Virtual cockpit

[Paul_Smith 92]

Paul, thanks for your answer, but I think you might have misunderstood me. You certainly move your head when you are flying but you don't move the position of your head ! It stays in the same place when looking around and up and down. You don't zoom in and out by moving your whole head forward and backward, let alone up and down or sideways. This to me is totally unrealistic. You can keep your head in one place in the cockpit by only using the hat switch but that makes most of the cockpit unreadable.Also , as I explained earlier, I would like to eliminate the keyboard and mouse altogether, if possible.regardsmartin

You do move the position of your head. You keep coming back to the same point, but yes, you do move it around a lot. You may think it unrealistic, but zooming is a very good and natural substitute. In real life, you can focus your attention to concentrate on a detail to the near exclusion of your surroundings. If you have done any motorcycle racing or advanced level sports training, you will be familiar with focusing your attention within your field of view rather then moving your head or eyes. That is a mental trick we all do regardless of whether we are aware of it. The zooming feature in FSX VC is a very good parallel for this focusing of attention. Whether you do this with keyboard and mouse or Track IR, this looking around, zooming, and even positioning of your point of view is how you use the VC. If realism is important to you, then you have to accept that this is, while not ideal, still far more realistic then looking at static 2D flat displays and pretending they are the aircrafts controls and displays.

[mbunjes 1]

You do move the position of your head. You keep coming back to the same point, but yes, you do move it around a lot. You may think it unrealistic, but zooming is a very good and natural substitute. In real life, you can focus your attention to concentrate on a detail to the near exclusion of your surroundings. If you have done any motorcycle racing or advanced level sports training, you will be familiar with focusing your attention within your field of view rather then moving your head or eyes. That is a mental trick we all do regardless of whether we are aware of it. The zooming feature in FSX VC is a very good parallel for this focusing of attention. Whether you do this with keyboard and mouse or Track IR, this looking around, zooming, and even positioning of your point of view is how you use the VC. If realism is important to you, then you have to accept that this is, while not ideal, still far more realistic then looking at static 2D flat displays and pretending they are the aircrafts controls and displays.

No, I haven't done any racing but I've been a glider pilot for 15 years now and I know the importance of being able to relate the outside world to the position of your view. For the airline pilot there's an eye reference point in the cockpit to ensure the correct head position and that's my point : when I look forward in the VC it's always "sort of" forward, not the position my head was in to begin with.Anyway, it's a moot point since I probably won't be using the cockpit anyway, my hardware cockpit is almost finished. :(

[Paul_Smith 92]

Lucky man...The calibrated eye reference point is that point you keep coming back to that I mentioned, it is necessary because in a tubeliner you have to move your head around so much, far more so then is even possible in a glider. It is not primarialy to do with viewlines on approach, but by positioning your seat so that your head comes naturally back to the correct place, everything is accesible and correctly aligned. If for example, you were to position your seat full up and full forward, instead of moving the rudder pedals back to met you, you would be unable reach anything on the rear of the center or side consoles and you would be looking down on the lower guages (such as brake pressure) on the front console, causing you to misread them. And as you have found, there is stuff you simply can not see properly unless you move your head.That said, I honestly think if you give the VC a serious try you will quickly get used to it and soon come to like it, and it will allow you to fly and enjoy stuff that your cockpit can't handle, such as the PMDG JS41, Aerosoft A320 and so on.

[Ponk 51]

How did you get on with the advice I gave you in my first post.It sounds like you are not happy with initial head position when you are entering the vc...correct?This head position can be set up (left right, up down, forward back) until it is exactly where you want it. You only have to reset to that position every time you load a new aircraft so it is no hassle. The HAT switch then moves your head around and use a button next to the HAT to reset your view to straight ahead. Out of all the aircraft I own, the J41 VC is one of the best VC's you get. ALL the important gauges, numbers, dials etc can be read without zooming in, the head position is perfect for takeoff, cruise and landing so no need to raise your seat during approach. The only thing you have to do is look down to check your Nav display, autopilot etc.

[palala 0]

reviewing the above posts, can anyone advise how to programme keys (like shift +5) for the auto pilot controls, for the overhead instruments. I find that it is always impossible to see the overhead switches without laboriously hitting the A key numerous times to finally arrive at this panel. a simple shift+6 would do the trick! help please

[regen70 1]

Another solution would be to get a second monitor, undock the important instruments and gauges and arrange them on the second monitor to reflect their relative positions on the instrument panel. Then you can leave the main monitor in a foreward view position and glance across to the 2nd display as required just as you would do in a real aircraft without leaning forward or moving from side to side .