Plane doesn't appear in tower view

[stevewilson]

Hi All:  In FS9 when I go to tower view, my plane is not visible, untill it is above the horizon line. At first I thought this might be caused by my vidio card, (S3 Prosavage8), however I noticed that in View options that the tower view is set to 00 and I am unable to change the setting.

Is this normal or is there a way to change the setting?

[VPA_KTPA]

Get the AFCAD program and put the tower view where you want it to be.

[stevewilson]

EA_KATL   Its not the placement of the tower, thats ok, its the view from the tower. It doesn't show the plane going down the runway, however the view does changes as the plane moves. Secondly there are trees and buildings in the view eventhou there are none on the airport.
I've used the map view to change the location of the tower and the elevation as well. Only after I set the elevation of the tower view to ground level is the plane visiable, agian thou there are obsticles inbetween the tower and the plane. If I raise the view elevation the plane disappears again.

[MattNW]

The "Tower View" in the View settings has no relation to the actual placement of the tower at any airport. You can move it around in the "Map View" and give yourself a tower anyplace you wish. It's merely a view from a ground perspective of your aircraft. If there's scenery in between your tower position and aircraft then you won't see the airplane.

Open the map and look at the left side of the display. You will see two check boxes and a box with coordinates in it. If you select the one marked "Tower" you'll see the current coordinates of the tower. Same goes with the "Aircraft". If you change the coordinates under "Tower" to close to the same as your aircraft then you'll get a tower view from close up. You can also specify altitude for your view. I use it to get some spectacular flybys.

[stevewilson]

MattNW, Thanks for the reply. I've tried moving the tower and changeing the elevation from ground level to 100' above ground. With the tower view at ground level I can see the plane, with the tower view at any higher level I won't see the plane untill it gets above the towers view of the horizon, thien the plane is visible. I guess you can say I have two problems because when in tower view I also have trees and sometimes buildings in the view when there are none of these in the scenery between the tower and the runway. I've just uninstalled and reinstalled FS9 and still have the same problem. I dont have this in FS2k2.

[dave3cu]

Hi Steve,

Dont have a real answer yet, but have you installed FSUIPC?

Having followed your thread the last couple of days, started FS9 to check it out. So far have found that if I load a saved flight (not all but some, including my default) I get a similar problem.

[MattNW]

The tower doesn't follow the aircraft. If you move the tower close to your airplane and then fly off it will stay where you put it. In any saved flights it will be right where it was when the flight was saved. You have to move it every time you change positions. Why M$ did this I don't know but you can move the tower view right up next to the airplane even on top of it if you want.'

Try giving the tower the exact coordinates of your airplane and you should be able to see it without anything intervening. Something like this:

[dave3cu]

Got this far:

Loaded a saved flight that gives me a proper tower view. I then marked this as default flight. Went back and deleted those flights, including my previous default, that were giving me a 'bad' view.

Things appear to be ok now. Guessing that I problably save the 'bad' flights after flying in from somwhere else, as Matt's post would suggest.


Cheers,
Dave

The 'view 00' you referred to in first post just means that is the 1st (and in this case the only) view you have open.

[stevewilson]

Dave3cu:  Thanks for the advice. Yes I do have FSUIPC installed, but only for the TCAS gauge, not the full regersted. Its the lateist version.

After reading yours and MATTNW postings, I went and tried to deleate all saved flights, however the program won't let me save the default flight. And I still have the same problem.

Mattnw what I meant by the tower follows the plane down the runway was that the view changes as if you were in the tower and were turning you head to watch a plane take off.

There is one other detail and that is on some prop planes ie 182rg you can see the prop spinning from the tower but that is all.

How can I delete the default flight that i saved?

[MattNW]

Dave3cu:  Thanks for the advice. Yes I do have FSUIPC installed, but only for the TCAS gauge, not the full regersted. Its the lateist version.

After reading yours and MATTNW postings, I went and tried to deleate all saved flights, however the program won't let me save the default flight. And I still have the same problem.

Mattnw what I meant by the tower follows the plane down the runway was that the view changes as if you were in the tower and were turning you head to watch a plane take off.

There is one other detail and that is on some prop planes ie 182rg you can see the prop spinning from the tower but that is all.

How can I delete the default flight that i saved?

Actually I was addressing Dave3cu when he said that the tower is somewhere in Alaska when he's in another state. It seems that wherever the tower was last is where it will be when you create another flight.

I find the tower view somewhat limited too. The visuals aren't the best and you have to do so much work to get it where you want and it's only there for a second before you need to move it again. Not the best for good screen shots. I guess it might be somewhat interesting if you aren't going for a screen shot but it's still limited.

You shouldn't need to delete the flight. If you want to create a new default flight then you can check underneath the "Save Flight" dialog to make that the default. This will override the current default flight.

If you are OK with payware, you can get some good views from Active Camera 2004. Much better than the ones in the sim as it is. I have the trial version and I plan to get the thing registered soon just keep finding other things that take my money. It provides several good views plus the ability to get out and walk around the airplane.

[stevewilson]

Dave,  I reread your reply above and I deleted all my saved flights except for the default one. Then went through all the default a/c in fs9. Still no a/c in tower view. Then I started trying the default flights. Low and behold the Linburg flight to Paris shows the a/c on the runway in tower, saved it as default and restarted fs9. It still worked with the Pairs flight opening at start up. I could even change planes, however if I went to any other airport or created a flight other than the Pairs one, back to no a/c in the tower view  ???. Back to the drawing board

[stevewilson]

All is well now with the tower view, I've installed a Radeon 9600xt and wow the defferance it makes to say the least, and my plane appears sitting anywhere on the airport when in tower view.

Thanks all, for the advice and help.