billhuntsman

Thanks. That was very helpful. Bill

I saw the trim wheel at the Saitek booth in Oshkosh at the EAA airventure in late July but did not buy it then. I just assumed that it was available now. Perhaps not. Bill

Thank you, but I have set up buttons etc. via FSUIPC. What I would like to know is if anyone has set up the trim wheel using FSUIPC and if they needed the Saitek driver to do that.

None of my FSX controllers are Saitek, but I'm tempted to buy their Cessna trim wheel. I assume that I can use it without other Saitek products. Has anyone sucessfully set up this trim wheel using FSUIPC rather than Saitek software? If so, I would appreciate any hints. Second question -- do I need to download the driver from Saitek? Thanks. Bill

I finally got around to installing the MAAM DC-3/R4D in FSX. I ran the CD, moved the aircraft files to simobjects, ran the FSX patch and also needed the widows transparency patch. Finally, I installed the yoke removal textures (DCMAAM10.ZIP). However, the yokes are not completely removed. They are invisible below the instrument panel, but where they cross the instrument panel they cast flat gray shadows that obscure instruments just like the yoke.Does anybody know how to fix this and make the yokes truly invisible in FSX?A second minor issue is that the FS select aircraft menu shows only 3 types of DC-3 (cargo, passenger and R4D although a couple of versions of each) but the simobjects/airplane folder shows about 15 MAAM entries including paratroop, Warton etc. However, they do not show up as selectable in the aircraft select window when FS is running. Anybody know what's going on here?Bill

I strongly second this recommendation. This is well worth the money and it's for a good cause. Normally I fly the MAAM DC-3 but after switching to FSX I have been flying this DC-2 until the FSX version of the DC-3 is ready.

Hi Bob,Thanks for your comments. I haven't yet used the USBDeview due to nervousness about screwing something up. I'm a little puzzled by your reference to "rescan". All I see in the website talks about being able to choose "remove". If I remove a USB device, unplug and then plug it back in will it recognize the device again? Is this what you mean by rescan?Bill

Thanks for your suggestions. The thing is, I don't think I have any CH drivers installed. When I plugged the pedals into the new computer they were recognized by some Windows driver, so I didn't go any further. Do you think it would be useful to go to the CH website and try to download drivers?Bill

I got a new computer a few months ago with Vista64. Most my FS peripherals work fine except for a small issue with the CH rudder pedals. Frequently when I start FSX the rudder pedals are not recognized. However, if I unplug the USB and plug it back in they work just fine. I have recently upgraded to Win7 and the problem is still there. Does anybody have any ideas how I can fix this problem of having to uplug/plug-in the rudder USB every FS session? Thanks.Bill

Thanks, Bob.

I appreciate the help, but I talked to someone from PFC, who makes the throttles, about the serial port issue several months ago and he said that they do no recommend the adapters that go from serial to USB and recommended a PCI serial port card. I don't know the details about why the adapters were not satisfactory.Bill

I have a PFC throttle quadrant that uses a serial port. When my previous computer died I bought an ASUS 920 i7 computer from Best Buy that has Vista 64. Naturally, it does not come with a serial port. I am about to do a free upgrade to Windows 7 64 and I would like to have them also install a serial port so that I can use my throttle quadrant. It's much better than the plastic stuff.Does anyone know of a PCI serial port card that will work with Windows 7 64 bit? I've tried looking, but I don't know enough about what I'm doing to make much sense of what I've found. I did get the sense that it's hard to find serial ports that work with Vista 64, let alone Win 7. That's why I thought I'd ask here. Thanks a lot.Bill

Thanks, Jim.Bill

Hi,A few months ago purchased an ASUS computer from Best Buy that has Vista 64 installed. The computer came with a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it became available. I have FSX on its own drive (D) and the operating system and most add ons on drive C. I have a lot of add ons including FSGenesis, REX, UTX and GEX (USA & Europe) and My Traffic 5.2b so it would be a pain to reinstall all these. My question is -- When I do upgrade to Windows 7 will I need to reinstall FSX and all the add ons? Thanks.Bill

Thank you very much for the suggestion. I would love to be able to use this quadrant. I don't think PFC is in business anymore and I'm worried that even if Vista recognizes the serial port, it will not recognize the throttle quadrant because there won't be a driver for it built into Vista. (I'm not very tech savvy. Maybe a serial device doesn't need a special driver, I don't know about such things. I honestly don't remember having to install a driver for the device with XP, but even so does that mean I wouldn't need one with Vista?) The Geek Squad tech who talked to me on the phone about serial port issues said that although the port might work, the device might not due to driver issues. Things will be very unhappy on the home front if I pay for a board and installation and the quadrant does not work after that. How sure are you that the serial I/O board would work with the throttles?

Thanks, but I think I would still have driver issues with Vista.I was able to get the Vmax yoke and my old rudder pedals working. Both are much better than the plastic stuff, so I'd rather continue using them. Does anyone know of any decent throttle quadrants that can be used without connecting to a yoke and which can be combined, if necessary, to give 6 levers for 2-engine operation such as the DC-3? I haven't been able to find any.

Hi,I am about to pick up a new computer for FSX (ASUS 920, i7, Vista 64) and I have some questions about throttles and yokes. First, my old PFC throttle quadrant uses a serial port, which means it won't work with the new computer. It seems like lots of people are using the Saitek throttles. I'm concerned that something I read talked about the throttles using a serial port to connect to the Saitek yoke for power. The new computer has no serial port.First issues: Can I connect the throttles to the computer directly without using the Saitek yoke? Can I connect the Saitek throttles using only USB without any need for a serial port? Can I connect 2 quadrants to the computer for 6 levers as my old setup had?Second issue: I have an old but nice Vmax yoke that connects via USB. Will I be able to use this with Vista 64? (I don't think I needed any drivers with XP, but honestly it was so long ago that I have forgotten.)Thanks for any advice.Bill

I just checked out our local Best Buy. They do have the CG 5290 for $1199. Most of the specs are just as you described. However, they know nothing about factory overclocking. They said that lots of people buy them to overclock, but it voids the warranty and that theirs comes in at 2.6 GHz. They also said that the power supply is only 500 W. This is obviously a better computer and better price than I was originally thinking of, but I was curious about where you got the information about 3.2 GHz and 1000W supply.

Many thanks to both you and Jim. Although I can see the advantages of building the computer, time and practically zero knowledge make me reluctant to go that route. Your points about small shops are well taken. It never occurred to me that I would want to check out Best Buy, but the system you described looks very attractive to me. One thing I would want to do is get a fast (e.g. Raptor) drive for FS to have it on a different drive from the OS. I know that I can ask at Best Buy, but in case you know the answer -- would the Best Buy computer have room for installing the Raptor drive internally, or would it have to be connected through a USB? Would that hurt the performance?Bill

Thanks, again. I will take your suggestions regarding the i7 and other components. I'll investigate what the shops around here will charge and I'm also considering buying the components and hiring someone to put them together. In either case, it's not that big a deal to wait until after windows 7 comes out. I certainly want to take advantage of the processor, so if it is a 64 bit OS that I need, I'll go that route.If you're not tired of giving advice, do you have any advice on how much cooling this is going to need? I'm sure I won't be overclocking anything due to my lack of knowledge, but I've seen lots of entries in the past about fried components. Are the i7 and other suggested components going to require extra cooling fans? Suggestions?

I assume that a 64bit OS means either Vista or the next version of Windows. I'm trying to stay away from Vista. Does it make a difference in FSX performance to make the Vista hassles worth it. I might consider the upcoming Windows, but I'd rather stay away from Vista which is why I had chosen XP.Any recommendations for a sound card. I assume that it doesn't need to be a great card for FS sound. Thanks for your help.Bill

Thanks. This is very helpful to me. Thanks. I'll see what I can come up with.

Hi,I was lucky enough to catch my wife in a good mood and she authorized a new computer for FS. I fly FS9 now but would like to try FSX. I fly mostly DC-3's low and slow so FSX may work for me.I have no expertise when it comes to hardware, so I've come here for help. I discussed the situation with a local computer store. The specs from their quote are listed below.Frontier black mid-tower, Quad Core AMD64bit 2.6GHZ processor, 4GB RAM DDR3,1 TB hard drive, 300GB 10K Raptor HD,DVDRW, 19 in 1 card reader, Nvidia 9800GTPCI-E video card, sound, 10/100/1000ethernet, MS keyboard, optical mouse, andspeakers, 550W power supply Windows XPPro, 3 year parts and 1 year labor warranty.Acer 22" LCD displayNorman AV/ASSandboxieThis will run about $2150 + tax.Some other info: They discussed the i7 but said that it was ridiculously expensive, however if you felt it would make enough of a difference to be worth the expense I would probably change. I have no room for multiple monitors so I went with one 22". They recommended putting the operating system and FS on the faster Raptor drive. The terrabyte drive is for video-editing that my wife might do. They recommended Norman antivirus over either McAfee or Norton as being less bloated. The speakers that come with this system are crummy, but I have a current set of better speakers that I will use. Although I have read some discussions of overclocking, I am not comfortable enough to try it.I would really appreciate some advice from people who know both hardware and FS. Thanks.Bill

The California Classic Forum has a link to a wonderful Youtube video of Kai Tak in the 1950's-1960's. Here is the link for the forum. Look for the Kai Tak subject line.http://www.calclassic.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaB...i?board=General

Mark, I think your reply is a little harsh. In the first place, at the time of the original post (7/12) I had no idea about your surgery. I know better than to assume a post will be answered in a day or two, so I waited 6 days before posting again. During that time, other people's posts were getting responses, but not mine. Hence, my puzzlement.Nevertheless, I am delighted that your surgery went well. I always enjoy your posts on this and the DC3 Airways forums and I hope you have a speedy recovery.