Overload

No METARS on SkyVector either.

In the settings part of MSFS, in the VR section. you can assign a control to take you in and out of VR, can't remember if it had a default, but I set mine to a joystick button, and go in an out of VR using that.

VR Sim guy has had one for 9 months, and produced a long term review of his motion sim here: It looks impressive, I love the way it really throws him around! It costs around £2000 which in hardware terms isn't expensive. He's done over a thousand hours in it, and gives it a glowing review. I'm planning to go down the motion sim/VR combo at some stage, they're an ideal match. Once you ditch the big screen, and the hardware, the sim footprint is actually very small, another advantage to those without a lot of space. I think this is the rig he uses: https://www.amazon.co.uk/DOF-Reality-Motion-Simulator-H2/dp/B07KRGRCQ8 Eugene

I tried 3 coupled ILS approaches in the BS King air today, at around 400 ft it stated going below the glide path, varying from half to full scale fly up for me. The autopilot still got me to the runway okay, and at 50 ft I disconnected the autopilot and landed normally. So it seems that the BS autopilot does have problems following the glide path below 300-500 ft, but as the decision height for a CAT 1 ILS is 200ft or above, disconnecting the autopilot around 500 seems a reasonable workaround, although it should do a better job.

In case anyone is tempted, the Aero now has permanent price reduction to 990€, about half the price I paid last year. You need a Steam VR base station, currently around £170 UK. One is fine, it's all I've got, as you're seated, it doesn't need to triangulate your position. Expect some duty might be payable in the UK too, mine was shipped from Ireland. But still a big saving. VR Sim Guy's a big fan, still says it's the best VR headset around, even over the Pimax Crystal. Varjo's new lower pricing could be a headache for high end headset producers? VR Sim Guy's take on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL7b8EwUAOI&t=160s

A number of UK airfields have non RNAV SIDS, Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester (EGLL EGKK EGCC), and I'm sure others too.

Navigraph own simbrief (https://www.simbrief.com/home/) which is a very comprehensive flight planning tool, that makes very authentic flight plans, that can be downloaded in pdf format and printed off. The 2 of them are very well integrated together, you can import a flightplan generated on simbrief directly into Navigraph, it's a very quick way of importing a complex flightplan. Also a number of MSFS aircraft with allow you to import a plan directly from simbrief, including PMDG 737, Fenix A320, Citation Longitude (or any Garmin 3000/5000 using the WT mod I think?), the new just flight F28, and others I'm sure. The Navigraph/Simbrief combo is a dream match for flight simmers, well worth the money in my opinion.

Looks like the 2 large programmable buttons might be useful to someone in VR, plus the 2 rotary switches top left of the keypad, easy to locate even with a headset on.

Every 5 sim sessions or so, I get the never ending "Synching data" message on loading the sim. I've learnt just to kill the sim, reboot (restating MSFS never worked), and next time it always works okay. Had a very small MSFS update recently, hadn't read anything about it, but today on starting MSFS, I got the never ending synching data message, but also a message saying unable to go online to synch data, with an option to play offline, or try again. After 3 "Try again" presses, it loaded fine. So have they fixed it now? Was the reason for the problem always been because it hadn't been able to go online to synch the data?

I had a no connection message yesterday, 1st time for me, I googled it, and someone had similar, went into their settings and data had been turned off! I checked my settings, data was also turned off, no idea why, but turned it back on, all normal. Could be a totally different reason for you of course, but worth checking. Eugene

Pretty sure it would be a Sud SE-210 Caravelle III, here's a pic of one at Heathrow 1972. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sud_SE-210_Caravelle_III,_Scandinavian_Airlines_-_SAS_AN1809005.jpg

Super cute, but is it legal?

Same for me, in the end just did what you did, bound them to a joystick function. Was surprised there wasn't more about it on the web, must affect others?

If I understood the issue correctly, isn't it simply a matter of changing the frequency of the comms box you're using, to any old freq, then ATC stop talking to you? Eugene

I'm with you, love doing ADF approaches. When I got my UK instrument rating back in the eighties, all the aircraft were equipped with RBI's (Relative Bearing Indicator), where the compass rose was fixed with zero at the top, and relative bearings were needed to account for the drift. E.G., if you were correcting right 10 degrees for drift, you'd expect to see the needle on 350, 10 degrees left of the nose. These days almost all aircraft use RMI's, where the ADF needle is superimposed on a slaved direction indicator. This makes things a lot easier, if you'd trained on an RBI, an RMI was a doddle, but if you'd trained on an RMI and then flew an aircraft with only a RBI, you could be in trouble! RBI ADF approaches in windy conditions could be a challenge, especially if crossing the NDB on the approach, and having the beacon behind you as you approached minima! Eugene

Just an educated guess, but maybe for a battery start, the right engine is closer to the battery, which helps with the start. For a ground power start, the ground power unit plugs in on the right hand side, which would mean staring the left engine first, with ground power, then allow the GPU to be removed, and the left generator to supply power, before starting the right engine? Eugene

Thanks for the link, didn't know about this, looks very useful. Eugene

Just in case it helps- It wasn't obvious to me how to get the 25% discount for previously buying the Black Square Bonanza - You need to got to your JustFlight orders, click on the Bonanza "Download/ Activation Details" tab, and the discount code is shown on that page. Eugene

If you have a Navigraph subscription, they have a toolbar app that can be added, then you can view the flight on a moving map, or individual charts procedures, in or out of VR.

I posted about this problem, the TBM 930 rudder trim not working about a week ago, the thread is here: In the end I assigned the trim movements to a rocker switch on the yoke. Eugene

I do have SPAD, but I just used the built in Control assignments matched to a rocker switch on my Honeycomb Alpha yoke. "Flight Control Surfaces - Control trimming surfaces "- Rudder trim left - Joystick button 11 (far right rocker switch), Rudder trim right joystick button 12. Eugene

With the CJ4 using the Working Title Mod, the Ground speed and True air speed are shown at the bottom of the co-pilots MFD. The font is quite small, so not easy to read, so wondering if it's possible to move them to the pilot side PFD? I've seen videos with the speeds displayed there, but don't think they were using the working title mod. Thanks Eugene

Thanks for the input guys, I created a new profile, and mapped a rocker switch to left rudder trim, and right rudder trim, looks identical to the original profile, but it now works via the rocker switch, so I can trim normally. The centre position on the rudder calibration page, looks normal, so not sure why the TBM is so far out of rudder trim in the climb/cruise, other aircraft aren't. But, anyway, I can trim it properly now, so that's the main thing. We've been getting a lot of fog in the south of the UK, last few days. Synthetic vision is amazing. I took off from Lands End airfield EGHC this morning, thick fog, no way I'd have kept it on the runway without it, and no way I'd have managed to land at Cardiff without it. Definitely not legal, but a lot of fun!

Very much enjoying the updated TBM 930, amazed they've managed to keep the frame rates reasonable, considering the amount of data on the screens that are constantly updating. My only issue at the moment is I can't get the rudder trim to work. I have to apply left rudder to keep it balanced during the climb and cruise. The rudder trim switch is on the left side of the control column, and I see a left and right circle with an arrow if I hover over it, but pressing mouse buttons, or using the scroll wheel don't seem to have any effect. The elevator and aileron trim work fine, but not the rudder. I've tried binding control column buttons to the rudder trim, and tried setting auto rudder on, but makes no difference. Means I'm constantly pressing on the pedals to stay balanced, just a tad tedious. Any thoughts? Eugene

Not sure if this would help, sim independent, just works in a browser, but you have the option to click on visibility, wind, snow, thunderstorms etc, and it will show you the metars to which your search applies. https://www.badbadweather.com/ Eugene