Returning after a long absence

[Anthony Carbott]

Hello fellow pilots.

I'm returning to flight after a long absence. I've been re-training offline with no issues.

From what I gather, FSCopilot is no more. I can't seem to get it to load on my FSX anyway.

Should/must I migrate to vPilot? Also how should I properly remove FSCopilot from my system?

I'll need a bit of reminding what else I'll be needing. I also have FSUIPC installed, did I need that for FSCopilot? So will I now not need it with vPilot?

 

Kind Regards

[Evan Reiter]

Welcome back!

I've never used FSCopilot but I would strongly recommend using vPilot for connecting to the network if you're using Prepar3D (and probably xPilot if you're using X-Plane). When I speak to the "cool kids" that fly on the network these days, those are the two programs I hear recommended the most. 

There is no requirement for FSUIPC to use vPilot. You can find more information on the program as well as installation instructions here: https://vpilot.metacraft.com/.

I'm part of the team that distributed Fly AI (FLAi), an integrated model matching solution for vPilot that helps ensure other aircraft are depicted accurately while connected to the network. By running one installer, you'll be able to set up vPilot to depict other pilots' aircraft in the livery and type they are actually flying. Being one of the people who created it, I would obviously recommend installing FLAi if you're planning to fly online using vPilot. More info: www.flai.app. 

Edited June 23, 2020 at 10:08 PM by Evan Reiter

[Anthony Carbott]

I just don't get this.

Now I can't log onto https://cert.vatsim.net/sso/auth/login/

as it says my CID and/or password is incorrect. I'm using the password I logged on last night with.

What can I do? I've been trying for about 4 days now to get back online, but I'm getting close to walking away.

[Andreas Fuchs]

Make sure you type in the password, don't copy-paste it, because some blank spaces may be hiding in your copied content.

As Evan suggested, try vPilot, it's a client like Squawkbox from the good old days - once you have connected to VATSIM you can hide it and probably won't need it much until the end of your flight. It's rather simple to install and setup.

If you prefer something more like FsInn/FsCopilot, then you may want to have a look at swift pilot client. Here's a screenshot of it in one possible configuration:

If you would like to see more of it, check out the Tutorial Videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLREsotdYQdGmeasv1x8vsNhiZGhankLoP

And if you would like to test it, go and get the latest public ALPHA version of it from: https://datastore.swift-project.org/page/publicartifacts.php
Since you are using FSX, a 32bit application, I suggest you use the 32bit version of swift, too.

Our Tutorial Videos should guide you the process in case you get stuck somewhere. Regarding AI aircraft I recommend the FLAi model set that Evan has provided to you, they are awesome!

[Anthony Carbott]

It's being typed in, exactly as I did last night.

Right now, I mean vatsim entirely, not vPilot. I can't log into any of the Vatsim places apart from this forum. Who knows why.

I can't reset my password, as I've already done that within 24 hours.

Why would my password no longer work?

I've added to the ticket I opened with Vatsim, days ago, yet to have a response.

[Andreas Fuchs]

1 minute ago, Anthony Carbott said:

Right now, I mean vatsim entirely, not vPilot. I can't log into any of the Vatsim places apart from this forum. Who knows why.

That's strange, here https://cert.vatsim.net/vatsimnet/statcheck.html you are shown as active. I hope that your issue will be resolved quickly! Don't give up over such a hiccup.

[Anthony Carbott]

5 minutes ago, Andreas Fuchs said:

That's strange, here https://cert.vatsim.net/vatsimnet/statcheck.html you are shown as active. I hope that your issue will be resolved quickly! Don't give up over such a hiccup.

I don't know if I've got any more engergy left to fight this. Last time I were flying with Vatsim I never ever remember having to be issued new passwords, for them to work for one night and the next now be invalid.

I can't commit flying time to trying to log on, so I'll give it until the end of the week, then I'm done.

[Andre Bohni]

29 minutes ago, Anthony Carbott said:

I can't reset my password, as I've already done that within 24 hours.

it goes up to 48hrs until all server received your new Password. so if you changed it, that can be the reason why you could not login. Then this Morning some webservices are in maintenance, so that could also be a reason.

[Andreas Fuchs]

Hi Andre, he wrote that he has been trying this for the last 4 days.

[Anthony Carbott]

This is ridiculous. I still can't log in. But, isn't this forum linked? I'm sure I used the same credentials to get into here. I dare not log out from here just incase I can't get back in!

[Andreas Fuchs]

If you have been able to logon to the forums, then your SSO-Login worked and thus your VATSIM-credentials work. Calm down, you'll get it to work.

[Nestor Perez]

Just saying it is ridiculous won't fix it. Please try resetting your password, give it up to 24-48 hours and then let us know if it those new credentials work.

@Andreas Fuchs Yes, he is logged into the forums indeed, but that doesn't mean his password still works. It simply means that it worked back when he logged in, but we don't really know if it still works because he "dare not log out from here just incase he can't get back in!".  Again, the only way to figure if there is an issue our side is by having him request a new password and trying that new one after a few hours.

I really have no clue why it would have worked one time and no more, but (once again) the only way to "debug it" is by having him request a new password and giving that a shot after 24-48 hours 🙂

[Don Desfosse]

Anthony, your credentials work just fine for network connections.  I just tested them.  Let's double check to make sure you're using correct credentials.  

Your CID should start with 1121...

Your password should start with a capital letter and finish with a number.

You last changed your password about 24 hours ago.  We operate with a network of distributed servers. We announce multiple times during the registration, account reactivation, and password change processes that it can take a minimum of 4 hours, and up to 24 hours (although normally much less), for new/updated membership information to be passed to all servers, including the voice server (which operates separately from the flight servers).  The servers are all linked, but membership data (including new and updates) only get pushed to each server every few hours (staggered throughout the day). We mention this on the Join and Member Support pages, but it's often overlooked in peoples' excitement to get online. If your preferred server rejects your credentials, you are welcome to keep trying different servers in the hopes of finding one that will work. 
 

You are correct to have opened a Membership ticket for assistance, though the Membership Manager won't be able to tell you any more than I just did (I think/assume 🙂 ).

I do hope this helps.  If you encounter any further issues, please follow up on the membership ticket.

[Daniel Mckee]

Just to throw a spanner in the works, whilst FSInn is no longer officialy supported nevertheless it still works fine in FSX and imho it is the best multi-flyer matching program because all the others rely on both pilots having the same CSL which is a basic file that tries to identify what aircraft are being used. If you remember, FSInn does not rely on that, If FSInn could not match I used to just ask the other pilot what he/she was flying and then I could just load the aircraft from my own files (so long as I had the aircraft); it did not matter what info was being relayed by the other pilot. Anyway that is old news. Once you get your login sorted, and you will, try installing good old FSInn first and if you have trouble then try one of the new clients. And remember when installing FSInn or one of the otjhers RTFM four times before doing anything because that is where most problems occurred in the old FSInn😉

Edited June 25, 2020 at 07:39 AM by Daniel Mckee
Grammar

[Andreas Fuchs]

8 minutes ago, Daniel Mckee said:

because all the others rely on both pilots having the same CSL which is a basic file that tries to identify what aircraft are being used. If you remember, FSInn does not rely on that, If FSInn could not match I used to just ask the other pilot what he/she was flying and then I could just load the aircraft from my own files (so long as I had the aircraft); it did not matter what info was being relayed by the other pilot.

This is not true. In swift you can change the aircraft as well without a problem. And all the other clients are, like FsInn, trying to guess what aircraft they should display. Users can set their priorities, whether they prefer the correct type of aircraft or the correct airline livery to be shown, in case that the exact match of type and livery are not available.

[Anthony Carbott]

13 hours ago, Don Desfosse said:

Anthony, your credentials work just fine for network connections.  I just tested them.  Let's double check to make sure you're using correct credentials.  

Your CID should start with 1121...

Yes it does.

13 hours ago, Don Desfosse said:

Your password should start with a capital letter and finish with a number.

Yes, it does. It's the same password which I logged on with, yet now it is an incorrect password.

13 hours ago, Don Desfosse said:

You last changed your password about 24 hours ago.  We operate with a network of distributed servers. We announce multiple times during the registration, account reactivation, and password change processes that it can take a minimum of 4 hours, and up to 24 hours (although normally much less), for new/updated membership information to be passed to all servers, including the voice server (which operates separately from the flight servers).  The servers are all linked, but membership data (including new and updates) only get pushed to each server every few hours (staggered throughout the day). We mention this on the Join and Member Support pages, but it's often overlooked in peoples' excitement to get online. If your preferred server rejects your credentials, you are welcome to keep trying different servers in the hopes of finding one that will work. 
 

You are correct to have opened a Membership ticket for assistance, though the Membership Manager won't be able to tell you any more than I just did (I think/assume 🙂 ).

I do hope this helps.  If you encounter any further issues, please follow up on the membership ticket.

I've had no response on the ticket. With the CID and password issued to me, I can't log on.

[Anthony Carbott]

Ok.

I've reset my password, again.

Let's see for how long it'll last until it claims it's incorrect. Unless I'm doing something wrong when resetting my password? I had one part displayed on the website and the other part emailed to me. Is this correct? Is that all I need to do? Because if it goes incorrect tomorrow, then I'll be lost.

[Anthony Carbott]

I actually managed to take a flight online this evening. I used vPilot which seems simple enough. I filed a VFR plan, but for some reason the stats have logged multiple 'starts'.

FsInn, FScopilot etc doesn't appear to work anymore anyway, not sure if it's because it's because the version I have is not supported or not. I'd like to work out how to uninstall it since I'm not even able to use it.

Edited June 25, 2020 at 07:07 PM by Anthony Carbott

[Daniel Mckee]

  17 hours ago, Daniel Mckee said:

because all the others rely on both pilots having the same CSL which is a basic file that tries to identify what aircraft are being used. If you remember, FSInn does not rely on that, If FSInn could not match I used to just ask the other pilot what he/she was flying and then I could just load the aircraft from my own files (so long as I had the aircraft); it did not matter what info was being relayed by the other pilot.

This is not true. In swift you can change the aircraft as well without a problem. And all the other clients are, like FsInn, trying to guess what aircraft they should display. Users can set their priorities, whether they prefer the correct type of aircraft or the correct airline livery to be shown, in case that the exact match of type and livery are not available.

 

So using Swift I do not need to have the same CSL or a CSL at all. I can just generate whatever aircraft I need/want from my own Aircraft folder?  (that is what happens with FSInn).

Edited June 26, 2020 at 01:03 AM by Daniel Mckee

[Daniel Mckee]

Anthony, to uninstall FSInn then FSCopilot completely run default MS remove program or CCleaner then to removed remnants in registry  run REGEDIT and select FIND and search for any entries for FSFDT then deleted these FIND NEXT will go right through all of the REGISTRY until you cannot find any remnants of FSFDT.

Edited June 26, 2020 at 01:11 AM by Daniel Mckee

[Andreas Fuchs]

8 hours ago, Daniel Mckee said:

So using Swift I do not need to have the same CSL or a CSL at all. I can just generate whatever aircraft I need/want from my own Aircraft folder?  (that is what happens with FSInn).

swift is doing 2 things:

1. another pilot is also using swift: since the codes for type and livery are taken from swift's database, these parameters can be finetuned. If you define a special paint-scheme of some airline, swift can differentiate and show it if you also have this type+livery in your Active Model Set.
2. another pilot is using a client other than swift: swift can only guess the used type+livery and relies on user-input. If the other pilot did not use a correct type-code (e.g. "B777" instead of "B773"), then swift needs to take a pick what it will display. Same goes for the livery: if the other pilot uses a valid airline code in its logon-callsign (e.g. "BAW123"), then it is easy. But when people insert incorrect or non-existing codes, then swift needs to guess, of course.

Nevertheless, if you happen to come across a bad model match, you can go to swift's "Model" widget, select the pilot in question and change the model (BlueBuell, X-CSL, FLAi, whatever is in your Active Model Set) that swift will display for this pilot. You choose from the list, save it, done.

You can even tell the client whether you prefer a correct aircraft type or a correct livery or vice versa. Example: somebody logs on as a British Airways A332. They do not exist for real and they are not part of any model set I know. If you select priority for type over livery, swift show an A332 of some other airline, tentatively with a similar color scheme. If you select priority for livery over type, then swift will show you a model with the BAW-livery and the type will be a good guess, maybe an A359 or a B772.

There are so many ways to fine-tune model matching, because for a software it's a very complex task. Justin, Ross and Chris can probably tell you stories about this, too.

 

[Daniel Mckee]

Very well explained Andreas🙂 You have renewed my interest in Swift so I will re-install and give it a go. Cheers  Dan

[Anthony Carbott]

Does weather not come through under vPilot?

[Andreas Fuchs]

No.

[Evan Reiter]

8 hours ago, Anthony Carbott said:

Does weather not come through under vPilot?

If you're looking for in-sim weather, I'd suggest ActiveSky for FSX/P3D. It will vastly improve the real-world (and custom-set) weather capabilities of your simulator.

If you are just looking for weather information, you can request it through VATSIM clients using ".wx (ICAO)" where (ICAO) is the four-letter code of the airport (i.e., ".wx KBOS").