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Post by Travis on Feb 25, 2015 14:01:09 GMT -5
Captains,
ACME Aeronautical Industries (motto: We Make Flying Interesting) has received reports of certain Captains making risky flight decisions, so as of the FCDU version 1.6.3 Captains flying fixed wing aircraft will be under the default requirement of maintaining a Minimum Safe Distance from ground objects, risking the wrath of complaining passengers and severely ticked off aviation authorities.
Now as ACME Aeronautical Industries (motto: Watch Out For That Tree!!) can't detect individual buildings & obstacles with our sensors, and knowing that our Captains may be flying in VFR or IFR conditions, we've decided that if you are beyond 4 miles from your departure or destination airport, you must keep an minimum AGL level based on the surface type you're over.
The levels are:
- 500 feet for uncongested areas (water, snow, ice)
- 900 feet for populated areas (forests & grassy areas)
- 1400 feet for congested areas (urban areas)
... with an additional 1000 feet added if you are departing or approaching in "mountainous" areas. That's defined as the airport's altitude being over 550ft - the departure airport while before the Descent stage, and the Arrival airport thereafter.
(These values are based on the real world requirements from the FAA for both 14 CFR 91.119 (VFR) and 14 CFR 91.177 (IFR) flights... with some allowances made for our simulators.)
Your Dispatch Release will contain the MSD levels for your Departure, Arrival and Alternate airports.
If you do dip beneath the MSD level, you will start accumulating "violation points" (think of it as "eyeballs per second"  ) and after a while you'll hear your FO caution you, and at that point you risk a 5 point penalty from a frightened passenger. Carry on a bit longer, and you'll definitely get a PAXCOM, and if you dawdle way too long too low, you'll get a message on the FCDU from the airline telling you to stop it. At that point, you've lost 20 extra points!
For those Captains who wish to test this feature with no risk of incurring a penalty - the enabling option is noted below in InvisoText.
For FSCaptain Version 1.5.1 to 1.6.2, open your OPTIONS.CFG file and add this line:
ENABLE_MSD=1
... ensuring that you press the ENTER key afterwards... placing your cursor on the line beneath.
When you do this, you will see any "MSD violation points" on the top line of your FCDU while you are currently below MSD. You will not hear the FO say anything while in test mode.
If the MSD violation points are in cyan (or aqua) you would not have triggered a PAXCOM.
If the MSD violation points change to yellow/orange you would be in the range to have triggered a PAXCOM.
If the MSD violation points change to red... expect a message from your dispatch arriving soon.
And again, in all FSCaptain versions prior to 1.6.3, there are no PAXCOM nor Violation points assessed.
This option value will change with 1.6.3, so at that time you can safely remove it.
Happy flying with ACME!
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Post by terry on Feb 25, 2015 15:05:14 GMT -5
Phew. Still no penalty for flying Wacky Backy out of small South American airstrips |
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Post by Travis on Feb 25, 2015 17:00:21 GMT -5
If you're making a non-PAX flight, you only have to be concerned if your local aviation authority is not seeing anything untoward.  I'm wanting to establish the MSD requirements before we roll out the Contract items (in 1.7.0 ??) so that Captains will have a sense for what is or isn't allowed. (Then too, I'm hopeful that 1.6.3 will have better bush/water flights... which can involve some "low flying" bits on their own.) In all frankness, for the Captains who make regular airline flights with passengers and regular cargo MSD violations will not be a factor. Sure, you may pick up a few "eyeballs per second" when using Alpine-like airports with high surrounding mountains, but unless you're trying to skim treetops or buildings for several minutes at a time, no one but you will ever be the wiser.... That's why I wanted to announce this now: enable it for your current FSCaptain versions so you can see what's happening. Once the 1.6.3 Beta starts though, you should monitor your FO and the FCDU to avoid too much "low flying." |
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Post by keng on Feb 26, 2015 8:44:45 GMT -5
Deleted due to table problems...
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Post by Travis on Feb 26, 2015 19:06:07 GMT -5
Deleted due to table problems... ?? I'm curious as to what you'd like to contribute.... |
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Post by keng on Feb 27, 2015 7:17:25 GMT -5
I was going to state that 4nm might not be far enough. With the inverse C circling minima in the US and the standard ICAO circling minima at a high altitude airport you may be more than 4nm from the airport reference point yet still legal circling distance. i.e. 5,000 airport further than 4nm from the ARP but with 4nm of the runways. Also once RNP 0.1 approaches get fully implemented you may see more valley approaches with granite walls 0.5nm either side of the jet. Besides the FAR you quote states specifically states, except for take-off and landing, if I am circling a visual portion of an instrument procedure I have begun the landing phase of flight. To give everyone the room they need you may wish to consider 8.5nm. Even a Cat E airplane at a 9,000'+ airport should not be circiling that far out. www.nbaa.org/ops/airspace/issues/20130418-faa-expands-size-of-protected-airspace-for-circling-approaches.phpI know circling has gone the way of the Do Do bird and no few airline pilots circle anymore, but some of us old dogs still know this trick and can perform it with relative ease. |
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Post by Travis on Feb 27, 2015 12:03:48 GMT -5
Thanks for the link! If there was enough time, I'd like to use a table like that to offer more variety. Maybe in a future update thoug....
I just checked the code and it's currently set at 5nm, but I think it should be increased. I'll bump it up but also use the "longest runway" at an airport to give a little more room.
So although ARPs aren't dead center at any given airport we can halve the longest runway distance and factor that in.
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Post by ajurt37 on Mar 1, 2015 2:10:11 GMT -5
Travis, Interesting. I agree with Keng that 4-5 miles might be a bit tight. I remember flying an approach into Cusco (SPZO) about 2-3 years ago. I was on the correct approach profile according to the charts and still had all kinds of alarms go off in the cockpit. If memory serves me right, that was more than 4-5 miles out. If you listen well, you can hear terrain warnings in the real thing in this youtube video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwmssCzd54g. Andre |
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Post by Travis on Mar 1, 2015 14:55:38 GMT -5
Gents,
There is an increased radius for "mountainous airports." IIRC that's 9nm. (And yes, you have that already in version 1.6.2.)
Please know that there's some planned leeway in how long you can "fly too low" before anything matters - so if you're curious, go ahead enable the MSD tracking now and make some test flights to see how it looks to you. There'll be no penalties involved now at all.
You'll see a counter at the top of the FCDU start in aqua/cyan until you get halfway to your allotted Violation Points. Then it will turn yellow and when you reach the maximum allowed VPs, it will turn red.
If you never hit the yellow numbers, it's no matter. And if you're a cargo hauler, you'll not worry until you put the numbers in the red.
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Post by Travis on Mar 2, 2015 14:20:47 GMT -5
NOTAM I'll add here (because I'm starting to work on the documentation for all this new stuff) that the "size" and facilities of an airport matters in determining the MSD for its area. An airport with no hard surfaces is judged to be in an "uncongested area" and so its MSD is 500ft, (That's 1500 feet if its in a mountainous area... with an expanded radius to match.) In my testing recently, I noticed that KLVK was given an MSD of 500ft. (!?!) It turned out that the runways in my scenery had "oil-treated" runways... not deemed by ACME as a "hard" surface. So although KLVK has a control tower and an ILS... the logic held that with only "soft" runways, it must be in an uncongested area.  If it turns out that we will need to provide the ability to "override" MSD values for an airport, I've the idea already in mind.... |
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) and after a while you'll hear your FO caution you, and at that point you risk a 5 point penalty from a frightened passenger. Carry on a bit longer, and you'll definitely get a PAXCOM, and if you dawdle way too long too low, you'll get a message on the FCDU from the airline telling you to stop it. At that point, you've lost 20 extra points!
