pfflyers

Yes it is, with the pax floor about 20" below the equator.

At the risk of sounding like I'm white-knighting for Eastwood, I'd like to point out that his intent was to make an entertaining and compelling movie, not to make a documentary. Since everyone buying a ticket for the movie knew Sully and his passengers survived, something else had to be used to ramp up the drama. I agree that it's unfortunate the NTSB ended up as the badguy.

I've always been in the doubters camp. About forty years ago I took a few lessons in a C150, including about an hour of solo touch and go time. To me the sim seems much easier on rookies. After seeing this question in a prior thread I got a chance to ask it of an old friend who is former AF, a current ATP, and a user of FSX. To my surprise he answered yes. He did stress that one would need help from the ground and good weather, but he thought an experinced simmer might pull it off. I'm still skeptical, but you can't completely dismiss the opinion of someone with thirty years of flying experience. So I asked him what were the chances I'd get the opportunity. That's when he LOL'd and said there is no way a member of the cabin crew would ask the passengers if anyone thought they could land the plane. He figured if both the pilots had the fish and there were no deadheading pilots aboard that they already knew about one of the cabin crew would be nominated. He thought liability alone would be enough to prohibit a nonemployee getting into the pilot's seat.

Officially, I'm sure most US carriers encourage crews to do a little 'hands on' once in a while to remain proficient. However, most airlines would want the crew to use autopilot whenever practical because it usually saves fuel. I have a friend that flies for a US airline and he certainly is not prohibited trom taking control when he wants to.

In the sim I like to fly older GA planes and helicopters primarily, so I prefer a gently used cockpit in keeping with the age of those aircraft. As long as we're talking about how developers model their cockpits, I'd like to say to those developers that feel every old plane needs a giant GPS in the middle of the panel that I wish more would offer the option of a 'vintage' vc panel to those of us that prefer old school cockpits.

I have a friend that's a pilot for a US airline. We don't get to talk as often as I'd like, he flies internationally a lot. Whenever we talk I always have a list of questions raised in these type of forums. Hmm... maybe that's why he doesn't call more often. Anyway, just the other night I asked him about this. They have to practice autoland, but seldom use it for real. He told me he normally kicks off the autopilot around the time they turn onto the base leg. One thing I hadn't thought about - he told me that hand flying the whole approach increases the PNF's workload. So, if you want to keep your copilot happy you don't make him work harder than necessary.

I read in another thread a comment from someone claiming to be a RW pilot that many airline's pilot operations manuals actually discourage hand flying and require their pilots to use automation whenever possible. I think this was brought up in the Asiana T7 accident discussion.

It should be noted that (AFAIK) the shockwave light controller gauge only controls shockwave light effects. You can "stack" effects if you want to. When the shockwave controller shuts off the shockwave landing lights you will still have the 'stock' effect in place controlled by your panel switch.

Just wanted to add a post-script. This discussion got me curious as to whether or not I was giving accurate info. Specifically I wanted to see if shockwave provided "switched" and "unswitched" landing light effects - and I think I found that they DO NOT. So, if one installed shockwave landing lights on the wing or fuselage I think they would shut off with the gear retraction assuming one installed the light control gauge (and it worked). I wanted to test this hypothisis, but my shockwave auto switch off thingie seems to have broken. I bought the pack some years and computers ago. I think somewhere along the line a reinstall may not have gone right or it could just be operator error. These questions would probably be easily answered if I could find the documentation that came with the pack, but I can't. In any case, it should be noted that the shockwave effects pack contains way more than just landing lights. I never did get around to really exploring all that's there. Just looking at what's in my effects folder it seems like one could stay occupied for a long time just goofing around with them.

Historic Jetliners Group (HJG) has some freeware Convair 880/990 models available. Their external models and liveries are nice, but they don't do vc's for the most part. Sadly that's a deal-breaker for me these days. I know that many of folks that fly heavies alot prefer a 2d panel, if you're one of them then these are just what you're looking for.

Just to once again attempt to clarify - only the gear-mounted landing lights turn off 'automatically' - the body/wing monted lights respond to your switch inputs. You can have your landing lights on all the time with shockwave lights if you want. Many aircraft models have lights modelled into them rather than added on as effects. This is why the "lights" section of many config files is so sparce. In the case of landing lights, shockwave lights can be added over the top of modelled in lights. The neat thing about shockwave landing lights is they are "volumetric" rather than just being a bright spot on your airplane. When you see it you'll understand why people like them. For models with wing flex you cannot use shockwave navs or strobes because they won't move with the wingtips. It sounds to me like you've become a little obssessed with the fact that shockwave includes a gauge to shut off the gear mounted lights. You don't have to install the gauge if you don't want to. In that case the lights will respond to the landing light switch. I don't work for the shockwave folks and am not an expert in all aspects of them. If you want more people to respond you should start a new thread with a title like "Why Should I Install Shockwave Lights?" or "How Does One Install Shockwave Lights?"

The reason the gear mounted landing lights automatically switch off (assuming one installed the effect and gauge) is because the light effect does not move with the gear as it retracts. If it did not switch off you would have lights flying formation with your plane after the gear retracts. Wing or fuselage mounted landing lights can stay on as long as you like. As for installing the lights - yes, you must edit your config files yourself. AFAIK there is no auto-install mode. The premade file enties you found will help you set up those planes; for others you are on your own. In most cases you can use the existing locations and simply substitute the shockwave effects. In some cases the lights will look better if slightly adjusted. One reason for the saved files being offered is because some of the effects come in a variety of sizes so some trial and error is needed to find the best match for a given airplane. There is no need to update every plane in your hanger all at once. If this all sounds too daunting you may be better off to leave things as they are.

The Shockwave lights are nice, even in daytime. For me the major selling point is the landing light effects. They are very cool 3d looking effects. I've added them to most of my aircraft. I seldom fly at night myself, but the effects look great even in daylight.

You might try adjusting the [pitot_static] entries in your config file. [pitot_static] vertical_speed_time_constant= x.x //Increasing this value will cause a more instantaneous reaction in the VSI pitot_heat=1.000000 Sometimes decreasing the value will reduce 'hunting' in altitude hold. PF

Thanks for the tip. I'm a bit of a technophobe, so everything that happens inside this box under my desk is magic to me.