Automatic pause before top of descent

I would up vote that. Although I am currently just using Simrate +++ for the longer flights.

There have been dozens of times when I missed the ACT descend and maintain instruction and the approach was screwed because I had to be away for a while… Im not sure if there’s any way to set it on auto pause so when I come back I can continue the flight and start to descend. The pause should be right before the ATC sends out descend and maintain instruction… Is there such a feature or I just have to wish there was?

Pause the flight manually, when you are heading for a beer in the kitchen! Not via ESC which gives you the Active Pause, and that one is useless when flying.
Use the old pause. This one stops everything and leaves you sitting in the cockpit. You can also play around with the instruments, the cameras etc.

This function is not active by default. To make it active go to Options/Controls/Keyboard. Set Filter to ALL and search by name for pause and map SET PAUSE ON as P. Do the same for SET PAUSE OFF and map as CTRL + P. Save and exit.

Now, when you have finished the beer, press CRTL + P and enjoy your continuing flight!

I suspect that 3rd party developers, particularly of airliners, will be looking to add a ‘pause at top of descent’ option, for those of us who get dragged away by RL and don’t want to have to start the flight all over again.

Hopefully, Aerosoft will set the precedent with their upcoming CRJ.

Perhaps just slew to the top of descent when you need to leave the computer and pause it there?

I love flight sims. I have a spreadsheet with flight plans to go around the world.

I also have a 1 year old. And have a busy work life.

Sometimes I just want to start a flight when I have a spare hour… Get it to cruise and hope it will pause at TOD so I can land when I have another spare hour.

Without this I just overshoot and crash, so I just haven’t been playing much.

Any chance a gaming dad can get some help asobo?

4 Likes

That is the one thing I miss from my FSX addons…the pause at TOD. I’d start a long haul flight just before I go to bed, and land in the morning.

With MSFS, I have to time the departure and hopefully figure out the time till TOD .

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Press the ESC button.

Do you want a simulation or a common offline game?
In real life a pilot doesn’t leave the cabin or goes to sleep (LOL) during a flight.
If you want a videogame experience, just pause it whenever you have to leave the PC and then teleport to any waypoint with this: FSPM VFR Map » Microsoft Flight Simulator

3 Likes

In real life, during long haul flights, pilots will leave the cabin for some sleep, leaving the control of the aircraft to other members of the flight crew, so i don’t see how this would be a problem, realism wise.

With any flight sim, there will always be different ways that people enjoy using it and just because this is not a feature you would use, doesn’t make it one that shouldn’t be implemented.

9 Likes

I think this totally exemplifies how everyone uses flight sims in their own, personal way and how diversely the sim is used according to our personal circumstances and preferences.

I’m wondering if it would be possible to break your flight plans into several sections, boot up and load your final section in the morning according to how much time you have available to sit down at it. I wonder if there a way of setting a timer to shut down applications in windows after a scheduled amount of time? However this all sounds a bit fragmented and not very simulation-friendly.

Sounds like pause at TOD is pretty much what you need.

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I used to fly the FF A320, which didn’t have a pause at TOD, but did have a TOD “waypoint” on the flight plan in the FMS. This provided a time at which I would need to be at the controls, to prepare for and then fly the descent.

However, RL can get in the way, so I eventually managed to create my own pause at TOD, by amending an existing user-provided function. To do this however, there needed to be a ‘distance to TOD’ system variable that was primed by the FMS of the aircraft, so this would probably be more likely to be a function that would be added to individual aircraft rather than to the sim itself.

Wow, let the guy sim the way he wants to sim!

You could try this one, which worked excellent in P3D/FSX and I believe has been tested in MSFS: Lorby Time Machine.

Look for the download from here:

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Sounds good! Is it compatible; I didn’t read that?

I think the author tested it out and said it worked. Couldn’t hurt to try it out!

Also, your antivirus might flag the file when downloading, but i’ve never had an issue with any of Lorbi’s files. They are a trusted 3rd party dev who has been around for years.

Another solution would be short hops, 1h max. Takes a while to get from NY to LA like this, but it‘ll be all high work load, adrenalin packed flying…

But difficult for crossing the Pacific, I reckon

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That’s what I tend to do, albeit with slightly longer flights.

Apart from the 10 hour plus achievement trip, which i did in a 747 and returned at a time to ensure the top of descent hadn’t been passed, I try to keep my trips to no more than a couple of hours.

It would still be nice to do some longer flights however, without having to decline my other half’s very kind invitations to participate in real life passtimes.

Here is an idea, fly flights that fit within your free time. If you have an hour fly an hour. If you have 4 hours fly four hours.

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I don’t think you read the post