I hold an FAA Airman Pilot Certificate, Comm, Multi Eng, Instr, ATP and Type Rating in several AC.
Along with being retired FAA ASI, I have been flying since 1964.
I recently bought MSFS 2020, along with a new built high end computer made for me from a very great company in FL .
I have been using MS FSX for many years now that is installed on a different computer manufactured by the same company with no issues.
For the last 3 weeks, I have been trying to use MSFS 2020 to the point of being so frustrated, that I am giving up and will put this MSFS in the hangar until MS can get this Sim fixed.
I have had the computer company go into my computer to assist me in sitting up MSFS. I have also watched numerous tutorials from Mark on the How to videos, which are excellent.
Problems:
Unable to tune any VOR stations , thus no VOR Station needle indications or ID’s.
The Garmin G1000 does not work properly. One should be able to tune (2) freg’s on the COMM, Upper/Lower and be able to select COMM 1 or 2 by pressing the appropriate button on the Audio Panel. This goes for the NAV side as well. Unable to file a flt pln on the G1000.
Not much fun trying to fly VFR without being able to tune in a VOR, not to mention not being able to file a IFR Flt Pln.
I purchased 2 Carenado Aircraft from the MSFS Market, installed them. Upon trying to fly them, the Sim crashed.
The quality of the MSFS Beech 58 Baron vs Carenado 58 Baron is a huge difference. Most everything works on the Carenado, even the aileron static wicks wiggle, not so in the MSFS B58 Barron.
The ATC box is very clunky as well, compared to FSX.
In all, my FSX with Active Sky, ORBX Central, Navigraph Maps, Charts and Flt Planning , along with the High detailing, fully functional aircraft , PMDG, Carenado, A2A and Miltz are far more enjoyable and user friendly which I will now be back to flying.
You are comparing FSX with a whole bunch of addons to a barebones MSFS with a Carenado addon.
Yes the ATC is a bit bonkers but you do need to compare apples to apples.
Get the freeware mod for the Garmin.
Get the freeware FBW A320nx
Get the PMDG DC6
Get a Navigraph subscription with charts.
If you have Carenado for FSX, I’m sure you realize they are not the greatest flight model.
FSX default aircraft are not even close to the quality of MSFS default ones.
all this works for me, i do have/use the NXi from the marketplace
i cant say it works like in RL or fsx but there are ways of doing it all in game
this may be on Carenado? mods can be finicky but you did get one to work it seems, hopefully you will have better luck
here your 100% right atc is pretty basic, glitchy and well might as well say just plain bad in some instances
afaik most dont use it, i know i quite trying some time ago, heck may be better now its been so long but …
As to the VOR stations, why do I have to purchase a separate source to get the VOR’s? The vOR’s should work in MSFS. After all that’s what I paid for. In FSX, the VOR’s, DME, ADF all work.
As for Carenado, upon initial install and using, they worked. It was after the last MSFS update Carenado did not work.
I read in a post about a person using the PMDG DC-6 flying IFR and shooting multiple approaches, ILS, GPS/R/Nav and I wonder just how that was accomplished as I too have the PMDG DC-6 and it’s very tricky shooting an R- Nav approach. The original auto pilot is gyro and vary slow to respond to R-Nav guidance.
I will say after reading many post, it appears a lot of the users are not REAL FAA Certificated pilots.
I plan on reaching out to the people who built my computer for help in either getting this MSFS working properly or getting some of my money back.
I’m sure you will appreciate the DC6 is a complex aircraft, and it is very tricky… especially for one virtual pilot.
As for the Carenado aircraft, yes, they are very well modelled, and visually stunning, but the flight model in FSX and P3D for most of their aircraft is horrendous. Try and get any of the Short 360, 330, Sherpa to even kiss the runway in FSX or P3D is almost impossible as they continually balloon.
I really hope that you are able to get the system sorted out, as its not a bad sim at all, and there seems to be a huge range of GA aircraft available (I’m not a GA fan in the sim). It certainly much better than FSX in a great many respects. I know this sounds counter intuitive, but you may find less trouble buying aircraft outside of the marketplace (i.e. directly from the developer or from reputable FS online stores). This method makes it easier to update the addons and also, easy to remove them if you suspect they may be causing an issue. Addons bought through the in-game marketplace give you very little option wrt updates and fault finding (if necessary).
Good luck.
You don’t though. A very good majority of my flying in MSFS is as a /A and when I do I fly under IFR all is peachy. I keep paper low altitude en route charts in my lap and reference them and fly on VATSIM. Something to keep in mind is that ground based navaids such as VORs and NDBs keep being decommished so a referral to NOTAMs is a good idea. MSFS is supplied with up-to-date AIRAC data.
Thanks for your input. I have the PMDG DC-6 and enjoy flying it. Back in my younger years i worked on them as an A&P/IA. Now perform FAA Certifications on aircraft as a designee.
I am used to flying the Class D sims, with Flight Safety for Falcon’s and Bombardier aircraft .
You amaze me!
You have a nav subscription for FSX, but you complain about using the same with MSFS.
Of course the DC6 AP is slow to respond, it is 1950’s vintage.
I’m sure the vast amount of users here are not FAA certified. Are they in FSX?
This is a hobby after all, you don’t need certification to use it, but there are a lot of folks who use MSFS that do have certification.
I see them here in the forums quite often.
Those of us who aren’t, don’t hold that against them.
This is a much nicer simulator than FSX could even dream about being, and it’s only young, not 20 some years old.
Is VOR on the outs? I remember being a young kid flying the original MSFS around the country, using paper maps and tuning in VOR stations.
I missed the versions between. My how things have changed! But haven’t done any radio navigation yet besides a little GPS on the G1000 NXi. Tuning waypoints into a flight plan with a mouse is an exercise in torture.
Actually, it’s not quite that obvious. With all the warnings labels to not touch the screen I didn’t realize that was a interactive button.
The topic does have me curious about VOR now. Is it mostly dead or still in active use? There are so many old aircraft out there but I guess tablets make up for that?
Thanks for your response. My subscription to Navigraph is both FSX and MSFS2020. I do believe a lot of my issues happened right after R7 was installed.
Yes, I realize that this Sim is a hobby and I should treat it as such.
Even I - as a total noob and non-pilot IRL - was able to tune in into a VOR station. So maybe that depends on the aircraft you were using? I was actually succesful with several airplanes, lastly the DC-6.
But yes, you need to be within a certain distance and have reached a certain altitude (“dome of reachability” - or whatever the proper technical term would be here ;)).
And unless stability is concerned, don’t bother your “computer company”: they wouldn’t be able to help you in those matters anyway, that’s just how FS2020 works (or does not)
The fact that you only reported CTDs with custom planes might indicate that those custom planes are at fault. Just like FS2020 those airplanes are also programmed (“they are software”), and as such errors may occur in that code as well.
And if things like “ATC box is very clunky” get you frustrated - well then There’s always other options such as FSX (which you now seem to enjoy - which is fine :)).
I for one have a blast flying the DC-6 and exploring VOR/DME (and also NDB, to some extend) navigation! Tipp from a total noob: use Little Navmap to show you the available navigation aids, which include the required frequencies. Dial in those frequencies (which you first need to synchronise with your flight simulator, FS2020 in this case - refer to the excellent handbook which comes with Little Navmap), and then you can be sure that FS2020 “knows” about those frequencies.
If we are talking about a “computer company” that simply offers - well - computers then why would you want to reach out to them? They have no influence whatsoever over how VOR/DME etc. navigation works in some random software that you happen to run (even if you told them that this software was your main purpose to purchase this exact computer!).
Unless of course you think the computer doesn’t run “stable” and is the reason for so many “crash to desktops” (but that would be hard to prove, unless you have other “GPU / RAM intensive software” that crashes equally often).
Asobo/Microsoft are “responsible” (and I put “responsible” in quotes on purpose, because in the end you purchase an “off-the-shelf” product, with no warranty of “fit to purpose” whatsoever - “it’s just a game for 150$” in the end), so if you want to have something changes, make your voice heard via Zendesk (= issue a ticket).
What I am trying to say here: you can’t hold a computer hardware company responsible for how a software (purchased from an entire different company!) behaves (in terms of (non-)functionality)).
So your best bet is to:
Seek help here in the forum (and again, I can confirm - as a total noob myself - that VOR navigations can be tuned in)
Create Zendesk issues if you have suggestions and improvements (or plain bugs)
Note that the development of FS2020 is supposed to be a long-term commitment from Asobo/MS (last time 10 years were promised :)).
“Real” EASA certified ATPL pilot here, I see no problems using VORs in MSFS. You can download the G1000NXi for free, but even the stock one should work kust fine. The only problem I see is the bearing needles pointing towards the localizer antenna whenever an ILS frequency is set, thats not possible in real life. Otherwise everything works fine.
atc is pretty basic, glitchy and well might as well say just plain bad in some instances
