Hi,

I must confess I am maniac regarding the accuracy when selecting a radial on the OBS or a heading with a HSI bug.

On P3D I used the tooltip, that is I mouse over the heading bug or the OBS button and P3D would display in a small yellow box the precise heading or radial.

That does not work that way in XP. What can I do?

By the way, I wonder how real pilots set a precise heading on the HSI or select a precise radial with the OBS?

One of the ways X-Plane is different from legacy MSFS design, is that the owner and lead designer Austin Meyer (a pilot) has always been a stickler for having everything work the same way it does in a real plane. No shortcuts, nothing you wouldn't see in a real plane. We finally got one exception with the GPS pop-up window, when the default GPS was first introduced. We're lucky we even got that. 🙂 

Have you tried using the custom view keys? Move the cockpit camera for a close-up view of whatever you need to see, then select Ctrl + (numpad key) to save that view. These views are saved individually for each plane model. Hit the number key for the closeup, then hit it again to return to your main cockpit view. One of my saved views for every plane is a closeup of the HSI and heading bug for fine control.

Hello Paraffin,

Thanks for the story and philosophy of Austin and the tip regarding views.

Much appreciated!

As far as I know, adjusting OBS (and HDG) bugs via keyboard is done in 1° increments if the key is tapped once. So just assign a key assignment, aim for the nearest 5° mark and then tap your way to the desired OBS course or HDG from there.

 

Advantages over mouse clicks: Can be done with the free hand, no awkward scrolling and clicking and you can finally half-decently fly the default King Air.

Smart tip Bjoern, thanks!

All good suggestions above Tony.

IRL it's done by approximation too, unless the equipment has an analog or digital radial display, like some of the Kingair options in our ELITE 🙂

One detail that escapes me is how to set the radial in the default C90. I have to look at the central console and use the dials there, and at the same time fly the airplane... Not easy...  I believe there is a tooltip for that, but I'm not sure - anyone ?

Enjoying the "dark side" ?

😉

You can also open up datarefs editor, filter out with "HSI", or "course", or "OBS" keyword to limit the number of values displayed, and cross-check the value there.

8 hours ago, jcomm said:

One detail that escapes me is how to set the radial in the default C90. I have to look at the central console and use the dials there, and at the same time fly the airplane... Not easy...  I believe there is a tooltip for that, but I'm not sure - anyone ?

Enjoying the "dark side" ?

😉

See my suggestion above. As far as I know, the "O" and "H" keys here are unmapped by default, providing a perfect opportunity.

Except for the awkwardly placed autopilot and less than optimal lighting controls, I do quite enjoy the default C90. It's even better with a virtual Blackhawk XP135 mod (without any of the mod propeller options though).

jcomm: thanks for how it is done IRL. Enjoying the dark side that is actually bright but also with some shadows 😉

Jean-Luc : merci. I tried General Data Output / Show in cockpit. I found the data for the OBS but not the heading bug. I did not dare to try datated because I'm new with XP and don't know what datarefs do. Don't want to mess up things.