Another probably stupid question, but here goes.  When switching to the King Air from another aircraft (yes, I do sometimes fly others - specifically Carenado Bonanza F33 or Cessna 172, all instruments are blacked out.  The only way I can get them to "light up" is to completely restart the simulator.  Am I missing something or is this just the way it is.  I have also been thinking about the "Brake".  I realize it is probably a "redraw" to animate a knob, but is there a way to have a light or message in the annunciator?

 

John,

 

I'll see about the light issue, this one has reared its ugly head from time to time and is one of my *sigh issues.....due to differences in opinion internally about how lighting should be handled.  The usual culprit is that you turn down a light of some type on the King Air and that lighting value somehow gets carried over to the next aircraft who uses a different light "index number" for their isntruments....so what controls the engine lights on one aircraft might control the EFIS lighting on another.  There is no standard, as authors we simply have 16 lights to choose from based on ID number.  On custom aircraft, the author can just set the lights where they need them to be via a plugin when the aircraft is loaded, but when the aircraft is unloaded, (another aircraft is loaded)...then unless the next aircraft uses a plugin to manage the lighting OR they do not manage the lighting (very common also), then as mentioned, that lighting rheostat value will hold over from the previous aircraft.  This isn't supposed to happen as default aircraft should initialize to a default lighting value that is sufficient to see the instruments so when this does happen, a bit of digging is in order.   Finally, we can't rule out the fact that there is a weird problem you're seeing either because after nearly 2 years, this isn't one we've heard about.

 

Sooo....what to do about it  is try and discover if there is a knob on the King Air causes the issue.....however, it is compounded by such considerations as:  Are you going from a default aircraft to a plug-in controlled aircraft?  vice-versa?  I'd suggest turning all the lights up on the King air, then moving to different aircraft...then go back to the kig air and turn all the lights down (and the EFIS will go dark on the King Air when you do this) and then load up another plane and we can start there.

 

About the brake light, I'll see about getting that in.

 

TomK

Laminar

Tom,

 

The answer is...... vice-versa!

 

It happens when going from either of the Carenado aircraft to the King Air.  I had never had any Carenado aircraft before, so it may be something they are doing with a plug-in, as you have suggested.  It doesn't seem to happen the other way around.

 

Really, it is not a big deal as it doesn't take much longer to completely quit and restart - selecting the King Air during the start-up process.  I just thought maybe I was missing something - a switch or something - that had turned off.  Everything operates - as you have designed - when starting the King Air from a cold start...  It only occurs when you choose to restart from the command menu at the top of the screen.

 

And again, the brake light/handle is not a killer of an excellent aircraft... It's just this old guy skidding around on the runway upon landing occasionally.

 

Thanks,

 

John

Hey John,

 

The problem will occur any time you swap aircraft and you (or a plugin) will have turned down the lighting on the previous aircraft as these lighting values are persistent between aircraft. IMO they should NOT be and I have lobbied to have default aircraft load with consistent values. Aircraft with custom plugin programming do not usually exhibit this behavior because the author can set the lighting in the plugin when their aircraft is loaded...but for default aircraft or aircraft with no plugin programming, they are at the mercy of the lighting settings carried over from the previously loaded aircraft. Being that there is no standard between authors, it is a hit or miss as to whether or not one author uses a lighting slot that causes an issue for the next aircraft loaded.

 

There are some "best practices" to avoid this scenario, but not all authors practice it and I have been guilty of it myself.

 

You should not have to restart the sim to fix this on the King Air.....if you load up the King Air and some instruments are dark (I assume either the EFIS / radio /LEDs), just look up on the overhead and turn up any lighting rheostats that are "off"...a few of them will probably be set to off depending on what the previous aircraft settings were....but on the King Air, particularly for the avionics knob. For the King air daytime flying, you need to always leave the avionics lighting rheostat up as well as the gyro instruments I think...but can turn off all the others.

 

TomK

Thanks Tom.

 

I'll give it a try soon.

 

John

Like many others here i like the King air c90b. But as very much a newbie i have a problem, and wondered if anyone could help me out?

My problem is that the FMC appears to be inactive (No display or functions)

Am i missing something simple, (maybe it has a switch hidden somewhere:))  To get this working would be the "icing on the cake for me" so would appreciate any help

 

Bob

The FMS in the stock KingAir is non-functional.

Thanks John. i had nasty feeling that might be the answer :smile: Pity. It would be useful. Thanks again anyway

 

Bob