Author Topic: X-Plane newbie (noob-ie?) questions  (Read 10143 times)

Offline EHM-2097 Andrei

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X-Plane newbie (noob-ie?) questions
« on: February 05, 2012, 10:00:42 am »
Since I have bought X-Plane (9), I have been using it only in a "limited mode", which means just for VFR flights (due to terrain rendering, way better than standard FSX). As I am trying to enlarge its usage, I came into a few problems that may (or not) have simple solutions I am unaware of.

1) Silly but cruel: is there a way to force a confirmation message upon closing XP? It's already 2 times that I closed XP during an online flight, while trying to close the map (the two "X" buttons being inevitably close).

2) Is there an equivalent of the MSFS slew mode? I find it very difficult to manually reposition the aircraft at a specific point within the airport. Dragging it on the map is often wrong, the aircraft crashes in this mode and next thing I get it at 10000ft. Is there a safe way to do this?

3) I couldn't (easily) find a doc or link to instructions as to how to use a FMC; any resources at hand?

4) That's a really tricky one: I tried to design a floatplane tour for our IVAO division, but find it very difficult to use floats in XP unless one has an ocean nearby. The aircraft won't stay on the water surface; instead it drifts and even has a tendency to catch more and more speed. Worse, when reaching the lake shore (even the flattest one) the aircraft is automatically repositioned on a "better" body of water, more or less far away. Is there a way to control this behaviour? Or is it also because I checked the default Catalina, which may not be the easiest to maneuver floatplane?

Thanks for any hints / advices.

Andrei
Andrei Vatasescu // EHM-2097


Offline xzornixz

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Re: X-Plane newbie (noob-ie?) questions
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2012, 01:12:24 pm »
On the third note I can heartily recommend x-fmc, it is wonderful! :)

Offline EHM-1997 Alexander

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Re: X-Plane newbie (noob-ie?) questions
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2012, 06:52:31 pm »
2) Is there an equivalent of the MSFS slew mode? I find it very difficult to manually reposition the aircraft at a specific point within the airport. Dragging it on the map is often wrong, the aircraft crashes in this mode and next thing I get it at 10000ft. Is there a safe way to do this?


This was built into XPUIPC as the y key and later disabled, may be enableable on a key of your choice, check the docs of this plugin. Or get this one: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=15506

3) I couldn't (easily) find a doc or link to instructions as to how to use a FMC; any resources at hand?


Youtube, it's a kid, but gets the job done.
X-Plane Tutorials - How to use the FMC (Flight Management Computer)


4) That's a really tricky one: I tried to design a floatplane tour for our IVAO division, but find it very difficult to use floats in XP unless one has an ocean nearby. The aircraft won't stay on the water surface; instead it drifts and even has a tendency to catch more and more speed. Worse, when reaching the lake shore (even the flattest one) the aircraft is automatically repositioned on a "better" body of water, more or less far away. Is there a way to control this behaviour? Or is it also because I checked the default Catalina, which may not be the easiest to maneuver floatplane?


Default wave height is a joke, reduce this value substantially.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2012, 06:55:02 pm by EHM-1997 Alexander »
EHM-1997 Alexander Worton
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Offline EHM-2097 Andrei

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Re: X-Plane newbie (noob-ie?) questions
« Reply #3 on: February 08, 2012, 08:48:11 pm »
Thank you for your answers, actually I did not hope that 3 out of my 4 questions had feasible solutions.

I can hardly wait to try!

Andrei
Andrei Vatasescu // EHM-2097


Offline EHM-2097 Andrei

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Re: X-Plane newbie (noob-ie?) questions
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2014, 08:29:24 pm »
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
Andrei Vatasescu // EHM-2097


 

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