Flight Models

[Guest Guyzer]

I've see allot of messages with people tring to use key commands with certin payware flight models with very little luck. It seams that the designers are programing the flight models or panels with out keyboard input??? The questions I have are, what flight models are everyone using for their home cockpits? Are you using a payware of freeware? And if it's payware, are you able to just purchase the flight model from them at a reduced cost or do you still need their panel as the interface??From what I've read on the fourm, it looks like DF737 seams to be one of the only "top of the line" payware AC's that allows keyboard inputs?I've beed giving it some thought during my planning stage and for now I'll just use a good freeware aircraft.Hope this makes sence!Guy

[oal331]

>I've see allot of messages with people tring to use key>commands with certin payware flight models with very little>luck. It seams that the designers are programing the flight>models or panels with out keyboard input??? The questions I>have are, what flight models are everyone using for their home>cockpits? Are you using a payware of freeware? And if it's>payware, are you able to just purchase the flight model from>them at a reduced cost or do you still need their panel as the>interface??>Many of home cockpit builders, use the Projecta Magenta's s/w with some freeware or payware aicrafts (air files, cfg, extra panels etc)Other people they use other Glass Cokpit freeware s/w, or payware aircrafts (like PIC767) in multi monitor setup etc etc.You can find too many combinations !!! :-)>From what I've read on the fourm, it looks like DF737 seams to>be one of the only "top of the line" payware AC's that allows>keyboard inputs?Not, only, there is also PIC767, maybe and others, i'm not sure.There is a good site to start from : http://www.mikesflightdeck.com/Eddie ArmaosAthens-Greece

[tigert]

For us non-hot-air-gun people who prefer GA type cockpits life is a bit simpler since usually all the plane's systems are implemented within the FS standard stuff. The problem is with those airliner add-ons that have complex stuff like 767PIC, since a lot of the stuff is done inside custom program code - which is not accessible through fsuipc. Thus people like my friend Tero has done a nice MCP and combined overhead/switch panel that uses fsbus mouse events to click on gauges. It works fine but indeed you need to have the panels on a monitor somewhere.http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~partanen/k4.jpgImpressive anyhow. But limited in the way that for a full simulator cockpit there needs to be another way. Magenta indeed is a good choice, although a big investment. But if you are putting a lot of money and effort to the cockpit itself, maybe worth the price at the end.The GA folks have it better. Most planes come with good instrument panels - just use FS Panel Studio or such and create yourself a nice full screen panel that goes behind a "panel" mask - just like with the glass cockpit. But just use those round gauges and reposition them so that they utilize your monitor screen well.For flight models, I have the Dreamfleet C310, Archer and then I use the RealAir C172SP model. Those are all very good, and easy to "rig" in a home cockpit by making a custom panel. RealAir is freeware (search avsim) and Dreamfleet's Archer is IMHO a very nice representation of the aircaft. One might need to tune the roll sensitivity and such a bit, since those are adapted usually for normal PC joystick use (yuck) and thus more realistic controls have larger movement and thus you might want to make them more effective - one doesnt really use the full yoke travel when flying, unless one does aerobatics :) But with a joystick it's generally that you use the whole axis because the movement is so short.We noticed it with our C172 sim at the aviation club, the roll rate needs to be tuned a bit because it is too slow compared to a real plane. But just "normal" with a joystick. So some tuning might need to be done to "calibrate" the flight model with your controls setup.http://aerodome.net/gallery-kuvat/album21/IMG_3716.sized.jpgTuomas

[Guest stevetheplumber]

Hi.I too am going though the planing/testing stage before making a sim and experiancing problems with key commands.Some aircraft I am using successfully with key commands are Project Foker 70/100 this works perfect, also Tupolev154 for FS2002/04 fantastic sound with this download, I have spent a lot of time flying around Russia in the real thing and the sounds are very realistic, also I have had good sucess with FFX's 737, all these I have downloaded Via Avsim.I am also using FreeFD at present, there are somethings with this yet to be finished but an excelent free glass cockpit.Steve

[Guest Raafie75]

I believe that PDMG's 737 TNG will have a keyboard interface within their SU2 update to be released soon!Kind Regards,

[Guest GeorgeDorkofikis]

It does (with SU2, don't look for the SU2 yet. Not released yet)...And I have already tried it and works. BUT, (why is there always a but?!) this enables the communication from the hardware to the sim, not the oposite. Currently there is no way for the hardware to know what is the plane status. I.e. you can't read the value of the altimeter in order to syncronize the hardware with the sim.But, (another one!), as stated in the PMDG forum, they plan to release an SDK for the autopilot system that will enable a software to communicate with the aircraft. I assume that it will use a set of calls similar to the calls made to the FSUIPC, only those will be made to a PMDG module instead.Only the SDK is released it will be up to the authors to implement it.So (for example), if Dirk desires, he could enhance FSBUS to address the calls to the PMDG module instead of to the FSUIPC, for those functions that need direct communication with the PMDG aircraft, when such a function is selected from the setup. As a programmer myself, and if my speculations are correct, this will mean the addition of only a few lines to the code.PIC767 already has such an SDK available upon request. This is how the Aerosoft MCP was made to work with the PIC767.I have already asked the PIC team for more information and tried to bring them in contact with Dirk so that, if he's willing, to make FSBUS compatible with the PIC767. In the PIC767 case, the communication between the software and the a/c is done exactly as described above, i.e. calls similar to FSUIPC but to a PIC module instead. I hope they will reply sometime in the near future, even with a negative answer.As far as the DF734 is concerned, the only function I did not manage to address is the MCP Altitude. I posted a question to their forum last week but never got an answer. Not that I'm expecting one. They are notorious of not replying!Maybe it would be a good idea to make a plea to the commercial authors, that have build their own autopilot, to enable a read/write to the default FS variables as well so that we can use FSBUS with their aircraft. I wonder what is the reason for not doing so in the first place.Let's hope for the best.Greetings,George DorkofikisAthens, Greece

[Guest Raafie75]

George,Is the SDK for 737TNG only for the autopilot?I'm hoping it will be for all of the sim because my plan is to make a simpit around this add-on?If not I'll have to seek my software somewhere else?Regards,

[Guest GeorgeDorkofikis]

I have no idea if the SDK will be for the complete a/c or only the autopilot. I just saw the announcement to a posting.I think it's this one :http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...&topic_id=25073http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...&topic_id=14170I don't know further details. I'm anxiously waiting too. Sorry...George DorkofikisAthens, Greece