XPlane11 Rookie Mistakes

[LionBrother 0]

Janov

Your reply wasn't harsh, but an honesty that i probably needed. My response wasn't intended to make you feel bad, or illicit any sympathy

Wow 50nm north of EDDF!? I know that. I flew there yesterday from EGLC. lovely flight and Frankfurt is a lovely airport

[Janov 2,383]

Hi LionBrother,

I am very sorry to hear about your medical history and disability it brings with it. On the other hand I congratulate you for not giving up and persisting to pursue the things that bring you happiness and enjoyment.

With my reply I have hit a little closer to home than I intended, obviously - but the gist of my comment stands, maybe more so than ever. If something continues to be a source of frustration after you have put in due effort to overcome the obstacles - then it is probably not wise to pursue it further.

I can imagine that especially with a stroke it is even harder to "unlearn" things that are deeply ingrained in the muscle-memory... I knew it even took me (back then young and spriteful) a while to NOT hit the "S" key when I wanted to jump to an outside view 😉.

Yes, I fly for a living, currently on the A320 family. Yet despite getting enough "real" air time in my job, the hobby of flight-simulation has stayed a passion of mine and will probably continue to do so long after I have to hand in my class 1 medical. It is astonishing how close PC simulation these days can get - and I expect that to only get even better with the broad advent of VR and its proper interfacing (data gloves, better resolution, etc).

I beg to differ about EDDF being a "lovely airport", though 😂 - it is a monster that somehow grew to one of the biggest airports in Europe, shoehorned in between powerful communities that impart ridiculous noise abatement laws and procedures on it. If you ever have to taxi back to the gate at 23:01 local time with a plane full of tired passengers that just want to go home - because you have crashed into the night curfew - you will know what I mean 😡.

All the best for you, Jan

 

 

[Glenn_C 135]

Many people might not know this but there is also documentation for X-Plane in the ..\X-Plane 11\Instructions folder. There's quite  a lot of useful information for beginners and experienced users alike to be found there.

[in2tech 588]

On 11/20/2018 at 12:01 AM, LionBrother said:

Hi guys!

Thank you all so much for your suggestions.I'm still sitting on the runway,props spinning and haven't moved an inch.; I feel like the Springboks trying to get over England's try line (even without a blatant yellow card - apologies to my English friends on this forum and Americans who don't get rugby); Thouroughly frustrated.I have tried some of your suggestions and I can now get the exterior views,but how on earth do I look around the cockpit? when I did a "walkaround" to check that my control surfaces were moving (a habit from my PPL training days). nothing budged. I thought the problem might have been my joystick( a Trust GM 2600;which works perfectly in FS9), so I reinstalled and recalibrated it. Still nothing. I am now totally fed up with XPlane11 when I consider what it cost to buy brand new and the amount I spent on data doing the upgrade (before we had uncapped fiber installed). In South African Rand terms I have effectively paid double for the game (all I got was an impotent Cessna and a measely discount voucher from Aerosoft. very annoyed and am now considering uninstalling (to give FS9 more breathing space) and dumping Xplane at our local charity shop. I have a powerful, dedicated gaming rig with a number of heavily modded games on it ( I really enjoy mods and addons and have created many for The Elder Scrolls games). Hopefully without sounding like an old fart Luddite; I far prefer the ease and simplicity of FS9, It's all very disappointing as I was so excited to buy XPlane after seeing the demo clips on Youtube.

 

Many thanks

Tread lightly on the earth

Are you using XP-11, if you said that sorry I missed it? If it is running fine on your system than eventually you should be able to get it working. For me coming from FSX/FSX-SE was very confusing for just the simplest thing's as you are going through. Take your time, watch YouTube video's, read forum's, manual's, etc... you will get it eventually, and I think you might enjoy it. If it get's frustrating leave it for a bit, go enjoy your old sim, and come back to it. I had 10 and hated it, tried XP-11 a few times and did not like it. For some strange reason I decided to download the demo again and give it an actual chance, and now I really like it. But that's just me, everyone is different. Now my cheap Logitech 3 joystick came up for me to calibrate it at first. I admit I was even confused by the simple instructions at first, but I took a deep breath, paid attention ( I usually don't ), and finally got it. The views drove me nuts at first and still can, but I am even getting over that. The Q,W,E,R,F keys are your friend for basic stuff in Cockpit view, and B for me is the brakes. I still hit the old FSX keys, but most of the time I don't now. Comma key zooms IN and period key OUT. Arrow keys do what you think, Left, Right, Up, and Down. Shift 8 External view, Shift 9 Interior view. Those are the main ones, and when you do look at the Exterior, it's usually the tail, so use the Arrow keys to move left and right and up and down. Hope this basic stuff helps!

I hope you get it working, cause I think you will like it, and PBR is super nice, really nice! It can frustrate you but it can also be enjoyable after you get the basic's down.

 

Best of luck for your flight sim's and your health!

Edited November 21, 2018 by Learjet777

[lencarne 6]

my mouse gets me round the cockpit and outside. RT click and hold to pan around. Scroll wheel to zoom. I find that very convenient. I'm a recent refugee from fsx. Learning curve was a little steep and as I'm 69 took longer than I thought but I love the way the birds fly here, the scenery and as I love airliners most the free 737 Zibo mod is great. What planes you like to fly?

Edited November 23, 2018 by lencarne