ArtBurkeN4PJ

I don't mean to be insulting to the author of the program - as near as I can tell he's Italian - but he needs to find someone who is much more conversant in English. The directions and the "follow-up" explanations leave a lot to be desired. I sort of took the cowardly way out - I deleted this program and started studying IFR navigation with a bit more "immersion." The built-in GPS (both the 500 and the 295) will really do a pretty good job of getting you from point A to point B, lined up with your desired runway, etc. Granted, it's far easier in something like a 172 than it is in an F-15 (just to give an example). I also have another, add-on program, that duplicates tons of "fixes," intersections and pseudo-fixes used for RNAV planning. With only a bit more work,a plan that aligns you pretty nicely to your desired runway is not all that difficult. Initially, I was excited at the prospect of a "virtual runway" as well, but, as far as realism goes...... Art N4PJ Leesburg, FL

Since LINDA didn't have what it needs to work with my Pilatus, I finally broke down and purchased KEY2MOUSE. It "glitches" every now and then, but, for the most part, it's quite effective. Once in a while, a switch also gets "reversed." Guess that's life! I also had some reasonable success with LINK2FS, but it's not nearly as flexible as KEY2MOUSE (although the LINK2FS_Mouse was free!). I had some pretty good success wtih mouse macros on numerous parts of the Pilatus, but it fell apart in a quite a large number of other planes, including "stock" aircraft. Pete explained in an earlier email that this has a lot to do with how the gauge designers are creating things these days. Thank you for your help and feedback. Art - N4PJ Leesburg, FL

My apologies. I participate in a an ever-increasing number of web sites/forums and I plead that I got confused!

My apologies - I thought I was on the support sub-forum. I think now I see where I should have been! The mouse macro Pete tried to help me with didn't work. I've been reluctant to buy KEY2MOUSE - there's just so much software that seems like it should work but just doesn't deliver. Since the plane is an add-on to FSX it will probably require a lot more skill than I possess at the moment. If I knew the Lua language a lot better, it shouldn't be too difficult to identify where the cursor is on the screen, identify the necessary actions (left-click, rt-click, mouse wheel, etc.) and then figure out how to assign that to a key or button. That's the main reason I was looking to see if LIINDA could solve my dilemma. Thanks for your feed back. At least I know now I'm not going crazy! Art - N4PJ Leesburg, FL

Can't help you with your rotary switches, but... ELEV_TRIP_DN is a standard FS control - 65607. ELEV_TRIM_UP is also standard - 65615. If you have a spare button or two, those can be easily assigned using FSUIPC - the drop-down menu in FSX. You can easily generate the option of using such trim with virtually *any* plane, or keep it plane-specific with "profile" choices. I'm hoping to learn more about LINDA because I'm struggling to learn more about Lua. LINDA is to Lua what Visual Basic for Excel is to Excel. Excel is pretty powerful, but the statements can get huge and complicated. With VBA (Visual Basic for Excel), you can embed programming statements in your spreadsheet. That's kind of the way I see LINDA. You get the advantage of "programming" without having to learn the language! Of course, I may be all wet too! Good luck. Art - N4PJ Leesburg, FL

Thank you. I *think* I had my setup so that I did not select the MCP, but I'll double-check. I was trying to get far enough into the usage of LINDA to be able to use the "tracer" function. The F1 Pilatus has tons of "hot mouse" spots instead of key-presses. I like the plane and fly it a lot. Even with some help from Pete Dowson, mouse macros didn't have much effect on the Pilatus. My version of FSUIPC is registered - that part's fine. I've been studying the Lua aspect and accidentally came across LINDA. Thanks for your response and assistance. It appears I am actually on the right track! I've been using a Logitech Extreme 3D joystick and it has only 12 buttons. But, between that and a keyboard encoder and FSUIPC, I'm getting further and further away from the keyboard! Art - N4PJ Leesburg, FL Almost forgot - even though the "menu" in LINDA wouldn't get me to the manual, the process wasn't too bad to find the manual and I pulled out a stand-alone version so I could stumble through - along with the beginner's tutorial I found.

Followed the directions and loaded linda.exe and a few other files (and a couple of folders). I do NOT have an MCP in any form. I just wanted to see what LINDA does, how it works, could it help me with my Flight1 Pilatus, etc.? Once linda is running if I click on "manual.pdf" instead of the manual, I get the following dialog box: "A functions file already exists for this aircraft. Do you want to overwrite the file? I found the manual in the modules/linda/data/docs folder. Guess I had an attack of the stupids on the "install," such as it is. I'm moderately computer literate, but I've looked at the instructions so many times (and convinced that's what I have) that I'm going bonkers! Art - N4PJ Leesburg, FL

Please forgive me for butting in. I was also under the impression that only one button/key/command could be assigned at one time and it was driving me crazy. I didn't know diddly squat about Lua (just getting my feet wet now), but programming experience told me that a script could accomplish a great deal if I could learn to program it. However, one day, I tried something in desperation, and it worked! Here's a snippet of what I did in FSUIPC: [buttons.DC-3 HSI] 0=PA,10,C65907,0 ;display GPS window 1=PA,9,C65914,0 ;display radio stack 2=PA,7,C65580,0 ;Autopilot Master 3=PA,6,C65726,0 ;Autopilot Altitude Hold On 4=PA,6,C1017,0 ;incr alt on Ap fast (+1000) 5=PA,6,C1017,0 ;incr alt on Ap fast (+1000) As you can see, these button assignments are aircraft specific - more about why in a minute - an you can see that the last three commands/events are all done on the same button press on my joystick. Obviously, with this approach, there are still significant limitations - full-blown scripting/programming would be more effective and probably more eloquent, but sometime's you just gotta use what ya got! I used this approach in a couple of different planes rather than make the buttons "global" because, on at least one of my planes' autopilot operations, when I activate the autopilot, the HDG HOLD comes on as well. On other planes, however, it doesn't, so I had to make adjustments accordingly. With the above instructions, the following happens - (1) the autopilot gets turned on and - automatically, whether I want it or not - the HDG HOLD ON lights up as well. Now, if I take my hand off the joystick, at least I'm not going to wander all over the landscape. Then, immediately following (2) the ALTITUDE HOLD comes on. If I don't do anything, the altitude hold suddenly becomes set at whatever height I'm currently displaying and climb will quickly stop. Not good. So, (3) I add 1,000 feet (twice) to the current altitude setting and I've got a couple thousand feet to get the gear up, flaps in and set the altitude to a high enough number that I won't suddenly stop climbing. If there's a more elegant way to do this, I'm all ears, but I've found this works quite well for me. It might be slightly unrealistic, but, while holding the joystick with my right hand *and* trying to manipulate the mouse to click appropriately on the autopilot.... I haven't had the guts yet to remove all the buttons/keys from the "standard" FSX setup and rely exclusively on FSUIPC (or anything else), but I do have a keyboard encoder built into a home-brew switchbox and the great majority of the switches are programmed as if they strokes keystrokes, thanks to FSUIPC. Last and certainly not least, I learned some good info on your post. Still have a lot to learn but sometimes I just give up and go flying! I've learned a lot from a lot of other people - love forums! Art - N4PJ Leesburg, FL

Well, his English is probably a lot better than my Italian, but I must agree. The .pdf pieces read like Spanglish! I got it because i particularly liked the concept of the virtual ILS and the virtual runway, but if you can't figure out how to make it work...... One of the really confusing parts is that the screen actually presented looks like part of it's missing - it's almost as if the resolution isn't properly set. I'm running a pair of HD monitors at 1920x1080 and I can't see all the display panels of the program. Makes it really hard to choose something if it ends up in a hidden area! Art - N4PJ Leesburg, FL

Purchased this program from AVSIM last night. While it's very pretty, several key pieces don't seem to "line up" with the help manual. This program (which also includes a mouse gadget interface for converting mouse clicks to buttons or keys. Haven't tackled that part yet. The gentleman who wrote it (apparently an Italian fellow) left a web site in the docs but the link doesn't work. Any help appreciated. Art - N4PJ Leesburg, FL