Hi Brett

Thanks for the road test, and I know what you mean about the mysterious effects, I’ve been down this road before but never with a seaplane, which I’m find out is a whole different beast than I’m used to.

I have finally managed to get the Marlin to take off from water by modifying the aircraft.cfg and SP-5B.air files

These files will allow the Marlin to take off from water only if the following conditions are met.

1.      Aux tanks contain 25% or less.
2.      The Main tanks contain 90% or less.
3.      The aircraft MUST have at least an 8kt wind over the bow.
4.      Full flaps when the airspeed creeps over 80 - 85kts
5.      And a long run, and be ready to retract the flaps back a notch or two once airborne to allow the airspeed to increase.

In its present state the aircraft will NOT taxi downwind, apparently this is yet another FSX FEATURE / BUG when importing FS9 aircraft, I believe its called the FSX viscous water effect, apparently you can use a couple of thing to overcome it, the most popular method appears to be to overpower the engines, which is in a way what I have done on the modified files, in that I have not only slightly overpowered the engines but have also added the War Power option (you will probably have to assign a keystroke for this as its not enabled by default), and even with this I had to put the Marlin on a very strict diet, I’ve lowered the all up weight by approximately 12000 lbs.

I’ve also noted that the autopilot tends to get jittery when the preset altitude is captured (I’ve only tested up to 6000), but this is probably my flight dynamics.

Jim Hodkinson

I've gotten it to takeoff or taxi, regardless of wind direction...  now I'm fine-tuning power/weight, flap affect, cruise/top speed, etc..

Guys.. had a long day here... will check out that panel change you posted Jim


You guys are  

Hi Brett

For my own use I have already got a functional overhead panel that includes operational engine select switches, magneto switches, engine start switches, ac and ground power, fuel booster pumps, alternate fuel booster pumps, electrical disconnect switch, electrical power select switch, avionics switch, and even prop feather switches etc.

The gauges are from the gauge cab files that I included with my initial upload, but I have modified certain gauges, pumps, magneto, engine select switches and so on, to cater for only two engines and not the four engines that the gauge files had been intended for.

I have not yet fully tested them (in fact I’m just having a time out from modifying them) but they all seem to function, and are of the correct period, if you like I could bundle up another zip file of them and post it on Megaupload if you want to try them out, all together they way in at around 6MB, a little bit over the top for an E-Mail attachment.

Let me know if you want to give them a go.

Jim Hodkinson

By the way did anybody notice the oval ASI in the virtual cockpit, if so here is a little correction, just replace the Vcockpit01 section with the one below :-

[Vcockpit01]
Background_color=0,0,0
size_mm=972,329
visible=1
pixel_size=1280,1280s
texture=$G1_Mat

gauge00=Beech_Baron!OMI Lights,  362,51,9,27
gauge01=DC6KMTG!ALTIMETER,  150,34,65,69
gauge02=DC6KM!GYRO_HORIZON,  221,23,67,75
gauge03=DC6KMTG!AIRSPEED_7,  293,35,64,65
gauge04=DC6KMTG!VERTICAL_SPEED_INDICATOR,  152,108,60,64
gauge05=DC6KM!RMI,  225,108,61,63
gauge06=DC6KM!TURN_INDICATOR,  298,108,61,63
gauge07=DC6KM!ADF,  152,183,45,46
gauge08=DC6KM!VOR1,  206,183,45,46
gauge09=DC6KM!DIR_GYRO,  262,182,45,46
gauge10=DC6KM!VOR2,  319,184,45,45
gauge11=DC6KM!FLAP,  156,252,36,38
gauge12=DC6KM!RPM_1,  393,32,60,63
gauge13=DC6KM!RPM_2,  531,31,59,63
gauge14=DC6KM!BMEP12,  463,  31 ,59,64
gauge15=DC6KM!BOOST_12,  394,99,58,63
gauge16=DC6KM!OIL_PRESS_12,  463,98,58,63
gauge17=DC6KM!MAN2_12,  531,98,59,63
gauge18=DC6KM!FUEL_QUANT_POUNDS_LEFT,  401,175,31,32
gauge19=DC6KM!FUEL_QUANT_POUNDS_RIGHT,  445,175,32,32
gauge20=DC6KM!FF_12,  492,176,44,45
gauge21=DC6KM!FUEL_PRESS_12,  553,182,33,33
gauge22=DC6KMTG!ALTIMETER,  621,31,66,71
gauge23=DC6KM!GYRO_HORIZON,  692,21,69,76
gauge24=DC6KMTG!AIRSPEED_7,  767,35,61,65
gauge25=DC6KMTG!VERTICAL_SPEED_INDICATOR,  620,107,61,63
gauge26=DC6KM!RMI,  694,107,59,64
gauge27=DC6KM!SO_TURN_INDICATOR,  767,107,60,64
gauge28=DC6KM!ADF,  619,182,40,44
gauge29=DC6KM!VOR1,  672,180,45,46
gauge30=DC6KM!DIR_GYRO,  729,181,44,46
gauge31=DC6KM!VOR2,  784,182,44,46
gauge32=DC6KM!FLAP,  733,253,36,39
gauge33=DC6KM!ELEV_TRIM2,  842,117,44,47
gauge34=DC6KM!GEAR_NOSE_DOWN,  218,254,17,17
gauge35=DC6KM!GEAR_LEFT_DOWN,  205,276,17,17
gauge36=DC6KM!GEAR_RIGHT_DOWN,  230,276,17,17
gauge37=DC6KM!GEAR_NOSE_DOWN,  791,255,18,17
gauge38=DC6KM!GEAR_LEFT_DOWN,  778,276,18,17
gauge39=DC6KM!GEAR_RIGHT_DOWN,  804,276,17,17
gauge40=Beech_Baron!OMI Lights,  610,50,9,27
gauge41=DC6KM!ELEV_TRIM2,  92,119,48,49

Hi Brett

E-Mail sent (zipped it came down to just over 1MB), the one thing I forgot to mention in the install instructions, is that although the panel close “cross” icon for overhead2 works absolutely perfectly, for some reason the same thing on the other overhead will close the main panel, I’m pretty sure is just a panel ident problem.

I was and am going to fix that, but I got a little sidetracked by sorting out a start up sequence, and my monitor had no room for yet another post-it note to remind me.

Jim Hodkinson

Brett_Henderson wrote on Jun 27^th, 2008 at 4:29pm:



Once you and Jim get her to a certain point I will take a look at her and if there is anything I can add/tweak in the way of visuals, sounds, etc I will.

So far this is shaping up quite nicely in the cockpit.. looking forward to your additions Brett

Hi Nick

The NO_Panel is the Navigators panel (I may change the ident to NAV_PANEL), but the panel identified as OVERHEAD is the one with the problem close icon, the OVERHEAD2 panel does not seem to suffer from this problem, but I’m looking into it, at present I’m doing some xml gauge modifying, as some of the original gauges do seem to have problems in FSX.

For the VC autopilot, you are correct it’s just a bitmap addition as the original author did not leave enough space above the flight instruments to add a working autopilot, the only other way to have a working autopilot in both the 2D and VC would be to reposition the gauge onto the main panel, possibly replacing the lighting switches as these are now located in the overhead, if you want me to try this its not really a problem but you would end up with a blank box on top of the VC panel as it’s part of the model, which without access to the original files can’t be removed.

The engine start procedure is still being worked on by myself hence the xml gauge work, and I believe Brett is also looking into this aspect, as like my self he is also not a fan of CTRL+E, but as for your particular problem of water starts I can’t say that this has ever been a problem at this end, but the aircraft is not very forgiving of prop settings so that may be an issue.

As for the sound set I have no idea where it came from as I have CD’s full of what I thought at the time interesting files, so I can’t even give the original author credit.

Hope it helps

Jim Hodkinson