Sounds like an incredible Idea and I have no doubt that the WELP(-E) team can do it but I can't figure one thing out...If I decide I wanta be PF and my friend back at his house being PNF (That will always be the case ;) ), If he selects Gear up, that will reflect on my PC by the Gear handle moving up.But the thing I wanta know is-how will my friend have the FS2004 visuals on his PC that I have on mine?Could this feature only be used by those who network 2 or more machines togethere in the same house or will I be able to fly with my friend as co-pilot in different houses?Anyone got knowledge or opinions on the feasibility of this would be greatly appreciatedJohnP 2.53 GHZ512 RAMWINXPGFORCE 4 128MB Ti4600http://homepage.eircom.net/~eamonnmca/images/logo_ba.JPGwww.bavirtual.co.uk Senior Captain Simflight.com Staff Reviewerhttp://vatsim.pilotmedia.fi/statusindicato...tor=OD1&a=a.jpg

John,I think this is how it would work:You call Gear Up, He selects Gear Up on his machine. On your machine, you notice the gear lever move. Your friend then calls Gear Up and Off, and you visually check the panel to see that the Gear Lever is indeed in the OFF position.As far as I am aware, selecting the gear to up will change the gear position on both your and his visual model.I think that you will be able to use this between houses. On the PIC Flying Club Radio Broadcast Bill Van C was saying that he could fly with DS. Bill Lives on one side of Canada and Darryl on the other so I think this will work.

>Anyone got knowledge or opinions on the feasibility of this>would be greatly appreciatedI too am curious about the precise meaning behind the statement "networked gauges". The various descriptions that have floated around go beyond the concept of networked gauges - they include maintaining a consistent "state" across networked hosts. That is more difficult to achieve. Networked gauges could mean having independent processes (programs) running on one or more networked hosts providing the various displays and gauges that comprise the MIP, overhead and FMC. There would be one host that processes all inputs and it issues commands to the different hosts to display the information. This is very much the concept implemented by Project Magenta - the FS internals are distributed to networked processes for display. However, PM requires its own data infrastructure to ensure that replicated information is synchronized (such as the LOC and GS needles on the PFD and ND during a CAT III approach!).Now, if we add the ability to have *multiple copies of the entire cockpit* running on networked hosts (one at my house, one at yours) and add to that the ability for either cockpit to issue commands, we will need a means to keep the two systems synchronized. If we lose synchronization problems will occur, such as one system indicates gear up while the other system indicates gear down. Here's another issue related to h/w interfaces: I am the PF and I advance my throttles to initiate the takeoff run. The PNF should see N1 increase on his panel as the N1 increases on the PFs' panel. But, the PNF system must understand that the h/w throttle position on the PNF system must be ignored. This means that there must be a way - either for the entire cockpit, or on a function basis - to determine which system is "in charge" and to disable h/w inputs on the system that is not in charge. Note that the problem exists regardless of whether the networked systems are side-by-side or distributed across the country. -michael

Remember as Wade said, noting is cast in stone and the networked part will probably be sold separate.Brian