-Stark-

Everything in an airshow (Or any formation flying for that matter) is planned and discussed on the ground. You do not call audibles during flight ops and that is what appears to have happened here.

Here's what I ended up with and I think it works really well. I took a set of PFT Puma controls and connected them to an Open Wheeler racing/flight sim seat. The connection was done using the PUMA 'seat blocker' connecting it to the Gen 3 Seat frame with about $3 in hardware. The aluminum angles shown in picture are there to restrict lateral movement. The Open Wheeler set up has a ton of options to connect to the frame. I went with the HOTAS Configuration #2, which will allow me to put a throttle off the left side at some point when I want to play with fixed wing planes. For the right side I mounted the mousepad option that the Amazon seller 'Team HomeRacer' suggested (and provided for free). As an MSFS 2020 VR set up this is working out great. I have the two additional trackball buttons mapped to 'centering VR' view and 'pausing' (which opens up the game menu). I mapped one of the collective buttons to the in game menu so I can click on what I need there too. In the end this achieves the no keyboard setup I was going for. I did however buy an addon called 'Sky4Sim NG'. This has some mapping and weather functionality, but I mainly wanted it to view PDFs in VR. This adds to the ability of this being used as a VFR procedural trainer. I don't do any IFR procedural work in VR, I typically do that just sitting in front of my monitor and use my actual Ipad EFB for those things. If someone wanted to do that in VR they would probably use some of the Navigraph mods I assume.

That's interesting, so you can use voice commands to program up an FMS or GTN nav device? I think I still need to get something like a Trackball mouse by my side. I'm going to order a few and test them out.

When playing various flying games I currently sit at my desk with the various peripherals scattered about. The key is I always have had my keyboard and mouse within reach. I use the mouse all the time to click on anything inside the game because I find the hand controllers (G2 Reverb) awkward to use. I've tried to force myself to use them but I feel pointing the little lasers at the panel bizarre, and I can do it with a mouse click about 5x faster, easier. Here's the new challenge and why I'm looking for an alternative. I'm a pilot and am planning on working on my Rotary add on for fun. I typically don't feel manipulation of my various joysticks, yokes, etc translate well to real flying but I've heard good things about the Pro Flight Trainer Puma X on establishing some muscle memory... so I bought one. I can't cram this thing under my desk so this means I'm going to buy a Racer/Flight Sim chair that I can use as a dedicated flight sim set up. However it's not going to be in front of my desk anymore so I need a method to click those various cockpit things. I've Googled around and some people use a trackball mouse so that might be an option. However I wanted to just see what other folks have been using in lieu of a full size keyboard, normal mouse setup.

Suppose I'm lucky. I played this off and on most the day without any issues that I can think of. My hardware mapped well to preferred settings and I ran everything at High and didn't even stutter. Was able to tweak the curve on the rudder/brakes and now ground handling feels good. I don't get wrapped around the physics because at the end of the day none of these games are 'realistic'.

I've been able to do it with an Nvidia 970 card. I even had Bezel correction... however I got annoyed at the my line of sight right in the middle being obstructed. So now I have P3D on the left window and I'll move the GPS or other windows to the right monitor to use it that way.

Just a followup, I tried a number of variables, including reinstalling everything... and all is great until I put; "model=GTN650x2 panel=GTN650x2" into the aircraft config. Would be interested if anyone is using the GTN 750s if they're still having the gas pressure gauges pegging out. Not a huge issue but this is my favorite plane so if I can fix it with some new file or config setting I would like to.

I figured out a place to start with FSUIPC. For the above example you can go into Buttons + Switches and assign 'List local Panel Vars' to the key, go back into the game and press it. It creates a log in the FSUIPC directory. From that log I pulled; 430594 L:ClockVoltsClick = 0.000000 430594 L:ClockSelectClick = 0.000000 430594 L:ClockControlClick = 0.000000 430610 L:ClockSelect = 0.000000 430610 L:ClockControl = 0.000000 430610 L:ClockVolts = 0.000000 Now I know the variables I just need to figure out how to create a MCRO file in FSUIPC and get it to show up as a map-able function.

I'm not sure what else you would call it. But occasionally in planes there are clickable functions that I can't find a keyboard mapping to via P3D - Settings - Control or FSUIPC vast pull down of commands. Is there a way to create one or is that something between P3D, FSUIPC and/or the plane creator? Example off the top of my head is with an A2A 172/182 plane and the Davtron clock. Tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrFYbS9yzuc So this item has 3 things you can click within the virtual cockpit. Is there a way to map a keyboard hotkey to it, say Num 1-3?

Question on the upgrades. I installed two files; one for Barron 55_P3Dv2_v3.150306 and B55_F1GTN_v1.150308. With the default set up everything looks correct, including the fuel pressure/flow... however when I enable the 650x2 panel, the panel works fine but the fuel gauges peg out again. Since it only does it with the 650x2 did I perhaps install that patch incorrectly?

My Prepar3D installation was a mess. After a year of fiddling with it I had a mess of planes that were either freeware, FSX transfers or paid. I tried out some various scenarios, had some Oculus Rift apps, ect.. I had been working on slowly cleaning up the installation but would get sidetracked and not finished. 2.5 was a chance for me to work off a fresh install and only put on what over the last year I actually liked to mess with. For me it's Orbx scenaries, ASN, Rex and a few payware planes. As soon as I saw a majority of those things were supported I decided to make the move. I had read it took people days to do this but for me it took 3 hours. I uninstalled everything P3D related, deleted folders, ect. As I installed each thing I booted up the application to make sure it worked and then I would move onto the next. All in all it took less than 4 hours to complete everything. A lot of the time was spent waiting on installs or downloads so may have been only an hour of actively installing things. The only issues I had was having to manually move a terrain.cfg file for Orbx and patch ASN post 2nd P3D hotfix. I also took account of what I installed and in what order. - Prepar3D Academic - FSUIPC - Active Sky Next - Rex 4 - Texture Direct - Orbx - Orbx Addon Airports - Flight 1 GTN 650 Planes - B/E 55 - RV4 - CE208 - Alabeo Waco - Pipersport - Cessna 207 Wagon

So as long as the planes are in the simobject folder the client will put them on the tarmac?

How does AI traffic work? Does it just pull planes from your /SimObjects/Airplane directory and randomly place them around based on your traffic/airport slider setting? I came across World of AI today and would like to get some more variety of airplanes at my airports.

I hope you can get back in the air soon! I've not flown in two weeks because of weather and I am going a bit crazy not flying. Today I might go visit my plane, maybe check the oil and wipe it off in the hangar. Which I guess brings me to my renewed interest in Prepar3D and setting it up to practice IFR flights. I don't have my instrument rating but plan to complete it this summer so next winter I don't get shut out from flying.

Figured, was just wanting to make sure it wasn't me or something I might have inadvertently changed editing the aircraft and panel configs.

After reading that all my add ons worked with Prepar3D 2.5 I decided to bite bullet and do the re-install. Had a chance to do my first flight tonight in the B/E55, it was a night flight so I noticed the same problem with interior lighting, which I could replicate on a few other planes so I knew it wasn't the addon. Another odd issue is the Fuel Flow gauge pegs all the way out when I go past 25% throttle. It does it in both the B and E 55s. I tried with two other planes, the default B58 and a 207 Wagon. Both those planes showed accurate fuel flows. I think it's just something graphical because when I look at the data on the 650 it seems within limits. Combined flow 40 gph on take off, 35 on climb and at about 5,000 ft squared up and leaned out it's about 30 gph. That would put each engine about 15 but on the gauge they're still showing pegged out. Any troubleshooting suggestions would be appreciated, I like using that gauge along with the EGT when leaning the mixture out. Thanks!

Okay thanks. I'm slowly figuring these edits out.

I bought the plane and with the Flight1 integration addon this evening and I'm really impressed. The screenshots didn't do it justice. I'm in the process of setting up the controls, downloaded a new skin (1249Z retro fun) and trying to get a popup window to bring up the AP, 650s and ADF all in one key stroke. I have it somewhat working but the ratios are a bit off. What am I missing? //-------------------------------------------------------- [Window01] Background_color=0,0,0 size_mm=640,829 window_size_ratio=1.000 position=2 visible=0 ident=GPS_PANEL window_size= 0.355, 0.522 window_pos= 0.000, 0.030 gauge00=B55_XMLGauges!FBS_KAP140, 0,0,640,163 gauge01=F1GTN!GTN650, 0,163,640,266,UNIT1.POP gauge02=F1GTN!GTN650, 0,429,640,266,UNIT2.POP gauge03=B55_XMLGauges!FBS_KR 87 ADF, 0,695,640,134 Any help would be appreciated, not sure if someone's already done this.

Okay you were talking about the game and needing to take care of your A2A plane or having it break. I would never advocate skipping pre-flight inspection on a real plane, not using checklists/flow checks or not adhering to some type of ADM process. In the game it's not something I'm into, however as you pointed out obviously there are people that are. I'm also not beating up those that are into it. Some find it enjoyable and I also am true believer that simulations have purpose in flight training. I tend to think of it as advanced chair flying and can really help you with the memory triggers associated with flying. You could also simulate stresses to increase your cockpit management and multitasking ability. All great things, but what it can't ever emulate are the stick and rudder skills you only develop through actual real life plane flying. Case in point, fly the Piper Cub in the game with settings maxed out. Then go fly a real one, or any taildragger for that matter... no amount of training on a flight sim will help you out. You'll know the control inputs, where buttons are and such but not the rudder control it takes to pilot one. I'm not a programmer but I assume the difference in the A2A 172 vs 182 is a list of weights used to achieve a certain response. With FSUIPC you can change that and force you to apply more back pressure simulating it's heavier, or less to simulate a more agile plane. That's what I was referring to. I used it with the A2A 172 to try and get something somewhat realistic, I have a good number of hours in a real 172 so that was my frame of reference. On a side note I had a friend over who owns and flies a 182, sat him with the Carenado 182 and he was all over the place, porpoised and prop struck a few landings. So what I felt were realistic controls for me obviously didn't match what he flew probably that day. Maybe I'll give the A2A 182 a go and see if that's better than the 172.

You lost me, are we talking about the game or real life?

I purchased the A2A 172 last year. It was interesting to do the walk around, hangar actions and such but after some time I got over messing with it. Not sure if you can turn it off. As far as realism goes nothing you're going to install and download will fly like a real airplane. I've been in multi-million dollar simulators that fail to emulate the control pressures and sensations that are key to flying a real aircraft, especially a smaller GA plane. It's neat to have details like oil viscosity as long as it heats up fairly quick. I've sat on a taxi with an engine running for 25 mins, or in the hangar for 45 preheating before and don't want to do that in a game. I've bought a few other planes but I always seem to come back to the default Carenado A36... some of it is because I really like the real A36. For twins I like light twins, I have a 2nd throttle quadrant on order and will probably pick up the Milviz B55. I like the beat up look, retro style and it supports the GTN 650. In the end I feel like everything flies the same or you can tweak it with FSUIPC how you want so it's really just about what you want to look at while you're doing it.

Okay I appreciate it. I can imagine all the hard work that goes into each of these planes so I will drop the extra $10 anyhow. That's about what I spend taxing my plane from the hangar to the runway.

You know it occurred to me while playing tonight that I don't really need the 650s built into the virtual cockpit. It becomes a bit of a minigame to try and keep my head (TrackIR) steady and click the buttons. I'll put the 2D stack on my second monitor and use it like that. Doing that will still allow me to use the HSI/CDI ect in the plane correct?

Okay thanks. I use the 2D version on all types of planes but typically don't try to use autopilot or anything with it. It was my understanding that sometimes the 2D version messes up autopilot and CDI gauges.

The guy across from my Hangar has a B55 and he won't let me fly it.... no multi so I thought I would find one to play in P3D. I also have the Flight1 GTN 650 because that's what I use in real life, plus trying to turn knobs in the game is a challenge for me. I found the plane for sale on fsshop and it says, "Version 2.14 includes fixes for the F1 GTN and Mindstar GPS, sound gauge and more". So if I buy this will it incorporate the 650s into the panel in VC or do I then have to buy the $9.99 add-on? I understand I can use the 650 in any plane but would prefer to not have integration issues on it.