Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - Pilots who insist on 64-bits

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | Airline Operations | Pilots who insist on 64-bits - can DVA accomodate them?

DVA10504
Captain, B737-800
OLP

Joined on February 01 2012
Century Club
Online Century Club

Vacaville, CA USA

148 legs, 195.0 hours
140 legs, 185.9 hours online
148 legs, 195.0 hours ACARS
2 legs, 4.1 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 27 2013 19:40 ET by Robert McDonald

I recently departed FSX with heavy heart and embraced 64-bit X-Plane. I therefore insist on running ONLY 64-bit applications whilst flying X-Plane 64, and thereby lost connectivity with both VATSIM and DVA. Squawkbox and it's X-Plane Cousin X-Squawkbox are ONLY available in 32-bits, ACARS as far as I know is ONLY 32-bits. Thus I cannot connect to VATSIM nor to DVA. In desperation for ATC, I discovered PilotEdge.net a payware ATC service that I personally fell in love with. At the risk of inflaming any of those here who feel it's just "wrong" to pay for professional ATC, I will say that to me, being able to have ATC between 8am and 11pm Pacific Time, 7-days a week, with no sudden disconnects or ATC closures in the middle of my final approach is a GODSEND, and I'm thrilled to pay $15 a month (annual) for it. A- it's 64-bits. B- It's far less casual than VATSIIM. C-PilotEdge FORCES pilots to rotate through all the frequencies from Clearance to Ground to Tower to Departure to Center to Approach and so on. Your radio comms buttons never got this much workout and you never had to be so much on your toes!

Best of all, there already is a 64-bit plug-in from PilotEdge.net that allows you to communicate with the directly from your Ramzzess Aviation B777. I obtained a 64-bit XSaitekPanels plugin and I can use the Saitek Pro Radio Panel to do my COMMS, the second row of the panel displays current altimeter and transponder code.

What's missing? Being able to receive credit for my 64-bit flight hours in X-Plane when I'm flying on PilotEdge. Now, I'm not taking away from VATSIM - but I'm just saying it's not palatable to be forced to fly in 32-bits ONLY so I can log flight hours here at DVA. Wouldn't it be great if all DVA pilots had a "CHOICE" of which online ATC service they wanted to log flight hours on? Those who love FSX (and are fine with flying in 32-bits) can keep the status quo. Those who insist on using their PCs to the maximum capability could use PilotEdge (or possibly VATSIM if ever a 64-bit ACARS program comes along?).

The founder of PilotEdge is currently doing business with LevelD RW simulators, actual RW airlines, and the military, along with some flight schools and individual sim pilots like me. His name is Keith Smith. An offer to discount for VA's (like DeltaVA) if 10 or more members are using his service has been discussed. Even at regular prices, I think PilotEdge offers a level of professionalism that I haven't found anywhere else. How real is it on Vatsim to depart KLAX and talk only to Los Angeles Center your entire flight time in their airspace (because only one controller is online)? How many times have you been at a VATSIM airport only to have the GROUND CONTROLLER be the only guy in that airspace that's online for vatsim? You taxi to the end of the departure taxiway and he hands you off to UNICOM?? You've flown 8 hours across country and as you approach KJFK, the Vatsim controllers decide to suddenly close up for the evening and have you switch to Unicom advisory? Is this as real as it gets?

Not exactly. At least not for me. Pilot Edge is presently servicing Southern California airspace, with possibilities of additional services being added. I'm the first to admit this is not ideal in every pilot's case. But if you exclude VATSIM special events, your VATSIM control experience can range from "Great to Fair to Non-Existent". I have many times departed from a strange airport on Vatsim because it was the only area in the USA with ATC at the time I wanted to fly, and innumerable flights have ended with the destination airport offline by the time I reached its airspace.

I know that if I depart KSEA for KSAN and arrive in San Diego prior to 11pm, I will have coverage from when I enter Los Angeles Airspace all the way to my gate at KSAN. The arrival controller(s) won't terminate for meals, doctor visits, or personal reasons. It's a BUSINESS and it's OPEN (online) specified hours.

It's a sincere hope that those of us who see the value of PilotEdge, or wish to fly in 64-bits not wait for the hoped-for but might-take-forever-to-happen 64-bit XSquawkbox plus 64-bit Delta XACARS to materialize be given the opportunity to maintain our membership in DeltaVA. We deserve credit for online flight hours, just as we would if we flew on Vatsim.

Does this seem unreasonable?

Robert McDonald

**comments are personal opinions, anecdotal in nature, and without conference of copyright or warranty **

Robert McDonald

Captain, B737-800

DVA853
Senior Captain, B747-400
OLP
E-MAIL

Joined on September 26 2002
50 State Club
Tin Dispatcher
Globetrotter
Two Million Mile Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
US Coastal Club
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Rincon, GA

2,190 legs, 6,343.5 hours
2,170 legs, 6,302.2 hours online
2,158 legs, 6,210.4 hours ACARS
2 legs, 10.0 hours event
376 legs dispatched, 185.3 hours

Posted onPost created on February 28 2013 08:17 ET by Chris Hannigan

I noticed PilotEdge has a 14 day free trial. I think I'm going to try it out.

Chris Hannigan

Senior Captain, B747-400

DVA5270
Senior Captain, B737-800

Joined on September 27 2007
50 State Club
Everett 500 Club
Online Quintuple Century Club
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DVA Ten-Year Anniversary

"p=np"
Charleston, SC USA

977 legs, 1,725.8 hours
578 legs, 894.1 hours online
931 legs, 1,647.1 hours ACARS
43 legs, 67.0 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 28 2013 10:15 ET by Don Thomas

I thought this was going to be a post about system performance and ACARS ?!?

Okay, so I pay for ATC coverage and can fly only in Southern California. I could see doing that if I was a student pilot wanting to practice or a RW controller wanting to sharpen my skills.

For me, the coverage is limited, the time is restricted. $5.00 a month is not bad, but I am going to fly right now, coverags is off-line However, Radar Cantact is ready to go.

Don Thomas

Senior Captain, B737-800

DVA2214
Captain, A330-300
OLP
E-MAIL

Joined on March 25 2005
50 State Club
Everett 500 Club
Globetrotter
White Knuckles Club
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Millennium Club
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DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary

"One takeoff and landing at a time"
Tampa, FL

1,124 legs, 2,777.2 hours
35 legs, 61.3 hours online
1,005 legs, 2,492.2 hours ACARS
1,153 legs, 2,869.7 hours total
111 legs dispatched, 90.7 hours

Posted onPost created on February 28 2013 11:38 ET by Anthony Katosh

Posted onPost created on February 28 2013 11:39 ET by Robert McDonald

Don Thomas wrote:

I thought this was going to be a post about system performance and ACARS ?!?

Okay, so I pay for ATC coverage and can fly only in Southern California. I could see doing that if I was a student pilot wanting to practice or a RW controller wanting to sharpen my skills.

For me, the coverage is limited, the time is restricted. $5.00 a month is not bad, but I am going to fly right now, coverags is off-line However, Radar Cantact is ready to go.

Hello Don,

My concerns are grounded around the lack of 64-bit support. To be clear, if you're flying X-Plane 10 64-bit, you have NO options for ATC -except- PilotEdge (as of today, the 28th of Feb 2013). To summarize: FSX is dead and locked in 32-bits forever. Because no one will rebuild FSX's underlying code base to bring it up to 64-bits, you fly beneath the 4GB memory ceiling of 32-bit software. As you add more and more 3rd party products, plus run 32-bit ACARS, you come dangerously close to that ceiling, resulting in the warning bell from FSUIPC of impending memory crash. This is insane on today's higher end systems, many of which are 16GB of RAM and some even 32 or more.

ACARS is NOT available in 32-bits (why should it be, it is only used on FSX or Prepar3d)
XACARS has CEASED development, the programmers announcing they are simply too busy to port it over to 64-bits
FSInn has CEASED development, several years back (but why worry, it's for FSX and Prepar3d -both of which are 32 bit)
Squawkbox has CEASED development (same deal FSX or Prepar3D only)
XSquawkbox is only available in 32-bits - no word about 64-bits

PILOT EDGE has a 64-bit plugin available TODAY that can furnish datapoints to Virtual Airlines.

Now let's talk about "southern california only" - I concede that is not ideal, there are times I want to fly out of KSEA or KJFK or DFW or even Vancouver. I concede that point. PilotEdge is not static - I believe they are growing and have the potential to be something really special. It only took me 7 of the 14 days to commit to a 1 year subscription, but you can fly it month to month and very little or every day... it's up to the pilot/user. Yes they are not on 24x7, but they are on 14 hours EVERY DAY. I submit that most of us could find time to fly them --if we wanted to--. By no means is PilotEdge for everyone. Newbie pilots would likely become flustered with all the channel changing required as they fly their route. PilotEdge operates like RW ATC - they don't have patience for a person who doesn't have the charts at hand (much less read the chart) or who ignores instructions or fails to confirm them when given.

If you are insistent on 64-bits, you really have very few options, because you can't talk to RW ATC on VATSIM or IVAO in 64-bits, period. That is what led me to PilotEdge. Mr. Esenhour of our DVA has advised me I may log my flight hours manually to receive credit for my flights, however I may not be able to obtain promotion within this DVA due to problems with simultaneous checkrides not being possible.

I am not interested in 'simulated ATC' (Radar Contact) - though I sense that may also be a FSX product. Remember, I am limited to X-Plane by choice, and by the 64-bits which is exclusive to X-Plane. I am able to take full advantage of multi-core processors without limit (if I had a pair of quad-cores on a workstation, for example) and the next generation of video card (the nVidia TITAN which will offer triple the performance of todays GTX 6-series game processors, plus carry 6 (SIX) Gigabytes of Vram on the graphics card). What this means is performance levels that are unheard of in FSX - silky smooth stutter-free and no OOMs or CTD's (Crash to desktop).

X-Plane is constantly morphing and improving. It isn't complete yet, and I admit that. Once I saw the view from the sky at night - and watched the cars on the San Diego freeway as I flew in visual approach on RWY 27 at KSAN - I was forever hooked. It's mind-bending!

So my purpose in posting this thread was to make those who might be flying X-Plane (especially those who fly in 64-bits) aware of what can be had TODAY. And as Chris Hannigan rightly pointed out, a 14-day test flight on PilotEdge is 100% free of charge, and I am willing to bet that any of us who have some time logged with VATSIM or IVAO will be stunned at the quality of service that is part and parcel of everyday ops at PilotEdge. Professional all the time, no giggling, no teenagers blasting the frequency with loud background noise or over-modulated desktop microphones or low-end headsets... you get the picture.

And of course, I was driven to this search by the DVA HR department getting after me to log hours - something I was unaware I could do manually. Not ideal, but at least it's an option.

I didn't miss your point about Southern California as a limitation - but I remind you that many times VATSIM only has service at your departing or arriving airport. And you never know when Vatsim is going to go offline (closing ops) and switch you to Unicom. That's a major annoyance when you flew a route JUST BECAUSE you thought you'd have ATC when you departed or got to the other end. And as you pointed out, many times NO ONE is on at Vatsim. That's a buzz killer. You have the Radar Contact alternative, I don't.

I'm aware of a thread that appeared here in 2011 wherein many members were somehow offended that there was a "Pay" ATC service. I respect those opinions. Yet I'm happy to "pay" for something that is professional and very high quality. So much so that real world airlinees and real world Level-D sim centers, along with the military and many private flight schools all use PilotEdge. Interestingly, they didn't choose Radar Contact, Vatsim or IVAO. You can bet that at least some of those sims are using Prepar3D or FSX in 32-bits, so there was different reason they use PilotEdge.

Cheers and respect,

Robert McDonald

Robert McDonald

Captain, B737-800

Posted onPost created on February 28 2013 13:12 ET by Don Thomas

Man, you are long winded. You choose X-plane, I choose FS9 and FSX. You choose Pilotedge, I choose Radar Contact and VATSIM. It's about choices.

In the 8th paragraph of your second post. You stated, "So my purpose in posting this thread was to make those who might be flying X-Plane (especially those who fly in 64-bits) aware of what can be had TODAY."

Why didn't you chose to put that in the first post with the title,

"64 Bit X-Plane simmers try Pilotedge." followed by,

"My purpose in posting this thread is to make those who might be flying X-Plane (especially those who fly in 64-bits) aware of what can be had TODAY. Pilotedge rocks give it a try 30 days are free and it is only 5 bucks a moth afther that. Look at it, I love it."

Concise, percise and to the point.

Don Thomas

Senior Captain, B737-800

Posted onPost created on February 28 2013 13:16 ET by Robert McDonald

Don Thomas wrote:

Man, you are long winded. You choose X-plane, I choose FS9 and FSX. You choose Pilotedge, I choose Radar Contact and VATSIM. It's about choices.

In the 8th paragraph of your second post. You stated, "So my purpose in posting this thread was to make those who might be flying X-Plane (especially those who fly in 64-bits) aware of what can be had TODAY."

Why didn't you chose to put that in the first post with the title,

"64 Bit X-Plane simmers try Pilotedge." followed by,

"My purpose in posting this thread is to make those who might be flying X-Plane (especially those who fly in 64-bits) aware of what can be had TODAY. Pilotedge rocks give it a try 30 days are free and it is only 5 bucks a moth afther that. Look at it, I love it."

Concise, percise and to the point.

You're right, Don. Thank you for your concise edit, you said it far better.

Robert McDonald

Captain, B737-800

DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP

Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett 1500 Club
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"Col. Panic"
Marietta, GA

2,313 legs, 9,317.7 hours
240 legs, 553.9 hours online
1,971 legs, 8,110.8 hours ACARS
75 legs, 196.3 hours event
2,349 legs, 9,452.6 hours total
91 legs dispatched, 66.4 hours

Posted onPost created on February 28 2013 15:02 ET by Luke Kolin

Robert McDonald wrote:

ACARS is NOT available in 32-bits (why should it be, it is only used on FSX or Prepar3d)
XACARS has CEASED development, the programmers announcing they are simply too busy to port it over to 64-bits

It's not so much an issue about the bitness. Dean could recompile ACARS tomorrow with 64-bit and just lose the Level-D integration; that's the only reason it's running as a 32-bit app. The challenge is that there isn't an X-Plane bridge for ACARS. I'd be delighted if someone wrote one.

Cheers!

Luke Kolin

Senior Captain, MD-11

Posted onPost created on February 28 2013 15:17 ET by Robert McDonald

Luke Kolin wrote:

Robert McDonald wrote:

ACARS is NOT available in 32-bits (why should it be, it is only used on FSX or Prepar3d)
XACARS has CEASED development, the programmers announcing they are simply too busy to port it over to 64-bits

It's not so much an issue about the bitness. Dean could recompile ACARS tomorrow with 64-bit and just lose the Level-D integration; that's the only reason it's running as a 32-bit app. The challenge is that there isn't an X-Plane bridge for ACARS. I'd be delighted if someone wrote one.

Cheers!

Good idea, Luke. Check your e-mail.
Robert.

Robert McDonald

Captain, B737-800

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