Hi All,I generally fly only from the VC, esepcially in a plane with such a good VC as the realAir Decathalon. I thus press "W" and make both the 2D panel and laniding panels in all my planes invisible, so that when I cycle through views the 2D view is just a big window of whats in front of the plane.But I've noticed something odd with the Decathalon- even though I save a flight like this and it starts with invisible panels, they somehow reappear during a flight (can't place exactly when, but it always happens). Even if I press W twice again to make them invisible again, they later "reappear".has anyone else noticed this? Any way to permanently disable the 2D views in this plane or know why it occurs?Best,Joel

Hi Joel,I do not have the answer to your question but I'm interested too. Like you I'd like to disable permanently the 2D cockpit since I only operate the plane from the VC. That way I would be able to move from the VC to the external view and reciprocally with "S" and "Shift-S" without having to go through the 2D panel.Tony

I don't have the aircraft in question, so maybe I'm not qualified to comment. But if I use aircraft where I never want the 2D panel, I simply delete all the 2D related stanzas in the panel.cfg file. Is this not possible with this particular aircraft for some reason?

Never tried that before, could you perhaps paste an example of the section from a .cfg file so I can see what you mean? Thanks!Joel

My suggestion above would require a fair bit of panel.cfg file editing and it would take a fair bit of time to write down everything you would need to do to make it work without risking wrecking something. Not only would you need to delete the stanzas, but you would also need to edit the remainder of the file if you still wanted the 2D pop-ups to work correctly. This can sometimes get quite complicated. Still, seeing as I mentioned it, this is what I would do to the stock C172 panel.cfg file if I wanted to permanently remove all traces of 2D panels and pop-ups:Remove:Window Titles, Window00, Window01, Window02, Window03, Window04, Window05.Keep:VCockpit01, VCockpit02, Default View, Views, ColorThose last 5 stanzas are the only ones you would need if you wanted to operate from the VC only and never have a 2D panel or pop-up.Alternatively, if you just wish to remove the 2D panel temporarily (but that I mean it still exists but you just don't neccessarily have to see it), then I would suggest saving a default flight for the aircraft in the following way:1. Load the aircraft up in FS2004.2. Go to the drop-down menu and select Views/Instrument Panel.3. Ensure that Global On is unchecked.Those three steps should temporarily remove the 2D main panel for you. Then if you save the flight as it is, it will default to the full forward view instead of the 2D panel. You should also still be able to use the 2D pop-ups whilst avoiding the complications I mentioned previously. And if you cycle the views, you should get the VC, Spot and Tower views asd well as the clear full forward window, but no 2D panel.The difference with the second solution is that if you accidently re-enable the Global On view, you will keep getting the 2D panel back. But this should just be a matter of training yourself not to do this. You should still find you can access any 2D pop-ups, but you would only be able to do this via the keyboard shortcuts and not the simicons.

Thanks for the explanation, I'll have to try those edits. Is there any FPS/ performance boost from not having the CPU "working" on the 2D panel in the background if you remove it via the edits you describe?Best,Joel

Not that I have noticed. However I have read some reports here from owners of lower end machines that simplifying the panel (eg removing unwanted gauges and windows) can result in improved performance. On my fairly reasonable machine (Athlon XP 2600+, ASUS A7N8X deluxe, ASUS 9600XT and 512 MB DDR RAM) I don't notice any differences at all by removing windows or gauges.

Hi Jon,thank you very much for your advice !I'll try it too