Issues with F1 ATR

[Rey Ramon]

So yeah yeah yeah..I know...blast from the past. Going to try and get back into the virtual saddle. Was trying to do a short flight from KCLL and KDFW. It's been forever since I've fired up the simulator. For some reason, my textures are not showing up for the F1 ATR. Not even the panel textures. Kind of makes it difficult to fly. Shot down before I even got up. Any suggestions. I even went into Textomatic and reapplied the paint to the plane.

[Harold Henderson]

Rey, good to see you back. Going to assume you are running FSX. I had the F1 ATR semi-working in FSX, but it was prone to crashing out of FSX .. but did not have the texture problem you mention.

Quick Google on "F1 ATR textures" led to this advice posted in 2015:

"the F1 ATR does not put its DLL into the DLL.XML file, so that is not the problem. But it is very picky about getting loaded right into the sim. I always need several tries until it actually works...

1. All the custom code is loaded via gauges on the 2D panel, so make sure your "default cockpit view" is set to "2-D instrument panel" in FSX display settings before loading the ATR

2. The ATR is very sensitive to what gets loaded into FSX before you start it. F1 recommends, that you start it "over the default flight" whatever that means. My advice is, get the "Flight1 safe start" thing from F1, this is a flight you should always load as default in your FSX before using complex addon aircraft (the Coolsky DC-9 is another one in the category of the picky starters).

3. To be absolutely sure, completely load this default flight, then, when sitting at the airport switch to the ATR"

This might be worth a try. Before trying to find and load the "Flight1 safe start" flight, I would start FSX up with one of the default a/c - probably the Baron (2 engine), hit F10 to get in 2D mode, then switch to the ATR. If that doesn't work, then try the "Flight1 safe start". I think that's a free download from their site.

Good Luck.

[Rey Ramon]

Harold,
Thanks for the advice. I did load over the default flight. That's a recommendation that goes way back. I had never heard of the F1 Safe Start. May have to look into that once I make sure that the 2D panel setting is correct in FSX. I ended up loading the coolsky MD80 and flew my last leg in that. It loaded with no issues. Man I miss flying. Tried firing up Vatsim, but I think I need to reactivate my account if possible. Of course I tried using FsInn...maybe it was the problem. Hoping to sort this all out within the week. Currently trialing the AS16 for 7 days. And now I see CaptainSim has everything $9.99 for 24 hours. May pick somehing up. I only have their 757. How's their 737 and 777? I was never able to get the fsx version of the PMDG 737. I had the fs9 version. It was my favorite.
....ok went off on a tangent.

[Theodore Martin]

Rey,
I bought the Captain Sim 777 and had all kind of issues with it. I also hated the concept that Captain Sim had for the 777 that even though it was released, it was a "work in progress" (beta version??) and they would be releasing periodic updates. They basically wanted to make money on an uncompleted product and have the public do their testing for them. I hated the Captain Sim 777 so much that I paid $90+ to purchase the PMDG 777 (and I'm a cheap-scape ). The PMDG 777 is now one of my favorite a/c.

For the 737 I purchased the iFly 737NG and I really like that a/c. It is also one of my favorites. Some of the other pilots have the PMDG 737 and when flying online with them discussing the two a/c it appears the planes from the two manufactures are essentially identical with identical features. Since they were both modeled on the same RW a/c you would expect them to be almost identical if the vendor is providing a true replication.

[Rey Ramon]

Ted,
Thanks for the excellent recommendation. Yeah, even though i've been out of the game for a long while, the PMDG is still really expensive. Considering my current family situation (paying for both an apartment in Texas, and our house out East still), and my other hobby is really expensive too...can't take that plunge yet. boo!
I'll check out the iFly 737.