Report after the first real Shared Cockpit flight

[Godehardt]

Hello,

as we started the first Shared Cockpit (in the PMDG 747) flight (from a Taxi out stand ) we where very enthusiastic about the smooth "aircraft movement".

It works pretty perfect and is very accurate and timely without any delay.

Thank you Peter for this hard work!

The Speedbug is sometimes worse sometimes less worse. At some times the F/O had a speed of 360 Knots to 450 Knots and 250 Knots. We saw here that the bug gets bigger and bigger if we increase and decrease the Climb/Descent rate. The bigger the climb/descent rate the bigger the bug.

In cruise flight the speed bug was "okay". So would be nice if that get fixed if it is possible.

We would request another feature:
The frequency is synced very good also in deep simulated aircrafts like PMDG. But: It is only controllable for one Pilot. If the F/O wants to change the frequency I have to give him the permissions. The problem is then that I cant change the frequency and only the F/O can control it. I mean the most time the F/O controls the frequencys but the squawk is also only controllable for one pilot.
Could it be possible to get both pilots the control? We doesnt need both flight controls but the NAV control.

We also detected a invisible Autopilot Speed changer. It changed the speed every time to 161 Knots if we activated the manual speed by pressing the speed knob. We couldnt change this value. If the SPD Mode where on we could change the speed. (So the AP speed is synced via our program and I think JoinFS is having there a control)
Pretty strange but I will try it in the next days if we can give the AP speed control to JoinFS and if maybe my program stopped the JoinFS action...

But again: thank you for this nice program. We appreciate your work!

[Peter]

Thanks for your comments. I am planning to revamp the shared cockpit soon. The aim is to have everything synced up as far as possible and to allow the user to sync simulator variables/datarefs themselves if they are found to be missing. It will also allow dual control of all the flight systems with the exception of the main flight controls, which will still require a hand over, but everything else will be available to all joined pilots that have permission. This should also fix the AP speed issue that you are having.

I'm hoping to start this once the FS2020 issues have been ironed out.

Peter

[Godehardt]

That sounds really good!

I have one question: Are the main flight controls synced or only the position of the aircraft. If I move my yoke it doesnt move anything on the Co-Pilot side and flight controls are not synced. Is that only in my case so in the PMDG or is it also not synced in the standard aircrafts.

I want to look if I can sync them...

Would be nice to see something outside and on the Flight controls Page...

[Peter]

That sounds really good!

I have one question: Are the main flight controls synced or only the position of the aircraft. If I move my yoke it doesnt move anything on the Co-Pilot side and flight controls are not synced. Is that only in my case so in the PMDG or is it also not synced in the standard aircrafts.

I want to look if I can sync them...

Would be nice to see something outside and on the Flight controls Page...

That's strange, the co-pilot should see the flight controls move in sync with the pilot. As far as I'm aware that's been working fine for a long time. I wonder if it due to the PMDG implementation. Could you try sharing a Cessna and see if that works?

Peter

[Godehardt]

Flight controls working in a standard aircraft...

Something different:
We have now found another bug which is dangerous.
If I brake, the Co-Pilot brakes too. But if I release the brakes the brakes are not released on the F/O side...
We also changed the Flight control permissions and at the end I had also locked brakes. There was no way to release them also if the F/O pressed the brakes double or sets the parking brake. The red message on the bottom left side showed that with "BRAKES".
The problem is that this gets a big Brake Temp and Tire Pressure caution

We didnt saw that on the first flight because we had some gear problems with my program.

[Peter]

Flight controls working in a standard aircraft...

Something different:
We have now found another bug which is dangerous.
If I brake, the Co-Pilot brakes too. But if I release the brakes the brakes are not released on the F/O side...
We also changed the Flight control permissions and at the end I had also locked brakes. There was no way to release them also if the F/O pressed the brakes double or sets the parking brake. The red message on the bottom left side showed that with "BRAKES".
The problem is that this gets a big Brake Temp and Tire Pressure caution

We didnt saw that on the first flight because we had some gear problems with my program.

Was this with the PMDG or the Cessna?

Peter

[Godehardt]

PMDG... The brakes where also not releaseable if JoinFS where closed.

Should I test it in the standard aircraft?

[Peter]

PMDG... The brakes where also not releaseable if JoinFS where closed.

Should I test it in the standard aircraft?

No, don't worry, thanks. I'll test it from here.

Peter

[Godehardt]

Have tried something with the PMDG.

So the Position of the "Yoke" or Elevator/AILERONS is completely readable via the SimConnect Variables:
ELEVATOR POSITION, AILERON POSITION, YOKE Y INDICATOR, YOKE Y INDICATOR, YOKE X POSITION, YOKE X POSITION

Although this variables are listed as Settable it is only settable in standard aircrafts. Not in the PMDG...

It is also not possible to set it via Event IDs:
AXIS_ELEVATOR_SET, AXIS_AILERONS_SET...

It changes the SimConnect variables but has no graphical effect. Nothing in the cockpit nothing outside and nothing internal (on the FCTL Page).

At the end I got it with ELEV_DOWN. Not the best solution but should work. I need to execute this event often in a while but it should be enough for the Flight Control Check...

[Peter]

Thanks for looking into that. It seems that some add-on aircraft are less conventional in their implementation. I will design the new shared cockpit system in such a way that variables can be modified on an individual aircraft basis as well the general case, and so override the default behaviour.

Peter

[Godehardt]

Okay so you think you get that working in the PMDG? Otherwise I implement it.

Now I have a question

Im trying to sync the Barometer/Minimums for a long long time. The PMDG SDK doesnt work and the SimConnect variable "KOHLSMAN SETTING MB" does only work on the Pilots Baro. KOHLSMAN SETTING MB:2 does only work on standard aircrafts and not on the PMDG. If you get it to sync the PMDG controls are you also able to get that working in any way? Or would you have an idea how I could solve that problem? If not the only way would be for me to implement it via Key-Commands.

Tom

[Godehardt]

I was a little bored...

The brake bug is also in a standard aircraft...

Both running on P3D v5

if nothing helps I think it would be enough if the brakes where not synced... The aircraft position is synced enough...

Tom