I fly PSX with Worldwide Virtual, whose tracker is written by the VA itself (and hence is presumably different from any used by other VAs).
Both with VirtualPSX and with WidePSX the landing rate as reported by the tracker is typically somewhere in the -400 to -800 range. This is true, in case you were wondering, also in the case of an autoland.
Some time ago, I had a discussion about this phenomenon with the tracker's writer, during which I produced the PSX landing data to demonstrate that the figures reported by the tracker were incorrect.
The cause, the tracker's writer believed, is that, for reasons of not lowering the sim's performance, such trackers sample the descent rate only at intervals. His contention was that if at one sample the aircraft is descending and at the next it has abruptly ceased to do so (at some unknown point since the last sample) and is on the ground, then the calculation of landing rate can only be an estimate.
I am not sure that this fully explains the problem however, especially since the tracker appears to report less extreme figures when VisualPSX or WidePSX are not in use — why should their activity somehow render the estimate less accurate?
However, since VisualPSX also exhibits the same behaviour, then I don't believe that it's a WidePSX issue either.
I didn't pursue the matter any further at the time because, happily, Worldwide Virtual doesn't impose arbitrary limits on its members' landing rates (or anything else for that matter, including aircraft or routes), so the issue doesn't impact my virtual flying.
Cheers,
Brian
