Formula One 2007 Edition - Official Discussion Thread

[EHM-1500 Jim]

Cheers for that Paolo....guess if i'd thought harder i could have figured out how to do that!!

[EHM-1749 Hector]

Hi all, I just finished flight E024 from Nice to Montreal with ProPilot.
I had two penalties: too fast below 10000 and not setting to 29.92 after 18000 (by the way, the range should be at least 1000). After reporting the PIREPS I noticed that it said that "your FAC was ? and now is ?? because you got ??.
The PIREP was posted on the main page but ProPilot shows that I am still at Nice.
What can be done to put my plane where it really is?
Appreciate your help.
Hector

[EHM-1703 Philip]

Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton

Guys, make sure you load up and move out soon, only one week in between legs, although it is only a short hop this time!

Cheers,

Phil

[EHM-1689 Lukasz]

For me, this GP end on 27 Lap - with Robert Kubica crash :[

Take care, Robert!

[EHM-1703 Philip]

I hear he has a broken leg..... That is a lucky escape, although I expect he will not return to F1 this season!

(http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=39543)

Get well soon Robert!

[EHM-1500 Jim]

Hector, i had exactly the same thing.....didn't have time to repeat the leg so out of the event. Got to hate it when you put in the time and work to fly the leg and then pro-pilot f***s up and the whole thing was a waste of time. Grrrrr
Jim

[EHM-2029 Sotiris]

Hello Everyone and greetings from Mexico City,

I have been following this event closely and watching everyone's progress.
I have a little controversial proposal to make for everyone to discuss.
Well, let's start with the basics:
The event is BIG. 8 months long, 25 legs spanning the globe.

Then we have the participants:
39 registered
24 started
12 still in as of today (11 June)

A lot of people have dropped out for various reasons; from outright crashes to not making the occassionaly short deadlines for those flights. I, for one, have spent many a night to make the deadlines considering that I'm flying around on business most of the time.

How about giving people a second chance? Soon we'll be at the 9th venue (Stansted - Silverstone) which is the middle one of the 17 races.

How about being able to get a brand new bird and continue the event during that time?
This is much different from extending the flight times for a day or two.

And for my friends who cherish the event badge and have been (along with me) on time through all the legs; here's a solution. The badge for those who join again after Silverstone can feature a 50% number or a 1/2 somewhere in the badge. (Pretty much like the IVAO world tour badges).

I believe if we remain 'righteous' and strict we'll end up finishing it just with 3-4 people.

After all, we're 42% down the line but 50% of the pilots that DID start are no longer there. Statistics suggest that we'd be lucky to get 2-3 participants to the end safely.

Of course I haven't witnessed what happened to last year's similar event.

Feel free to comment.

[EHM-1500 Jim]

Interesting thought Sotiris.....think it could be kind of hard to get people joined in half way through although i would be keen to.
I have made my feelings about some of the propilot events known in previous threads and i dont want to open  up that again but i agree that it seems daft to have an event for the whole VA which only 3 or 4 people end up finishing......

jim

[EHM-1703 Philip]

Guys,

I hope you don't think I/we are ignoring this topic intentionally. This is my 3rd attempt at replying to this thread but I have deleted the previous 2 as they have been little more than blood pressure raising rants, and that is not the picture I want to portray!

I personally have little involvement with the running of the PP events and would like to keep it that way for many reasons! This said, I feel I have to make a comment as Bruno is going to be away from his keyboard for a couple of weeks. (he currently has a very busy time in his personal life)

These events were introduced to prove "dedication" and "professionalism." They were never made to be easy. The whole concept of ProPilot was to generate a realistic and therefore "Difficult" environment for flying. If flying was easy, we would all be up in the air doing it! Exactly I hear you say.... "We want a fun and less realistic pass time. " OK, no problem, fly a tour, fly a mission in fact, fly any way you like but please don't try and stop us from providing a more challenging test for the minority who want to stretch themselves. We exist as a group of individuals who enjoy Flight Simulation not as a group of people who think alike in all aspects.

I can say, the event is well under way and I am not about to instigate a change of the goal posts now, not in any way. That would just be unfair to the 12 people left. (Even if we do get the 100% badge!) I am one of those 12 people and I for one would not be happy if I felt that I had given my all for little or no reason.

This said, we have evolved these PP events based on your comments and we always knew this one was going to be a tough one but please remember, the only reason we are running an 8 month event was because we got complaints about how short the time was between legs on previous events. We will continue to provide events as they are popular, in fact, we will have a new event for people to complain about later in the Summer that will run concurrently with the F1 event!!!!! (This is a tongue in cheek joke, not a ranting statement!)

I hope you understand..... Everything we do here is not about the events or PP. We have a myriad of other "None Event" or "ProPilot" related tasks taking place behind the scenes at the moment and I urge you to stay tuned for more news very soon! We have been accused in the past of only catering to a few people who enjoy PP, that is not the case. There are 50 or so of our pilots participating in the PP system currently and we are going to afford those people some of our time. We have masses of stuff in progress that will benefit those of you that don't like the events or ProPilot.

[EHM-1001 Robert]

Well,

it is sad what happened, that is why I always check the ACARS page of the Logger to see if I have the Takeoff and Landing information in it. Also I used to check it regularly to see if I still have connection with the server. Luckily, nowadays I have a strong and stable internet connection.

I think Phil said it well. A ProPilot event is like a technical sport series. It is dangerous, and challenging. Challenging, because you cannot overstress/crash the airplane in any time, which needs a good skill and many experience. Dangerous, because many technical problems can appear:
- general FS/Windows bug
- scenery bug
- internet lagging
- server connection problems
... all these are not the own of ProPilot. All these came from the fact it is a technical hobby. That is why you should be aware you have the most possible stable system before you start a PP Event.

A sudden, and unwanted crash can happen unfortunately anytime, with anyone, and PP will recognize it, because that is the task of it. And I am sure if this happened, the spent hours are not just waste of time. It was always a good experience and you have many more chances left...

Nobody said it will be easy and so anyone can make it. But it was said, that an event is a difficult one to finish (you can check previous event statistics) An event is a kind of race. A race against the technics and missfortune, and the reward for the hard work is the badge/award you can get.

There will be more events...shorter ones, quicker ones, but it is never easy. But you have chance to be there and try it at the next one too

[EHM-1749 Hector]

After I had to repeat the Nice-Montreal leg I am also checking the ACARS to confirm that the Take off and landing information.
Last night a funny thing happened after landing in Indiannapolis. I was taxiing at about 23 kts in RWY 23R to the terminal and then I switched to spot view. Then the plane started to shake and I the FS went blank. All of a sudden I was again on short final and had to land again!
Of course, this time I did not switch to spot view so I taxied to the terminal, shut engines down and checked the ACARS. The first landing was recorded as well as the second one. There is nothing that indicates a crash but I did not submit the PIREP although I saved the ACARS file as well as the PIREP. In fact, I have the computer on standby with the FS still active.
There is nothing in the ACARS that reflects a crash. The G force recorded is 1.
I don´t know how to handle this situation because it is a first for me. In fact, at Montreal I had the same problem when switched to spot view for pushback but there was no problem since FLogger had not started yet.
I am having some problems with my laptop eversince I upgraded Norton Security in mid May. I never had frame rate problems which I do have now plus getting an annoying screen flash from time to time. This blinking flash can last up to 30 seconds and I presume that one of these days the whole thing is going to fall apart. (End of regression)
I know that Bruno is busy on these days so I would like for Phil or someone who can give me an advice on this problem. I need to know if I need to fly the leg again so I can do it tonight when I get home.
Appreciate whatever input you can offer. Also if anybody can give some advice on my computer problems. The thing is I must use a laptop because I am most of the time out of my home due to working reasons. At least until my contract here expires next February.
I am considering to get another laptop. The one I have is a Toshiba purchased in April 2004 and I think it is time to replace it. I think my next laptop will have to have at least 2Gb of RAM memory, 2.7GHz dual core processor. What I am not sure enough is the graphics card so I would like your help in this matter.
Again, I will wait for your inputs and many thanks in advance.
Hector

[EHM-1703 Philip]

Hector,

As far as the flight goes, if you did not file the PIREP you will have to repeat it as the score for the flight will not be recorded by the system until you submit the pirep.

It would seem that you do have some sort of stability problem although to me it sounds like a scenery or afcad problem but I can not be sure. I will be flying the leg myself tonight so if you give me a few hours I will see if I have any problems on the ground at Indianapolis.

It could be Norton that is causing problems as it is considered "bloat-ware" and does eat resources that your laptop will be needing to run FS. I know it is not a lot of use to you know if you have subscribed to Norton but next time you upgrade try something like AVG instead of Norton, it is much easier on your system resources.

I'll let you know how I get on with the flight later.

[EHM-1001 Robert]

Well,

I installed a free AFCAD for KIND, but this, or the surface caused a lot of gaps in the tarmac. While I was rolling out and taxiing, the plane caused tire smoke many times, and was gently bumping on the tarmac. Fortunately no crash caused...

[EHM-1749 Hector]

Thanks Phil for your input.
Just one question on PP: if the PIREP is not submitted right after finishing the fligth then it would not be valid? I say this because it may happen that the internet conexion is lost short before landing so there is no way to submit the PIREP.
On the other hand, I would like to send the ACCARS to you so you can look at it and tell me if something is wrong. If there is nothing wrong I would like to submit it so I could not be forced to repeat the flight. Just let me know.
Regarding the Norton, unfortunately I just paid one more year but what I am going to do from now an on is just disactivating it, at least, the new features like the physing stuff. Anyhow I will check on the AVG. A last question Phil, I have seen that the new Windows Vista is not working good in laptops. Since I already make my mind up and will get a new one I saw that most of them offer the Vista software but there is the option to stick with XP. Do you know anything about this?
Again, thanks for your input.
Regards,
Hector

[EHM-1749 Hector]

Hi Robert, that is exactly what happened to me when taxiing at 23 kts in RW 23R.
Just after switching to spot view the plane started to shake, tires to smoke and then a black screen. Suddenly I was on short final and I was lucky to react fast and land with no problems. This time I taxied entirely on cockpit view.
Just a question: is it normal that the frame rate cycles between two values while in flight? Mine goes from around 16 to around 35 or 40 with short periods at very low values like 1 or 2 or 3. Before I remember that it was more a steady value and stayed around 30 (I had it set to a max of 31).
Regards,
Hector

[EHM-1703 Philip]

Hector.

Your flight will need to be flown again I'm afraid. ProPilot flights need to be recorded live and require an open internet connection for the duration of the flight, you can not store pireps and file them later when using ProPilot. One thing I will say, if you have this problem again and you are flying offline, shutdown on the runway and close the flight down then send the PIREP straight away. If a crash or penalty is not recorded by FS or the Flogger then you are fine....

Second with regards to your performance issues try this:

http://www.theorica.net/gamexp.htm

I used to use GameXP a few years ago when trying to improve the performance of my laptop and FS and it worked quite well. This allows you to configure your system and running tasks so when you launch a game it shuts down any non critical applications. Have a play with it, it is a few years since I used it so it has probably changed somewhat but I am sure the end result is the same. I saw about a 25% increase in performance.

With regards to Vista and Laptops.... Well Vista is being slammed by a lot of people just as XP was when it launched and that is because Microsoft have to build the OS to last 10 years. (5 years in productions and 5 years of support after production ceases) Old hardware does not like new operating systems and this is mainly due to the drivers. Laptops invariably use a lot of proprietary hardware that has some less than perfect drivers which will cause hiccups on Vista. This said, your laptop is a Tosh who are quite good at support and it is quite new so therefore will probably have all the necessary drivers available for download. The things Vista does not like are old graphics card, especially those with shared memory architecture and also it LOVES RAM!!!! To run FS on Vista I seriously would not look at anything less than 2gb of RAM! If you are looking for a new one, sticj to the big names (Tosh, HP, Dell etc) and as long as it is Vista certified you will be fine.

Hope this helps.

[EHM-1749 Hector]

Thanks again for your excellent input Phil.
I will do the flight again and will try your recommendations.

Best Regards,
Hector

[EHM-1703 Philip]

Hector,

Just landed at KIND with no problems reported. Sorry, I had no bouncing or excessive tire smoke!

I see both you and Sotiris are flying the leg now, I hope you both get here in one piece!

Safe Landings!

[EHM-2029 Sotiris]

Hey,

landed in KIND in one piece and v. happy for it!!
Awesome approach as you fly over the terminal just prior to landing. Haven't come across this before.

As for the bouncing, I followed the earlier advice and stopped and parked on the runway. Which was great as after that I switched to spot view and got the shakes too.
No crash for me either though, just the bird dancing around a bit (perhaps as it was so empty).

All well and now for the 'killers' to take us back to Europe.

To Phil: Man, what you're doing up so late? Over here it is just early evening but in the UK it must be something like 2 am. As a seasoned 'all-nighter' I feel for you mate.

[EHM-1749 Hector]

I just landed in KIND and did not dare to switch to spot view so I taxied all the way in cockpit view. Some shaking while on the runway but not as bad as last night.
I had to set the FS display to minimum in CYUL so I could get the frame rates about 30 but after landing they came down to 15-20. And the screen flashing continues. I am afraid that this laptop is going to quit one of these days. Hope to get the new one very soon.
Thanks to you all for your kind advice.
See you around,
Hector

[EHM-1749 Hector]

I have the chance to fly to LPAZ today as this is a holiday here in Argentina but the flight is not available yet. Does somebody have an idea when can we go ahead?
Regards,
Hector

[EHM-2029 Sotiris]

You're right Hector,

I planned to do the flight this evening (CET) but I too cannot lock the flight.
I double-checked at the event page and the flight SHOULD be available but it was not.
I guess someone from the MT should be able to help us out.

[EHM-1703 Philip]

Guys,

I think this may be a problem with the server time..... It is currently showing the time as 03:42 on the 18th. The flight was put in for an 05:50 start so I think the flight will be available on the system for another couple of hours. I am sorry about this. When Bruno returns I will see if we can rectify the problem.

Cheers,

[EHM-1749 Hector]

Thanks Phil, appreciate your promtp response. Still time to do it today.
Hector

[EHM-1703 Philip]

Dear All,

We have technical difficulties at KIND! I know your flights aren't showing up. We are working on it and we will open the window for the flights a bit longer for you to complete them. More news when we resolve the problem.

Thanks for your patience.