Michael Cependa

Bill, I have all my drums set up like that -- I saw how to do it from your posts on FS Developers a long time ago. But, without getting into a lot of detail as to why, I had a lot of gauges on a fuel panel where I wanted the last digit to only show whole numbers but not have them snap instantly when the next value is reached. So it's a different case.

Going back to the lag issue for 360 + animations, on re-reading Bill's replies it seems we were not understanding each other. I know about using decimal values for rotating drums so they move smoothly. But my aircraft had some special cases in which I wanted to only display integers but still have visible motion when the drums rotated. Also, for radio direction needles, if you don't want them snapping into position when a station is turned, lag would be a lot easier than having to use elaborate coding to slow down the needle movement. I don't know if it's been mentioned, but if so I will add my voice in support of the following features: an easy way to save and load local variables with saved flights; an easy way to play sounds linked to local variables with xml coding, assuming the xml system continues; floodlights that can be varied in intensity with xml; and geometry cast shadows when blocking light from floodlights (in the VC at night for example). This would also help stop landing lights from illuminating the VC, etc.

Thanks for the tip Bill. I never could find anything about this at fsdeveloper. I did ask about it and was given a couple of suggestions (other than the one you just mentioned) that seemed a little complex for the dozens of drums I would have to recode. On a completely different point, one thing I'm sure developers would appreciate is a native weather radar that can be adapted by developers to show custom graphics, colours, etc. Something else that would be nice: the ability to override what a controller says a flight surface deflection should be. I was able to do this with XMLtools, which allows writing to "A" variables, but my code would end up fighting with what the controller was saying and the part; in question would show some flickering which had to be concealed using elaborate workarounds with the visual model. One more thing comes to mind: more flexibility with respect to spoilerons. Default behaviour in FSX is to link their availability to flap deflection, but on the aircraft I was modelling this was linked to the landing gear being down. Getting it to work required another complex workaround.

Not sure how much is carried over from the old system in terms of coding animations, but one thing always irritated me. One couldn't use "lag" on animations that complete full circles. For example on a drum type gauge, there was no way to slow the movement of the cylinders. If you were changing values by whole numbers, the movement would appear as instantaneous.

+1 for this request. The community created an FSX model exporter for Blender and it would be nice to have this from the beginning with the new sim. I made the Aerosoft DC-8 largely with Blender -- it's a great tool and free. 3Dsmax is just too expensive and does not offer any obvious advantage over Blender for model creation and texturing.

You're very welcome. I hope you enjoy it.

The yoke is removeable. You click on the yellow air pressure brake handle to make it disappear or reappear.

The 64 bit version is not in fact compatible with P3D v.3 as you have found out. In addition to the visual artifacts, the systems won't work correctly and the save/load panel state won't work. You may have the same problem with artifacts in 4.0 or 4.1. Is that what you are using? You need 4.2. If it does this in 4.2 I would like to know about it (no reports of that so far). The 32 bit version (not released yet) has some changes in the VC to prevent this. If you have problems with the aircraft, it's best to post on the Aerosoft forum. While I do check here from time to time, I would prefer to only provide support on the one forum only.

I'm not sure if the updater is supposed to work with this aircraft or not. Best to post the Aerosoft forum where Mathijs will be able to tell you.

The aircraft is complex and it will take a while for anyone to learn the systems. But it will seem easy enough once you get used to how everything works. For pressurisation, you need to have the low pressure manifold (bleed air) switches to LOW before you take off and at least two cabin compressors on also before takeoff (the second two can go on when convenient after rotation). The only other thing to do, again before takeoff, is to dial in your cruise altitude using the little ALT knob on the left of the two cabin pressure gauges. The pressurisation system will then function automatically until it's time to descend. All you have to do then is dial in the field altitude. With the fuel management I'm not completely sure what went wrong, but it sounds like you were using the tank selector levers. For normal operations, these (aside from the centre ones) should not be touched at any time. They are big and in your face and hard not to start messing with, but they are aren't for normal flight. It's also very easy to shut down and engine by mistake if you start clicking on them. Each engine should always be fed by its main tank. The fuel transfers that you need to make from the alt to main tanks are done with the aux boost pumps switches and the main tank fill switches - the latter being at the very bottom of the fuel panel. If the flight is too long to carry all the fuel in the main tanks, you will need to transfer from the aux to main tanks and if you don't, at some point your engines will start shutting down for lack of fuel.

FYI, v. 1.02 has been released at the Aerosoft site. List of fixes: XMLTools.64 installer - included Fuselage shading error - fixed Right side (no.2) INS not drifting - fixed Engines not starting for some users - fixed Marker receiver switch on audio panel missing click spot - fixed INS Accuracy Index degrades too fast - fixed INS Hold button not working - fixed Missing smoke effect - fixed

In addition to the master battery issue, which only affects those with cold and dark default flights, I think some users have been confused by there being two sets of fuel levers/switches. The fuel levers on the FE fuel panel should always be set to MAIN. They are never turned off during normal operations. The little fuel levers on the pedestal are used during engine startup and shutdown.

That's correct. The problem has been narrowed down to users who have a cold and dark default flight. It will be fixed in the first update. In the meantime there are several workarounds. Load some other aircraft with the engines running before switching to the DC8. Or load the DC8 tutorial flight, go cold and dark and move the airport you want to start at. Or assign a key/button to the default master battery and toggle it before starting engines.

The workload is manageable. If you start from cold and dark, there's a lot to do before you line up on the runway. But it eases off quite a bit after takeoff. There are a few things to do during cruise: fuel management, DME updates of the INS and setting thrust from time to time as your weight goes down, but you have a lot of time available during that phase of flight. Many of the items on the checklists are just checking things rather than flipping switches, so if you get too busy, a lot of it can be skipped.

I hope you like it Bob. Be sure to look at the Aerosoft support forum, sticky post at the top, before you load it up.