I was just curious... How do all of the VR people that fly airline flights (FSL, PMDG, Majestic, etc) do it since a lot of it requires key presses, entry into an FMC, throttle control, etc.?  When I fly, I am constantly writing notes from ATC, pressing keys on my keyboard, monitoring controls.  I'd think with VR I'd be constantly taking off the mask to do things outside of the VR... Wouldn't that defeat the propose?

6 hours ago, Zimmerbz said:

I was just curious... How do all of the VR people that fly airline flights (FSL, PMDG, Majestic, etc) do it since a lot of it requires key presses, entry into an FMC, throttle control, etc.?  When I fly, I am constantly writing notes from ATC, pressing keys on my keyboard, monitoring controls.  I'd think with VR I'd be constantly taking off the mask to do things outside of the VR... Wouldn't that defeat the propose?

A couple things I use in VR flying:

       Voice Attack

       ChasePlane

When using the native P3Dv4 VR you can use Chase Plane and setup views that zoom into specific areas like the CDU, panels and even cool exterior views.

Voice Attack allows you to program keys and other various things to voice commands. I use VA extensively when flying in VR and 2D flying in P3D, XP, and soon DCS. I also program many of my Saitek joystick buttons and switches with Spad.next

Bottom line Voice Attack or some other voice command software is a must for me in VR flying

Good Luck

Joe

 

Native VR in P3D 4.1 allows you to go in and out of VR whenever you please. I find that, for the flight planning, FMC programming and initial ATC requests, 2D is still more functional. After p/b & start, I get the taxi clearance, check my charts one last time and put on the VR goggles and only remove them when reaching cruise.

Usually I like to enjoy a good wine or beer during cruise, so I would only put my goggles back on Approach!

I think that some developer's are already integrating tools that will be very helpful for VR-users. In XP11, for example, FF has integrated an EFB with a full-fledged web-browser in it! That means you can use Navigraph and access your Charts from within the cockpit! That will be a huge deal for VR users.

Hopefully these innovations (and many others) will keep appearing on all platforms!

12 hours ago, Zimmerbz said:

I was just curious... How do all of the VR people that fly airline flights (FSL, PMDG, Majestic, etc) do it since a lot of it requires key presses, entry into an FMC, throttle control, etc.?  When I fly, I am constantly writing notes from ATC, pressing keys on my keyboard, monitoring controls.  I'd think with VR I'd be constantly taking off the mask to do things outside of the VR... Wouldn't that defeat the propose?

Hi, I'm mainly flying airliners atm, and I fly exclusively in VR - I also don't typically take my goggles off at all during the flight, at least not after pushback, for me it ruins the immersion.

Voiceattack - agree with the above comment, very helpful for my flying. Any keypresses, this will handle.

VOXATC - my ATC of choice, I often let the FO handle this.

FMC - I do sometimes do the initial programming as my first step, before putting on the goggles. Increasingly, though, I use saved panel states in the PMDG planes, which I can easily activate from VR mode. Ongoing FMC management is quite viable in VR mode, you just need to lean over a bit, as you would in the real aircraft (though you typically get a bit closer in VR than IRL, givenm the resolution of current HMDs). I also have the FDS and Opencockpits hardware FMCs, only in the initial stages of experimenting with using these with VR, but the idea has some potential.

Views - I haven't used chaseplane, but I note the comment above - I might give it a try. At the moment, pretty happy with just flying the plane from the left seat.

You could also use flyinside, which allows you to look at documents etc. Persoanlly, I prefer native VR at this time.

As I noted, haven't flown any aircraft in old-school 2D mode for months now. 

Final comment - you need supersampling to make the displays (inlcuding the FMC) clear enough to fly with ease form the left seat. I run at 1.5 or 2.0, using the ApollonVR try tool.

1 hour ago, tgcbraun said:

Usually I like to enjoy a good wine or beer during cruise, so I would only put my goggles back on Approach!

Drinking a beer, or a glass of Penfold's Grange Shiraz, is next to impossible with an HMD on. Except, here's the pro-tip:

- use a straw.

That's right, I keep a bunch of straws around now so I can still sip a tasty beverage during flight. The Grange - or any other premium vintage - still tastes just as good, and no VR immersion is lost.

I'm getting so used to this, I'm going to ask for a straw next time I order wine at a restaurant.