flyforever

I, too, have been having some difficulty mastering the autopilot. I am able to fly it so long as I am ready to tweak the trim wheel to prevent the occasional drops or climbs. It's definitely a plane that requires flying rather than plugging the numbers.

Ok, I get it. thanks for the in depth explanation. tc

I just installed it without the registration to check it out. I noticed that it does not pick up all aircrafts and it has no method to manually do so. For example, it does not see the Aerosoft DC8. Also, in some aircrafts, such as the QW BAE 146, the fmc does not appear at all. Has this add on been updated for v4.4? thk again. tc

I am considering purchasing this add on for P3Dv4, since it's on sale for only $7.00, and wonder if anyone has had difficulty purchasing from this site. tks tc

While I was a great supporter of FSW, I think their less than smooth implementation of True Sky contributed to diminishing enthusiasm for the sim. True Sky was never right from day one, and months passed without a fix. tc

When you calibrate your joystick in windows, windows assumes the following approach to calibration: first x, second y, and so on. It's easier, therefore, to think in terms of which lever(axis) should be the first and which should be the last, so that when you're calibrating it, it's a natural process. In your case, x would be ailerons, y, pitch, etc. As with all homegrown projects, planning and good documentation is everything. Get yourself a a 10k pot and see how it works with the controller. The most important thing to remember is that the two extreme pins on the pot represent positive and negative, and the center is the input. Similarly, the controller should indicate which pin is what. Also, in some controllers, if the remaining axis are not shorted, the axis that you're trying to play with will fluctuate wildly. So, you need to get yourself some shorting jumpers like the ones found on old harddrives. You can buy a handful on ebay. From this point on, you will will need a continuity tester or a ohmeter to identify and label all the wires. Before you spend anymoney, keep one thing in mind: you will most likely succeed connecting the pots to the new controller. You will most likely fail connecting the buttons to the new controller. If you can live with the risk of partial failure, you can start spending money. I say this because after time and money, you may conclude that the price of a new Saitek was not that far off, especially when you consider that if one of the pots wears on the Saitek, you're done. tony

I do not have direct experience with a bohener controller, but have considerable experience with other controllers, mostly custom built. The first thing to do is to plug the controller in the pc and see what's showing in the game controller's windows( the windows that shows the red strips for axis and the buttons. The controller should to be configured for a certain number of axis and buttons, and each axis will have a name, ie, x, y, z rot, etc.. Check the controller's software for this. Once the controller shows up in the game controller window with all of its axis and buttons, then one begins to wire the pots on the various joysticks. Before connecting the controller to the joystick, shorting the input pin( each axis on the controller has 3 pins) with either ground or positive should show the axis move on the game controller window. The buttons, too, will light up when you short the two pins. It's important to write down the name and position of each axis . As to the saitek detente buttons, if I recall, these are two buttons, and they should have some wires somewhere in the unit. As I've already stated, identifying the wires in one of these units is very difficull if not impossible. I did retrofit a ch flight pro easily, since this unit has only a few buttons. tony

It should be possible. The board doesn't care whether there's one or more axis coming from different units. For practical reasons, it might be useful to build a small box with the controller and its inputs in the form of terminal strips, named as axis one, etc. , and same with buttons. Then you'd run wires from both Saitek units, all labeled. From here, it's just a matter of connecting the respective axis and buttons to the control box. The control box is the one that's attached to the pc, while the saitek units are attached to the controller. In Windows, you'd see one "joystick" with all the axis and buttons. Forgot to mention that labeling the wires on the saitek pro yoke is very difficult, especially when it comes to the two hat switches. Running axis wires to a new board is easy. Running button wires to the new board is very, very difficult, but doeable. tony

Got it, and the performance risk is , indeed an issue. On the other hand, some map files can be as much as 50 pages. For my flight planning, however, I browse through the pages and select only the charts that are appropriate for the flight, ie, one or two sids, stars, and approach plates. In this context, being able to select more than one chart eliminates the need to remember which charts have already been copied and pasted. Thanks again. tc

Ok, I see. You add one, and save; then you add the second one and save, etc. Very nice. tc

Thank you. You mentioned that multiple images can be loaded, yet SSPad will only allow one image to be loaded. One cannot use the "select all" option before loading images. tc

We're close to having a pdf kneeboard. Ideally, it would be nice to add multiple pdf files so that, for a typical flight plan, the kneeboard would contain the necessary plates. Currently, it allows only one image. tc

I like the old, analog style ones. tks tc

how's their 737? tc

As with real estate, someone's loss is another's opportunity. There's always a lesson learned for the buyer, which means that not only does the new buyer gets to purchase the software cheaply, but he also starts with "some lessons learned" from the failures of the seller. Flight sims are not for gaming companies. They are for specialists like PMDG, who understand the simmers' mind, needs and wants as well as the guts of a sim. Imagine how much they learned trying to fit their airplanes into fsx. FSW appeared to lack technical savvy on the team, so such things as washed out textures were allowed to endure through out the life of the sim. True sky, while revolutionary in theory, ruined the sim due to technical difficulties. The frame rate was was problematic. Steve Hill was a good visionary, but a visionary/programmer of flight sims might have made a bigger impact. Lastly, sales people tend to over siimplify and manufacturing people tend to over complicate things. Dovetail appeared to have been misled with regard to the time(and cost) required to take FSX to a "wow" level so as to get the public at large excited as it did when FSX came out. We got P3D and xplane and AF2, so there's no reason to cry.