Deaf Pilot

Hey everyone! So I have an aircraft whose strobe lights as well as beacon lights I absolutely LOVE - i.e. I want the same strobes on all of my other aircraft. Is there a way to "copy" these lights (lights themselves as well as strobe/flash pattern/frequency) to other aircraft? Well I know there is a way, actually, but what I am asking is HOW this is done? While we are at it, if this is done correctly, I'd like to be able to modify the beacon flash rate - where is this done? I say this because the beacon flash frequency on this aircraft is very similar to a strobe: four fast flashes with pauses in between. I'd like to see a single or double flash with a pause if possible. Also, the same aircraft happens to have ground light reflection effects (the strobe lights flashing at night show up on the ground - the beacon on the bottom of the aircraft does the same thing). Is this tied into the aircraft model itself or is this something I can transfer to other aircraft as well? And on top of all that, is there a quick way to copy this aircraft's landing lights over to others? I guess it's kind of obvious that I love this bird's lighting system ^_^ Many thanks for any help!

Seems the sim is working fine overall, but when I quit, and then later restart the sim, I get "X-Plane crashed on it's last flight" message. Every single time. Anyone know what could be causing this? Also I am noticing that my switches are no longer working - can't click anything in the cockpits of various aircraft.

Jan - Thank you for responding. Looking forward to what you have to say later. I am very aware of the FSX vs XP debate and am not interested in it, frankly. Rather, what I am trying to do is just understand the differences for my own knowledge - not "is this better than that?"

Hey everyone! While I still use Prepar3D for a number of flights, I was exposed to X-Plane 10 (XPX) by a friend of mine who insisted on me giving it a try on his system, after never liking XP at all due to odd flight dynamics and horrible graphics. It really got me hooked and now I am spending more and more time with it! I have been with the MSFS series since FS98, so I have become very familiar with how that one works, and how the innards of it are set up. So, I made a small list of questions and issues that have popped up as I fly around in XPX, and I am hoping you guys can enlighten me. Cockpits are the hardest-hitting areas in terms of frame rates - I can get 25-30 FPS in no-cockpit HUD view, about 20 in the exterior views, but oftentimes only 10-15 in the cockpit. Is there a tweak or anything I can do to help boost in-cockpit performance? The default trim setting is almost always FAR too nose-down, resulting in me having to trim up a significant amount after takeoff - this is where the programming differences in FSX/XPX are confusing me - are we able to modify parameters in XPX like we can in FSX with it's CFG files? Can the trim be changed to reflect a true neutral setting on loading an aircraft? Water Ops - I was giving water ops a try and noticed a couple of things: Steering is nonexistant - is there a water rudder of some sort that I am missing? Water surface in terms of the water moving the aircraft is VERY rough - almost like wild seas. Instead of gently rocking/swaying, the aircraft is almost being thrown around on waves. Can this be modified? Likewise, the bouncing across the surface of the water on takeoff is WAY too aggressive. Flying into clouds - I get a instant full-gray screen when in clouds. As in a solid overlay in front of the windscreen (or aircraft, if in exterior view). There is no smooth transition from entering clouds and going to a white-out condition. The clouds are a really beautiful thing, begging me to come play with them - but that "instant on" white out is very distracting. Regarding differences in FSX and XPX - Can someone explain to me how the aircraft and the scenery file structures differ? How does the scenery work? How are the aircraft files different from FSX? Null Zones - Is there a configuration file somewhere that I can numerically and individually adjust null zones and sensitivities? Is there a "main" CFG file of sorts like what FSX has, where I could adjust a number of things about the program where menu options are not available? Lastly, has anyone broken down what levels of details set in the menu provide what in the game? (For example, number of objects setting - does it just mean how much of everything, or for each notch you get more of everything plus you get more street lights, or you get more of this or that etc etc). Compatibility among versions - How are aircraft compatible or not compatible with other versions? If an aircraft is made for version 7 does that mean it won't work in 10, or what? Night textures are too dark. The lights themselves (actual light points, like runway lights, street lights, traffic lights, etc) are great, especially after replacing them with a slightly larger/brighter version, but the ground textures representing the city are far too dim. I have adjusted the Gamma to where it looks right overall, but the city lights textures are still way too dark. Anyone know of a replacement texture to brighten these up or another way to get them to really pop? From a distance I think it's okay but anywhere close to them they just don't imitate real life at all. Speaking of city textures - is there a way to upgrade the landclass data to be more accurate? Well I think that about covers it for now. I'm sure I will have more questions but these are the ones I was primarily concerned about at this time. Thanks in advance if anyone can answer any of these!

I am not able to do so at the moment but how would you link the two? I was able to get FSX working on ForeFlight and I agree, it is simply unbeatable! There is nothing like being able to fly with my iPad running ForeFlight and FSX - however I have recently started using X-Plane - how do you link them

So I have a couple of videos with some amazing sound - and I was wondering if, for someone with NO designing experience, could somehow convert the sounds from the videos into sounds usable in an FSX aircraft?

Yep thats the system I am using. 2.4 sounds like not much but it actually doesnt do too bad at all for a sub-$1,000 laptop (bought it for $900). I have my LOD set at 4.5 or 5.5 - not sure off the top of my head, but it's not 6.5. Blurries are improved - it's not a nasty mess every time I move more than a mile, (used to be so bad that by the time I arrived to my destination I'd have to pause for a good 10-15 minutes to get everything caught up) but it does instantly get blurry after departure and stay that way until I stop moving - just not to the extreme that it did previously. I will have to post my settings but either way, that Game Booster thing combined with a new CFG with HIGHMEMFIX did really help. It feels like the memory is just filling up and then staying full, not allowing any room for new textures to be loaded.

Okay I tried both the Game booster and the fresh CFG with HIGHMEM fix applied... frame rates are definitely improved, and it *seems* like the blurries are somewhat improved but they are definitely still there - climbing out of KSEA and the mountains to the east below me are a blurry mess... I do have 8GB RAM and a decent setup (decent meaning I can run consistent 15-20FPS with med-low settings and a few addons going) Just wondering what do I need to do to get this thing to prioritize texture loading....

So - I bought Prepar3D Academic, hoping that this would solve the blurry terrain texture issues (among other things, like a smoother experience, etc). So far, I absolutely love everything about this thing except the challenges with FSX-made products compatibility, although that can be circumvented with a good FSX/P3D "converter" tool. However, I am still suffering blurry terrain textures - using anything from a Cub to a 737, the terrain always gets blurry, especially when flying cross country. I cannot seem to get them to keep up. Which tweak is it that I need to get it to allocate more resources to getting the terrain loading to keep up with me? Or is it something entirely else? As a side note, I did run the CFG through bojote's tweak tool. Vastly improved performance with it but I wonder if its making my terrain loading suffer?

Has anyone done recent updates for default FSX aircraft FDE's? I don't fly them often but when I do, it would be nice to have them fly better than the default ones do, at least some of them (Mooney & Lear come to mind as the worst).

Got myself a HP Pavilion DV7-3079WM about two years ago. Been a beast from day one and a very-surprisingly strong performer for games - I actually do pretty well with FSX if I am careful with what addons I fly with. Some heavy-hitting planes along with any addon airport scenery is typically too much for my medium-high settings, but using a reasonable aircraft out of a default airport with environmental/ground scenery upgrades, I easily get 20-25 average frame rates. In short, I have been very happy with this laptop, as I did not expect it to be as good as it has been. AMD Dual core M600 at 2.4GHz (Have not even touched or really even thought about overclocking - not something I want to try without the ability to add cooling options) 4 GB RAM ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 Dual 320GB Drives 17" 1600x900 Screen ...... along with a bunch of other good stuff. It still, to this day, runs just as strong as day one, especially with a fresh install of Win7 about a month ago. Not a totally necessary procedure but performance was starting to slow a little bit after having the original factory Win7 installation for almost two years. However, my 18-month-old son was sitting on my lap one day and threw a toy at the screen - caused three large groups of dead pixels, each about the size of a ladybug or slightly larger. So yeah, imagine three big bugs on your screen at all times - :lol: Been putting up with it for some time now but I decided to not just replace the screen, but to give this good machine a big overhaul - here's what I go coming up! Brand new 17" screen - should be interesting to install as these DV7's don't have the easiest installation procedures Replacing Hard Drive #1 with a 256GB Crucial M4 SSD - boot-up times are projected to go from 30+ seconds to around 10 seconds. Replacing Hard Drive #2 with a 750GB Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid Drive (Standard drive that spins at 7200RPM but is supplemented by a small SSD for performance levels that are somewhere between a true SSD and a HDD). This is the drive that will carry my FSX installation as well as storage - FSX takes about 300GB as it is right now. Replacing the two 2GB memory sticks with two 4GB sticks for 8GB total, doubling the memory. Hard Drive #1 will be replacing my aging PlayStation 3's 60GB drive, which is consistently complaining of no drive space. Hard Drive #2 will be installed into an external enclosure as a supplemental storage space. All that for $475 after two-day shipping. (well that includes a couple of other things... 9MM snap caps for my new S&W M&P 9MM, Cree 7W 300LM Mini LED Flashlight, the external hard drive enclosure, etc) I am so excited about seeing this thing get new life breathed into it! If only it were possible to upgrade the CPU/GPU :( Not excited about: Re-installing my highly customized FSX installation :huh:

Thanks guys! What kind of performance can I expect to see with this setup?

Okay so highmem is not a fix for this... And not only that but I just verified that add on airport textures will do the disappearing act with a higher viewing angle. This isn't an issue with all FSX installations... You guys can't tell me that ALL airports, default or third party, have consistently disappearing textures and objects.

Will try that.

You mean to tell me that every installation of FSX out there will have disappearing buildings at all default airports? So basically I'm stuck with Sparse scenery settings (this keeps the airport signs but takes out all the buildings).

Hey gents, Anyone know how to solve the issue of airport buildings disappearing with certain vertical view angles? From the cockpit, panning the viewpoint up and down, if the buildings are below the midpoint on the screen (panning view up), everything disappears except runways/taxiways. Then above the midpoint on the screen (panning view down) they reappear. Same thing in external views. Any ideas?

onetoavi8: Noise canceling in this instance is not what I am looking for. Like I explained in my post, the streamer has the ability to shut off all external sound and input ONLY headset sound - i.e. the ultimate "noise canceling". This works because without my hearing aids, I am completely deaf - so therefore all it has to do is turn off the external sound microphones and it renders me completely deaf except for radio communications. w6kd: Thanks for the input... I will see if I can find a .21 to 3.5mm adapter. I did order a .25" to 3.5mm to give it a try but if it doesn't fit very well, then now I will know why. As for FAA certification - I will be completely honest with you: I don't really freak out about electronics being used in aircraft in my control. I am a VFR/GPS pilot (I am very familiar with the use of radio naviation and I still use VORs as waypoints, even when flying GPS), so even if an instrument or two were to go haywire, it wouldn't make a difference to me. If I lost EVERYTHING in the cockpit, it would basically make me say "huh... okay well I guess I better get on back home." I am not one to let the government control everything I do when it is not necessary. (i.e. a single electronic device on board a R172K on a perfectly clear VFR day...) Movieman162: There are actually over 200 deaf pilots in the country. It is not as uncommon as one might think, and it is not as difficult as most think, either.

Hey folks, hope all is well for you! Got a question for y'all. I am deaf with a little bit of hearing when using hearing aids, and am an active licensed private pilot. I fly either out of uncontrolled airports with no radio comm (nordo), OR out of controlled airports with prior telephone arrangement and radio transmissions on my part only, with no receiving. I get return communication via light gun signals. Works fine for me... however I am always trying to think of ways to enable me to use full, two-way communication with such a severe hearing loss. I recently got my hands on some new digital hearing aids, along with a bluetooth streamer that streams audio directly to my hearing aids via bluetooth. I can either pick up bluetooth signals (such as from my iPhone/iPad, or from any other bluetooth audio sources), which then get transmitted to the hearing aids, OR I can plug in a wired audio input, and the streamer then transmits clean audio directly to the aids. Here's my concept: What if I adapted the aircraft's headset audio output, which is a 1/4" jack, into a standard 3.5mm jack (the size that is most commonly found on audio outputs for headphones and the like)? I could then plug my streamer into that 3.5mm jack to recieve radio transmissions directly to my hearing aids and not through headset speakers. I would still wear the headset with the mike plugged in so I could make my transmissions without needing to resort to the handheld mike. There are 1/4" to 3.5mm adapters - they are plentiful actually. What I am wondering is, before I go all-out on trying this out, can anyone tell me what they think of it and any issues they might think would come up? I think that it, at least in theory, should work pretty well. Especially since, with the streamer, I have the ability to shut off all outside noise and have the only sound coming into my ears be the radio communications (or whatever audio the streamer is working with). What do you guys think/

I have not really looked at hardware in a long time, nor have I been playing with FSX much lately. I would like to get back into it, and I am considering a new computer to go along with it. Here's my challenge for those of you who are familiar with hardware, FSX, and the relationship between the two. I am asking for people who actually understand what really works best for FSX in terms of hardware. I want you to help me select the best components for a set budget. The budget: $500 The place: Newegg.com Here's is what I need in that budget: Motherboard RAM CPU GPU You have $500 to give me the best combination of those four items to give the best performance in FSX. All other items I will be able to select for myself, but the four critical components, I am not really up to date on and that's why I need your help! Any other tips, tricks, and suggestions, let me know!

That is why I could not get gold... I got everything perfect but the best Soft Landing score I could get was, I believe, 370 or so.

I am aware that some people were having a hard time getting gold on the Lost Lake STOL challenge in Alaska... I was one of them! I tried something a bit different and was able to get gold on my second try! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRDFQojEPxo

I noticed a some of you critiquing me on my landing technique... not to be rude but honestly, I'd love to see someone do a "proper" or "correct" touchdown and get a Gold score... this was purely for the objective of getting the Gold award, which was the last award I needed to have all the Golds. I tried every possible way, and this was the ONLY way to get a good, consistent touchdown and a consistent high score. Then it was just a matter of doing it again and again until I happened to get a high enough score. So like I said, I truly would love to see someone do a properly done landing on this glitched challenge and obtain the Gold.

Nah no worries - that definitely a very video-gamey landing haha. Certainly not how I land in real life. Although in real life they often feel worse than that :Hypnotized: