kcmo

Oh man, lucky! I have to see that place someday. I'm achin' to see an Airacobra.

I'm glad you brought that question up. I've never Googled for "Pilot Operating Handbook" before. There's quite a bit of interesting free stuff out there to check out! Edit: Oracle you beat me!

Okay, NOW i see what you guys have been enjoying. I've been trying to make sense out of the the PT-17 but I'm thinking the flight model is dumbed down. However, I just tried the Maule and RV-6A for my first real test ride. They are great! Much more attention given to adverse yaw in turns and "P" factor on climbout. My respect for this game just went up a couple of notches!

There wasn't anything wrong with the way I had my joysticks configured but I did try it again and, yeah, I guess I do see the ball creep to the inside of the turn a bit when my feet are off the pedals. To me it seems so slight as to be negligable but I have to admit it takes a bit of rudder pressure to center it that little bit. The important thing is knowing I don't have an incorrect setup. I leave it to you active pilots to judge whether the modeling is good. Thank you all for the help!

Sometimes you need to accelerate slowly. Then, after you've built up speed and the rudder has more authority, you can firewall the throttle.

Well, two things I'm expecting to see: - The PT-17 should be a bear to turn unless you've got rudder cranked in. - At high angle of attack at full throttle, I should expect on most planes to need some right rudder to keep the ball centered. Not a big thing - it just makes it more fun for me if I can take out the auto stability. I'll try Heimi's suggestion. Edit: Okay, just saw LHookins post. I must have something miss-configured on my end!

Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar with rudder pedals. My rudder pedals DO have an effect in the game. They are especially needed to keep centered on take-off for example.

To my understanding, I have all the flight aids turned off yet all my turns are always coordinated (with my feet off the pedals). Yeah, the ball on the turn-bank flops around a little but basically stays centered. Any config setting I've missed?

Further evidence that the MS Team used the Flying Heritage Collection as a model (as if we needed the evidence).... As I heard the story, the FHC P-40 got a wax based paint job for its role in a Hollywood film. Normally, I guess, the paint is durable enough, however, the plane sprang a coolant leak resulted in a steam blast to pouring out the cowl on the right side which caused the paint to melt and smear in that area. Wouldn't you know, the MS Flight P-40 has a big paint smear in the same spot.

Sorry, tried but still looking for file Arrrrgh, got the file, can't get it in a post. You'll just have to take my word for it, so there!

The Camera snapshot view within the cockpit is pretty good. It looks nicer than what I can get with either the Zero or Mustang. Yeah, I know it's not a VC but not bad for a few bucks.

It looks like the MS Flight team takes their cues from The Flying Heritage collection. Here's a pano I did there (see the P-51 also): http://home.comcast.net/~moranotech/panoramas/flying_heritage_02_5k/flying_heritage_02_5k.html

I only hope they'll go the route of Captain Sim. That company often sold external models for FSX at a reduced cost while the model was still in development. Later, they would offer the VC patch at a reasonable cost.

That obnoxious guy calling himself NWGrandpa is me!

Yeah, I feel like I'm putting on my own airshow by practicing airbatics in fly-by view. The external modeling really is superb in Flight. Makes me feel like a kid again.

Using my TrackIR in mouse mode, I can only look about the cockpit if I'm pressing on my right mouse button. Anyone know of a way to re-map the right mouse button to a joystick button (within the game)? I'm using a Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar.

Thank you everyone for your patience while helping me through this.

RobRay, Misconception, yup, that nails it. But,...... I just tried X-Plane and it works just as I would have thought. With everything firewalled, yes, your engine is screaming. Pull back a bit on the prop lever for a coarser pitch and RPM drops but airspeed nudges up.. Which is why I asked about MS Flight not representing airspeed change.. I appreciate your statement that constant speed props are not designed to make the plane fly faster. Having said that though, wouldn't you agree that having the ability to control pitch in flight fundamentally allows for a faster top speed? By that I mean you benefit from having a coarse pitch for top speed and yet can move to a fine pitch fot takeoff, otherwise, the prop angle of attack would be too high and most of the prop disk would be stalled out at lower airspeed (resulting in a longer ground roll)..

toedy, my only hands-on flight experience has been with fixed pitch props (C152). I'm trying to understand how to fully use prop speed control with MS Flight. For example, I'm wondering why the top speed at level flight is so slow in the Musting. It hits me that maybe the default prop control level position in MS Flight is firewalled (fine pitch) and that, although, this is proper for take off and landing, it won't be the best setting to squeeze the maximize level flight top speed. So the point I missed is that we're not dealing with fully manual prop control. We're modeling consatnt speed props here. My thoughts are that this is entertainment, which is cool, and that, although neither Manifold Pressure or speed budges when I play with RPMs. The fuel flow does react. So I'm ready to install the ferry tanks, set the RPMs, and head north to Alaska...

jcomm, YES - "bigger bite" - that's what I had in mind when I posted. Looks like not modelled in Flight. Perhaps improved fuel consumption is ...... I could not detect if drag in a glide is reduced by pulling back on the prop lever. All in fun - not being critical of the game.

RoboRay, Doesn't the throttle control manifold pressure and the prop control adjusts pitch?

Kabronicus, Yeah, I see now the point I missed. Probably MS is simulating a constant speed propellor such that maximum pitch efficiency is automatically adjusted. I, on the other hand, jumped into the game thinking that a flat pitch was locked into the prop unless you elected to change it.

I assigned propellor rpm to an extra axis on my HOTAS controller expecting to be able to control throttle and prop pitch. I'm thinking there was some attempt to model prop pitch since I can hear the RPMs drop as I pull back on the axis. However, I see no increase in speed. I'm confused....

J van E, Very nice, thank you!

As much as I enjoy VC cockpits, I often like to turn them off when sightseeing. Anyway to do that in Flight? I think it is the "w" key in FSX