I know about the GOLD - I have actually read the manual quite a while ago but have forgotten more than half of what is written in it because a large part of it is of very little practical relevance to the pilot who is basically limited to the front end which in itself is quite intuitive. Most problems with this system occur on the back-end and there is not much you as the pilot can do about it in terms of troubleshooting.
It has even less relevance to a Simmer tbh.
Time is money - and I am not likely to spend more of mine on PMDG with this kind of attitude.
The point I was trying to make, is that RRās arguments have no relevance to their customers request and at least providing an interim solution. Nobody is stopping them from linking up BATC conventionally as the other mentioned aircraft devs have done, while developing their back end in parallel as they please and then switching over to that at a later stage. It does not make a difference to the average simmer, who does not care about āGOLDā running somewhere in the backgroundā¦
PMDG seems to have this desire to āactā like they are doing Godās work, but a lot of the time they end up coding a Rube Goldberg machine that has exactly the same result that could be achieved with a simpler solution, and like you said, has no impact on the end-userās experience.
I also have this feeling - especially after SI was actively promoted by their Marketing Manager Falcon1. And it also reflects in RRās statement above.
Back to actual BATC discussion. Flew the Fenix into EHAM (second time in a week) and both times BATC started the approach into 18C runway and then just forgot about me and I found myself having the jam down the plane onto the runway or Iād have overflown it. Iām not sure if the blame is on BATC or perhaps the airport info being off because there were other odd quirks once I was down and taxiing. I donāt think the ILS ever engaged either but that might have just been that I was too high. Anyone else have issues with this airport and runway?
Itās hard to know whether BATC is having a wobble of if an airportās developer hasnāt correctly setup the local navaids. I too have noticed the tendency to bring you in high rather than low. The issue of ATC āforgettingā you is less consistent ā Iām often seconds away from commencing my descent of my own accord when the radio comes alive and Iām cleared for lower. Other times, I start my descent independently of BATC and right after, it gives me descent instructions. I can live with this.
Well I donāt have any 3rd party airport for Amsterdam because for 2024 there isnāt any. A number of developers have a 2020 version but one would think this would be a commercial target for them. Itās a large airport and quite the hub in Europe. For now Iāll skip flying to there.
FlyTampaās EHAM works fine except for some grass texture bleed through in some places. That may actually have been fixed since the last time I flew into/out of it months ago (SU2 maybe?)
I was just on their forums and the users donāt seem to think FlyTampa is going to do any updates to this airport but we know how negative users can be. It clearly states on the product purchase page that it is only compatible with 2020 and yet the price is over $20 so thatās a bit of a risk for that price which in the US doesnāt include sales tax. Iāll have to think hard as to whether to spend that now. That same amount could buy other things that I know are marketed as fully compatible.
Went ahead and bought the airport and it really is well done especially with the free fixes I found. Also found on Flightsim.to a nice GSX config for it.
So, while I was assigned a different runway than 8C this time, my approach was far more successful. Captured the glide slope and was coming down nicely but some other airliner slipped in just ahead of me and BATC commanded me to go around which I reluctantly did. BATC did do a good job of vectoring me back in and landed successfully. Iām not sure what the procedure is on a go around other than pulling up to the assigned altitude. My flaps were full and gear down. Not sure if you stay configured like that although if you do you are flying awfully slowly and it takes forever to come back around. AP on or off? I guess I need to read up on it or watch some videos.
