Transition penalties & Decalring Emergency

[sbonkers]

Hi all,2 questions today, the first one is about the transition alt penalty, I swotch to STD at 18000ft, but I always get the trandition penalty,

2nd Question, yesterday I had an engine failure, wont bore you with specifics, we survibed etc but is there a shortcut to declare emergencies? I ask this because things get very busy in the cockpit during an emergency, there isnt time to cycle through the fcdu to find the emergency option!! After I landed everyone thought we were just refeuling- lol! Anyway so no points for the emergency + Had to do the flight again

[peter]

Hi,

you have to change altimeter settings at TA +/- 300 feet, where TA is the local transition altitude. 18000 in North America, varying elsewhere (there is a transitions.cfg file in the config sub-directory that tells you what TA is for your airport). FSCaptain seems to use the actual altitude, not the indicated altitude, to check the penalty. When the pressure is significantly different from standard this may give you a penalty even when you switch exactly at TA, but I got used to it and then switch a little earlier or later.

About the shortcut: I don't think there is one, but that's realistic. You also don't have a shortcut for setting the transponder to 7700, so in my eyes that's one of the disadvantages of not having a copilot . I am missing one on each arrival when I have to switch COM frequencies from approach to tower.

Cheers,
Peter

[sbonkers]

Thanx ill have a look, yes you are most probably correct with the realism, why dont you use pro atc/radar contact? At least that would take care of comms as those programs tune radios for you?

[peter]

I mostly fly on Vatsim where I need to switch frequencies without an ATC program. Lately I have tried to use FS2Crew on Vatsim, but occasionally that led to an uncontrollable airplane.
When I fly offline I used to use VoxATC, which worked very well for me until the latest revision. I never tried RC4, but don't get me started on Pro-ATC (I own it, but I haven't used it for a year).

I am considering to try a combination of RC4 and Multi Crew Experience, but that would be a significant investment.

Cheers,
Peter

[sbonkers]

That is very true sir, I have both pro atc and radarcontact4, pro atc is a very very big waste of money, I fly with fs crew and radar contact, Im still thinking of the multi crew exp add on as fs crew already does some of it

[wedge598]

Quick Question related to emergencies. I had my first emergency yesterday when engine 2 of the Lear Jet flamed out. I was making a very short flight and the aircraft was still pretty easy to manage so I continued on and landed safely. I was going to declare the emergency but the FDCU said that doing so would cancel my flight. So I thought that since I was pretty close to the destination that I should keep the flight going. In the end I got the award for landing a crippled aircraft but was docked points for not declaring the emergency. Is it standard procedure to cancel the flight when an emergency occurs? As I type that the answer seems obvious but I'm asking anyway.

[peter]

I'm just guessing, but usually if you have an emergency you divert, so your flight should be cancelled.

[Lucas]

Hi,

sometimes I had penalty due not set STD altitude at (or +/- 300ft) TA. For example:
- departure from LIMJ (Genova/Italy) where TA is 7000. I checked transition.cfg and what we have:

…LICR|LICZ|LIMG|LIMJ|LIPA|LIPI|….=7000 -> so… it looks good.

However, even when I changed altimeter to STD at 6800 ft, I get penalty. Why? (QNH was 1014, so nearly standard)

But…I noticed other entry in transitions.cfg file:

LE.{2}|LI.{2}=6000

What does it LI.{2}=6000 mean?



By the way… how to add new airport and related TA? Entry: „ICAO=TA” is sufficient?

Regards,
Lucas

[Barry]

Hi lucas,

Check for the correct TA at the bottom of your dispatch release. It will list all non-standard transition altitudes.

I'm not positive, but I THINK the LI.{2}=6000 indicates that some of the ICAOs in Italy will have a TA of 6000 instead of the normal 7000.

[Lucas]

Thanks for reply, Barry,

I did what you suggest. In View release there is:

REMARKS:
- NOTE NONSTD TRANSITION(S) LIMJ=7000 LICJ=5000

..so I don't know why I had penalty

[Lucas]

Hello,

yesterday I had the same issue –> -5 pts penalty (TA not set to STD). This time at EDDF (Frankfurt), where TA=5000. In View Release window, at the bottom, there was TA=5000… so I don’t know why I get penalties
PS. I also get – 20 pt penalty (in „Areas of Concern” tab) due the same reason

Any ideas my friends?

Regards,
Lucas

[peter]

It could be that FSCaptain doesn't recognize that you have changed the altimeter. Which plane are you using?

[Lucas]

PMDG 777 but earlier penalty (which I described on June 3) I had with PMDG NGX.

[peter]

I am not sure. The PMDG 777 is not supported yet in all details but generally works OK. I checked my own flights with it and I had quite a few altimeter penalties, maybe more than what I would expect (I am usually diligent about this).

As for the 737, that works perfectly on my system. I suppose the pressure was not too extreme?

CHeers,
Peter

[Lucas]

I think not.. as I wrote in June 3, QNH was 1014, so nearly standard. Maybe I have set something incorrectly (?) ...but what...