OnCourse Software Ltd
PFE FAQ's
Another First from OnCourse Software
ProFlight 2000 Lives Again
A: Yes it can by using Pete Dowson's WideFS utility... available HERE. When using PFE on a networked PC please remember to use the client's keyboard when making any changes to PFE's options but use the main FS keyboard to communicate with ATC when PFE is connected to FS during your flight
A: It would appear that some regional settings can cause this problem. Recent correspondence from a Japanese user resulted in him changing the Unicode setting (Control Panel\Regional Settings) to English, which cured the problem. To the best of our knowledge most regional settings are valid and PF2K/PFE work just fine.
A: We are unsure why this occasionally happens to some users, but here's a simply workaround. Please download this small utility from HERE..... unzip it into your MAIN PFE Folder then run it. Once complete you should be able to start ProFlight 2000
A: Please check under the Technical Tab in FSUIPC (or look under the GENERAL section the FSUIPC.INI file) and set the TCASid entry to FLIGHT. Programs such as AIBlast and FSHotSeat appear to change these settings which make them incompatible with PFE
A: One user found that this only occurred when using a particular aircraft. Try the same frequency using another aircraft and if that does not help please email support at pfe@oncourse-software.co.uk
A: Do NOT remove this file. It is NOT spyware and is an ActiveX control for display most of the text that appears on the PFE screens. Without it PFE will NOT run! You can configure Spyware Terminator to ignore it rather than remove it. If you have removed it you will need to reinstall PFE.
A: The reason is quite simple... only the new expanded voice sets include the newly recorded 1000+ additional call signs. So if you have an original voice set selected it couldn't possible use a new call sign because the recorded wav file simply isn't there to use. So if you want to use an original voice set for your pilot's voice you have to also use one of the original airline call signs. If you want to use one of the new airline call signs you have to use one of the new voice sets for your pilots voice.
A: If you downloaded PFE version from Aerosoft between 27th June 2008 and 1st July 2008 please go to your Aerosoft account and download it again. Uninstall PFE from your system then reinstall using the new download. Unfortunately there were a number of files missed from the install install pack. If you have the new expanded voice pack install you do not need to uninstall that.
A: If you downloaded PFE version from Aerosoft between 27th June 2008 and 1st July 2008 please go to your Aerosoft account and download it again. Uninstall PFE from your system then reinstall using the new download. Unfortunately there were a number of files missed from the install install pack. If you have the new expanded voice pack install you do not need to uninstall that.
A: This can happen for a number of reasons... (1) you are using the original and new voice sets together, so if the current controller's voice set is using one of the original voice sets the number of full call signs is restricted to approximately 150 call signs. When only using the new voice sets the number of call signs available is over 1,000.
A: Certainly not. PFE version 2.0 will work quite happily using the 44 original voice sets. However, the new voice sets have a much wider vocabulary and therefore offer enhanced capabilities. Amongst other things they offer an additional 1,000 airline call signs so you will hear the full call sign being used by ATC rather than the three character airline ICAO code
A: You must start/stop ProFlight 2000 after installing the new voice sets and before you run PFE. This was the last instruction displayed after you installed the new voice sets. If PFE is still running, please stop it. Then start ProFlight 2000... exit from it.... now start PFE and all should be well
A: You need to purchase the PFE voice set expansion pack from HERE, which provides version 2.0 users with an additional 59 newly recorded voice sets
A: A few things to check in ProFlight Settings... please ensure you have your Cruise Altitude set to at least the same altitude as that in your flight plan... also ensure the Center Altitude is not too low (you may need to experiment with this one but tests have shown it can be too low which can prevent PF compiling the flight plan.... the default is 14,500)... also make sure the Center altitude is lower than the cruise altitude... if your regional currency settings are set to a comma rather than a decimal character that can also prevent PF from compiling the ADV flight file. If all else fails please try setting your regional settings to English just to see if that cure the problem.
A: Start ProFlight and select the Select Spec option to check the cruise speed set for your aircraft. Check the MACH setting is valid. ie. Mach .74 should be entered as .74 and not 74 (If you have a missing decimal point your ADV Flight File will be wrong.)
A: New call signs will not be selectable or displayed in ProFlight settings. To use one of the new call signs you must select it from the PFE main options page.
A: Somehow ProFlight has allowed a change to one of the following settings to an incorrect value, resulting in the overflow error message. If you open the PF2000.CFG file and scroll down to the FlightInfo section (almost at the end of the file) you will see three entries as follows:-
CruiseSpeedIAS=238
CruiseSpeedMACH=0.74
CruiseSpeedTAS=420
If you check these you will probably find one or more of the values to be very high... Eg. A cruise speed of 4000 would obviously be incorrect. To correct the problem simply enter a correct value and resave the CFG file... then restart PF2000. We are currently unsure as to how these values get changed... PFE most certainly does not change any of them... so if you discover how to recreate the issue please let us know.
Q: I'm using Co-pilot Mode 2 but PFE doesn't detect when I get near to the active and so doesn't tell me to switch to the Tower.
A: PFE waits for you to be within 700' feet of the active runway before issuing a 'Contact Tower on...' command. If you happen to be taking off from a position other than the end of the active runway you may well be more than 700' away from that detection point. Should this be the case you would need to manually switch to the Tower frequency, then use Hotkey 6 to contact Tower and request takeoff clearance.
A: There are a couple of reasons why this may occur. Firstly, if the flight plan you are attempting to load is not in the correct format. Remember ProFlight requires FS2000 format flight plans so FS9 and/or FSX flight plans require converting, which you can do from within PFE. Secondly you need to select the Use Real Weather option in the ProFlight Settings page... turning that option off makes the Compile button inactive so please ensure it is on.
Q: I'm using FS2004/FSX to create a flight plan for PFE but I get errors when trying to compile it.
A: ProFlight requires the flight plan to be created in FS2000 format, after all, it was developed back in FS2000 days. Flight planners used during testing for this purpose included FSBuild, Ultimate Airlines, FSNav and NAV3. We have also provided a means to convert FS9/FSX Flight Plans for use with ProFlight 2000.
Q: PFE ATC routed me to fly right into a mountain.
A: In such hazardous areas it is vitally important to create a good flight plan to ensure PFE delivers safe approach vectoring. PFE is not aware of mountains or obstacles on your approach route so you, as the pilot, need to ensure you plan your flights correctly. Remember also that YOU are the Captain in charge and if, during approach vectoring, you consider ATC to be issuing a bad and dangerous turn you should ignore it and use the #1 hotkey to request a 'Cleared to Final Approach'
Q: I had to reinstall ProFlight 2000 and now PFE will not work
A: If you have the PFE Standard Edition you cannot reinstall ProFlight 2000 without reinstalling PFE. Should you ever need to reinstall ProFlight you must then run the PFE_1 and PFE_2 installers. You may run the PFE installers at anytime without having to reinstall ProFlight but you cannot do it the other way around.
Q: I never got handed over to any Centre facilities during my flight.
A: PFE (ProFlight) determines which control centres to hand you over to dependant on the altitude you are currently flying. If you don't reach a centre's specified altitude you will remain under the control of a Departure or Approach controller. This altitude setting can be changed from within ProFlight's settings page and defaults to 14,500'
Q: PFE is working and I can hear the controllers talking to me but I can't hear the pilot's voice.
A: Check the Game Commander option in ProFlight and ensure it is unchecked
A: Please remember ProFlight 2000 was written for use in FS2000, consequently certain options (like writing to the FS GPS) are no longer functional. Please see the section "What does not work that used to work in ProFlight" for more details on what ProFlight features do and do not work. Also please see the section "First steps... only steps..." for details on using flight plans with the FS GPS.
Q: I have been trying to generate weather in ProFlight but it doesn't seem to work!
A: That's because it doesn't work! Please see the section "What does not work that used to work in ProFlight" for more details.
Q: I'm using ActiveSky ATC vectors me to land VFR on runway 21. At the same time all AI were landing and departing runway 03, the opposite end. Why?
A: This can happen when using an external weather programs such as ActiveSky. Pro Flight ATC reads the weather and chooses the correct runway, but ASV6 may update the weather forcing a change of the active runway. FS9/FSX ATC will change the active runway, but PFE has already made its choice, hence the incursion. To avoid this, it is necessary to use the "suppression" options according to the type of flight/aircraft. Using the New Route and Navigation Log will be helpful too.
Please see your ActiveSky manual for details and how to use these powerful features, it is usually located (Windows XP) at:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\Modules\ASv6\User Guide
If one chooses not to take these extra steps in ActiveSky, then using the default FS9/FSX real weather instead of ActiveSky will prevent this issue from happening while using PF ATC.
Q: I changed my call sign in ProFlight, recompiled the ADV Flight File, but I'm still hearing my old call sign.
A: Check to see if you have a call sign set in PFE option. If you do then you must delete it. Pilots Voice, Airline and Call sign each override the same settings in ProFlight but can be useful if you always want to use the same call sign even if using an ADV Flight File created by another user with their embedded call sign.
Q: The approach to my destination was rubbish. I was far to high when cleared for the approach!
A: Adjust you flight plan descent profile during compilation. Remember, your flight will only be as good as your flight planning, just as in the real world.
Q: I found a bug whilst using ProFlight. How do I report it and when will you fix it?
A: The actual ProFlight 2000 program has not been changed by us nor will it ever be. ProFlight 2000 was developed by Tom Main and Robert Mackay and released in 2000. It is not our program, we do not have the source code and there will be no fixes for any problems found.
Q: After PFE had a problem and crashed my Regional Settings appear to be wrong and numbers are not being displayed correctly?
A: Restart PFE then immediately close it using the Exit button - That should reset your numeric regional settings to their original state.
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