WestWind Airlines

Yes, as Matthew stated, it does have a co-pilot, and that in itself makes those long flights bearable. The CP will handle your radio on the ground and in the air. Once you have received your clearance from departure control, you can turn the aircraft over to the CP. He/she (you can select from a number of recorded voices) will fly right up to final approach. The CP cannot control airspeed. You still need to do that yourself. It's great for me because once I  have cleared departure, I can turn the aircraft and radios over to th CP, then I can go about my work on my laptop, which sits right next to my desktop. I'm right there to monitor things, but I don't have to constantly switch control frequencies like with FS ATC, who hands you off to another frequency every couple of seconds (at least it seems that way). RC controllers are much more realistic. And you have a lot of other options: increase/ decrease altitude, divert around weather, change destination or divert to alternate airport, declare emergency at which point I believe you can even be vectored to an airport of your choice, abort takeoff, holding for weather or congestion, request short final, and others.  As the review stated, probably the biggest drawback is there is no taxi instructions on the ground, and you do have to watch out for ground traffic (aircraft and vehicles).

The tech support is great (should you need it) and they are good about free or discounted upgrades. 

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Bob S.
Senior Command Captain
E.V.P. Scenery

Bob Sturm:

Yes, as Matthew stated, it does have a co-pilot, and that in itself makes those long flights bearable. The CP will handle your radio on the ground and in the air. Once you have received your clearance from departure control, you can turn the aircraft over to the CP. He/she (you can select from a number of recorded voices) will fly right up to final approach. The CP cannot control airspeed. You still need to do that yourself. It's great for me because once I  have cleared departure, I can turn the aircraft and radios over to th CP, then I can go about my work on my laptop, which sits right next to my desktop. I'm right there to monitor things, but I don't have to constantly switch control frequencies like with FS ATC, who hands you off to another frequency every couple of seconds (at least it seems that way). RC controllers are much more realistic. And you have a lot of other options: increase/ decrease altitude, divert around weather, change destination or divert to alternate airport, declare emergency at which point I believe you can even be vectored to an airport of your choice, abort takeoff, holding for weather or congestion, request short final, and others.  As the review stated, probably the biggest drawback is there is no taxi instructions on the ground, and you do have to watch out for ground traffic (aircraft and vehicles).

The tech support is great (should you need it) and they are good about free or discounted upgrades. 

Well I finally did it. I like it but the green menu does not show up. I am going to have to trouble shoot that. I was just guessing at menu responses. I will keep you posted if I need anything. Thanks for the help!! You too Matthew!!

[edit] I got it figured out. Not sure but I think it might have been a FSUIPC configuration item I missed. Very Nice.

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WWA1702 Senior Command Captain +3
RWP SEL Instrument Rating (almost)
WW Test Pilot
Monster Driver

I've also had it not give me the box a couple of times. For me it was because I wasn't sitting at the gate before I loaded Radar Contact. I tried to do it after I made my flight plan and saved it.

So now I make sure FS is fully loaded and when I am sitting at the gate ready to go I ALT + TAB out of FS and open Radar Contact and load it up and then ALT + TAB back into FS. No problems since I started doing that.

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Matthew
WWA2078
KCVG HM
SENIOR CAPTAIN
ZLA I-03 QUALIFIED

Mike Gibbs:

Well I finally did it. I like it but the green menu does not show up. I am going to have to trouble shoot that. I was just guessing at menu responses. I will keep you posted if I need anything. Thanks for the help!! You too Matthew!!

[edit] I got it figured out. Not sure but I think it might have been a FSUIPC configuration item I missed. Very Nice.

Open the FSUIPC Configuration from the FSX menu bar (Addons). Check the Multi-line display window checkbox:

 

The window is moveable and resizeable. After clicking on this window for moving or resizing, be sure to click on the FS window again, otherwise, nothing will work (you will think FS locked up). I've fallen into that trap a number of times. Unlike the various pop-up Instrument panel windows, this one belongs to FSUIPC, so while working with that window, FS is running as a background. You have to switch back to FS by clicking on the FS window.

 

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Bob S.
Senior Command Captain
E.V.P. Scenery

Thanks guys! I am in business and I like it a lot. I should have done it a year ago.

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WWA1702 Senior Command Captain +3
RWP SEL Instrument Rating (almost)
WW Test Pilot
Monster Driver

Another good way to increase realism while flying airliners is to use cabin announcements!

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Justin L
WWA2153
CAT III
KBOS - AHM

or eat freeze dried snacks ....

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Bentley S.
CAT II
KSFO
WWA2183

I have a realism question.  How are you guys getting these engine failures and such like the nose gear collapses etc.?  I have seen the section in the options of FSX for failures but I haven't put any on as I thought these would guarantee a failure all the time?  All I want is to have the possiblity of failures for my realism but I don't really wish to have a problem on every flight.  Nor do I wish to fly all the time with no failures what so ever.

 Help me out here guys!

 

Thanks,

Jose

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Jose Lopez
AHM - KDFW
WWA2149 CAT IV

The nose gear failure is just a crash. It happens when the nose gear is overstressed. It has nothing to do with the realism settings.

I don't use the MS settings for the same reason you describe. I think there is other software that does a little better job but I don't know what it is.

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WWA1702 Senior Command Captain +3
RWP SEL Instrument Rating (almost)
WW Test Pilot
Monster Driver

FSPassengers is a great program.  It will create failures depending on how you maintenance your plane.

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Justin L
WWA2153
CAT III
KBOS - AHM

The only problem is that FSPax does not work with FSX,  they are developing a new version but that may be out by the time FS11 hits the shelves.

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Phil Cohen WWA1573
Sr. Command Captain
EVP - Charter Operations
VP - Hub Ops - Europe & Pacific

Well i caved i and dropped the 44 bucks for RC.Best money i have spent in a while,very cool program,takes the Sim one step further to realism

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Monster Driver
P255 charter

Does anyone know if FDSFX works with FSX?  Also, does anyone know how to save .cfg files in vista?  Vista doesn't let me save files that are in the program files folder since it think I'm going to mess the files up.  Any help?

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Justin L
WWA2153
CAT III
KBOS - AHM

Justin:

Another good way to increase realism while flying airliners is to use cabin announcements!

it's fun to do this in the real world too, in a small plane.  Especially when you're flying by yourself :P  if you have people with you though, they might call you a dork (or worse).

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Scott M. Stone
WWA1712 - Cat-III - Director of Aircraft
VATSIM 1018857 - C1 Controller - KZSE
Private Pilot - ASEL + Complex + IFR (almost)

Just finished my first full flight with RC.Wow,what a difference from MS ATC.Really enjoyed it.Its nice knowing you dont have to fiddle with ATC announcements clicking and reading and trying to keep up,especially on approaches.Turn the comms over to the Co pilot ,let him deal with that and you just fly the plane.So much easier and more realistic IMO.Like i said in other post,best 44 dollars i have spent on a program in years.I recommend Radar Contact to anyone that has the money and wants to get more realism out of FSX and get rid of the MS ATC

 

Almost forgot,i really like at the end of a flight you can get a evaluation of your flight from RC,i got a excellent from KDFW-->KJFK.

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Monster Driver
P255 charter