Reloading this older topic of mine, as I ran into more unexpected "things" with X-Plane (9).
In the past months i had used XP9 only with C172 (and not the default model but a fine tuned one) and I started to think I had the hang on it. Now I intended (and still intend, despite some accumulated frustration) to use it with the Twin Otter.
First thing first, I still find very frustrating that one has to look outside where one is flying, OR at the instruments, but NEVER the two at the same time. (This was less of an issue with the C172 whose 2D panel includes all that's necessary and room still remains to look outside over it). Actually it was SO frustrating, that my best setup to fly and - especially - land safely is using the HUD display (highly unrealistic, but safety comes before realism
).
"Thing" number 2: I tried to add an autopilot to the Twin Otter (EHM version). The reason behind this is that what I like the most about X-Plane is sightseeing, and as far as I am concerned that means a lot of using outside view instead of clutching onto the joystick trying to compensate gyro drift. I tried the Plane-Maker tool, which is very lightly documented (somehow implying that everything is straightforward and only an idiot would need further directions). Well, that idiot was me: I kept adding gauges to the panel, only to discover that their "background" does not appear in the running aircraft (for instance, altitude "selector" were digits showing on the panel plate itself, near a usable but invisible button to adjust it).
Although I could not find this written anywhere, I got the impression that only the active part of the gauges was rendered at runtime, and anything static is supposed to be photoshoped (or GIMP-ed, in my case) to the panel bitmap. I find this quite gruesome, due to the pixel-precise alignment required between the gauge and the panel. Can anyone confirm this is the "right" thing to do? Or are there any workarounds? Or am I completely mistaken and missing something in the Plane-Maker usage?
"Thing" number 3: I am experiencing a disturbing problem with the flight controls. It happened to me twice tonight, with two different Twin Otter versions. On finals, with appropriate approach speed and full flaps, the nose would come up and proved very difficult to pull down. A hard push on the joystick helped, but it was impossible to trim the pitch (although pitch trim DID work previously in the flight). It looks like the trim was already at its limit and could not go any further. The end result was frustrating because I had to land half-bent over the desk, pushing the joystick hard (and that was no glorious landing either...)
The stranger part is that the first time it happened I had been doing tests with the autopilot (which was disconnected at this time, though) and thought the problem was AP-related. When reloading the airplane in flight (and changing to the original no-autopilot version) the problem seemed to get fixed and I was able to trim the nose down as necessary
Anyone else having this kind of issue?
Looking forward to any helping advice from seasoned X-Plane users.
Andrei
