Weird events while flying...
John,
You're right about weird things happening; I was talking to Turkish 525 and we both agreed that something was causing the flights to nose in on final approach when selecting approach and CMD B (CMD A was set) for full stop Autoland. I had captured the ILS and was setup perfectly in Project Magenta, as well as the aircraft being completely configured for landing, yet it nosed over at which point I took control and brought it in from 500 AGL (could not see the field until 200 AGL with the fogged in weather).
Anyway, I know PM was working correctly before and after logging into the server. Also, I practice a great deal on IFR conditions right down to zero visibilty. So, I know I had not forgotten anything in regards to the aircraft itself. Thus, that is why I agree that something is amiss with the Server/FSHost/AIBridge.
Furthermore, I'm not sure what caused the scenery to project the aircraft lights incorrectly either, but my PMDG 737-800 with Shockwave Lights was projecting the shockwave lights and the standard default lights of MSFS 9 aircraft at the same time. This is the first time I've ever seen this happen. I checked this out afterwards and could not replicate it; although, all the settings were the same except for being logged into the server.
As for the scenery itself and the information you provided, I can say that I haven't seen anyone put in this much detail and effort to get us to fly together. I admire you for the hard work you've done for us, and I hope you'll provide more flight data llike you did to get us all going with this...
I've said this somewhere earlier about the MyCockpit Server and someone has just suggested it agin within this topic; we should have a regular night or club night where this is done, as well as using the server for anytime flying. I truly think this is the best approach to getting us together and if a person cannot not make the initial departure times, they can still fly the route afterwards. As someone else also suggested that if the departute time(s) are repeating every hour based on your specific time zone, that would put even more pilots in the skies.
An example would be starting at 5PM GMT in Europe and of course that would be -6 for me, so at 11am I could join the folks in Europe, and then when 5pm does occur in my time zone I could join others within in my area or folks in Europe who missed their start time could now join me at 11pm their time. Of course this would be for all of us around the globe.
Finally, I did see that a few folks were not able to make it for one reason or another, and I hope they'll be able to join in next time because it was a good experience to fly with my friends here at MyCockpit.org.
Thanks again John for setting this up,
John C
Ps. Bob would it be possible for you to do two things for us?
1. Can you make a storage folder location on (within) the MyCockpit Server forum or a direct link to a pre-defined location in the download library so that we can place items such as; scenery, aircraft, flight plans and etc, etc. for that particular flight of the week?
This would save a great deal of time instead of all of us going out and searching for the items we need individually. We (or one of us) or whoever the host of the week is, could put the items (after finding them) in the folder for that week's flight and after where done, the items can be removed or backed up somewhere else (in case we were to do same route again some other time).
edit: This just gave me an idea, if there is way to have list for all 52 weeks (a calendar or such) in which the members here could voluntarily select a week that they would like to Host a session week (Hosting in the sense of planning and providing items like John just did). Thus, they could select what works for them as far as planning goes and thereby making it easier for others to know what will be coming up in regards to the next flight/route.
2. Is there a way that MyCocpit could host a server on Gamespy for FSX and then we use it to fly within that realm (sometimes), as well as use it to recruit others to come to MyCockpit.org to fly. I would have no problem doing ATC; especially at Chicago-KORD to help get others to come over to MyCockpit FS Server...
Thanks Bob
Copying Flight Plans into MSFS9 or FSX
Hey all,
Get ready for some long reading. Not sure how many know this, but you can copy the Flight Plans in the format that John Baymore illustrated directly into the plugin file folder within FS9 rather then trying to edit this by starting FS9 and using the Flight Planner Window itself.
Here is how I did it:
1. copy the format provided by John (example) by highlighting it and then use control-C to copy it.
[Flightplan]
AppVersion=9.1.40901
title=KDEN to KSLC
description=KDEN, KSLC
type=IFR
routetype=1
cruising_altitude=28000
departure_id=KDEN, N39* 50.45', W104* 42.32', +005430.00
departure_position=07
destination_id=KSLC, N40* 47.30', W111* 58.67', +004226.00
departure_name=Denver Intl
destination_name=Salt Lake City Intl
alternate_name=
waypoint.0=, KDEN, , KDEN, A, N39* 50.45', W104* 42.32', +005430.00,
waypoint.1=KK, DEN, , DEN 117.90, V, N39* 48.75', W104* 39.63', +000000.00,
waypoint.2=KK, ZIMMR, , ZIMMR, I, N40* 01.77', W105* 39.92', +000000.00,
waypoint.3=KK, RLG, , RLG, I, N40* 00.15', W106* 26.53', +000000.00,
waypoint.4=KK, EKR, , EKR, I, N40* 04.03', W107* 55.48', +000000.00,
waypoint.5=KK, VEL, , VEL 108.20, V, N40* 22.73', W109* 29.58', +000000.00,
waypoint.6=KK, MTU, , MTU, I, N40* 08.95', W110* 07.65', +000000.00,
waypoint.7=KK, THISL, , THISL, I, N40* 08.18', W111* 12.85', +000000.00,
waypoint.8=KK, SPANE, , SPANE, I, N40* 07.82', W111* 32.90', +000000.00,
waypoint.9=KK, BOAGY, , BOAGY, I, N40* 14.55', W111* 51.12', +000000.00,
waypoint.10=KK, FFU, , FFU, I, N40* 16.48', W111* 56.42', +000000.00,
waypoint.11=KK, DRYVE, , DRYVE, I, N40* 25.15', W112* 02.97', +000000.00,
waypoint.12=KK, CHHIP, , CHHIP, I, N40* 37.15', W112* 03.68', +000000.00,
waypoint.13=KK, Fix 13, , Fix 13, I, N40* 40.87', W111* 59.11', +000000.00,
waypoint.14=KK, Fix 14, , Fix 14, I, N40* 43.25', W111* 59.37', +000000.00,
waypoint.15=KK, Fix 15, , Fix 15, I, N40* 45.00', W111* 59.57', +000000.00,
waypoint.16=KK, Fix 16, , Fix 16, I, N40* 46.49', W111* 59.73', +000000.00,
waypoint.17=, KSLC, , KSLC, A, N40* 47.30', W111* 58.67', +004226.00,
2. Goto the folder where your FS9 flightplans are kept.
In my case C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Flight Simulator Files
3. Open up anyone of the flight plans (it doesnt matter which one you choose) that you see that looks like an red electrical cord end and has small text of "plug-in" under it by Right Mouse Clicking 1 time then select "Open With" in the pop-up window list, and then choose Notepad.
4. When notepad opens highlight all the text shown, and then use control-v to paste the needed plan (this will replace the one shown) or you can just highlight all text, press delete key, and the use control-v to paste in the new needed plan.
5. Now select File>Save As (within Notepad) and rename the file to whatever you like to help identify the flight plan. Make sure that you do not change the last four characters in the File Name field. So, the name would be whatever.PLN
You must make sure .PLN is within the file name for FS9 to recognise it.
6. Close the folder and then go into FS9 and selct that flight plan you just saved. The trick here is to load the flight plan into the Flight Planner Edit portion of the flight planner window of FS9. If use the load button in the Create portion of the window, and then select a different gate per se at the departure location, the okay button below will now be grayed out because (normally) you would have to select Find Route in order for FS9 to continue the flight planning stage. However, this will change what you just loaded as the route to what FS9 wants to use as the route.
The key to selecting where to start from (as in the case with John Baymore's flight plans) he had the starting positin as Runway 7, and as such, if we all come into the session together, we'd all spawn on runway 7. That means you would have to go out using the World>Go to Airport from the FS9 menu and change your location, and then wait for FS9 to reload itself based on this location change.
In other words, if you know the location you want to start from before hand you can put that in the .PLN file and then FS9 will start you there. But, let me say that again, BUT! you have to use only the first part of the starting position location that is listed in FS9 Runway/Starting Position Box.
Example:
You see Gate B 35 --GATE MEDIUM or Gate A 29 --GATE SMALL in the listings of the Runway/Staring Postion Box. Well, you only need to use the first part... Gate B 35 or Gate A 29 (make sure you leave spaces in between). Now, place that into the .PLN file on the line:
departure_position=GATE B 35
Save It, Load It in Flight Planner in FS9 and then Go Fly It!
The main point is, if you know the starting point beforehand, you'd make this change when copying the flight plan initally, so you would not have to worry about it later. It might be good for us to have different locations shown in the Flight Plan (if the host provides the data like John did) but by using the 2 forward slashes within the file, we could choose which one we want to start at by just copying and pasting the one we want to use, and only copy/paste the GATE GATE LETTER GATE NUMBER (Ignore and dont copy/paste the stuff in brackets). Also, anything on the line with the two slashes gets ignored by FS9, so this way you'd know what some starting location choices are without hunting or playing around with FS9...
An example would be:
[flightplan]
AppVersion=9.0.30612
title=KDEN to KSLC
description=KDEN, KSLC
type=IFR
routetype=1
cruising_altitude=16000
departure_id=KDEN, N39* 51.55', W104* 40.53', +005430.99
departure_position=GATE B 35
//GATE A 29 [small]
//GATE B 35 [Medium]
//GATE B 34 [Medium]
destination_id=KSLC, N40* 47.30', W111* 58.67', +004225.99
departure_name=Denver Intl
destination_name=Salt Lake City Intl
waypoint.0=, KDEN, , KDEN, A, N39* 51.55', W104* 40.53', +005430.99,
waypoint.1=K2, BJC, , BJC, V, N39* 54.78', W105* 8.34', +005729.99,
waypoint.2=K2, RLG, , RLG, V, N40* 0.16', W106* 26.55', +009369.99,
waypoint.3=K2, EKR, , EKR, V, N40* 4.05', W107* 55.49', +007619.99,
waypoint.4=K2, MTU, , MTU, V, N40* 8.95', W110* 7.66', +005331.99,
waypoint.5=K2, FFU, , FFU, V, N40* 16.49', W111* 56.43', +007689.99,
waypoint.6=, KSLC, , KSLC, A, N40* 47.30', W111* 58.67', +004225.99,
Finally, thank you for reading this and I hope it helps someone in our next flying session.
John C
