New Baron panel

[Christopher Low 5,341]

My recent flight from Flying B Ranch to Delta Airpark highlighted something about the Baron panel that still annoys me. That bearing indicator that "sticks up" above the main panel is a pain in the **** :-) Since the main bearing indicator is clearly visible on the VFR cockpit panel, the presence of this "anomaly" would seem to be superfluous.It may well be an accurate reflection of a real Baron panel, but it is something that I would like to see removed from my own personal version. Can this be done ?Chris Low.

[Guest Rich Wren]

Of course it can Chris. All you need to do is install Cockpit Designer ;-)

[Christopher Low 5,341]

Rich,Thank you for the information. Now will you kindly provide me with a detailed set of instructions that are necessary to remove the said "bearing indicator" using Cockpit Designer ? Please make them clear and concise, with the minimum of superfluous BS :-lolChris Low.

[Guest glidernut]

Chris,Yes Im shoower Steve hess can haksor it off for you.If he dont hav a haksor, then I recon I can do it with a hamer and chisl.That liquid cumpas was the first thing I put on a glider panal, cus it looked good.But I soon took it off agen as it just got in the way.Not only that but the liquid cumpas dont work properly on any of the FU3 aicraft.It moovs in the rong direction.I think sumone at Looking Glass caled it a LIQUID cumpass, but sumone els atLooking Glass desined it to be an ordinery flat cumpass that is suposed to be seen throo an angled mirrer, and not the LIQUID cumpass that most peopl are familier with. But how ever did it, got confused and made it moov in the rong direction.Unfortunatly this instrement dus not hav a modifiyer, so simply mirrer imigeingthe instement dus not alter the direction of motion.So we are stuk with it.Fortunatly the heding set instement dus moov in the right direction, and is a much beter instrement to ues as a cumpass.That or take note of where the moon is.Of cors I could be romg,What do you think ?glidernut.:-wave

[Christopher Low 5,341]

You are quite correct about the "liquid compass" moving in the wrong direction, but that isn't my primary concern. Like you say, it just gets in the way. You are also correct that the "heading bearing indicator" works perfectly well in this regard, and is certainly a much better way of indicating in which direction the plane is moving.Chris Low.

[Hans_Petter 1]

Well, I assume that the liquid or whiskey compass is there because the real aircraft has one. It serves as a backup compass since it doesn't rely on electricity -- you could bring your boy scout compass as an alternative low-tech backup :-)However, I didn't realize that it turned in the wrong direction. I'll pay better attention to the compass next time I fly the latest Baron.best regards,Hans Petter

[Hans_Petter 1]

I just checked out the whiskey (US) or whisky (UK) compass. It seems to turn in the right direction. Say you're planning to head due east. The compass is slightly "right" of east. In which direction do you turn? You turn away from what the compass shows, turning more right and the compass will line up. Remember, a whisk(e)y compass is a totally "analog" magnet in the horizontal plane while the read-out is in the vertical plane. This means that you'll turn away from the heading to home in on it.best regards,Hans Petter

[Guest glidernut]

Chris,Is this the baron by Steve hess that you want the cumpass remooved from?As you can see, I hav alredy remooved it from the VFR.Do you whant it remooved from the IFR as well ?Say the word, and I will send it to you.glidernut.:-wave

[Guest glidernut]

Hans Petter,Yes, you are right, as a liquid compass it dus moov in the right direction.Its me that got confused.I had been trying to use the liquid compass instement on the top of a gliderpanal as a flat or boy scout tipe compass that uses a mirrer to see virticalydouwn on it.I had a snap-shot of this sort of compass in use on a glider panal. But Iill be blowed if I can fined it nouw.Thats life.Any way, only for this sort of compass dus the FU3 compass instement moovin the rong direction.As a liquid compass, it moovs in the right direction.glidernut.:-wave

[Christopher Low 5,341]

Yes, that looks good. Please send me the corrected versions of VFR and IFR cockpit panels ASAP. Just let me know when the postman will be delivering them, and I will take the necessary time off work :-lolChris Low.

[Guest glidernut]

Chris,chek your in box for 8 big atachments now.glidernut.:-wave

[Guest R_Driscoll]

You have to keep the liquid compass installed! Put your hacksaw back in the gardening shed glidernut! Anyway you might poke out the windscreen. But the compass is your primary backup and also your only accurate way to correct for gyrosccopic drift (unfortunately not modelled in FU3). But if you have a vacuum failure you will need to have a backup compass because your main one will spin down before you can say Bob's your uncle (i.e. a few minutes). It would be like going flying with a thermos - fine if all goes well but when something breaks, you're in hot water.Talking of essential equipment, I have had some dreamy flights through the Cascades over the weekend with the engine sounds turned down and Mozart playing on the CD. I recommend it to anyone. I was flying over some of Allan's packages to start with, but ended up in the Cascades as always.One reason for the flight was to try adjusting the scenery palette, something I promised to do about 1835 or so. I extracted the palette, increased the blue by a consistent 10%, then testflied (testflued oops what's the word). And the RESULTS???Not too good. Better, but way south of perfect still. The snow still came out yellow in shadowed patches. I think I need to try something a bit cleverer than simply compensating for the yellow by adding blue. Anyway, the overall effect was a little less brown, trees looked better IMHO, and snow was whiter and cleans brighter (no that's my toothpaste). But not good enough. Next try soon.My understanding is that SanFran was repainted by hand, but that Seattle was coloured based on colour satellite imagery. Since a satellite sees through the atmosphere, yellow will be scattered most giving a blue tinge (which is why the sky looks blue). This would give a blue bias to the whole scenery, especially for sea level where the air is thickest. But if you compensate for this by adjusting the colours at sea level, then you will overcompensate at altitude, giving a yellow bias to high areas. Did LGS do this?A lot of speculation, few facts and I don't expect LGS to hand me an answer, but if true there would be no perfect solution without changing the colour indices in the original terrain mapping. Still, I think I can improve the colours a little.Sorry to hijack the thread. Back to compasses everyone!RobD.RobD.

[Guest glidernut]

RobD.Adjusting the scenery palette!?! jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeSssseeeeeeeessssssssssss, I knew you was up to sumthing,Every time you disapeer for a week or 2, I think to my self, hes up to sumthin.OK, so your palette change is no good yet, but hay, Rome wasent bilt in a day.Iv been playing with colours too, but in a diferant way.Sum one sed thay wanted to hav a bright blue sky and haze at the same time.I thorght ye, thats what I want too.So I set about doing a coloured semy transparant sun vizer for the top of theVFR and IFR vews, like thay hav at the top of the windscreen on sum cars.It seemed to work ok, exept that it didant work as good as on a car.Cars dont bank, so a cars sun vizer stays level with the horizen.But a plane banks a lot, and when the sun vizer banks with it, it looks horabl.See snaps 1 and 2.The black is sensered cus its not finished yet.So not to be beeten, I set about doing a sun vizer that would stay horizontelwith the horizen, in the same way that the artifishial horizen instement dus.I was just starting to hav sum sukses with it when I discuvered that it onlyworks when FU3 is in 800x600 resolution in Options.Not only that, but if the sun vizer is seen or rendered in any other resolution, even for a split second, then the sun vizer is rooined for good in any resolution.When I say rooined, I meen the sun vizers semy transparantsy is distruyed for ever.So thats another ideer in the Recycle Bin.So your dreamy flights are dun with Mozart.I do it with Viveldery, Vivalderly, Viv, o, sod it, I never could spel.Mozart is just as good.I hav a spel cheker, but I dont use it cuz it tels me lize.Any way, I uset to hav sum very louwd thunder claps on CD that was much beterthan in FU3. See the sort of weather I would hav when listening to it.Ps, can any one see a face in the midel clouwd ?glidernut.:-wave

[Guest R_Driscoll]

"Ps, can any one see a face in the midel clouwd ?"You mean the dark cloud, right in the middle, with what looks like an old bald man with a moustache looking down thoughtfully on the lightning bolts?No, I can't see it.Your vizor idea is brilliant! For long flights, surely touring planes must have thought of this? It looks great.(One way you might be able to have haze and blue skies at the same time is to change the atmosphere properties:; How high the atmosphere exists (default=50000 ft).AtmosphereThickness 20000; How quickly atmosphere gets thin with altitude (default=0.4).AtmosphereDensityRatio 0.6I'm at work so I don't know what will work (nothing works at work because I work at work). Try this - see if it helps. But don't give up on your vizor).Since you have mastered translucency in the cockpit view, would it be possible to have a slightly older Blanik, and add scratches to the glass? Or ghost images? Does this mean I will soon be staring at a distorted ghost glidernut when I fly? Hmmm, that's scary.Don't buy a dictionary. I think your inventive spelling is better. Spelling Unlimited. I like Vivaldi too. But not much. I like Mozart in small doses, but he can get a bit soppy. I like Beethoven, but babababoom does not go well with drifting over the Cascades (although for landing, babababoom is probably a good description). Rachmaninov clashes with that sweet girl from Central telling me to pleeaase acknowledge. Ah well. Back to Bach.Now this thread has really wandered all over the sky. Where were we? I think we have encompassed everything except compasses (sorry, that was dreadful). I tried flying with the old palette again, and it didn't look right - it looked a bit dirty yellow now. I will put up some pics on a new thread (and so unhijacking this thread) and would be very interested in everyone's comments on the difference between the old palette for Seattle and the new blue hue. But I am really starting to like the touch of blue - snow looks so much better. Anyway, have a look and let me know.If its an improvement, then I think I would invite experts like Hans Petter and Jon to do some professional colour adjustment using PSP.RobD.:-wedge

[Guest jonpoint]

Gee Guys!Talk about a one-size-fits-all thread...Steve, your panels are fine by me. Every time I step into ANY aircaft, it astonishes me how little you really can see! The ol' Beaver seaplane - I cannot see a durn thing over the cowl when taking off (and not much after landing), thank goodness they have opening windows. The Twin Otter I flew in recently was similar, the only time I could see the ground ahead (down) was when on a steep final. Only the Dash-8 gave a good view with enough 'down' to see the scenery on final. ALso, when taxiing, the view is quite good - certainly better than a 737 or a 747. The ol' Blanik's fine though ;)Visors - yes, many planes have them. The 737-800 I flew in recently had these cool, electric powered ones (pretty blue too!) that went up and down at the flick of a switch (and, automatically, when you drop the gear). It also had 'blackout' blinds for flying in storms. The F-111 has electric powered lead-lined blackouts that can drop in a second to shield one from a distant nuclear detonation - not much use in FU3. The Otter has these green tinted, lexan sunshades (sorta like a car), so does the Beaver (well, for the pilot anyway...). The Blanik has nothing - I just wear good sunglasses!Scratches? Tried 'em! They just look like jagged lines (cracks) due to the limited resolution. Also, as they have to black at night (or they light-up bright white :-eek ), with a low sun, they can turn black prematurely which looks REAL bad. So, I left them off - and the air vents - same problem :-(As to music - it depends on the plane. For soaring, try Heavy Weather - I know it's not classical but one shouldn't be too relaxed when flying for fun ;) For the GeeBee (or Dago Red), Steve Morse is great - every time he kicks into another solo ya just gotta do another roll or 10! Stravinsky is good for a nice afternoon approach into SEA although, if there are storms about or bad rain I have to turn it off! I find the same thing driving so it's probably just me ;):-waveJon Point*************************(effyouthree@hotmail.com)*************************