ATC regression: Unable to tune frequencies manually

[hobanagerik]

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Are you using Developer Mode or made changes in it?

No

Brief description of the issue:

It used to be possible to tune frequencies in the virtual cockpit manually, such as tower, or Centre, and have the ATC dialogue change automatically. But this only worked, for airports, if you were already on the nearest airport menu. If the frequency you changed to was somewhere on that list, the ATC dialogue window would change to reflect your available options for that airport.

That no longer works now. At the top of the window you can see it reflect the airport you are tuned to, but the ATC dialogue options do not change. You have to manually select the airport you wish to interact with, then the frequency change will be acted upon.

Ideally the ATC dialogue window should update no matter which menu you are on, if it matches Centre, and a frequency that matches an airport whose frequency matches. For untowered, I believe it used to pick the nearest airport on with that frequency. Not ideal, but understandable.

Provide Screenshot(s)/video(s) of the issue encountered:

Detailed steps to reproduce the issue encountered:

While in flight, tune COM1 to a known frequency for a nearby airport. Nothing will happen in the ATC window. Click “2” to go to the nearest airport menu. Change frequencies again, and nothing will happen. Now click on the airport you want to connect to, change COM1 frequencies, and XFER. You will see the ATC dialogue change now.

PC specs and/or peripheral set up if relevant:

N/A

Build Version # when you first started experiencing this issue:

Unknown

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Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?

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If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:

[KellyHrdina]

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?

Yes

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:

This does not seem to be a problem with automated frequencies like ATIS. I only notice it on frequencies where I need to interact with a controller.

If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:

[hobanagerik]

After further flights, I’ve not been able to replicate this now. Is it still not working for you?

[N316TS]

Hi @KellyHrdina , is this still not working for you?

[KellyHrdina]

Hi @hobanagerik and @N316TS , sorry I didn’t respond earlier.

I haven’t flown for the past few weeks, but I’m pretty sure that during my last flight the ATC was still behaving the same. For example:

If I’m maybe 100 nm from my destination, I might pre-program COM1 to be the destination airport and COM2 to be destination ATIS. I will hear ATIS once I come within range, but if I want to request landing clearance I still need to go through the Nearest Airport menu and select the destination airport for COM1.

It’s possible that COM2 would give me the menu item to tune the tower frequency after I hear from ATIS. If I get the chance to fly this weekend I can check on that.

[N316TS]

Thanks. I’ll keep the bug open. I don’t fly that often, but I do fly using manual tuning and this has not happened to me, so hopefully it’s gone for you, too!

[KellyHrdina]

I did finally get a chance to fly over this past weekend, and I still saw the behavior I previously saw. Maybe it’s something I am doing wrong with the radios?

In tonight’s example I was flying from Martinique Ft. France (TFFF) to Barbados Grantley Adams (TBPB). After I left TFFF and I acknowledged the Frequency Change from the Controller, I tuned COM2 to 132.725 (TBPB ATIS). I started receiving TBPB information about 75-80 nm away.

I did tune COM1 to the suggested approach frequency but never bothered to request Flight Following.

As I approached the northern end of Barbados island, about 21.8 nm away from the airport, I manually tuned COM1 to 118.700 (TBPB Adams tower). From the screenshot below you can see that the ATC tabs identify COM1 as “ADAMS” and COM2 as “TBPB”. So, the sim recognized that COM1 was tuned properly but only gave me the choices you see here.

I don’t know why it identifies one frequency by name and one by ICAO.

When I subsequently selected menu item 2 (Nearest Airport List) and IIRC selected TBPB, it didn’t change the COM1 frequency but it did immediately gave me the choices I expected, including to request Full Stop Landing.

[hobanagerik]

You are on the top level menu. It will only “auto tune” if you are on the “Nearest airport list” menu, one level down.

You are right that the sim knows you have changed frequencies by the top of the window changing, but it has never worked from that top level menu, and I wish it did. In fact I opened a thread about this shortly after release.

Tuning radios manually doesn’t work/not detected by ATC

Using the ATC functions to find the nearest airport, then tuning COM1 to the tower frequency, works fine, and gives you a menu to choose a landing etc. However, if you manually choose the frequency, either by entering the frequency by hand, for example on the COM panel of the TBM, or by using the Saitek radio panel, the ATC UI reflects this change, and will also ID the airport you are tuned to, but it does not generate any menu items to choose from. It only works if you choose the nearest airp…

When I experienced this issue, it didn’t auto tune even when on the “Nearest airport list” menu, though I couldn’t replicate it on later flights.

So, from your image, if you were to press “2”, then press the XFER button twice, it would change to Adams.

[KellyHrdina]

To be fair, the ATIS frequency auto-tuned without opening the ATC menu at all. I only had to dial the radio, then I started to receive ATIS information as soon as I came into range.

For me, the Tower frequency behaved as you described, except I didn’t have to use Xfer.

[corvus5624]

Just want to say that this is still a bug for me. Changing the frequency manually does tune the radio (ATC window shows the correct airport), but you don’t get the airport menu presented. So no way to request a landing.

After digging through the forum I found the work around described in this topic. When switching freqs while in the nearest airport menu, I do get it to work pretty consistently. Work around shouldn’t be necessary though (the work around itself is not the worse, the time it took to find it, is).

I was using the DC-3 classic enhanced version btw.

Would be great if this could be fixed.

Edit: Well, scratch that ‘consistently’, the next tower I tried didn’t work whatever I tried.

[SrgtDonut]

I’m usually on vatsim, but wow when I tried to use offline ATC this bug was incredibly inconvenient and broke a lot of immersion.

Per this thread, I’ve found if I enter the frequency on my C172 and open the ATC Window, the selection values haven’t updated to the tower/ground. I need to find the tower via clicking through “Nearest Airport” which can be challenging in crowded airspaces. Hope this gets fixed in SU14.