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Just a few teaser pictures for today. The cockpit for the amphibian version is fully textured now. Enjoy!

I'll try not to make this post too ponderously large, but I've got a few things to announce and I just figured I get it all done at once. I have been working on some new aircraft for X-plane for a few months now ( I say a few, but it's probably been 6 or 7 months since I first got the creative bug to work on plane for Xplane) and I thought it was about time I introduced myself to the fantastic flight sim community here and let everyone see what I've been working on. I'd love to get some feedback as well as perhaps some answers to some questions that have been plaguing me while trying to get these aircraft finished and flying in the sim. First and foremost is my RV-4, which is very near completion. However I've been confounded by the complexities of getting a fully 3D panel working and animated in X-plane. For me the easy part is the modeling. Once I started trying to make it all work in the sim, I began to have problems. I've been watching Dan Klues tutorial youtube channel incessantly, but it still doesn't quite make sense to me how the custom gauges and manipulators work. If any of you more left-brain inclined individuals would like to help me with this I would certainly appreciate it. Next is a detailed rendition of the venerable 1913 Deperdussin Monocoque Racer. The model for this is nearly complete and I also put together a new ACF file in Planemaker for it, but again I have been frustrated by issues. For some odd reason when I test the ACF in X-plane, the second the plane is loaded up on the runway, it flips insanely end over end and crashes. I made sure that all wind or weather of any kind is turned off, but I still get this issue where it flips like a flap jack from just idling on the runway. The only thing I can see that is any different in Planemaker is that there is a Red Dot at the front of the aircraft which is representing the Weight and Balance reference point. Normally this is a black dot. Lastly I've also been working on an awesome little aircraft known as the Bede-5. It's not a well known or particularly successful aircraft in terms of commercial sales, but it's such a unique little airplane and it has the distinction of being the smallest jet in the world. I'd like to make both an original propeller driven version, circa the 1970's, as well as a modernized jet powered version which I believe can still been seen on the airshow circuit even today. These will all be offered for free at Xplane.org. I would eventually like to make some Payware aircraft, but only if I feel that I have created a complete package that brings something unique to the Xplane flight sim community. Thanks for reading!

Thanks to Philipp posting these dataref's, I built my first test panel box. Here's a quick rundown. I purchased a GP-Eiz40 MAX Usb Controller, a project box and a bunch of single-pole double throw switches, LED's and pushbutton's with LED's in them. The goal was to try and build a few of the most common overhead panel buttons such as the APU buttons, 10th stage APU/LCV, ISOL and so on. Having a little background in electronics (it's been years), I was able to simulate most of what I wanted. Although my project box wasn't big enough to hold everything I wanted, such as the Packs, I was able to get most of the big ticket items. The hardest part was trying to figure out what xjoymap and button2dataref was and the relationship between them. Being a former MSFS fanatic, X-Plane is fairly new to me. I did have a few issues with the Hydraulic buttons. Switch 1, 3B and 2 where initially backwards. For example, when throwing the switch to the ON position ( 1 ), those three switches would not throw correctly. I finally figured it out and that's for another post. If anyone is interested, I can post what my button2dataref config looks like. The other issue I had is the landing lights. For the life of me I can't find any reference to the three landing lights (Left, Center and Right). It's an all or nothing which forced me to abandon that idea and reprogram my landing lights switches to Nav, Beacon and Strobe. I also couldn't find a dataref for Logo lights either. If anyone is interested in what parts I used, feel free to reply. It was a fun project and I plan on expanding this idea. Here's a quick 30 second video of it: and I'm also attaching a few pictures.