Goober 0 Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 Hello to all. I humbly come before you in need of help. New to FSX, and a bit older in age. Which tends to lead to frustration on my end. I can not figure out how to get ATC window to launch when sharing an aircraft with my buddy. I can get it to launch in free flight no prob. Any help would be greatly appreciated. And stuck in the Free Flight lobby of GameSpy....I can't get logged in and I cant select a different lobby until I get locked in ....This Game is pumelling me and my co-pilot..... Link to post Share on other sites
Longbeard 0 Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 I agree, we really need some direction, if anyone would be willing to help us out, we would greatly appreciate it. Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 Gents, This is generally a very helpful place, but what you're doing is a little out of my line. I hope someone else can jump in and help you. Sorry I can't offer any help - I'm clueless on this one. John Link to post Share on other sites
Longbeard 0 Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 Thank you for the reply. Hopefully someone can help us. Link to post Share on other sites
grth_bbtt 0 Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 Hi, welcome to the forum Im assuming that this could be a sort of mulitplayer play if your flying with your buddys. If this is the case then ATC dosnt work in multiplayer for some odd reason. Think of it as them "going on strike" Link to post Share on other sites
Goober 0 Posted January 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 Hi, welcome to the forum Im assuming that this could be a sort of mulitplayer play if your flying with your buddys. If this is the case then ATC dosnt work in multiplayer for some odd reason. Think of it as them "going on strike" You assumed right it is, and I failed to mention it. I/we certainly do appreciate the response. The whole event has been driving both of us crazy. I'd say in excess of 8 hours were spent yestreday alone reading in the learning center and playing with settings anything we could think of...each time to no avail. Longbeard or as it came about last night...Chewy was getting loud and abnoxious about the whole thing. So thank you once again for informing us they were infact on strike. Our search is finally over Link to post Share on other sites
grth_bbtt 0 Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 Glad to be of help Link to post Share on other sites
Longbeard 0 Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 Longbeard or as it came about last night...Chewy was getting loud and abnoxious about the whole thing. LOL...thats a good one! And yes, thank you for the response, we searched everywhere we could think of to try to find this out, which is what led us here. I have read bits and pieces about addon ATC programs, does anyone know anything about those? I suppose that if we can ever figure out how to properly use the GPS, and the radio, we probably won't need an ATC, but it sure seems like it would help us. The learning curve on some of this stuff is pretty steep for a new pilot in training. We don't know anyone who is experienced with any of this, so we're having to stumble around like blind hogs looking for acorns. Thanks again guys! Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 There's a review of Radar Contact, an ATC add-on here... http://mutleyshangar.com/features/jda/rc4.htm I don't know if RC is suitable for multi-user sessions or not, but it's a serious ATC replacement for the MS flavor of ATC, which is pretty sad. As for other issues, this is a good place to get help. I didn't realize initially that you guys were relative newbies - but ask away, and I'm sure help will be forthcoming. The MS GPS does an OK job of getting you from point A to point B. The best way to use it is to create a FS flight plan first and save it. That puts the flight plan in the GPS, available to guide you. John Link to post Share on other sites
Goober 0 Posted January 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 once again thank you for the info. James Link to post Share on other sites
Longbeard 0 Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 That looks like an excellent App, I'm just a little concerned that it's over my head at this point, not to mention not having $45 to spend on it. I definitely would like to get it at some point though. I think what I really need to do, is learn more about using the GPS, and the radio. Assuming the radio works in multiplayer? Is there anywhere that I can find more info about these two things, preferably written in terms that a newbie can understand? I printed out the manuals for the GPS, but some of it is a little over my head at this point. Again, many thanks for your time. Link to post Share on other sites
grth_bbtt 0 Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 This is what this forum is all about- helping fellow simmers. Everyone here was in your position once, not having a clue what everything did but now most of us are landing our planes without touching the joystick. "why dosnt ATC work in multiplayer?" I did respond further up the topic. However I shall put in more basic terms. It simply dosnt work in multiplayer. I have yet to found out why, but Ive not been on multiplayer for so long I dont really care about not having ATC. If you think the GPS is hard, wait till you start programming the FMC (Flight Managment Computer). This is a feature that most airliners have today, and are able to program their routes, fuel and alitude on this small computer. Although this is highly complex. I have included the image below and shall try to explain what each one does. on the top right hand side you have the letters "RNG" with arrows above and below it. This can change the zoom level of the map. The top arrows zooms out and the bottom one zooms in . The button below that enables you to enter and airport ICAO code (every airport has one) or the name of the airport. To find your way to an airport of your choice, push this button. You then come up with a screen. If you look at the bottom right of the GPS you see two knobs. Both of which have arrows on. Click the right arrow that is on the top knob. Now enter your airports ICAO code. If you dont know what the code is then click this link and type in the airport you wish to visit- Screen display- Top right you have "DIS" which is distance to go in Nautical miles. Bottom right you have "ETE" which is how long you have to go to the airport. this is displayed in hours and minutes. Hopefully this will help for now, and im sorry for the lack of images to use whilst explaining, as I know it can be quite confusing understand what other say. Link to post Share on other sites
Longbeard 0 Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 That is very helpful, thank you very much for that! Is there a way to have the GPS line you up for the approach? For instance, if the runway runs perpendicular to your line of travel, can the GPS direct you around so that you will approach the runway straight on? That would be a huge help, we usually have to get the airport in sight, and make those course corrections basically by "guestimating", if you will. Which more often than not, requires a fly-by or three. Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 If zoomed to an appropriate level, you can see the airport layout on the GPS, as long as you're near enough that it is on-screen. The GPS is always centered around your AC, with you displaced toward the bottom of the screen. If the airport is in the field of view at a fairly high zoom, you can typically see the runways. You can turn downwind at some distance from the field if you know the runway number/heading you intend to land on. Just use the runway heading + or - 180 degrees. At a suitable distance downwind, turn 90 degrees toward the field and when you approach the runway extended centerline, turn inbound on the runway heading and make corrections as you get closer. The trick is when to turn from the base leg to the runway heading. The easiest way is to tune the runway ILS localizer (if the runway has an ILS) on the NAV 1 radio and let the OBI tell you. It can be done with a stopwatch if you know how far offset you were from the runway on the base leg, or can be done visually if your downwind didn't take you too far away. For visual approaches if is typical to overfly the field at midpoint at a 45 degree angle to the runway, then turn downwind, then base, then final to the runway heading, remaining close enough to keep it in sight (except when the wing hides it in the turns). Enjoy.... John EDIT: Another way to know where you are in relation to the airport is to punch up the Map view from the top-line menu. The sim halts while you're looking at it and the little AC icon will show you where you are and what direction you're heading. Link to post Share on other sites
Longbeard 0 Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 Once again, that is very valuable info to me, thank you very much Sir! You mentioned using the radio to get more guidance, that is another thing thats I've been struggling with. I can never get anything out of them, no matter what I do, and I have yet to figure out why. I have tried to follow the instructions in the learning center, but they just never seem to work for me. On the other hand, there was one flight, about a week ago, James and I was sharing an AC as we normally do, we were about 20 minutes from our arrival point, and my PC locked up. Screen froze, etc. This happens from time to time, and the only way to get out of it is to shut down and reboot. So I did that, and I was able to rejoin Jame's session, and also rejoin his AC. As soon as I was back in the AC, I was hearing the radio, non-stop. It was giving us weather info about some airport, unfortunately it wasn't the one we were heading to, but it was working at that moment just the same. So I thought maybe something had been reset or whatever, and now it was going to work, so I pulled up the kneeboard, got the frequency of our arrival AP, and changed the radio over to that, and as soon as I did, no more radio, and I haven't had it work again since. James never did hear it that night. I have a Teamspeak server that we use for VOIP when we fly, so I keyed the mic so he could hear it, and he too was puzzled. I wish we could figure all that out. I think my gray hair has started multiplying at a vigorous rate since I got this sim. This forum has been a very good find for us, we appreciate your willingness to help us very much, that goes for all of you! Thanks again, John Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 Many airports have what is known as ATIS - Automated Terminal Information Service. You tune a frequency dedicated to ATIS for that airport and if you're close enough, you hear a recording play over and over. It typically gives WX, runway in use, tower and/or approach frequency and maybe some other things. As the ATIS announcement changes over time, it is updated and the letter designator increments, so you may hear, "Miami Airport Information Hotel" one time and, "Miami Airport Information India" later. Not all airports have ATIS. Some have similar automated things with only WX on them or other variations on that theme. Those are called ASOS, AWOS and a few other arcane acronyms. Not every airport has one of these. The smaller the field, the less likely there is to be any kind of automated information being broadcast. Radio Frequencies for individual airports are easiest found in the map view. Pull open the map from the on-line menu, zoom and/or scroll so the airport you're interested in is in view and click on the runway. Text information for the airport will come up, including radio frequencies. ATIS, Tower, Ground, Departure, Approach, Clearance Delivery, Center, and probably a handful of others are all voice information and you must tune one of the COM (Communications) radios to receive it. If you're not tuned to an automated source that plays over and over, you usually have to transmit a call first before anyone talks to you. You do this by selecting an item from the ATC menu pulldown. The NAV (Navigation) radios are used to tune Navaids (Navigation AIDs) which come in several different flavors. There is typically no audio associated with these except the Morse Code identifier that assures you you're receiving the station you think you are. The information from these is typically displayed by various panel instruments, OBI, ADF, HSI, etc. John EDIT: I'm assuming from the screen-names and "accent" that you are from the US and at least one of you is of the Southern persuasion. Are you near Florida? Link to post Share on other sites
Longbeard 0 Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 Thanks again John! We are near Florida actually, here's a little background on us, I am in Brunswick, Georgia, which is on the coast, about 40 or so minutes North of the Florida line, and my friend James, a.k.a. "Goober", is in Savannah, Georgia, which is just a couple minutes South of the South Carolina line, and also on the coast. He and I have been good friend since we were teenagers. I am 37 years old, and I believe James is 38. James works for Gulfstream, skinning aircraft, and I own a (very) small business. If you're not tuned to an automated source that plays over and over, you usually have to transmit a call first before anyone talks to you. You do this by selecting an item from the ATC menu pulldown. And since ATC doesn't work in multiplayer, I am assuming that this will not work either? I really don't understand why there is no option to use the same ATC in multiplayer, that is available in single player. I'm sure theres some good reason for it, but I just don't see what that would be. I realize you can have a human ATC online, but one would think it would have been just as easy to have the AI available if one would so choose. At some point, I would like to fly on bigger servers, where there is a live ATC, but we are simply not ready for that just yet. Does anyone here ever fly multiplayer? On a side note, as I mentioned somewhere, I own a Sim Racing League, and I have a Teamspeak server available, if any of you would like to join us on there for a chat sometime, you are more than welcome to do so. Just let me know, and I will get you the info. John Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 John, You're not so very far away then. I'm in Ocala, FL and often drive by Brunswick and Savannah on the way to see family further north. I've been tempted to stop and see that Mighty Eighth museum in Savannah, but haven't yet. I look forward to seeing that B-47 parked there every time I pass. I don't do any multiplayer, though have seen some references to it here at MH a time or two. I think there may be others who dabble in it. As for the availability of ATC in FS with Multiplayer turned on, I'm guessing that mutli-player must borrow some piece of the FS engine functionality to do what it does, making that piece unavailable for ATC. I'm just guessing - don't really know. If you're into sim racing you may know (or know of) EJ Hunyadi. He's a member here and I think that's one of the things he dabbles in. He's also in the US, but a bit further west. John Link to post Share on other sites
Longbeard 0 Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 I've been to Ocala a few times. Next time you're in the neighborhood of Brunswick, let me know, maybe we can grab a sandwich together or something! I think James has been to the Might Eighth museum , seems like I remember him talking about it. If not, he and I may need to put that on the to-do list. I'm afraid I don't know of EJ Hunyadi, but maybe he and I will cross paths around here sometime, it's always good to meet like-minded people. We mainly race stock cars, (NASCAR, ARCA, etc.) but we dabble in road racing from time to time as well. You can check out my website at http://hammerdownracing.net if you like. Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,497 Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 Nice site John although I would need to register to see all the interesting stuff! Did you say you had a Teamspeak server? Cheers Link to post Share on other sites
Longbeard 0 Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 Thank you! I do have a TS server, would you like the connection info? Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,497 Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 John If you would like to PM me the info that would be great, don't put it here, I don't want it to be taken advantage of unnecessarily. It would be very handy if we get a multiplayer session off the ground. Link to post Share on other sites
mick 0 Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 welcome to the forum goober and longbeard like you i am in my later years not too old though,have had a lot of help from people on this forum over the past months.love the sims and i too thought the GPS system was a very difficult thing to learn and at times nearly gave up with it.once you know it is quite simple to use,easy to say that now i suppose.when i first started with the FMC i thought oh my god!but i plodded on and with the help of this forum and plenty swotting i think i have sussed it.good luck and dont give up.regards mick Link to post Share on other sites
Longbeard 0 Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 Thank you Mick! Glad to be here! I normally don't let things whip me, I'm too hard-headed for that, and this gps will be no different, I'm gonna figure out how to use it soon, now that I have some help with it. Thanks for the reply! John Link to post Share on other sites
Goober 0 Posted February 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 I must say thank you to all of you. You won't see me here much, I keep very early hours. Even on weekends, it is near impossible to stray to far from that. Way too much negative energy on my bi-polar axis. I see that chewy has become a big hit here. Not a big surprise, he is sharp and well mannered. The info ya'll have pulled through with has been great. I/we so appreciate the attention to detail in your posts. I have yet to see the Mighty 8th. Belive it or not it is literally 3/4 of a mile from me. I do work for Gulfstream Aerospace. I'm a structural mechanic . We build the G450 and G550 from the ground up through C.O.A. I'm mid barrel aft assembly on both models and build or am a part of building all 4 panels for each. Bottom, Top, Left and right We string 'em...frame 'em bulkheads and all...shoot the panels to them...pull 'em out the fixture (phase 1) and install all interior mechanical components in phase 2 on the floor. From there they go to the joining barrel. Once all panels are out of the barrel they meet the wings, tail, foward midbarrel and capsule in major joining. While this is going on all avionics, hydraulics and electronics are installed. From there it is the final line where all systems are powered up and checked then to completion which is basicly a hold hanger waiting on the travelers to clear and be issued it's C.O.A. We built 92 A/C in 08 and are on a flow to turn 96/94 this year.....everyone in major assembly is turning their panels on a 4 day flow. Anyway, I'd seen where all of you had been good to my boy, so that alone warranted a thank you. And I suppose I didn't want any of you to get the wrong impression thinking I was rude. I just don't spend a lot of time behind this thing except to fly now. And that is usually Thursday- Sat. BTW if you are wondering where the Chewy thing comes from....well it is the way we fly together...one night it just came about over a cool one on line.....and well....he is the brains of our little outfit. I'm just a wanna be turbine jockey. Link to post Share on other sites
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