busy than any others but it does not mean anything other than people are working, for every major software change a lot of planning (sometimes) and research has to be made. It is also not just limited to us internally.

A change in the software like, adding dual QNH to the MCP may seem very small to those using it on a day to day basis, but actually (just this one example) was a lot of work and adding all the other things that go with this, independent FD's - dual true mode AP's - it goes on and on, in many different areas. Just an example below:

MCP 413

- when no modes are active and F/D or A/P is switched on -> HDG and V/S active
- mode reversions from APP/VORLOC
- HDG SEL when VORLOC armed re-activated
- SINGLE CH operation down to 1500 ft

- changes to approach mode handling, both NAVs need to be tuned to ILS for 2 channel APP mode
- second A/P is kicked out when NAV1 <> NAV2 in APP mode or APP is deselected
- PFC glareshield sixpack correction
- new DLL, some CPFlight Changes

MCP 412

- added option to INI file to disable autobrakes below 80 knots

MCP 410

- release

MCP 409

- separared CMD A and B for VOR/LOC and QNH and ILS handling
- changed TOGA and GA handling (not yet for engine out situations)

- added MachAltitude INI file settings, will automatically switch to MACH/IAS when that altitude is passed and > 20000 ft

So, the infomation is there and is always there. If there is something you are really worried about just e-mail. Of course as soon as you add new features, the new features that have been requested, the complexity level goes up, and some bugs jump in. That is a fact of life, nothing we can do about it. If you want more, then there will be a price to pay ironing out the issues and likely it will take time. I/we understand 100% what people say about the route line generation as being a basic fundemental thing that should work - and I 100% agree with them. The reason why it stopped working as well as it did are complex. One reason is that it is all in an effort to make things work better in the long run. A lot of re-writing in the way the CDU handles things. And this work must continue. Before we had Navigraph there were more problems the problems were elsewhere, usually a route disappeared due to a network error or something, now it is more to do with converting the data (still our problem) we have started to change the way this in the CDU are computed from the old way to a much more in-line way as to how the a/c does it - but doing this really is complex - in the end it will be better. Hopefully in the meantime, we can fix this current issue of lines dissappearing which are worse or better depending on which navdata cycle you actually use and so on...

It is a myth that all full motion simulators work like clockwork, that is in the minds of people not the reality. As Matt pointed out already. I have been in a 737NG simulator with the route line disappearing before, I have been in a 747-400 with the IRS not ever able to be aligned losing 4hrs of time - and we are talking a team of four engineers running around 24hrs a day. And I know of countless other problems I have heard of, they are always in and out of service, they are always being checked every 3months and defect lists produced to be corrected in a time frame. I have done sim details with a defect list in my hand, "no LNAV today". In full motion sims it comes down to legal factors, if you fly a detail with no LNAV (just extreme example), then the detail must be arranged so that later down the line the pilot who failed his check can't blame it on the simulator. It is all a legal thing. I know this, been there done it - it is different to the hobby world and the expectation of the hobby world. The fact is, simulators and software are complex things. We are still adding layers to ours, as such if you want to get into that at this price point then sometimes there will be problems. If you want to spend 1.5m on the actual a/c software you could, but you will still have problems one way or another.

On the navigraph problem, it is already being looked into by Enrico and Richard.

Hopefully this is the last of my novels and you are so bored by now you don't want anymore!

Regards
Jonathan Richardson

[ryanf]

Hi Jonathan,

I for one am not bored at all to hear from yourself and PM.

Being an PM Airbus user, I am looking forward to developments there. Being also a software engineer, I am fully aware that fixes are not instant and software which is constantly being functionally enhanced can never be perfectly bug-free. However, I am a big believer in giving as much support to a customer as possible to **understand** the true nature of software problems they experience - since once they understand them, they can work around them more easily and are much more content to wait until a fix can be delivered.

Unfortunately, I am still waiting for support on problems I reported weeks ago. I have received acknowledgement emails but no actual support.....

I really hope that will change soon.....

It's good to hear from PM!

/Ryan.

[JonathanRichardson]

Hi

If it is the same "Ryan" you sent in a specific list, some are probably specific to your set-up, some are most likely problems our side, some might be flight model related. The list you sent in is on file, it is also logged for the main development cycle. It has to be tested in context with when we get into the Airbus stuff, we can't test it now or resolve it in any depth.

You also asked when can we expect major changes/improvements in the Airbus software and in relation to this specific question and the above I answered:

My Reply: "By the end of the year. There will be more work in the Airbus
area, and there has already been preparation work done for that."

Nothing has changed at all to what I previously stated. So, I am not sure why (if it is you) you state you have not had a status update, the status update as I stated will not be until the end of the year. So, I repeated everything for you.... (if it is you )

Regards
Jonathan Richardson

[ryanf]

Hi Jonathan,

yes it is the same one!

Yes you did reply to me before and gave me lots of interesting information about what developments you are planning - which I appreciated.

Unfortunately, I am no closer to understanding the problems I am having - yes they may be flight model related or related to the config files I use etc.....there is no need to get into it here...

I was just making a point that I am not looking for a fix right now, just some one on one email support to discuss/troubleshoot the issues I am having so I can see where my setup is wrong. I have not received that.

If because of your current developments, you cannot provide that support, and if it will happen in the next month or so, then ok - I'll have to wait.

cheers,
Ryan.

[JonathanRichardson]

>If because of your current developments, you cannot provide that support, and if it will happen in the next month or so, then ok - I'll have to wait.

That is exactly correct. We can not provide specific further information on your issues without much more detailed work ourside as such we can't give further info. We have to do this in context with the already planned work. That is what I stated at the time and the status has not changed.

The important point aside from your specific issue is - we did respond to you, I don't want it to appear from your post to people that you wrote in and got no response, I have several e-mails on file to and from you. It is all logged. Your message is not lost. If you had posted the same list of issues on this forum for us to look at - I never would have found it for future reference because our system is not set-up for that. This is a very good example why e-mail works better for us. The fact that your issue is still outstanding is out of my hands - it has to be resolved in a much more detailed context.

Regards
Jonathan Richardson



cheers,
Ryan.[/QUOTE]

[ryanf]

....I meant to say this in my previous post....

I think that the PM software is **excellent** and for what it provides, is well worth the price - I have never regretted buying it.

There are only (what appear to me at least) small bugs that need fixing - the software is high quality and about 90% there.

Unfortunately, these small bugs can make using the software difficult at times but in the big picture, are really quite small.

I just think that it needs to go the last mile....

[3202b]

The important point aside from your specific issue is - we did respond to you, I don't want it to appear from your post to people that you wrote in and got no response,

Well I hope it's important for me too because I've wrote in 3 or 4 times over the last 3 months and what response or support have I had to my problems?

Absolutely nothing at all apart from an 1 worded acknowledgement from you to say you have actually received my emails.

So from this customers point of view the support email system is not working at the moment - It was a few months ago when Enrico was working really hard to get some of the major problems fixed. It just seems to have gone deadly quiet - a response to say that something was going to be done would have been nice but I've had nothing. I can wait for things to be fixed but when it feels like my support requests are being ignored it's just not good.

It's just so frustrating to not hear back at all, I really want to get the problems sorted and offer any help I can give..I really don't want to spend any more money on other software (AST A320) when I know PM could be great.

[JonathanRichardson]

The same thing applies - but posting on here is a no win situation for us, I already spent a lot of time explaining things, but people will immediatly use it as a way to publiclly vent their frustration. It makes no difference what we say, there will always be situations where we can not meet expectations. Your e-mails were not neglected - it is just that we can not switch right now to your issues. If we did we would let someone else down. Everything is planned and we will stick to these plans I'm afraid.

Regards
Jonathan Richardson

[3202b]

Why you didn't just tell me that in a support reply email I just don't know. What do you expect me to think if you write to someone 4 times and receive no reply?

[JonathanRichardson]

Why you didn't just tell me that in a support reply email I just don't know. What do you expect me to think if you write to someone 4 times and receive no reply?

We did reply, twice (brief look), once to tell you that there will be improvements coming (and there has already been some since that reply) and once more to tell you that we did receive your email. Without spending time cross referencing I think there were other support issues resolved with you. If Enrico or any of us decides not to reply it probably means he/we have no further useful information to give you - especially as we see you coming back again and again. As I said - we can not please everyone 100% when dealing with 5000customers - we can only try our best. We are not dealing with a simple mass product. We are dealing with something that requires a lot of support. Not just Airbus, but right across the board, all products. If you are that unhappy, why not try the demo of AST? Make an evaluation of it? Is it that much better? Does it have flaws as well? Who knows - I don't. Perhaps not - if not use that. Not sure what else one could say...

Regards
Jonathan Richardson