Posts by madpat

With the latest Aerofly FS2020 now displaying essential buttons like Copilot, Pause etc. I started to try flying with a controller. I recently bought a Sony Dualshock 4 pad (actually for PS Now), and gave it a try with Aerofly.

At first, I didn't like it, because I felt disconnected to the aircraft compared to tilting the ipad. But I soon learned to love the steering and braking ability on the ground. But especially the Cessna pitches up pretty strong after takeoff, and it took me a while to learn how to fly smooth and relying on the autotrim function. Now, I really like flying with the controller.

But some things left to be desired. A customisable button and axis assignment would be much appreciated.

• Airbrakes. When not using the controller, you can pull the thrust slider down to use air brakes. With the controller, this doesn't work, you need to enable working cockpit and use the real lever. I'd like to have that as an essential control on the pad, maybe with right/left upper front buttons.
• Trimming: I'd like to see horizontal stabilizer and aileron trim on the pad, preferrably on the left stick. Smaller planes need quite a lot of trimming, e.g. the Cessna pitches up quite dramatically after takeoff. As with the air brakes, it's to uncomfortable to use the trim wheels, if you can even find them (Baron, for example).
• I would sacrifice the viewing options with the left stick and especially the upper front buttons: I'm still sitting close enough to my iPad to use the view button (would need to be added when using controller) and moving the view with the normal way, which is also faster and therefore feels a bit more realistic.

Other than that, absolutely stunning what's possible on mobile devices nowadays!

Keep up the good work, guys and girls at Aerofly, and please be resilient against absurd game requests (not mine though

Patrick

That is "The View Hotel Monument Valley": https://monumentvalleyview.com/

I stayed there one night on my USA trip a couple of years ago. Really cool! Every hotel room has a balcony, facing the valley. I got up at 6 in the morning to see the sun rise - awesome!

Even the food was great.

I was really touched to see the hotel in Aerofly.

PS. The actual monument valley airstrip is a bit west. check out the discussing couple there (as mentioned in another thread), talking day and night

This couple made it from the PC version to mobile with FS2020, which is great!!

There is other cool stuff that made it to mobile, too: Have you seen the crash landed alien spaceship near Area 51? And the little green aliens (not moving) on it? I discovered them when I tried to land on the UFO with the helicopter.

And on Area51, there is also the moon landing filming site/scenery. I really like your humour, guys at Aerofly

Also cool: The skywalk at Grand Canyon.

I wonder what else is there...

I have an ipad pro 10.5 with 256GB. Airports I tested and experienced low frame rate were San Diego, Palm Springs and SFO. But in another thread this was already picked up by you.

I noticed some new objects in Palm Springs and wondered whether this causes the choppy experience.

Prefer the previous experience.

Edit: SFO in R22 - unplayable. Flight school crashes App immediately.

BTW: Again, I had to go to the app store, look for the FS2019 App and then click on the update button. The update was not announced on my ipad as usual.

I am not a friend of these workable cockpits in mobile for several reasons, but it's impressive and the team did a smart move with letting the user choose whether to use them or not.

BUT: Framerate decreased a A LOT on or close to airports when landing. SFO reminds me of C64 times. Textures flicker. Don't know what to say, I am both disappointed and impressed at the same time.

Now that is really helpful! Thanks a lot! Still quite complex, but I'm sure a lot of thought went into it.

So, now pleae adress that unintentional copilot interference even when switched off

I don't understand the ILS behaviour in FS2019. When I am following a nav route in the Dash8, it picks up several ILS frequencys on the way (blue) but when I am approaching the designated ILS runway at my destination, it only shows the FMS approach. So no ILS diamonds, just the FMS altitude indicator (purple) and the, not sure what it is called, the indicator on the compass below the artifical horizon on the PFD.

Even with the description above, the question remains why en route ILS is captured and displayed automatically, but not when approachinh my designated ILS runway??

Patrick

You paid 8€ for a sophisticated flight simulator with dozens of airports and several planes. While its desktop sibling cost around 50€, admittedly with more features.

I mean, come on guys, you think the world is for free?

Nevertheless, I hope for future updates, too, but we are not talking about Microsoft or Google here with thousends of developers. And Aerofly FS is certainly more complex than Angry Birds...

Sometimes I really feel those developers deserve a little more respect than just adding items to a wishlist that can never be satisfied.

Yes, the Discus bm allows to extend and use the propeller. Not sure though whether this plane is included from the start or if you have to buy it.

Please note that some cool features of AF2 and 2019 are not in AF1, like PAPI lights, different daytime etc.

Feels like the same behaviour as described by me, but here, thrust is also affected. And the plane trims in very very high speed. Trim wheels almost fall off

For reproducing, I just set autopilot altitude to a lower one than currently flying at, then descend and slow down manually. It helps to be rather slow when approaching the selected altitude, then it goes all haywire.

I'm not a pilot, but I could imagine this it what it feels like if an MCAS or other stall protection system kicks in unintentionally. Guess I will try this at night with zero visibilty, this will be fun.

BTW: Thrust levers move in the 737 when this happens, but not the control slider.

Great and big thanks. Have a nice weekend, then!

Yep, if you mean try the same with climbing to an altitude - same behaviour. When reaching the altitude in manual mode, plane pitches down, although autopilot off. Not so dangerous though, because thrust is usually higher and no flaps. Disturbing nevertheless. With glass cockpits, I think ALTSEL becomes highlighted.

As mentioned in another thread about the copilot / autopilot interfering massivly although switched off, this happened again today and I figured out the pattern. I tried it three times afterwards with different planes (Dash8, LearJet, Cessna), and it happend everytime! Following is a description how to reproduce. The actual error is the autopilot still trying to keep altitude although switched off. The first few steps are just to make it reproducable quickly.

• Select plane from the menu
• Select a starting point in the air, lets's say 5,000 feet
• start flight
• Activate autopilot, press CTR for level flight (speed setting does not matter)
• select a lower designated autopilot altitude, let's say 2,500 feet
• select a V/S for descent, let's say 1,000 fpm
• Before reaching the altitude, I change my mind and deactive the autopilot by touching that on/off button - all buttons are white now
• Flaps 1, steady descent, zero throttle (depends on plane, of course)
• AND NOW IT GETS HAIRY: When approaching the selected altitude, I see that the V/S of the autopilot (although switched off!) increases (see instruments or HUD view), until it even reaches positive values.
• I do not move the device, but elevator goes back (can't see whether it's trimming or autopilot moving)
• Result: Plane pitches up when reaching the altitude or is already below - but thrust is still idle, or at least way too low for achieving these V/S values - results in unusual attitudes or bevahviour.
• Flaps are also retracted and extracted by copilot
• ALL THIS WHILE FLYING MANUALLY!
• It's quite a fight to get the plane under control again, it feels completely out of trim, but at a certain stage, autopilot is not messing up any more.

Would be good of you could reproduce - and solve - this.

Thanks,

Patrick

takeoff 19L KSFO with the A380. iPad pro 2018, 10.5"

Oh dear, you invented a transparent cockpit in the A380

I also made a screenshot of a missing landscape texture. Latest update installed.

After flying quite extensivly during the festive season, I collected some more feedback items from my side. It's not really sorted, made these notes whenever they occured to me or I remembered them. Although not always reproducable, I hope they provide some help for improvement nevertheless:

• Some in-game hints need to be updated. Once, there was a hint displayed stating I should use the + and - buttons to change auto/co-pilot settings. These aren't there in FS2019.
• Co-Pilot / Autopilot >> see my other post in the FS2019 co-pilot thread
• Autotrim failed three times / trim runaway >> see my other post in the FS2019 co-pilot thread
• PAPI-lights: Although now seemingly the same as in the desktop version (played that as well in the last weeks), they are not usable for me anymore, at least in daylight. In FS2, they have a nice halo so that you can recognize them very well in the final approach, but now I can hardly see whether they are red or white even when reaching the runway threshhold.
• KingAir Flap setting 50 is not turning green when selected
• VOR only works with glass cockpits. Cessna, Baron58 etc. show the same behaviour as in FS2: frequencies are fixed, and so instruments only work when close to these navaids. They don't take any input from setting a route in the navigation display.
• There are some pixels / spots with completely different colours than the surrounding at various locations. Only a minor issue, though. Can easily be seen on the upper enging cowlings of the KingAir when looking at them from the pilots seat.
• HUD view is quite useless now, because the compass with the route is now only visible when zooming out completely, and due to the fisheye-view is then quite distorted. Funnily enough, this also the same in the PC version, was much better in FS2.
• HUD settings in the settings menu only works with the HUD view - where it makes no sense at all to me, because there is already a horizontal course displayed.
• In the LearJet, there is no pilot when sitting on the co-pilots seat - scary . It is there when looking from the outside or passenger seats.
• Same as in F2: Sometimes when I want to pan around, I am zooming. As if a second finger is on the screen, which is not. Maybe I need to clean my surface more often?
• R22 helicopter: when on the ground, pulling the collective / thrust lever full down will make it turn green - and not responding any more. I learned that in planes this act as some kind of parking brake? Only after catapulting yourself in the air again with that Lift-Me-Up button it works again.
• Sometimes textures become missing. The most obvious part is south of the Mexican border, which you can already see in the maps. But even in flights, terrain became transparent in larger spots, either then white or one time I was even able to see the moon through it
• Same as in FS2: Sometimes I am "loosing" the rudder from below my thumb. Or it tries to sneak away from me, although keeping the thumb in the same position on the screen. Usually I am using it in manual mode.
• F18 shadows/texture broken on runway.

Guess that's it for now. Neverthless, I enjoy FS2019 A LOT

Still amazed what you get nowadays for only 7.99 € (I'm coming from the ages when games cost real money in stores) and then on mobile - awesome!

Patrick

Oh dear, please let this be an option I can turn off. While it would certainly add more realism, it also shows me the limitations of flying with an iPad instead of on a PC with full equipment. When looking at Xplane on the iPad, where you can already manipulate all kinds of switches, its really frustrating zooming in and out while still having to fly with holding the iPad. Also, I think screen sizes are quite limited for that, except you have a 12" iPad Pro maybe. I always liked wiith Aerofly that it is quite simple to use, but fells very realistic nevertheless. Not only with the scenery, but also with the flight physics (not a real pilot, but it feels right). But if you make this manual mode an option, then why not.

Yep, that‘s the case in both FS2 and FS2019. Didn‘t know there‘s some truth in it (no knowledge of magnetic variation).

Patrick

That‘s want I wanted to say

Thanks,

Patrick

There seems to be an issue with FS2 and runway lights on some iPads. So, there is no Setting to turn on lights. But some airstrips actually don‘t even have lights, like Shoshone and Dunsmuir, I think.

On my devices (iPad Air 1st gen and iPad Pro 10.5“, all with iOS 12), lights work.

Patrick