Some thoughts for Globe

[oav163]

Dear all,

I joined Globe Cargo (or I could say rejoin) three months ago as I always loved Cargo flights together with heavy aircrafts and specially with B742 or (when I feel lazy) with B744 or MD11. I also flew in other VAs as UPS and Fedex and what i was searching was a VA where I could fly the aircraft in the status last pilot left it. In other words I would like to fly the aircraft from where the previous flight landed (for the specific aircraft) and to have also the panel the previous pilot left it.


Unfortunately though i heard that in Globe Cargo this happens I couldn't make it happen. As I see I can take any registration no matter where this is and depart it from where ever I want to anywhere I want and whenever I tried to load the panel for that registration I receive a message "You can not load this panel because you have not select an aircraft" or something similar.

Does anybody can help me understand what I do wrong or if I don't do anything wrong is there any thought to have a position per registration and also submit panels to load them as previous status?

Thank you very much
Spyros Demas

[John Khan]

Spyros

The Management will answer this soon but just a bit before.

It is very difficult to do this as people leave an aircraft, when they arrive somewhere, in all sorts of panel states. Some don't do any more than set the Park Brake and shut down the engines, just to get GCP to finish the flight and send the Pirep. This of course means that panel states mean very little when referred to other people's finished flights. You can do this with your own flights and apply it to your next flight, - even if it is in a different aircraft.

A lot of flights are not selected from the board, so the aircraft would sit there indefinitely

Also, having the aircraft at the port where they arrived puts huge restrictions on the operation, unless everyone in the VA takes care to do everything correctly, PLUS the flights are selected from where the aircraft is parked, and they, or someone else, wants to take the aircraft on further from where it is.

In the real world crews are scheduled to do this but in a VA obviously this is not possible as we would have to be rostered to do the flights. So again the aircraft would sit there indefinitely

Living in the VA world, this does not happen, as it does and obviously has to in the real world. In the real world the aircraft can not just appear at the port that you want to fly from, - but we can do this here.... .

John

[nwadc10]

John pretty much hit the nail on the head regarding placement of aircraft and whether you pick up that tail number in say, EHAM, is where that aircraft truly is. To create such a system we'd have to require everyone fly their flights at the real world date and time.

Now, about the panelstate part of the question, in theory this feature accomplishes what you are looking for. There are stipulations however and files are not always available. When using a PMDG aircraft and you have the "Automatically Upload PMDG Panelstate Files" in User Setup of GCP set to "Yes", the files you need for the feature to work will be uploaded to the server. If everyone flying PMDG does this, the file coverage will continue to increase, covering more aircraft tail numbers and cities. The feature also workes with all other aircraft except that it won't set switches on the aircraft panel like PMDG can.

The procedure: When you set up a flight in GCP, you must have a minimum of aircraft tail number and departure city before the "Download" button will turn green and become active. At this point, you can click the download button to retrieve the files you need. GCP will place the FS saved flight, PMDG panelstate, and PMDG FMS route 1 and 2 in the proper folders. When the download is complete you will get a popup box telling you which of the 4 files mentioned above where NOT available and if the panelstate is available it will prompt you to load the file in FS. If the FS saved flight file is available the "Load Flight in FS" button will turn green and become available. Pressing this button will load the downloaded flight in FS. If using PMDG and a panelstate is available, it may or may not automatically load with the FS flight. That's a feature of PMDG itself but I usually manually load the panelstate from inside FS.

The Limitations: Flight files are dependant on tail number AND departure city (when downloading). If a pilot has not operated that tail number to your departure city, there will not be a flight for you to download. There could be a file for that city with N408MC but you are flying N450PA so the file isn't going to be downloaded for your use. Compounding this issue is that FS9 files are separate from FSX files. If a pilot has flown N450PA to EHAM in FS9 and you are departing EHAM in N450PA using FSX, you will not receive the files. Regarding the panelstate files themselves, at least for the 744 some switches don't save with the panelstate which is an issue with the PMDG code.

The Files: FS saved flight file is the file that is loaded in FS, setting the date/time, aircraft, location, etc. PMDG panelstate file is the file that is loaded after the respective PMDG aircraft is loaded. It will set the switches to the positions the last pilot left them (with a few exceptions per the limitation noted above). PMDG route 1 file is the file containing the FMS data for the active route. PMDG route 2 is the file containing the FMS data for the secondary route. Most virtual pilots don't touch the secondary route and for that reason it is very common that the route 2 file is not available (because it doesn't exist!). All of these files GCP will upload if available and download if available. The combination of all four makes the most realistic transition from one pilot to the next. Even non PMDG aircraft can benefit from the FS saved flight file in that it will place the aircraft in the position the last pilot left it.

If you ever have any question whether or not any or all of these files exist for your flight just drop me a line. I can look on the server to see directly if a file for that aircraft tail number and departure city actually exists.

In GCPv2.3.2, this feature is broken producing the error that you quoted. I have fixed it for GCPv2.3.3 and Craig has confirmed that the procedure works from start to finish. GCPv2.3.3 will be released tentatively on Wednesday (I will push it back if something comes up in testing that needs to be fixed.)

[oav163]

Dear both

I really appreciate your so detail answers. I will wait for the new release and I will try the hints you told me. The problem is that the way we work (city and registration) it will be a bit difficult to find the correct panel state.

Could it be that one subdivision adopt the positioning so we could try to see how many of us should fly in this sub. On 2005 I made the same for Olympic Cargo when I was CEO (and developer ) of the Olympic Airways Virtual where I also include a service report including A B C and D check where the aircraft was divided in many parts and through FS Passenger I could find what was the damage of each part and below 85% the aircraft was going for service costing also money for the company.

Again thank you very much and take that as just a though
Spyros Demas

[nwadc10]

Dear both

I really appreciate your so detail answers. I will wait for the new release and I will try the hints you told me. The problem is that the way we work (city and registration) it will be a bit difficult to find the correct panel state.
Spyros Demas

I checked the server and currently there are 1207 flights (that's covering tail number - city and between FSX and FS9) and 749 FMS route files. Coverage right now is pretty good and over time it will continue to get better.

A check of the GCP code I found that a bit of my information above was incorrect. I originally coded the feature a couple years ago so I didn't remember the details completely. When downloading a panelstate file, that is the file placing switch positions in PMDG, it only uses the aircraft tail number. So, if I fly N408MC to EHAM, my panel state will be uploaded referencing only N408MC (EHAM isn't considered). Now, if you take N408MC from PANC tomorrow, you will get my panelstate but FMS routes are still tail number-city dependant. In the above case you won't get the FMS route that I left in the plane unless you were to depart from EHAM.

All the files uploaded to the server are saved. If the last time a panelstate/fms route was uploaded was a year ago and your flight matches the tail number and city, you will get that panelstate. Also, if I fly N408MC to EHAM today, you fly the same tomorrow, your panelstate will overwrite mine. Only the most recent situation is kept on the server.

[John Khan]

There should be, I think, a standard panel state for all flights when we get into the aircraft.

Justin would know how the panel is set up when you take over an aircraft and, in the real world there would be a difference depending how long that aircraft has been sitting. If it has been an overnight it will be shut down by the ground crew, if available, or by the previous tech crew. So in the morning the tech or ground crew would have a "Cold and Dark" start up. A real Qantas Captain said they never get a Cold and Dark and he can't remember ever seeing one, even on training flights at Avalon which they use for that. It is situated about 25 miles south west of Melbourne.

Obviously they have the ground personnell wherever they go.

Maybe we could set a panel state that everyone has to leave, when they finish their flight. I don't know if this could be incorporated into GCP....Justin??? So that we all start with the same thing.

I have set my 747s to start with Ground Power available and go from there, - because they are so easy to get going. My MD-11s are set to start showing 'Ready to start engines" Or I will select that from the "Add Ons" Menu.

I notice there is a save "from previous flight" in the 747 and MD-11 Add-Ons Menu, so Spyros, maybe you can do that for yours and go from there each time?

John

[nwadc10]

John,

I think what you are asking for will inherently be accomplished once we publish the new checklist and flow format. That will put the aircraft probably in 1 of 2 states. Either power applied or cold and dark depending on mostly likely the preference of the pilot. In the real world you are correct, usually the new crew will find the aircraft in a standard state.

There is more than one standard state in my real world though which is dependent on how long the aircraft will sit before the next flight. The CA will do an exit check if the aircraft will depart again within an hour or so. The exit check leaves AC power on the airplane but all hydraulics off, nav lights on - all other lights off. There are a bunch of other items in there too. If the aircraft is to remain overnight or next departure is more than an hour or so away a terminating check will be done. This check will remove power from the airplane as well as set the condition of other items. All of the switch positions are contained in the exit or terminating check "flow" which we are working on to bring to each fleet type.

There is a scenerio though which will put the airplane at the gate in a non standard state, regardless of the flow. When a malfunction occurs requiring the QRH to be used, we are to leave the effected items in the position the QRH directed us, maintenence will configure the airplane from there.

I often arrive to an airplane that is cold and dark. Whether Polar and Atlas crews are similar I don't know. When arriving at a cold and dark airplane I run through a quick Flight Deck Safety Check checklist. This checklist is purely used to safely apply AC power to the airplane. Once that is done I go out and do my exterior preflight. After that the crew starts configuring for that flight.

When the realistic checklist and flows are published, each airplane should be left in one of the standard states. The introduction of established/standard flows will speed up everyones shutdown procedure so putting the airplane into a standard state should be a non-issue for the most hurried of our crews. To put it into perspective, a real live CRJ is shutdown to the exit check state in about 15 seconds (flows are MUCH more efficient than "do-lists" that most virtual pilots use).

[oav163]

Traveling around Europe does not leave you too much time free and so now I found the time to read the posts again and here is what I thing that it could be but first of all let me clarify the following :

I really like Globe cargo and that is the reason that I'm posting those messages.

I read all the posts again and I would like to ask you something. Good it be that one of the divisions could work not with bidding but with aircraft position? Yesterday (and I mean yesterday) I manage to download a panel for an MD11 and I really unbderstood how nice is to take the airplane in the status the previous one left it, if we have this capability (and congratulation for this) imagine how nice it could be to take the plane even from the slot that the previous one left it.

Yes we will not have bidding in this division because it's difficult to have the plane in your departure airport the time we want it but for me is quite more close to reality to follow the previous flight than anything else and having also the status it will be AS REAL AS IT GETS

We could even create a new division - though I thing that even Atlas could work this way - and try to see how this will work.

That's for now
I'm going to make a flight
SD