Hello fellow simmers!

Crop dusting is really a both funny and demanding way to improve one's flying skills in a flight simulation : flying accurate patterns a few feet above the ground requires a lot of practice!

Crop Duster X, publised a few years ago for FSX and above, is a payware module allowing any plane from your hangar to dust fields that can be created either automatically or manually, then saved. The concept is not mission-based : each flight gets a mark depending on how well the crops were dusted (quantity per acre, delivery time, etc).

A few addon airplanes are well suited for the task, Alabeo's Piper Pawnee is one of them.

So I thought I could get the best of both of them : the original 2D control panels of CropDusterX are now integrated in the VC, a lightbar is added to the nose so that the pilot can flight the exact track required, and of course, the gauge compatibility is now ensured.

The mod is available here : https://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=220017

The mod was tested in FSX, but I suspect the mod should work in P3D v2 and v3, maybe in v4.

Thanks to Alabeo for allowing me to share the modified VC and external MDL files, and to Lorby-SI for their module.

A few pictures :









The last picture only highlights the new interactions from my mod. The blue, circular SatLoc buttons are functional and managed by CropDusterX.

Edited November 29, 20205 yr by kekelekou

8 hours ago, kekelekou said:

allowing any plane from your hangar

ANY plane??  Hmmm.....  ..crop dusting tri-holer..... well, there's a DC-10 water bomber IRL...

The sky is the limit! Open up your mind! 😁

If you are interested in aerial firefighting, Lorby-SI also offers FireFighterX that spawns wildfires on which you can drop retardant or water, with... any airplane of tour hangar!

Well I'm a little late in noticing this, but WOW what a great addition!  I've been playing with CropDusterX for a couple of years now, and just Love it, bought the Alabeo Pawnee Brave specifically for it, and find the combination just awesome.  Really the only thing that was lacking was the SatLoc in the virtual cockpit.  Even though I could suspend my disbelief easy enough, this really makes the whole package basically perfect.

I find Lorby's execution of the Satloc GPS lightbar to be utterly realistic (I'm a farmer, and ground apply with a light bar all the time).  While I'm not a pilot, I have to say the Brave's flight characteristics feel Really good (imho the best feeling of flight of any FSX aircraft I have flown).  Trying to keep a fully loaded (4800# restricted category) Pawnee Brave in the air is a tough challenge, and then try making 50' A-B lines on quarter mile runs with trees at each end...  It is just fantastic.

Thank you so much for this wonderful addition, this is really just so exciting for an old fake pilot like myself.  Thanks to Lorby and Alabeo as well for their wonderful products.

Nice Mod.... Would you have happened to also have done the Alabeo C188B Agtruck as well?

On 9/28/2022 at 5:04 PM, km7276 said:

Nice Mod.... Would you have happened to also have done the Alabeo C188B Agtruck as well?

Hello!

Unfortunately, no mod available for the Agtruck. I usually create mods as per my own needs for the planes in my hangar, and I chose the Pawnee over the Agtruck when I got interested in crop dusting.

I can share the source files tough if you want to have a go at adapting the mod to the C188B.

And by the way for FSX:SE users ONLY :

CropDusterX gauges’ names depend on the sim. So please change the [Window05] and [VCockpit03] sections of your panel.cfg so that they read :

[Window05]
size_mm=1030,160
position=4
VISIBLE=1
ident=LIGHTBAR
window_size= 0.44, 0.08
type=special

gauge00=CDX_Lightbar_SE!CDXLightBar,0,0,1030,160

and

[Vcockpit03]
Background_color=0,0,0 
size_mm=1024,1024
visible=1
pixel_size=1024,1024
texture=$lightbar
//file=$Lightbar.bmp

gauge00=CDX_Lightbar_SE!CDXLightBar,0,865,1024,159

The only change is the addition of "_SE".

This should fix the lack of light bar display.

How did you get the Satloc display to be out front? I see the added line in the VC cockpit part in the panel.cfg, but I was curious how you figured out how high or low it was to properly place it.