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Written by Super User

Category: Home

Published: 01 January 2012

Hits: 24186

We have published a new program update on September 30th 2013 (1.35) and a newly linked version today, Oct 1st 2013. If you downloaded before Oct 1st 2013 11:40 UTC please download the latest update again.    

Many users have requested to add the ability to select specific runways during ILS or GPS autolanding approaches. In version 1.35, this has become reality. Right-click the EFIS quickselect menu and choose from runways in the area of approx 50 nm around you. Then select GPS- or ILS autolanding from the menu.

Second, we had request for better implementation of taxiing aircraft on ground. What we did was to invent a simple GPS recording function and the ability to save the taxi waypoints to a 'flightplan', which we now call 'taxiplan' In short, start a FSX session at the gate of your choice. Select 'Start GPS recording' from the 'Extra' menu and do a precise taxi (by hand) to the holding point of your runway of choice. Them 'Stop GPS recording' and give your new taxiplan a sensible name for the flightplan direcory. Replay this taxiplan as often as you wish (select speeds from 5-10 knts) in future FSX sessions. In the update we have provided a set of demo taxiplans to taxi to and from gate 103 in EDDM.  

Display Lat/Lon now works. You can now start and stop pushback from the EFIS quickselect menu. FSXPilot is now able to check for program updates. 

We hope this all makes sense and you'll like it. As always - the update is free.

Read more: New Update 1.35

Details

Written by Super User

Category: Home

Published: 09 January 2011

Hits: 58170

Takeoff

Q: Help! I have problems with "run takeoff" from he quickselect menu. My planes deviate from centerline when I am flying with crosswinds !     

Please check your 'Realism settings' in FSX. Make sure you set realism to 'easy' or at least have the 'General' slider all the way to the left. That should solve your deviations during takeoff.

Landing

Q: My aircraft crashes into mountains when I use the normal automatic approaches (GPS and ILS auto landings) in FSXPilot ! 

 We are aware of this problem. In fact, this is a limitation of Simconnect, the program that is used by FSXPilot to interface with your flight simulator. Currently there is no way to scan the landscape in front of your aircraft "in advance". Workaround: In areas with high mountains we recommend the "straight GPS landing" or "steep GPS landing". 

Q: Help ! My F18 Hornet skids off the runway during automatic brake operation and after GPS auto landing !

 This is not the fault of FSXPilot. But there is a simple solution. Before you fly the F18, open the "realism" options of FSX and move the "General" slider all the way to the right.

Q: Help ! Beechcraft lands on the runway text book, bigger jets cannot find the runway and end up one wheel in the  grass !

If the Beechcraft can find the runway, the others will too. You probably used short GPS landing with bigger jets. this will not work. Please use normal or straight or steep GPS auto land or use ILS landing on a ILS runway. Same is true for touch and go.

Cessna and trike -> ultra short GPS landing
Biprop, turboprop or small jet -> short GPS landing
Bigger jet -> normal or straight GPS landing
Mountain area -> steep GPS landing

Q: What is the most precise way to to land a helicopter in FSXPilot ?    

 
 GPS hover. Hover above the target, wait until GPS offsets minimize, set V/S to -100 ft/min, wait touchdown. And say awesome.

Q: FSXPilot fails runway during ILS or GPS auto land in a thunderstorm with strong crosswinds !   

Yes. You should perhaps do what every real pilot would do in a similar situation: Let the autopilot fly your aircraft to the finals, then land manually. Happy landings !

Q: Can I tell Anna to ILS auto land on a specific runway at an airport ?   

Yes. Assuming you want to land in Munich airport (EDDM) on runway 26R: Please issue the following voice command ("-" is a short voice break):
"fly ILS landing" - "Echo" - "Delta" - "Delta" - "Mike" - "Empty" - "Two" - "Six" - "Right"
Please note the use of the expression "Empty" here. Must be used to produce a space between airport and runway.

Q: What is the difference between ILS and GPS auto land in FSXPilot  ?

An ILS auto land in FSXPilot will take your plane to an approach entry point (calculated by FSXPilot), then turns the aircraft to an ILS entry point (again calculated by FSXPilot), then tunes in the ILS frequencies into NAV1 of your plane and follows the glideslope (produced by FSX)  until touchdown including flaps and brakes.

SID/STAR

Q: Help! Where are the SID and STARS in V 2.0 ?    

To see the SID's in the quickselect menu, just takeoff from any airport. You will find the SID's in the menu as soon as you are airborne. To see the STARS (and the SID's) for any other airport you must select the airport first. Than open the quickselect menu again to find the new entries.

Varia

Q: I get an warning message when I try to add my 3rd party plane to the aircraft library and can not use the aircraft options dialog in PRO !  

An important parameter is missing in your 3rd party plane files. See How to deal with FSXPilot aircraft library warnings

Q: FSXPilot fails. Program is crap !  Does not work here.  

Of course it does. It has worked in thousands of installations. Landed probably a million of airplanes or helicopters. So first thing: try to calm down. FSXPilot sits at the one end, then comes a simconnect interface, then comes a flight simulator. It is all very complex. Please be patient and start to rule out problems, one after the other. The most frequent problem is that FSXPilot and a joystick or a mouse yoke fight against each other.You will see the rudders flatter and the plane not hit waypoints and become unstable. Unplug the joystick for a test. Disable mouse yoke.

If you still get problems, disable add-ons or simultaneously running processes. FSXPilot needs some computer power to generate cycles to control the aircraft. If you have intense processes running side by side (texture loading, beautiful weather add-ons,  video production) FSXPilot may not catch up with the sim world and, ind the end, fail. Please end all intense stuff for a test.  If you need help, please drop us a line, but only after you have tested a lot. Please write full, long emails with all the information you get including Windows version, FSX version, which plane, which airport, which runway, which add-ons, which graphic card, joystick disabled for a test ? mouse disabled for a test ? CTD or dysfunction ? Which dysfunction explain exactly ? Maybe attach a copy of session_dbg.txt (in FSXPilot home directory) with your email. And please don't do only 1-2 of these points, but all !

All in all, we usually do not give up until it works in the end.

If you do not like the program, simply uninstall it or delete the FSXPilot home directory from your hard drive. No registry values are written during install. 

Q: Will you be supporting Xplane ?   

No, probably not. Market too small and new GUI needed. We have FSX, P3D and FSX Steam.

Q: Can I tell Anna to use a correct pronunciation for the word "wind"  ?   

No. At least not to our knowledge. This might be problematic especially if she would ask you for permission to pass winds. Or, as we were told, more politely requesting "May I break wind, Sir?" Never mind. If you have a good solution please let us know. 

Q: Can I fly the PMDG 737 with FSXPilot ? If yes, how ?  

The awesome PMDG 737 is great for flying with FSXPilot. You must register her as one of the third party aircraft in fspilot.ini. Just add the following line at the end of the aircraft database in fspilot.ini, save the file, and restart FSXPilot. 

 ac??=PMDG Boeing 737,B737,180,180,280,155,8,1500,0,7,4,5,15,25

?? should be replaced by the incremented number of your aircraft list - if the last one is ac54, please use ac55. The plane underwent standard FSXPilot testing and we were very satisfied with the outcomes. Centerline GPS auto landings here. If you do not want to go through all the fuss with the cold cockpit, just load a standard FSX aircraft with engines running first on a runway, then load the PMDG 737. Have nice flights !

Q: Help - does FSXPilot work with FSX Steam edition ? 

We are currently having the FSX Steam edition (SE)  and FSXPilot as the default combination on our development workstation. Works like a charm. Some users have experienced blank EFIS screens after starting FSXPilot with FSX SE. This is caused by a different version of simconnect.dll that FSXPilot normally uses (RTM Version) and FSX SE sometimes uses (Xpack version). In those cases, it is helpful to just replace the file simconnect.dll, present in the FSXPilot home directory, with the simconnect.dll (XPACK version), provided in the "simconnect alternate versions folder" within FSXPilot home dir.

Q: I am doing several flights always from the same airport, how can I set it as the "default" airport and find my way back ?

While on ground, just use the quickselect menu (the one on the EFIS, the map window) and select "remember airport as home".
Go flying.

After some time, just select "Take me home" from the quickselect menu. That's all !

Q: I use P3D standalone without a copy of FSX installed on my computer. When I start FSXPilot, I get a side by side error and FSXPilot won't start. Any ideas ?  

A: Yes.

Your system cannot find a side by side application (Simconnect). Simconnect is used by FSXPilot to interface with the flight simulator software. P3D is a product derived from FSX and also has Simconnect capabilities. On a computer, on which FSX was installed first and later P3D, Simconnect is present. Good news: You do not need to install FSX in order to run P3D and FSXPilot. Just install Simconnect. 

P3D has a special “redist” folder in which you can find the installers for Simconnect. So please go to this folder on your computer :

C:\Program Files (x86)\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\redist\Interface\FSX-RTM\retail\lib

then find and install simconnect.msi. 

Q: I fly into small airports quite often. Some of them are not available in FSXPilot. Is there a way to overcome this ?  

A: In fact there is. In Version 1.5+ you can use a different AIRAC which implements all FSX airports and runways automatically. You can even import your own FSX installation into the AIRAC. Stay tuned or try the beta.

Apart from this you can always edit the files apt.txt and rwy.txt in the AIRAC subfolder of FSXPilot home directory with a conventional text editor. Add new lines for the airports and the runways respectively, using the format of the other entries. Please make backups of the files beforehand !

The format in apt.txt (airports) is:

FYTK -19.583334  20.458334 3700  ;Tsumkwe

[ICAO code] [Lat] [Lon] [elevation in feet] [;comment]

The format in rwy.txt  (runways) is:

CYYT 29   47.625000 -52.738889 266 02591 110.30 266

[ICAO code + runway number] [Lat] [Lon] [true heading to runway] [runway length in meters] [ILS frequency] [true heading to runway again]

For non-ILS runways, please skip the last two arguments. It is VERY IMPORTANT not to use magnetic headings but true headings !!

Q: Is there a separate version of the program available for Lockheed Martin's Prepare3D ? 

A: No, because the latest version of FSXPilot works great with Prepare3D version 1 and 2. No need for a separate version.

Q: Is there an updated version of the AIRAC available for FSXPilot ?

 A: Absolutely. Please visit Navigraph, go to their download page, and purchase the PSS version of their latest AIRAC. This works great in FSXPilot.

 This is what has to be done:

(1)  purchase and download latest PSS AIRAC cycle from http://www.navigraph.com

(2)  extract the PSS AIRAC files to a temporary location (i.e. desktop)

(3)  the extracted files now need to be changed to a format that is recognized in FSXPilot. For example, "Pssrwy.dat" has to be changed "rwy.txt", basically removing the “pss” at the beginning and changing the file format to “txt”.

Do this with all dat files.

(4)  go to FSXPilot main folder and copy the AIRAC folder to a backup location (just in case anything goes wrong)

(5)  place all the new files into FSXPilot AIRAC folder (overwriting any old ones)

Please make backups and  please keep in mind that you actual scenery and navaid data may not reflect all changes in the latest AIRAC. New airports and nav aids must be added to FSX by using appropriate bgl updates. 

Q: Why does FSX flight simulator pause if I switch to FSXPilot windows ?

A: It must not pause. Find the "General Settings" dialog box ("Options" > "Settings" > "General") and un-check "pause on task switch".

Q: Why does FSX flight simulator sound stop if I switch to FSXPilot windows ?

A: As per default, sound from FSX is disabled when you switch to FSXPilot because we had some program crashes on long distance flights. In the newer versions, you can enable the sound under "options". If you experience any problems please drop us a line.

Q: Can I install FSXPilot on a client computer in a local network and control FSX that runs on a different computer ?

A: Yes. Please consult the how-to in support.

Q: Can I add my own modes (special aircrafts) to FSXPilot ?

A: Yes.

In the PRO version, please follow the instructions in this manual.

In the Shareware version, shut down FSXPilot.

Own aircrafts can be defined in fspilot.ini (since V 1.33 +).

Open fspilot.ini in a conventional text editor. Duplicate a line with a similar aircraft of your aircraft library (below [FSPilot.Aircraft]) and put it to the end of the list. Increase the 'ac' count by one. Each line currently has eleven parameters, divided by commas, no spaces. Enter the correct model longname and type. FSXPilot should now 'know' your new aircraft. Edit the parameters for your special plane or heli (have a look at a similar plane in the library list).

Assume your last ac number is ac23. A new entry below ac23 would look like this:

ac24=My fun plane,mfp,110,145,150,90,4,1000,0,3,4,5,15,30

where

ac24 is the last ac number (ac23) +1

'My fun plane' is the long name

'mfp' is the model type (very important, choose the same as defined in FSX's aircraft.cfg (atc_model))

Save. Start FSXPilot. Fly.

Q: Please explain the parameters of the aircraft library !

A: ac24=My fun plane,mfp,110,145,150,90,4,1000,0,3,4,5,15,30

This question is necessary in the shareware version only. In PRO, you have your own aircraft dialog window which explaines everything.

In shareware version,you have to edit fspilot.ini and here the question is valid.

In this line you have one aircraft with fourteen parameters separated by commas.

longname, model type, take-off speed, approach speed, cruising speed, minimum speed, holding base leg, takeoff climb, isheli (0 = no, 1 = yes), bank sensitivity, pitch sensitivity, speed sensitivity, flare altitude (meters), zero throttle altitude (meters)

The maximum number of aircrafts supported is 640. Speed in knots. Climbs in feet per min.

 
Q: Can I fly FSX full screen and still control it with FSXPilot ?

 A: Yes, but not on the same computer, at least if you only have one monitor attached. Two monitors: Use one for FSX full screen, the other and the rest of your desktop for FSXPilot. You can fly with two computers, too. Others found out how and we reproduced this once: You must install FSX on one computer and FSXPilot on a different one in your local network. Please consult this how-to.

Q: I have a bright idea / urgent need / good suggestion for the next FSXP version !

A: Thanks for sharing any ideas.  Please contact us via email, we will do our best to realize it ...