Hi,I read thoroughly the manual and searched in the virtual cockpit for a clickspot to trigger animation on the seatbelts (fasten/unlock) but found nothing.Still, I remember seeing somewhere that the seatbelt is animated. Did I dream ?Thanks.

Yes, you dreamt. I bought FSPassengers last week and thought it would be nice if those belts could be animated/moved/whatever. It would be nice to fly with three passengers and then see the belts removed from three of the seats. REAL PERSONS would be even better of course... ;) Anyway, it's not possible: they are stuck in the seats...

>Yes, you dreamt. >All right, thanks for waking me up ;-) By the way do you know an aircraft whose pilot's seatbelt are animated/functional ?

What purpose would it serve to animate the seat belts if we do not have 3d passengers to strap in?Also, on GA aircraft, procedures are that seats belts be strapped to the emtpy seats, not left open on empty seats as with the airliners, and this includes the pilot's seat. Thus when we enter the aircraft, we unlatch the seat belt, sit in the seat, then fasten it around us.I would suggest that this program was designed more with airliner operations in mind, perhaps not so much general aviation.No, we did not animate the seat belts in the A36, and for this very reason: Their default state is one as you see it in the aircraft; where they are fastened around the seat to begin with. Regards,http://www.dreamfleet2000.com/gfx/images/F...R_FORUM_LOU.jpg

Hello Lou,It was certainly not a complaint/attack against your excellent product, just an inquiry. I am just discussing the general interest of such a functionality.I understand your point of view and your arguments are valid.But on the other hand as you said "we enter the aircraft, we unlatch the seat belt, sit in the seat, then fasten it around us".Of course we can always imagine doing it but COULD also DO the gesture in FS, especially when you think that the checklist reminds to you twice about the pilot seatbelt.After all, some secondary systems such as the cabin heat are not modelled due to FS limitations or poor interest but still you can click on the animated switches :-)As for the 3D passenger, the T-37 Tweet Simulator for instance does include a 3D copilot in the virtual cockpit.

At least I could "swear" that the seatbelts feel so real!!! :D http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/123634.jpg

Hey, Larry, is that the closest you'll ever get to flying that RV7? ;-)BTW, I took nothing as a compliant / attack against our A36, and saw nothing in my orignal answer to indicate that I thought such. The real question is: Just what would we animate? You click on the seat belt and it does what?Also, such animations are rather substantial labor ($$).I'm open to suggestions, as our Baron 58 is about to enter beta, but I really don't see what we can do here. It's not a heater control on a panel, and GA aircraft of this type do not have seat belt sign switches.One of the beauties of FS is imagination, and not having to simulate everything on a panel or 3D model or via a mouse click. Just do what I do in real life: Look around at your pax and ask, "everyone fastened in?" Forget the mouse, and just do as we do in real life. Or, if you have a real seatbelt handy, as Larry A does.... ;-)Perhaps better would be to contact the developers of the program and ask for an update to allow it to adapt for GA operations. After visiting their web site and forum, it is obvious the program was designed for commercial / airline aircraft ops, not GA ops.As to adding modeled pax, we have six seats, and that would mean six pax, not two. We don't have the available polys for that, not to mention customer's having machines that could run the thing. ;-)Regards,http://www.dreamfleet2000.com/gfx/images/F...R_FORUM_LOU.jpg

It's not that much for the PAX but for the pilot's seat. For instance, when you click on the seatbelt it could slide open, one more click and it fastens. Well one would have to imagine that it fastens around a belly :-) Just like when you click on a briefcase it opens ;-)

>One of the beauties of FS is imagination, and not having to>simulate everything on a panel or 3D model or via a mouse>click. Just do what I do in real life: Look around at your pax>and ask, "everyone fastened in?" Forget the mouse, and just do>as we do in real life. Or, if you have a real seatbelt handy,>as Larry A does.... ;-)>I confess......I never really "play" simulator in the RV (actually a 6A). Just went out there this morning, stuck the laptop in front of the windscreen & held the camera behind my back.As for simming, I've never liked the idea of "mousing" everything, simply because it seems to "slow" down real time, and everything is not in the proper place to do with "two hands" at the same time for efficiency.L.Adamson

Larry, that is one sweet home cockpit

I sometimes wonder what we did with the orginal flightsimulator where you were lucky to have green scenery blue water and dead flat terrain.I have never used most of the goodies that Dreamfleet puts in their planes more than once. Where does it stop? Opening air vents? Cabin heat knobs? Note here...if you model cabin heat knobs in the Skyhawk, they MUST vibrate in and freeze your feet when you pull back on power.If you were to animate everything you would just drive the price up and take time away from the things that matter such as realistic flight characteristics and the proper angle of dihedral.

Just may send some color scheme pics. After many changes, we've come up with this basic idea.Top half, that new "yellow" color used on those Nissan SUV's (X-Terra, I believe) Yellow is easy to see, and I "finally" like some of these 2005 yellows for vehicles.Bottom --- Grey, seperated by a black expanding stripe & possible grey between the yellow & stripe.Wings ---- leading edge yellow, then grey, with a black stripe shaped like striping on a DecathlonHorizontal stab & elevator, the same as wingVertical stab & rudder ----- A wavy racing flag. Black & white surrounded by the top half yellow.Panel is grey, along with interiorL.Adamson

> Where does it stop?Well, if it did stop a couple of years ago, there would be no animated surfaces, opening canopy or doors on the aircrafts you fly. You would not be able to see the prop blade angle change from the virtual cockpit as you move the blue lever and so on.It is a collection of details that makes it more real and increase the level of immersion.And I grant you that the seatbelt is a very very small detail indeed compared to the flight dynamics. Is the seatbelt a "relevant" detail compared to the heat knob for instance ? I think so because it is part of the checklist meaning that you use it everytime you fly. Moreover it is related to safety.

I know a thing or two about checklists and flying. Two thing spring to mind with your post. First what do opening doors have to do with actually flying a plane. This quest for more and more eyecandy only drives up the cost of the planes. How many people really open the doors more than once or twice after downloading the plane? The level of immersion idea. Sorry, this has never been big with myself. Flying on a computer is nothing like flying a real airplane. Not the same visuals, sounds, smells or fears. Immersion is also something that your mind creates. When I read the H.G. Wells, "War of the Worlds" I can become more immersed in the story than I ever could in any of the movie versions. The mind is a more powerful tool than any computer can hope to copy. All this eyecandy takes time to beta test. I know. I was one of the group that beta tested the A36. All this little details had to be worked by themselves and together in all phases of flight. You never know what is going to cause a crash. What makes it even worse is that with some bugs, not all of the team suffered from them. The hardcore simmer wants more and more and more. Developers now trumphet things like the RAT on the Level D 767! You cannot get a better mix of flight dynamics and eyecandy than a Dreamfleet airplane.