Alou2

Thank you! I wasn't sure where to post it.

(First, I am aware of APCharts but it never worked for me, beside this might have extended useability) Backstory: I got hold on a pdf with a collection of charts and diagrams for Vancouver International, through IVAO Canada. These charts are outdated but IVAO Canada do point out these charts can be used in sims and they appear to be relevant to at least stock FSX. I did a test: * Print-screened the Vancouver Intl airport diagram, opened Paint, cropped the image to just include the actual diagram then saved the image as a bmp in the Cessna 172's panel folder noting down the pixel size. * Created a custome window and after wrestling with WS aspect ratio I managed to bring up the diagram in the VC. 2 things I noticed right away: One was, I was thrilled silly I didn't neccessarily need to exit the cocpit environment to view charts while in flight. 2nd, to have individual panels for all charts for all airports is not doable. So: Is there a way to have, as part of flight preps, you load into this window menu system the charts you are going to use for a given flight, leaving out all the rest? My window is very basic but clean and I like that, so no real need for any fancy graphics for a gadget, more like good old fashion paper charts. (Mind you, it looks a LOT crisper in the sim) [Window06] file_1024=VancIntlAP.bmp size_mm=1360, 778 pixel_size=901,606 position=4 window_size=0.8 background_color=0,0,0 visible=0 ident=10000 sizeable=0 zorder=5 update_rate=6 Now, there might be something like this already but I haven't found it. Anyway: Since the pdf is a collection of charts and diagrams including a bunch of various approach charts, I thought how about the functionality of selecting the entire collection in my virtual pilot's briefcase where I can choose which of the diagrams I want to look at while flying. Then I thought about all the other collections for other airports. Vancouver isn't very interesting if I fly around London or Kuala Lumpur so this functionality should allow me to somehow choose which collection I want to bring with me. Is it doable, to have you select which collection of charts you want in-game without having to use any external screen, or having to exit the cockpit? ref: http://www.ivao.ca/charts/cap,cap2

Thanks for the reply. I am aware that that the flight model and physics are very much simplified, as very few people has a Tianhe-2 to run it on :smile: . That being said: As I'm on the stock sim, then real world counterpart is not really relevant (although it would be fun to have a go at something closer to the real deal). What I need to figure out is how does the stock sim work, in how do the planes and helis behave on this sim, no thoughts given on the real world. I do use the B key but I can't get rid of the feeling of being ripped out of my immersion when reaching for a cheat key (not as in an actual cheat but more like a hotfix for incompleteness in the sim). So, I would be close to delirious with joy if there was such a thing as a VC airspeed indicator with a working (readable) K. window. It is true that the manual/kneeboard gives various figures but after looking around, it appears that some people get more out of their aircrafts, or in some cases much less, than the given figures, weather and wrong mixture aside. That leaves me wondering, what are generally considered "good" values for speed and range, from sim experience rather than manuals. Many of you guys have more experience in this sim than I will probably ever have so I was kind of hoping some of you had some findings on your own you would be kind enough to share. Plan G is installed, unfortunately it keeps crashing, taking the sim down with it so I'd rather not use it linked up to the sim. On its own it's valuable already but I need to fix this crashing business. Also, I'm having trouble getting weather reports to show in Plan G. Only if I have a flight plan will it give me departure and destination weather, but nothing between those two. I need to look at this more as well. Anyway, thanks again.

Been quite some time since last time I was here. Been forever since I had time for FSX but anyway: I have FSX+Acceleration, pretty much all stock except for bits and pieces of panel upgrades. Sim engine is 100% stock and it's staying that way until I can at least afford a better computer, a.k.a I'm stuck with stock for the time being. Now I have a few questions of all sorts. Been searching the web for a few days now but I haven't had any luck so far, for the most part (1 or 2 guys on youtube excepted). Any good lead-you-by-the-hand tutorials, what will take me from from know-nada to got-a-pretty-good-idea, on engine management (throttle, propeller, mixture) for propeller planes? I flew the Beechcraft Baron to try a multi engine after a long time with the Cessna and Beaver. Reading around I see people talk aboout man.press. 24" Hg at 8000' with 2400 RPM. How do they manage that? At 8000' with the mixture leaned to peak, or 50* rich, or poor, I'm lucky to get a pressure much greater than 22. Speaking of the stock Baron, what is considered good power setting/altitude for range, and for ground speed (if I need to get to that doctor in Copenhagen in a hurry). If you think this is a strange question then hear me out: To get from A to B I need ground speed, not any kind of airspeed. A bushplane almost hovering upwind has good airspeed but you can drive past it without getting a ticket. So, ground speed. I did take the Baron up to 16,000' where a nice tailwind at 25-35 kts gave me a ground speed of up to 200 kts. If this is poor or good I have no idea but so far I've only been able to get some 170-ish kts at 8000' to 10,000'. At 17.500' the wind was 45-50 kts but the loss of power meant I only got about 170-180 kts. All of this could very well be my poor engine management though, or it could be what one can expect from the stock Baron. Any input on those figures? EDITED IN: What's the deal with propeller setting? I thought that as the air gets thinner, you'd be better off with a coarser pitch but so far, the only effect I have noticed is that generally, any lower than full or close to full rpm gives me less speed at all altitudes. Is there a point at say 50% where the game considers the propeller to be feathered? Airspeeds then: What use does TAS serve in the simulation (not asking about real world although that too would be interesting to know more about). I have my indicator set to IAS and although I am aware of rules of thumbs like "add 2 kts for each 1000', I still don't see what in game information that would give me that I could actually put to any use. Calculating GS makes no sense since I can't tell how much effect the wind has relative to a non-wind standard condition. Speaking of TAS: Any freeware airspeed gauges for the VC panels (mainly the Cessna 172, DH Beaver and/or Beechcraft Baron) that has a reliable Kollsman window? I am not a real pilot in any way, shape or form so please correct me if I'm wrong but it's my understanding that to set the K. window I find pressure altitude by setting the altimeter to 29.92, read the altitude and match that up with the outside temperature in *C. Is this correct? If so, then not only are the stock K. windows hard to read but they make no sense even from the little I can read (example: At 7000' I read pressure altitude to be some 6700' but the reset button seet it to near 20,000'. I would be very happy to "have to mess with that K. window" just like I have gyro drift, just to keep myself busy on a 4 hour flight. (Note: I know VC gauges are not generally as straight forward as 2D panel gauges but I did manage to install some gauges in the Cessna, like in the radio stack, a few gauges and some bits and pieces). TAS brings me to weather: I use the real world weather (15 minutes update) which throws some interesting challenges my way BUT: I understand that any weather report on the radio is only valid at the airport giving them with deviations to be almost guarantied more than a few nm from that airport. Is there any way at all one can get in game weather ahead when enroute and one isn't going to get close to any airport for at least another hour or so? I notice there are several weather stations on the in-game map but 2 issues: To view the map, I'd need to exit the flight (immersion breaker) and it's not clear how the sim uses those weather stations to provide weather reports. Are each of these stations associated with a particular airfield or are they there for no real reason as far as the virtual pilot is concerned? Anyway, long post but after some time looking around the web and sim-ing, the queue of questions built up.

Not much to add to what's been said above but: In a sim, the greatest challenge for me (dabbling in rc helicopters) is still to anticipate long enough into the future. With a small rc model the reaction is almost instantaneous, something that can't be said about the FSX helis at least, so I keep overshooting, reacting too late with the counter input and all cyclic inputs are still too much but what has been said is very true: Practice, practice, practice and then some more practice. Right now I am perfectly happy with keeping the sim heli within a 50m circle but I'm getting a bit more comfortable with it every time. I try to keep my VSI needle between 0 and -1 and not allow it to -1 or below. That alone takes practice to be smooth and soft enough on the collective (a Saitek X-52 throttle unit in my case). One of the first things I learned with my rc models was, at take off and landing, a slight forward motion would not ruin the day, backwards motion is more hairy with that tail rotor low but no sideways motion can be accepted so for me, my first priority when I learned to take off and land the models (then the sim helis) was to stop any sideways drift the best I could, even if that meant timing the touch down when the heli stopped moving in one direction and just before it was about to move the other way. Not pretty but I have never had a roll over on touch down and with more practice, I might even be able to do a "clean" touchdown.

43 and no plans to stop getting older or sim-ing.

I'm on the same ship, so to speak. Never been a real life pilot, only a virtual one but just to get inside an aircraft is a thrill. Got to climb onboard a Heinkel 111 (5J+CN, undergoing restoration, also met 2 of the surviving crewmen and the Brits who shot it down as they got together decades later. Very peculiar meeting for a young lad) and a C-130 Hercules as it taxied to parking when I was very young and I have been staring at aircrafts ever since. EDIT: Oops. Sorry about that necroposting. Perhaps I should go to sleep, it's getting late.

Hello, all pilots, real and virtual ones alike, hope you all are flying high and proud! First time poster here. Short introduction, 43 year old, have always been fascinated by flight growing up with an airbase nearby and been watching the Hueys and F-5's, 412's and F-16's and twisting my neck when I look up to stare at the old DC-3 flying over town. Been a flight sim nutter since my early teens, starting with a Commodore 64 and Solo Flight. Anyway, real life kicked in the doors and time became precious so I haven't been a serious simmer for years and years and now with studies (digital electronics engineering), there's very little time BUT: Thought oh what the heck and got me a Saitek X-52 Pro/pedals combo and dug out some vintage sims and that was it, the bug bit again. My main hobby is remote controlled helicopters and planes (in that order and dreaming of that very large scale) but lately studies, weather and wallet are effectively grounding my models so that might explain the sudden idea of getting that controller. Also have got FSX and I am looking forward to getting some sim time again when time allows. As a student, freeware is the way to go for me but hopefully the payware add-ons will be available when I'm through studies. I am drooling over that Dodosim 206 and the Alouette II pack. One day... Until then, the Cessna is a joy to fly. So, with that out of the way: Are there any good free add-ons for helicopters in FSX to make them more realistic? I love helis but in all honesty I don't care much for the FSX flight model for the helis and would absolutely love to see some improvements. I am aware of the HTR pack but it appears that requires a payware program to work with the sim and payware will have to wait. Then one last thing: My X-52 Pro has this MFD and I know this is a problem older than dirt but any idea how to get it to work with FSX on a Win 8.1 laptop? The drivers are the latest and I understand those cause problems so I tried to roll back to the 6xxxx version only to find I couldn't! The 7xxxxx version was still active after uninstalling both files and reg keys and now I'm totally clueless as to what else I could try. So then, hope to learn more about this place and you guys, not to mention learn more about virtual aviation! (So much for a short introduction, eh) Regards, Alou2 a.k.a Knut