ATR-72-500 by Francisco Sanchez-Castaner Perennial Gauges Issue

[lamanogaucha 0]

I was about to make a backup of FS9 (after several months of work on it) and I started all my planes to doublecheck that everything was OK. I noticed that Paco's ATR-72-500 has a major problem with the gauges not showing up properly aligned on either panel (2D and "VC"). I went to various forums (including this one) and found out that these panel gauges are intended to work only with FS2002. Paco apparently was intending to create a version for FS9 but backed out, apparently because he got angry with the community in general due to some guy posting his wonderful aircraft as being FS9 compatible even though it isn't (the gauges anyway) and without his consent. Paco ended up getting a ton of negative feedback at his e-mail address because the goon that posted his bird as a FS9 plane did not give his own e-mail address and instead gave Francisco's -- it's understandable why he got upset. That said, this happened years ago and I wish he would get over it and give his great plane a new lease on life by just posting his FS9 panel. I'm sure that if he did that, his plane would remain the best freeware ATR 72-500 available.Now that I've learned this, I know that there is nothing wrong with anything inside my sim, so I looked for fixes and alternatives that are made for FS9.I found one by a fellow named Claus Holmberg, which seems based mostly on Paco's original. His package seems fine but I wanted something that sticks closer to the original package, so I did not install this one.The second one I found (and the one I tried) is by a fellow whose last name is Nouhaud. It's more recent than the Holmberg and it's supposed to stay very close to the original package. The only differences are that there are two folders that go into the fsfsconv folder inside the main aircraft folder -- one for the panel and one for the sound. The original panel folder now contains only an alias to the fsfsconv panel. The original sound folder remains intact, with no alias to the fsfsconv sound folder (which I thought was rather strange). Otherwise, the package is the same as Francisco's.When I started the sim with that plane, I found that there are now no gauges at all in either panel!! :( How can this be?? :( I looked at the fsfsconv panel cfg and saw that the gauges refer to the ATR 42-300. I don't know what to do... To my knowledge, I've done everything exactly as it should be done. I even overwrote the gauges that go into the Gauges folder, the air file, the model folder, and even further, I created a second fsfsconv folder with the ATR contents (only) in the root FS9 folder, all with no results whatsoever.Needless to say, I used a ATR backup I had to restore the aircraft to how I had originally installed it, which is a perfectly typical installation -- better to have crappy looking gauges than no gauges at all...Now, my question is: How can I make this panel by Nouhaud work? I think that if I can get it to work, it will be the best configuration, as it leaves Francisco's work virtually intact.I did find another, simpler panel by Marco Spada. I may use it if I have no choice at all, but this panel is quite different from the small masterpiece that Francisco created, so it's definitely a last resort (with due respect to Marco).Lastly, if I have to remove the original panel completely (in order to install Marco's), I only have to remove the six gauges that came with the original package. But, I need to know if any of these gauges automatically create(d) any additional gauges in the Gauges folder (e.g. some gauges create additional gauges when one fires up the plane that those gauges belong to). If so, then I need to know their names because I don't want to leave any bogus/needless and/or incompatible gauges in that folder.Phew... Thanx for reading. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and considered. Thanx again.La Mano

[Guest belga1]

Hello,

The second one I found (and the one I tried) is by a fellow whose last name is Nouhaud

Can you give the URL where you find the "Nouhaud" panel... so I cant test and eventually reproduce or solve your problem !Regards.

[lamanogaucha 0]

Right! Haha! Sorry about that. It's right here on AVSIM: atr-72-500-airfrance.zip.If you are really going to go through all that trouble, can you please check to see if those gauges create additional gauges? Thanx a bunch Captain! I really appreciate that kind of effort -- it goes well above what I would have expected! :(

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

lamanogauchaGlad to see your persistence in trying to get this nice panel to work.I must say i have tried all sorts of variations of this particular panel and I always seem to have problems.Last night was a good example i.e. the radio's kept turning themselves off and even when they finally managed to stay on that wasn't the end of my woes i.e. on executing a really good landing and hitting reverse thrust (f2)I found that I couldn't turn the reverse thrust off.In short......This panel is a really good looker but still seems to have problems working reliably, I think I will go back to dear old Marco's version it may not rank in looks,but it works and I can fly my plane and not spend forever tinkering and that's what I want.Andy

[lamanogaucha 0]

Yeah, there were too many problems for my taste. The Spada panel works, like you said. It's even better with the night lighting by Jun.I did manage to find a good and properly working recreation for FS9 of the original Sanchez-Castaner panel though. The Holmberg Denmark package I had mentioned is very good and in fact sticks to the original quite closely (contrary to what I said on my first post). The only issues with this panel are that the elevator trim is pitching down when you start the plane. If you don't set it properly prior to taking off, you have to pull on the yoke quite a bit during rotation and the plane can pitch alarmingly high rather abruptly -- about 20-25 degrees, typically. Since I could not find a trim button on the panel, it has to be set through the keyboard. I think that this problem with the elevator trim upon starting is related to the fact that these are gauges originally intended for FS2002. The second one is that you need to have FSUIPC set to deal with the button sensitivity problem found on many FS2002 gauges. Otherwise, your heading bug will move in 10 degree increments only. Both are easy to fix though, so no problems.Another thing (unrelated to the panel, it seems) is that after completing a flight, one can't taxi to a gate or parking upon exiting the runway. Basically, if you stop the plane for a moment after exiting the runway, the plane will no longer move, even at full throttle. You can drop off your passengers at the gate, but only by not stopping completely after you leave the runway -- as long as it's moving, it's OK. I wonder if this problem was present in the original FS2002 version of this model.Anyway, I kept the Spada panel as a backup. One can always use it from time to time.best,LMG