Duchess DME?

[Dozer]

I'm thinking of buying the Duchess, as the panel looks amazing. I used to spend hours in Microsoft FS2004 flying around in aircraft like the HS.748, flying IFR on VATSIM along the airways, but that was years ago. Would like to get back into that kind of simming, using X-Plane because FS9's 2d panels look awful now. But I have a reservation:

Does the Duchess have a DME gauge?

It's quite important, because without one you can't really fly IFR. And I haven't seen anything obviously resembling a DME output anywhere on the panel from the screenshots I've seen.

Does the Garmin 430 unit have DME functionality?

Also, is there a way for the end user to remove the Garmin device from the panel? I don't like simulated computers much; I have some unexplained desire to make the panel look like it's from the 1970s/80s and big blue glowing simulated TFT screens detract from that a bit! Very new to X-Plane so this is probably a newb question...

[Dozer]

Nevermind, I just found the manual. It does have a DME gauge, but only for VOR1. Not sure how I missed it in the screenshots - it is quite small I suppose!

Makes me all the more keen to shove the G430 off the panel though...

[Goran_M]

Nevermind, I just found the manual. It does have a DME gauge, but only for VOR1. Not sure how I missed it in the screenshots - it is quite small I suppose!

Makes me all the more keen to shove the G430 off the panel though...

Thanks for your comments re the Duchess. 

Unfortunately, there is no way to remove the Garmin without the source file for the 3D mesh.

I personally don't think the blue is that pronounced.  We made it so it was as least distracting as possible.

[Dozer]

Yep I accept that! It's just a weird personal preference of mine to have no electronics more recent than the Delco Carousel IV-A inertial navigation system (which I spent hours installing into various MSFS9 aircraft, back in the day...)

I'm purchasing the Duchess now. Thanks for the reply!

[Dozer]

And I'm not disappointed! Absolutely lovely aircraft :-D :-D :-D

[Goran_M]

Yep I accept that! It's just a weird personal preference of mine to have no electronics more recent than the Delco Carousel IV-A inertial navigation system (which I spent hours installing into various MSFS9 aircraft, back in the day...)

I'm purchasing the Duchess now. Thanks for the reply!

Great to see you're enjoying it.  Feel free to leave a review on the X-Aviation web site. 

;D

If you like the Delco Carousel INS, you're going to love my other project that we're going to continue after the Saab is finished.

http://forums.x-pilot.com/index.php?topic=426.msg14248#msg14248

[Dozer]

Yep I accept that! It's just a weird personal preference of mine to have no electronics more recent than the Delco Carousel IV-A inertial navigation system (which I spent hours installing into various MSFS9 aircraft, back in the day...)

I'm purchasing the Duchess now. Thanks for the reply!

Great to see you're enjoying it.  Feel free to leave a review on the X-Aviation web site. 

;D

If you like the Delco Carousel INS, you're going to love my other project that we're going to continue after the Saab is finished.

http://forums.x-pilot.com/index.php?topic=426.msg14248#msg14248

I think I will :-)

My favourite FS9 plane was the Dreamfleet 727. I can't use it any more though; after seeing Nil's BK117's 3d gauges, everything I'd loved in FS9 looked like a bunch of sprites bumping together at 16fps over a 1024x768 bitmap (which is exactly what the FS9 2d panels are). Unfortunately haven't got the hang of bludgeoning the X-plane camera around a 3d cockpit fluidly enough to be able to reach all the parts of a modern high-quality X-plane cockpit (which was easily done in FS9's 2d cockpits with clickspots and key shortcuts to display the various auxillaries). By the time your 742 is ready though, I should have it figured out!

[Goran_M]

CTRL-O to enter VC mode

Move the mouse around to look around the cockpit

Q or E to stop mouse panning. 

Q or E again to manually pan left or right respectively

PGE UP to move forward

PGE DN to move back

+ or - to zoom in or out

left arrow to move left

right arrow to move right

up arrow to move up

down arrow to move down

It gets easy once you get the hang of it.

CTRL O to get back to 2D mode or simply press W to snap back.

[Dozer]

Ah, thanks Goran!

The problem for me is, using the X-Plane default camera controls (or should that be stock camera controls), if I'm in your upcoming 742 cockpit and I want to look at the overhead panel, I'll have to carefully pan the camera upwards to get the camera into the position where I can the relevant switches. Depending on where my default camera position is, I might have to slew the camera too. This takes time, and it's a feedback process where I have to think about moving the camera (even if it soon becomes subconscious). And to look at the FE's panels or the pedestal is even more involved.

Go back six years to the best of the FS9 2d panels, in this case the Dreamfleet 727. To look at the overhead from the main panel, click on the clickspot at the top of the windscreen and it appears straightaway. Or press Shift-3, or click on the 'overhead panel' icon on the concealable array of panel shortcuts on the main panel. To get back to the main panel, click on the 'close overhead' clickspot in the upper right of the overhead panel or press Shift-3 again. It is easier and quicker to make one keypress, or click on a large concealed clickspot, than it is to labouriously pan the camera around a 3d flight deck.

I've tried using TrackIR in X-Plane (an antique first-generation unit). But it is difficult to precisely click on small switches while your head is still panning the camera!

What I'm meaning to do is to learn how Sandy Barbour's PilotView plugin's camera preset positions work, and if they can be called with keypresses. Then it would be simple to, say, move the camera to the best position for viewing and manipulating the 742 overhead, save that camera position, and bind Shift-2 (for example) to bring the camera to that position. Then, when I need to use the overhead, I can press Shift-2 and instantly do whatever it is I needed to do, then press Shift-2 or another keypress to revert the camera to whatever position it had been in before.

I'm just thinking aloud here, I'm not even suggesting that you should be working on camera controls. This is something I've been meaning to look into myself for some time now!

[Goran_M]

Once you're in "panning" view in x plane, press Q or E.  That stops the panning and locks your view to where you last were.  Then it is much easier to click what you need to click. 

To resume panning, press CTRL O again and you can move freely around the cockpit.

Goran

[Dozer]

Turns out I was still using PilotView 1.55 from last year's attempt to get into X-Plane. PilotView 1.60 has the ability to assign keypresses - I've got my Duchess set up now that pressing 1-4 will move the camera to the default position, a view of the whole panel from clock to DME, the switches under the yoke, and the autopilot panel. That's essentially what I needed (and the same system would suit three-crew flightdecks just as well). All sorted now!

[Goran_M]

Turns out I was still using PilotView 1.55 from last year's attempt to get into X-Plane. PilotView 1.60 has the ability to assign keypresses - I've got my Duchess set up now that pressing 1-4 will move the camera to the default position, a view of the whole panel from clock to DME, the switches under the yoke, and the autopilot panel. That's essentially what I needed (and the same system would suit three-crew flightdecks just as well). All sorted now!

Excellent.

Glad you got it suited to your liking.

Enjoy.

Goran