FSInn Operation

FSInn Operation

The Inn Control Panel.

The Control Panel allows quick access to the main functions of FSInn.

It can be hidden or closed, without disturbing its operation. To hide it simply click on the blue V button bottom right. On remote FSInn, this action will close FSInn.

It can be called by means of a keyboard short cut pre-selected in FSCopilot, ‘Settings’ menu (see the FSCopilot documentation).

We gain access to the second window by clicking on the ‘Advanced’ field, and come back to the first by clicking the ‘Basic’ field.

CONNECTIONS:

With FS2004:

As soon as FSInn starts, and after the aircraft repository process, it checks if an FS multiplayer session is connected, without any input from you. If not, it will start one for you.

If you did not select the automatic multiplayer connection in options, click once on the yellow ‘FSInn’ button.

If you manually disconnect a multiplayer session, and you want to reconnect, click again on the yellow ‘FSInn’ button, the new session will be created.

With FS2002:

In the upper menu of FS, open the Copilot tab. Open the Inn Control Panel. After a moment (depending on the size of your aircraft library) the Control Panel opens. In the upper menu of FS, open the ‘Flights’ tab. Choose ‘Multiplayer Connection’, the window opens. Enter the player name, the callsign; enter ‘127.0.0.1’ for the IP address, choose ‘TCP/IP Protocol’. Click on, ‘Search’. The FSInn session appears in the already selected mode. Click on, ‘Join’.

With FS2002 and FS2004:

Each button in the control panel is coloured.

MULTIPLAYER: the icon with 3 computers gives the status of the multiplayer mode.

You won’t see other aircraft (giving you back more fps), but they’ll still see you in the multiplayer session, ensuring the flight security. This option can be used to give back fluidity to slower computers when approaching an airport area with a lot of traffic.

SQUAWK MODE (on the right side of the FSInn button):

NETWORKS (5 buttons under FSInn).

FSInn supports up to 5 networks. To connect to one of these, just click on it. Among networks available in FSInn, the first is a public network (VATSIM). Three positions could be used for internal networks (FSD compatible network) like a virtual airline network. The last is the FSFDT network.

WEATHER:

(VATSIM connection is taken as an example)

‘FSInnWx’: is a weather engine, independent of all flight networks. This weather is a synthesis of several sources of information in order to obtain a higher level of accuracy. It is recommended for high performance PC’s with a DSL connection, because an important file is downloaded at the beginning of the connection. After the initial load, this server is more powerful than others.

‘CAVOK’: by default this button is red or ‘not CAVOK’. When you press the CAVOK button, you have CAVOK conditions.

CAVOK indicates that you are disconnected from all weather servers, and come back to a CAVOK condition. This could help to increase FPS.

Note 1: to use third party software such as Active Sky, FSMeteo and FSMetar, first make sure that you have selected the option ‘Disable weather by default’ in InnSettings/General/Options before making a connection to your selected network. Then run your third party weather software as per normal.

Note 2: the FSInnWx and CAVOK buttons remain active while disconnected from any flight server.

The lower part of the Control Panel: Indicates the pilot callsign.

The right column:

Note: ‘mCP’ opens the mini control panel AND closes the main panel. Back to the main panel by clicking on ‘CP’.

The left column ‘basic’:

The left column ‘advanced’:

The Inn mini Control Panel.

Inn Flight Plan.

The flight plan: this form is designed to be very easy to read and use.

Stored flight plan: this contains your flight plans that you previously saved.
FSInn can read flight plans in SB2 or SB3 format. FSInn saves flight plans in the SB3 format.
Note: To Import/Export SB2 or SB3 saved flight plans you must store them in the Program Files/FSFDT/FSCopilot/FlightPlans directory on your HDD.

After choosing a flight plan, click on the ‘Load’ button.
If you create a flight plan, you can save it by clicking on the ‘Save’ button.
Flight plans are sent to ServInfo, and other ATC applications. METARs are updated according to the flight plan.

How to fill your flight plan form:

Pilot name and call sign: are written out from the information entered in InnSettings.

Aicraft: directly retrieved from FS.

Persons on Board: you can enter the passenger number here (optional).

IFR / VFR: select if you’ll fly VFR or IFR flight rules.

Departure / Destination: enter the ICAO code of the departure and arrival airports.

Flight Route: enter waypoints for an IFR flight. Enter ‘DCT’ for a direct to flight. Enter ‘VFR’ if you fly VFR without any waypoints.

Alternate Airport: enter the ICAO code for the alternate airport.

Cruising Altitude: enter the cruising altitude (in feet, QNH), or the Flight Level (FL + hundred of feet – 1013 hpa – 29.92 InHg).

True Airspeed: true airspeed retrieved from the aircraft file in use (you can enter this manually).
Remarks: here you can make the controller aware of information (if you’re a newbie for example), or anything concerning your flight such as RNAV, charts, text or voice equipped. Use the ‘/’ key to separate e.g. /V/RNAV/

Departure Time Estimated: Zulu time. (See FSNav below).

Departure Time Actual: Zulu time. (See FSNav below).

Estimated Time Enroute: Your estimated flight time (computed by FSNav).

Fuel on Board: indicated in HH : MM.

FSNav additional information: you can directly send a flight plan from FSNav to FSInn. It will be automatically integrated into InnFlightPlan. FSInn will automatically enter the estimated departure time, 15 minutes after you send your flight plan. The FSInn export option will appear in FSNav export menu. FSInn will enter the actual departure time as soon as your transponder is set to mode ‘Charlie’.

The ‘New’ button: will erase all entries in the flight plan, so you can create a new one.

The ‘Delete’ button: will delete the flight plan in your saved list.

The ‘Load’ button: will load all saved data for the chosen flight plan.

The ‘Save’ button: will save all data previously entered in the flight plan.

The ‘Request from Tower’ button: allows you to download pre-filed flight plans from a server.

The ‘Send to Tower’ button: will send your flight plan to ATC (visible in ServInfo).

Inn ATC.

This window is used to manage on-line controllers, according to their coverage and your current position.

A list of the on-line controllers is displayed, with their designator, the type of coverage (TWR – APP – CTR), the frequency in use, the airspace they control in relation to your position, the ‘voice’ icon (active or inactive), and a warning icon.

A warning sound is heard when you enter into a controlled area (with a controller online). You can deactivate this warning by clicking on the bell at the end of the line. When you tune to the controller’s frequency (on Com1) this icon will be automatically disabled.

To receive the ATIS of the controller, you only have to click on him, and then on the ATIS button. To tune to the voice channel of the controller (VVL, TeamSpeak or RogerWilco), you have to tune to the frequency of the controller on the VHF Com 1 radio on the aircraft.

Inn Weather.

Inn Weather shows current METARs for the departure, arrival and alternate airports (if your flight plan is sent to the tower).

If you enter the ICAO code of an airport in the textbox, and you click on the left side button, you’ll receive the METAR of this airport. If this weather is not available, you’ll receive the weather of the nearest airport which has an active weather station.

In this part of the window, you can see METARs of the surrounding airports.

By clicking on any line of the window, you’ll get the corresponding full METAR on the lower part of the window.

Inn Chat.

Inn Chat allows you to chat in text mode with controllers (COM1 or COM2), on the UNICOM frequency, or on a private channel. The window can be resized with the mouse.

The ‘All’ channel allows to watch all frequencies, including private chat. Colour code and text information show you on which channel to write an answer.

Each time you’ll receive a message, an audio warning will be heard.

The command to open a private channel is: .msg F-XXXX Hello (where F-XXXX is the aircraft callsign you wish to chat with) or .msg LKPR_V_APP Good evening (for example for this controller !). Valid with ‘Enter’ or ‘Send’.

You’ll get too the controller’s name in the second line.

Inn Chat creates a tab F-XXXX or YYYY_Y_YYY, which allows private chat with the other pilot or controller.

Other dot command in Inn Chat:

- .c1 .com1 .comm1 : used to tune COM1 frequency

- .c2 .com2 .comm2 : used to tune COM2 frequency

- .radio: is used to display FSInn internal state of radio stack

- .x .xpdr : is used to tune Transponder code

Lower right corner: by clicking on the ‘Quick’ button, you open the ‘Quick Chat’ window. See 5.7 below.

Quick Chat

A set of pre-recorded messages are available for a quicker discussion during different phases of the flight.

4 ways to access the ‘Quick Chat’:

by the Inn Control Panel, button ‘Quick’ ‘see 5.1)
by the Chat window, button ‘Quick’ (see 5.6)
by the ‘Copilot’ main menu, ‘Inn QuickChat’ (see 2.1)
by the ‘Inn Mini C.P.’, button ‘Quick’ (see 5.2)

Opening of each mode is done by clicking on one of the 5 coloured squares at the left of the window:

The ‘G’ bar:

The ‘V’ bar:

The ‘D’ bar:

The ‘C’ bar:

The ‘A’ bar:

You can see the complete text by positioning the mouse on the corresponding tab.

Each mode is customisable with quick chat button, as well as input field for parameters.

Inn Radar.

This window can be resized with the mouse (lower right corner).

Left side buttons:

L: sets display of callsign

A: sets display of flight level

S: sets display of speed (knots)

T: sets display of aircraft time lines

H: sets display of surrounding aircraft in relation to your aircraft heading or to magnetic north

Inn Radar allows you to locate surrounding aircraft, either to avoid collisions or for formation flights.

The range of the radar can be zoomed from 2 NM to 400 NM, covering all flight phases. Use the lower + or - buttons

Inn Plane.

The ‘MP Plane’ tab.

This window shows a list of aircraft you see within a range of 25 NM.

The left part of the ‘Callsign’ column shows the status of P2P, and the activation (or deactivation) of the turbo mode.

When turbo is deactivated, the P2P is at a basic rate of 2Hz.

When turbo is activated, you will be able to raise the rate to the maximum P2P selected rate (based on your maximum selection, and on the maximum remote pilot selection).

When Automatic P2P is disabled in InnSettings, you have no P2P with anyone, except with pilots selected in turbo mode. This is particularly useful for formation flights with chosen users (relieves bandwidth used by other non significant planes).

The ‘Callsign’ column: indicates the callsign of the remote aircraft.

The ‘AC ICAO’ column: indicates the ICAO code of the remote aircraft.

The ‘AL ICAO’ column: indicates the ICAO code of the airline of the remote aircraft.

The ‘Network’ tab.

In these two windows, you can see the status of all network traffic when connected to a FSD server. You will see at least one entry in inbound and outbound.

The ‘Info’ column: shows information on the network used (from Net1 to Net5), or the callsign of the P2P pilots.

The ‘Hz’ column: give the frequency of position updates.

The ‘Kbps’ column: gives the real network traffic in UDP or TCP for this connection.

The ‘RTT’ column: is the time to make the trip to the remote pilot, and back.

The ‘PLps’ column: is the amount of UDP packet lost per second.

The ‘IP’ column: gives the beginning of the remote IP address.

The ‘ICAO Default’ tab.

This lists your default aircraft associated with an ICAO code when you don’t have any aircraft installed in Flight Simulator with this ICAO code.

You can change them manually by clicking on ‘Change’ or erase by clicking on ‘Clear’.

The ‘ICAO Custom’ tab.

This window allows you to bypass the FSInn model resolution process to allow you to set the model and aircraft livery you prefer to see. You can modify them manually (selected in your aircraft database).

(example)

The ‘Configuration’ tab.

This window allows you to modify FSInn aircraft associated settings. When you make changes in this window, the settings will be immediately used by FSInn to resolve other aircraft and display this information provided about your aircraft.

You can modify the aircraft ICAO code, the Airline code, the type of aircraft (Jet/Piston, number of engines), the type of wake turbulence (light, medium, heavy) and the quality of the texture used.

These modifications are sent to the FSDT Central Aircraft Database, and a supervisor will either approve or disapprove your modification. If the supervisor approves your modification, this data will be inserted into the server aircraft database. They will remain available on the computer of the pilot who modifies them until he clicks on the button ‘Clear Update’ this erases all modifications.

This advanced function allows all pilots using FSInn to update the aircraft database, when a new aircraft is downloaded or updated.

Notice: this function is only for advanced users. Details can be found in the aircraft codes section.

Note: ServInfo.dat file is included in the installation of FSInn. FSInn is able to read ServInfo.dat file when it is installed in Program Files/FSFDT/FSInn/. ServInfo.dat file helps FSInn to retrieve IATA and ICAO codes for Virtual Airlines as a lot of these codes are not included in the ICAO Database.

The ‘Other’ tab.

Here are aircraft that do not have a valid ICAO code (or unknown).This panel is equivalent to the ICAO Default windows except the codes are invalid.

The ‘ZZZZ’ pop-up window.

If you use an aircraft unknown in the ICAO code base, this warning window is displayed:

As written in the warning window, you can try to automatically configure your aircraft by clicking on ‘Resync Complete’. This will verify your entire aircraft file. Each aircraft you have previously configured will change to the standard ICAO if it is known in the aircraft base. If it is unknown, your settings will remain active.

VATSIM Voice ‘VVL’.

Access to VVL window is done by:

- the Copilot menu (see 2.1)

- the Inn Control Panel, ‘Advanced’ window, ‘VVL’ button (see 5.1)

- the Mini Control Panel, ‘VVL’ button (see 5.2)

To set up parameters, see chapter 4.2.3: ‘VATSIM Voice’.

VATSIM Voice software is now integrated and installed with FSInn, AVC is no longer a ‘must have’. Of course, you have to be connected to the VATSIM network for it to work.

Here is how it looks when connected: