Special Thanks to Fort Worth Center!!!

[Jon Wilder 1268033]

Hi all. I'm a seasoned Flight Simulator pilot as well as a real world student pilot, but am new to VATSIM and the Virtual Airline community. I currently fly for American Flight Airways.

 

I flew flight 341 out of San Francisco International into Dallas-Fort Worth this afternoon. Christos Kokkinomagoulos was my controller in Fort Worth Center today. He initially cleared me for a visual approach on runway 36L, but I asked to change to instrument approach as it was IMC over Dallas-Fort Worth what with building thunderstorms and whatnot, which he kindly granted me the clearance for.

 

Upon coming in on final, I was established on the localizer, yet the runway was way off to my right! I double checked my instruments and ILS frequency settings and all was right. At the inner marker I decided to go around and try again as I was nowhere near lined up. He vectored me for the go around.

 

Came in a second time and the same exact thing happened! Again, I called missed approach at the middle marker, but asked to be vectored to 36R instead. He kindly granted me the clearance and vectored me around for ILS approach runway 36R.

 

Coming in on 36R was uneventful and very smooth landing with perfect line up.

 

Upon researching this issue, I came to learn that at the time Flight Simulator X was coded (I prefer FS2004 but can't find my copy of it for the life of me), the real world 18R/36L was under construction as they were lengthening the runway. In order to prevent the construction equipment from impeding the localizer signal, they actually relocated the localizer and glideslope antennas off to the left of 36R. In conjunction with this temporary relocation, they had actually published a side step procedure for ILS landings on that runway as well as issued a NOTAMs that 36L/18R was not certified for Cat II/III approaches. Apparently when Microsoft obtained the information for KDFW, they copied it to the T all the way down to the relocated ILS antennas on that runway in FSX.

 

There is a freeware fix for this for those of you who fly FSX available on Flyaway Simulation, which I'll be testing tonight. But for those of you who don't have this fix file, keep in mind that the ILS for runway 36L/18R at KDFW is semi-lined up with a taxiway and not the runway itself.

 

Getting back to the topic at hand, I want to give Christos Kokkinomagoulos a big thank you for being patient with me enough to provide the proper clearances and go around vectors until he got me down on the ground safely. He went above and beyond IMHO, and this is what an awesome controller will do for you. He even Google searched the issue and lead me to the thread on FlightSim.com that talked about that exact issue.

 

So because of him, I congratulate Fort Worth Center for doing a superb job at getting me and my p[Mod - Happy Thoughts]engers down on the ground.

[Christos Kokkinomagoulos 1]

Hey, thanks for the feedback. DFW was not IMC at the time though with a ceiling of 4200 OVC and 10SM visibility.

 

I offered you the visual approach at first since I was going to drop you to 3k and then clear you for the visual but then you requested the ILS. I guess if you just accepted the visual then there wouldn't be any problems after all .

 

Thanks for flying into DFW this evening and looking forward to seeing you on my scope again.

[Harrison Waltman]

To the OP: Welcome to vatsim and I hope you enjoy it! Also, (if you didn't know) flyawaysimulation.com is a website that charges a subscription fee for freely-available files on flightsim.com and library.avsim.net. You should try and find updated scenery for every airport you intend to fly into, because FSX info is hopelessly outdated by default

Good luck!

[Jon Wilder 1268033]

Hey, thanks for the feedback. DFW was not IMC at the time though with a ceiling of 4200 OVC and 10SM visibility.

 

I offered you the visual approach at first since I was going to drop you to 3k and then clear you for the visual but then you requested the ILS. I guess if you just accepted the visual then there wouldn't be any problems after all .

 

Thanks for flying into DFW this evening and looking forward to seeing you on my scope again.

 

If DFW was not IMC at the time, then FSInn's weather code must not know how to properly interpret the received weather information as I had the server weather selected.

[Ernesto Alvarez 818262]

you need to disable FSINN's weather. theirs a bug between it and simconnect in FSX. youll find the air remains hot at higher altitudes, not good.

[Jon Wilder 1268033]

you need to disable FSINN's weather. theirs a bug between it and simconnect in FSX. youll find the air remains hot at higher altitudes, not good.

 

Thanks for the tip!

 

I tested the fix file from Flyaway Simulation, but that file tracked me down the right side of the runway. So I pulled up Airport Design Editor and fixed it myself. Any FSX pilots who wish to fix this issue can download my fix here -

 

Dallas-Fort Worth Runway 36L ILS Fix

 

Unzip the folder, then copy/paste the file into your Flight Simulator X\Addon Scenery\scenery directory and make sure the Addon Scenery directory is present and enabled in your Scenery Library.

[Anthony Pavlak 1058071]

Avsim.net also has a free file library with a lot of FSX and FS9 AFCAD files for download. You have to register but a lot of the major airports have user made updates.