Denis, welcome to SimV

The Mooney, like many other aircraft, has a 'constant speed prop'. You'll find an additional engine control, a blue knob labled 'Prop', that controls the governed rpm.

The sim's Learning Center>Key Topics>Controlling the Engine has a good explaination of the function of the constant speed prop in your power management.

Dave

Paul  & Dave:  Many thanks for your prompt replies to my query.  I'll certainly look into the technical details you mention even though I'm an English Lit graduate.  )

Denis

Brett_Henderson wrote on Apr 24^th, 2009 at 8:53am:


...nice to see you in the Peace and Serenity of good-old, trusty, FS 2004 for a change, Brett!.. ... ... ...!

(Stress-free!).... ...!

Paul...G-BPLF....FS 2004... ...!

.... ....!

Bret: Thanks for the tutorial link. I've bookmarked and will study it later today. This simulation thing is misnamed. It's no "game" as many have described it. Definitely an intellectual challenge. I wish I had known about it years ago.

Denis

DenisH wrote on Apr 24^th, 2009 at 9:09am:

Some of us don't have the intellect to challenge it. Guilty as charged, your Honor...

I guess I don't get the sarcasm (if that's what the post was).
Denis

DenisH wrote on Apr 26^th, 2009 at 7:15am:


Hello Denis... ...!

No sarcasm intended, I can assure you......

..after a while in Sinviation, you get to recognise all the various sorts rich Humour which constantly flows through the many Threads, minute by minute.....!

Its one of the many reasons why Simviation is so popular with everyone who visits......!

.. on rare occasions we also get to learn something useful... ....!

In the meantime we get the chance to have a laugh and a joke with each other...which cheers us up, and brightens up our every day!... ...!

Paul...G-BPLF...FS 2004.....and a laugh a minute!.. ...!

DenisH wrote on Apr 26^th, 2009 at 8:19am:


No problemo, Den!......!

We are all here to help if we can, and if we cant you can be sure that we will have a laugh and a joke with each other in these times of financial instability, and tight-fitting trousers.....!

Paul.... ... ... ...!

P.S.  surviving a wheels-up landing is good for the Soul!...trust me... ...!

I was half-joking re the gearless landings but I do find this FS fascinating and, as I mentioned earlier, hardly a "game".  My earlier Q re the tachometer in the Mooney was a dumb question since I would have known the reason had I read ALL the items in the learning center. I have now learned my lesson.  I will definitely  read and study your tutorials on SM -- I found your explanation of the prop clearer than that in the learning center.  While I'm on the subject, is this the place to ask a Q  about flying? In  my first post I mentioned that I had several hours of training in a Piper J3 many years back. Now that I'm back flying the FS Piper I have had problems  landing without ground looping. This happens  even though the landing speed and approach is flawless (I think). I touch down and  Cub veers either right or left. I have experimented with various rudder controls but can't seem to master a  smooth, loopless landing. I'm wondering if the FS version of the Cub has a locking  wheel or something?   I have a new, very sensitive AV8R stick and have tried landing with and without rudder.  I never had problem landing back when I was taking lessons in the real J3.

Bret: Yes, I have set everything at highest level of realism. No point in easy settings since one will never learn from mistakes. One of the beauties of FS is you can crash into the control tower at JFK and go back and crash into it again!  I plane to get a yoke and petals soon but will wait until my birthday. Maybe my kids will spring for them -- assuming they still have their jobs  next September.  Thanks again for your advice.

Denis

PS I can't find a signature to get your tutorials. I clicked on your name and got your profile, but no tutorials. Can you give me  a link?

The big cockpit view at the bottom of my posts.. click anywhere on it..

If you want to emulate your flying experiences with a Cub, I'm sorry to say you wont be happy trying to capture it with the default Cub......try the link below and download the Aeronca Champ, it's not the same plane but it is a far superior flight model for this type of aircraft, and I'm sure you will enjoy it way more

http://www.simviation.com/fs2004props94.htm

Enjoy
Romflyer

DenisH wrote on Apr 26^th, 2009 at 7:17am:

Fozz said it more politely than I will : I admitted to being a bonehead. I have had FS9 on my computer for four years. I still have no idea about what are the other 99% of its capabilities. I take off, flit about some, try to land, can't get lined up straight, crash hard on the runway or land badly in the grass. It's pretty much an "arcade" type of game for  me. I am no Brett Henderson. I would like to know how to use the game to its full potential but I am always out of time, it seems...

DenisH wrote on Apr 26^th, 2009 at 12:57pm:


Denis
I think I can safely say on behalf of the vast majority of flightsimmers that most of us have all but given up on the default aircraft, because there are so many dramatacally improved models available........please give a whirl to the plane I gave you a link to, it's a good one to start with because the installation is really easy....just click on the 'download file' button and make sure that you pay attention to where you put it......a temporary file, or maybe your desktop.........then go to this location and dbl click on the file and an auto-installation program will open and install the plane properly for you........open the game and load up the new aircraft  trust me you will never look back 
There are countless threads in this forum on recomended aircraft to download, and literally thousands of aircraft, and scenery, and and and and  to acquire here at the simv download area http://www.simviation.com/simviation/
Good luck
enjoy
Rom

ROM:  Thanks very much for the guidance.  I did download the aircraft you recommended and  I do know where it is. I have it earmarked (a dirty word these days) and I am reading various tutorials on how to download. My problem is I am a novitiate with FS, downloads and computers generally although I have used a puter as a substitute  typewriter for years (I bought one  when the "E" on my 1934 Underwood kept falling off).  I do have  XP and I understand that it has a download "wizard" which I am cautiously approaching. I've never used it so m

Denisy wife  tells me to be careful or I might erase everything on the puter. I have a question: How do I integrate these add-ons with the MS4000 program? Is it done automatically by the wizard?
Sorry if these Q's are elementary.  I'm gonna give it a shot this evening and I'll let you know how I make out. Once again, thanks for the advice. You guys in here are great ! 

Denis

Denis..you landed AGAIN WITHOUT FEET..     THATS IT CALL THE TOWER NOWWWWWWWW...DenisH wrote on Apr 26^th, 2009 at 8:19am:

ROM:  Sorry for the typo. I meant FS not MS. I followed your  instructions and successfully downloaded the aircraft to the "My documents" section.  It now appears as a zipped folder, 15,358 KB.  I don't kow where to put it because I can't seem to find a folder dedicated to the FS program itself.  Now I am at a loss as to how to get it onscreen. When I log on to FS4000 I get the following message over the "century of flight" logo: "Requested flight is corrupted or can't be found."  I then get the regular default flights.   I know I am one step away from this but I don't know what the hell step to take!  lol  Any suggestions will be appreciated and excuse this woeful ignorance.   Denis

Denis
I'm glad to hear you got it going.
Hear is a link to the main download section hear at Simv http://www.simviation.com/simviation/ so set aside AT LEAST a couple of hours  ........on a couple of days  and enjoy browsing. at the top of that page there is a search function, you can click on it and type in whatever your looking for and it will bring up all the options, otherwise just open one of the sections and go page by page.
One really good plane you might want to check out is the maule 260 http://www.simviation.com/fs2004props54.htm it's a big 60mb download but is really an amasing plane.
I did a search for your Stork........no joy

One thought distantly  related to FS2004.  A week or so ago the media carried a story about a passenger who successfully landed an airplane (I didn't get what model) after the pilot died in the cockpit. I wonder if that passenger had  any experience in a flight sim? It's an intriquing  question. Anyone in here know?   Denis H

ROM & SEAN:  Thanks for the tips. I'm retired and have plenty of time. As I mentioned to a  friend the other day, getting involved in Flight Sim is far more interesting than hunting for nickels in the sand with a metal detector.   .

Denis
Is there any other sorts of aircraft your interested in checking out, or is it mostly old taildraggers that you are looking for?
Something else I just thought of that you would probably like is the Alphasim c170 that just got released as freeware

You fellas are gentlemen! As mentioned earlier, I have just started in FS and have just had a few weeks with it so  am a little intimidated at this point about advancing further than the Cessnas, Mooneys and, thanks to you guys, the Avvie C7. Also, I am studying the stuff in learning center and  have yet to get into navigation and radio protocol. I served in the USNavy  some years back but what navigation skills I had then are now pretty much  worthless. So I am a novice on all fronts. Maybe the multi-engines and  jets will be more  attractive when I'm not so dumb about all this. One thing, I am damned glad I  heard about this website. You guys are incredibly helpful courteous and humorous and we newbies appreciate it.

Q for Bret: Is that and RAF rig you've got on?

DenisH wrote on Apr 28^th, 2009 at 2:52pm:

Bottom of this page http://www.simviation.com/simviation/?type=item&ID=84&page=7

Will do. Thanks for the tip.

Sorry about the happy face. I don't know how it got in the preceding message.

DenisH wrote on May 1^st, 2009 at 9:19am:



In answer to your first question - no, you do not "fly" the panel. 

Those "panel only" downloads are panels which can be added to an aircraft which does not have one included in it's package or possibly exchanged for one which you may not like.

Some aircraft packages do not include a dedicated panel and/or may simply alias an existing default panel to it.

With a little experience downloading and installing aircraft what Ijust said will begin to make more sense.

When I asked you in my last post about using the VC.....on any of your planes press 'S' to cycle through the veiws, many planes have this option, including the Champ you loaded earlier, personally if a plane doesnt have a VC then I dont bother with it.

Rom: Unless I missed it, that tip about cycling isn't anywhere in the literature I've seen. If you can scan with your hat button, why does the lit mention that you need to fishtail while taxiing?  I'm sure this will all come to me sooner of later. Before I got into FS I bought a guide to FS2004 (by Radcliffe & Mahoor) and it's not mentioned in that. At least, in language I can understand. Once again, getting with the  jargon is one of my problems. I have had a computer since 1983 but  have always used it as a substitute typewriter. My wife handled all the hard stuff. She won't help me with FS because she thinks I shouldn't be playing "games" at my age. Now I am paying the price! lol

Your wife too, eh?  lol Yet another huge "gracias" re the VC. I just took up the Mooney using it for the first time and it is incredible. I also checked the manual I mentioned earlier and there's but a single mention of the VC  and no explanation nor illustration of what it does.  To someone unfamiliar with Flight Sim, the whole thing is "virtual"! So thanks for the guidance.  If you'll forgive A rather feeble pun, I'm learning all this from the ground up.

Denis
Believe me, these guys know whereof they speak.  Two months ago, I was getting similar advice.  Enough took to where I now ask a lot fewer silly questions - I hope  .
To which chapter of the "Old Farts" do you belong?  Mine's out here in the Pacific northwest.
Dave R

Sounds like the Ahnold influence.

OLD: LOL  very good!

Excellent tip about that front view. Now that you guys have led me to the virtual c, I use it all the time. I have the trigger on brakes, the button below the hat on gear up/down and the other button on landing lights. I have the toggles on flaps and landing lights & another on auto pilot "on". I will reset all these later today.  point about light planes  is right on. I have a devil of a time landing the Alpha, which is a favorite already. I have totally abandoned the Cub even though it was the reason I got into Flight Sim, as I explained in earlier post. I still can't land w/o ground looping. I don't understand why the MS guys passed that on in History of Flight. I am still struggling with downloading but this is due to my ignorance of computers and its language.  I added one pay CD program, "Ground Environment" which while not ideal, does dress up the scenery more than the default offerred  in FS2004.  Any suggestions you may have on airplanes, scenery, technical or any other subject are most welcome.

Ground environment is good, if your flying alot around areas you are really familiar with(real world) then "Ultimate terrain" is another good choice to spruce up your FS world, it will correct all your shorelines and place all your roads correctly(good for VFR flying)
My earlier suggestion about the Maule still stands    also take a look at this little charmer http://www.fs-tutorials.com/en/down_plane_ not a taildragger but a really solid freeware add-on, which brings me to the statement that if you dont mind pulling out your visa card there is a whole new world of payware aircraft that will take your game to a totally new level, check out Carenado http://www.carenado.com/ecommerce/buscador.php3?categoria=20 you might want to look at there Mooney 

Something new almost every day.  On the groundlooping - if you have unchecked AUTO RUDDER rudder that J3 may even ground loop in the air.  One of the few things, glaringly unreal in FS9, is rudder without pedals.  Try it with AUTO RUDDER checked, lower your aileron and elevator sensitivities to about 2/3 and, as you level out from the glide, feel for the runway with little bits of back on the stick.  Ideally you'll touchdown as the stick hits the stop.  If you were straight when it hit, it'll run straight otherwise you'll have to do a little something with the rudder.

ROM: On your recommendation  I downloaded the Maule -- it was lot of stuff -- and tried without success to get it into FS4000. I gave up and deleted it in frustration. I'll give it another try when I master this download thing so thanks for the tutorial link.  My problem -- as is obvious -- is that I really know very little about computers and almost nothing about flight sim but I am working to correct that.  For instance, my computer will not perform system restore and I have spent hours on the phone with Microsoft and Norton trying to correct the problem. Well, enough of this. Thanks for the advice.   The pay site you mention is Spanish, isn't it? I have seen it.

The idea is to touchdown as close to stalled and on all three points as you can.  If you do this and are straight with the runway, chances are it'll stay straight with very little assistance.  Remember - heels on the floor  .

ROM:  Thanks for the tips. Have set aside today to see if I can master some of this. My wife says Flight Sim is worse than the Sunday NFL games.   She says at least pro football has a season that ends!

Denis
I beleive that olderndirt is from Washington state, I am a little more North than that on Vancouver Island BC Canada.
If you enjoy flights around Socal there are plenty of scenery upgrades available for that area (Fozzer's specialty )......Did you check out the Carenado Mooney? My day to day single flyer is their C182Q.

Not sure if you've visited here, www.blueskyscenery.com but it's worth a look.  Some really nice western US sceneries and it's freeware.

ROM
One of my favorite cross countries is SEA - YVR - YYJ and back.  Been on the ground in Victoria several times - beautiful city, as is Vancouver.  How does your payware C182 compare to the default version on FS9?  It's a good instrument platform so I use it as my default 'create a flight' plane, having dropped the three passengers and baggage.  Makes it a little more lively.

Think I'll give it a try - can't resist free.  Also trying to dream up something credible to tell my bride when I spring for that SF260.

olderndirt wrote on May 4^th, 2009 at 6:48pm:


good luck with that
your probably best to just intercept the visa bill that month 

I dont have that plane , but a buddy of mine does, and its reeeally nice....in FS9 it's only got a right seat, which I found uncomfortable, but the FSX version you can sit either left or right.

Gentlemen: As I tell my wife, buying a plane or a yoke & pedal system for FS is far cheaper than buying a bottle of Haig & Haig  or a new Pontiac, Lord rest its soul. As most of you guys know by this time, I am a rank novice  so I am concentrating learning the basics of this program rather than luxuriating in downloads and purchase of new airplanes. Although I'm deeply grateful for all the suggestions and advice you give me. I'm keeping a file of these recommendations for later use. Right now I still wrestle with  both FS and the computer & its mysteries.

ROM: My parents, who were both Dubliners, retired to Vancouver but passed away shortly after they relocated there. The few times I visited  my mother would take me to "tea" in some quaint hotel that might easily have been brought, stone by stone, from the Cotswalds. There was an Agatha Christy-type at every table scoffing up little rolls with mountains of clotted cream on them.

This thread started on a faulty, Mooney tachometer... now I think we need to check Fozz's airspeed-indicator..

How did this thread become sooo big

I looked at it in the board

Fozzer wrote on May 5^th, 2009 at 8:18am:




It's almost as big as the 'What song are you listening too?' Thread

FOZZ: I'll watch for you. I can see the islands out my window.  I'm going over today in the  Cessna aerobat.

Denis
The flap indicater on this 150 is up on the left hand door piller (in cars its called an A piller)

I don't Fozzer uses this particular 150..........

That is the indicator. The control for the elec. flaps is located to the right of the mixture control (half hidden by the right yoke), an up/down momentary toggle.

Dave

Romflyer wrote on May 5^th, 2009 at 12:01pm:


Rom....many years ago, someone gave me the "fix" for those scratched/cloudy windows...(lost it!).... but I don't generally use that 150...

Maybe Den might like it though...?

Yokes?....nasty things!...get in the way!...You can see why I prefer to use my trusty Joystick... ... ... ...!

Paul......and that's no Yoke ....Joke!.....

PS  You're a little low on your approach in that photo. LOL   (Just being a smartass to cover my initial embarrassment at not spotting the indicator)  But probably that's not you flying that plane.

I knew someone was gonna poke at me about that 

 

Quote:


Touch down on the grass, make that first left turnoff then you don't have to roll all the way to the end  .

Good morning everyone. As usual, have a few Q's I hope you can help with. I tried to download a version of the Piper Cub featured on this site's home page today and, when I tried to install,  got a window message saying the "application couldn't be installed because the AIR file is damaged".  They then suggest I contact the author for a new AIR. I would  do this except that I haven't the vagueist notion  what an AIR is and who its author might be. Second Q is re the Cessna 150. The airspeed guage on my model is unreadable. Very blurred and small and can't be read even with a magnifying glass.  I'm  guessing this is common to all downloaded models and my Q is, is it? Can  it possible be clarified?  Any response will be appreciated.
Off topic, I had a doctor buddy to the house last night and he tried the sim for the very first time.  After crashing the 150 on landing he said the sim provides an excellent cardiovascular workout. Maybe not as good a a 5K run, but good.