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The initial aircraft we will put up is the the Rolls Royce Engine variant. We will make available the PW and GE variants AFTER we release the RR version. Seeing as there is quite a lot of work involved with the programming for each variant, these will be payware upgrades. During the week is DC-3/Saab and "other" related work duties. Weekends are Boeing work. A nearly completed Rolls Royce RB211 Engine...

I have been given the all clear to finally announce this. A few months ago, I was in talks with Nick from XPFW about a possible collaboration. As many of you may or may not know, XPFW were making a 747-400. The project has turned into a rather major workload and it is unreasonable to finish it to a high standard and to make it freely downloadable. So, we have all decided to make a package Boeing release. We have actually been working on this for a while and the 747-200/747-400 can be purchased as a package or individually. It is a rather large undertaking and there are at least 5 of us working on this project. For this reason, I have decided (my other bit of news) to finish the Saab once the Sundowner is finished, then move straight to the 747-200 while ocassionally working on the Hawker 4000. I think the mid sized jet market is getting a little full for now. So, for any questions, comments, etc...please feel free to post them. Both projects are quite far along at the present time and we are hoping to have at least the 742 released before the end of the year. The 747-400, sometime early in the new year. And some screens...

Cheers, guys. Appreciated. Theo's going to have fun.

Cool vid!

Setting up the BK There is no right way or wrong way, I have just listed the adjustments and changes I’ve made, in the hope it may show others that there is a way to get the most out of the BK. Equipment This is purely down to individual choice whether you use a twist-grip joystick, or a dedicated and expensive setup, or whether you use a conventional rc usb-controller as I do. Each has its benefits and disadvantages. My own experience is that twist-grip joysticks are not necessarily the easiest way to learn to fly helis. "X-Mouse Button Changer" and your Mouse Many of the settings within the BK117 can be more easily operated from your mouse, if you have a mouse with the amount of buttons most seem to come with today. Most decent mice/mouses/mices have 5 buttons – that is, your conventional left and right buttons, plus a scroll wheel which can also be pressed down to click, and also two side buttons. This type of mouse can easily be programmed (if Windows OS) so that the buttons can be mapped to do specific things in X-Plane. http://www.highrez.c...ttonControl.htm Using a free program called X-Mouse Button Changer I can have my mouse do the following: Left click – as normal Right button – now toggles Spot View Scroll wheel click - toggles between 3D cockpit and 2D door panel (Ctrl+O) Two side buttons – now used for + (zoom in) and – (zoom out) Meaning I can use the mouse inside the cockpit, zoom in and click on things without moving my hand off the mouse, and without needing to press any keyboard keys. There is an advantage to this, see below. Keyboard Shortcuts In the manual for the BK, Nils recommends setting Ctrl+1 as the keyboard shortcut for engine no 1 starter and Ctrl+2 for engine no 2 starter. The problem with this is that once you press the Ctrl key with anything else, your mouse is then locked into position all the while that Ctrl key is pressed, meaning if you want to zoom in and check on a gauge while the engine’s starting, then you’ll have to wait until the engine is running and you’ve let go of the Ctrl key. You can see from the following shot that it's not easy to see the white dots on the N1 gauge; There is a better way. Program a different key to Toggle Engine #1 Starter and Toggle Engine #2 Starter. I don’t tend to use the Q,W,E, or R keys for viewing in a 3D cockpit, so I found that by programming Q and E for Toggle Engine #1 & 2 Starters, I only have to press just one of those keys to start the engines. By not using the Ctrl key I can now move the mouse around the cockpit and zoom in while the engine is starting. This is particularly important when starting the engines because you have to press in the starter (in my case Q) and hold it until the N1 gauge moves to the first white dot. At that point you move the throttle/control lever to Idle while still holding the starter button (Q). Now, if you’re trying to start the engine using Ctrl+1, you’ll find it hard to see the N1 gauge and you certainly can’t zoom in on it until the engine is running. Here I show the settings I have programmed into Keys & Equipment for mine. The sliders aren’t that important, they just make it easier to access opening the doors without going into the 2D panel. Shift+ESC and Shift F1 to Shift F4 operate the doors. Where the sliders are important is with regard to the landing light switch. Currently you switch on the landing light via its switch on the throttle/collective lever. However, aiming the light around at night is virtually impossible using the 4-way button below it. As a result, I use that same switch to turn the lights on/off, but as you’ll see I’ve programmed U and J on the keyboard for up/down and H and K for left/right. The means that if you’re hovering at night you can move the landing light around to see where you are, or see what you want to land on. Shift ESC toggles Clamshell (rear) doors Shift F1 toggles Pilot's door Shift F2 toggles Pilot side rear door Shift F3 toggles Passenger side front door Shift F4 toggles Passenger side rear door Shift F5 toggles Light switch (as does L) Shift F6 toggles Engine Test Guard Shift F7 toggles Fuel Guard for Engine #1 Shift F8 toggles Fuel Guard for Engine #2 Shift F9-F10 unused Note, to open doors using Shift ESC & Shift F1-F5 means temporarily disabling CustomSBDatarefs004 and HangarOps in Plugin Manager (animated flags & hangar door opening). You also may want to program F1 for "engines/throttle_down", and F2 for "engines/throttle_up". This way, you can use F2 to bring both engines up from Idle to Run as a pair instead of moving the control levers individually with the mouse.

Still a work in progress.

Gentlemen, Things have been VERY busy for Theo and myself. Mostly for me, as there has been "other" work I have had to take care of (Contract work can be very handy for some extra pocket money) as well as consulting for the Saab 340 and waiting for some more detailed photos of the DC-3. In that time, Theo hasn't had much to do, other than getting proficient at Gizmo and implementing some highly detailed code into the 747-400. Instead of frying his brain with constant programming, and after I went over some of the cockpit of the 747-400, I had him do some texturing for some of the panels of the 747-400. So far, we have the Hydraulics and Bleed Air systems just about fully coded, including the link between them. The Demand Pumps on Hydraulic Systems 1 & 4 are operated by the Bleed Air from the engines while systems 2 & 3 are Electrically operated. Also, Bleed Air from the engines supply Air Pressure into the Hydraulic Fluid reservoirs and this has also been programmed. The Auxiliary Pump will also be coded to run from the Electrical System. All this code will be used and, where applicable, modified to work with the 747-200. However, we're taking it one at a time and our number one priority is to get the Saab 340A out first, followed by the DC-3 while continuing development on the 747-400 and 747-200 respectively. We'll be posting a few screenshots of different areas of the various panels to start showing some progress in the coming weeks. In the meantime...