Dozer

The current version is (I think) v1.1.1, but v1.5 is very close to completion according to Tom's posts in the MU-2 Update Thread. The manual says you need to add in a healthy dose of right-roll trim before takeoff - that should help. There was a video Tom posted years ago, which I can't find anymore, showing a Mu-2 pilot taking off. The camera was attached to the copilot's seat, fixed to show the pilot, control column and instrument panel. As the aircraft rotated the pilot applied a lot of right-hand aileron - about 45°. Control-column forces are different in an aircraft than they are with a spring-loaded desktop joystick or yoke. When I'm driving my car, I don't really think consciously about how far I had to move the accelerator pedal or the steering wheel - I just move the controls automatically until the vehicle is doing what I want. It's probably the same for a MU-2 pilot - you see the aircraft beginning to roll to the left, you don't want it to roll to the left, you just automatically catch it with the yoke and maybe don't even realise how far you had to move the controls to do so. (I wonder if the MU-2's roll spoilers feel different to conventional ailerons?) edit: Now I feel silly. Your question and my answer were exactly what was asked and answered in this thread, nearly two and a half years ago. I could have saved myself some time by just quoting Tom's post above! You are using roll trim, aren't you?

I think that's illegal in the UK. I am jealous :-(

For the cargo version: a screen behind the pilot's seat would be easier than a full-blown freight interior. Don't real freight aircraft have those so stuff can't fly forwards and hit the pilot in emergency situations?

It seems the safest way to approach X-Plane is to discard as much as possible and write everything yourself I used the throttle override for the first time this week, when making a plugin which applies reverse thrust only to engines 1 and 4, not 2 and 3. (The same code could be adapted for a 727 or similar.) It's quite satisfying seeing the inboard engine gauges staying at idle while the outboards spool up for reverse thrust on touchdown! On a similar note I'm about to build my own ADF receiver code from scratch. Did you ever find that two ADF receivers is just not enough...

Likewise - if you want more proofreadership, you know where to find me!

How's it going Tom? (Can you do me a favour and imagine that I had a good enough grasp of written communication to express enthusiasm for v1.5 when it's released without any overtones of a sense of entitlement or nagging? )

I did not hear this. I'm fed up with deicing my car in the southern English winter. The temptation to exercise my UK/Oz dual nationality and flee the land of perpetual twilight for Melbourne is ever-strong. You cannot shatter my dreams by telling me I'll need to deice my car in Melbourne too

But your roads are full of ice and mooses. Neither are in abundance between Deloraine and Launceston on the Bass Highway.Come to think of it, the provisional drivers aren't as bad as those who drive 10km/hr below the speed limit on the single-lane stretches, but go up to the speed limit when there's an overtaking lane. Perhaps it's because they think it's safer because there's more space. But it means no-one can legally overtake them, and the local police have nothing better to do than set up speed traps on those roads. Broadly related note: what kind of numpty decides the legal speed limit can be specified at 5km/hr resolution? In the UK, there are exactly five legal speed limit signs: 20mph, 30mph, 40mph, 50mph, National Speed Limit (which varies per vehicle and road). In Australia it seems they allow about twenty...

Aussie learner-driver rules are complex. I'm pretty sure 'P' plates means 'provisional driver'. For their own safety, and the safety of others, new drivers must stick to a lower speed limit for the first 12 months after passing their test - something like 25km/hr. Fun times in a country where most of the long-distance roads have one lane in each direction! And they must have 'P' plates on the car. I'm half-Australian; my family all moved out there a few years ago. I'm planning to visit them this year - I could turn my UK bus-driver's licence into an Australian large vehicle licence, then turn that back into a UK truck licence Not that I have any ambition to drive trucks, but it would be nice to have the legal permit to do so...

70-litre tank implies it's not a small car.

Philipp, your cat is a terrible driver. Don't change places! I'm just glad I'm currently living less than five minute's walk from work.

We should have signs up saying "You are waiting here because there's three people ahead of you who came in because they stubbed their toes and the doctor is seeing them first"... but this is going majorly off-topic... Oh wait, no it's not, we're discussing your reaction to the autoland video. I'm sorely tempted to become That Guy and start demanding hourly status updates from the IXEG team

When I build a new PC, I might put in an old DVD drive as the permanent resting place of the necessary XP10 disk. There are probably better solutions though.

Emalice, move to England. I work in the Emergency Department (UK equivalent to ER) - treatment is free, even to foreign nationals. Downside is, for minor injuries, waiting time before seeing a doctor typically is about three hours and can be as long as eight - I don't know how that compares to private emergency treatment!

If you want nukes, I recommend Defcon. Welcome!

I had a devastating moment coming home yesterday and realising I have only five 10ohm panel-mount rotary potentiometers, when my next project clearly needs eight. I will be placing a foolishly large order now... update: foolish indeed. Ordered about £25-worth of assorted wire, and another £25 of rotary and toggle switches and 25 panel-mount 10kOhm pots, just enough to breach the £50 threshold and qualify for free shipping. Precisely half a second after pressing 'order', realised it was exclusive of VAT and the actual price to me was £60. A thousand curses on the government of John Major for signing the Maastrict Treaty of 1992, making it illegal for the UK government to remove VAT or set it to 0%. Then I realised I can't get parcels delivered to the flats I'm staying in. I'm hoping I can email them before they ship. They won't be /that/ fast I hope... The amount of money I've spent on electronics since discovering Teensy, I could have just bought a top-flight PC instead and turned up the texture resolution and read the switch legends. Instead of thinking it would be cheaper to build my own panel components. Cleverness!

Great work Kieran! I have a suggestion - have you considered using polytext for the panels? Polycount will go through the roof but apparently that's not really an issue with modern PCs. http://www.dh-aircraft.co.uk/news/files/b176dcfdac45527d2ba263bd4b490525-72.html

I have a Saitek X-52, I use one of the hat switches for elevator and aileron trim. It works well!

The amount of work you've put into this, Tom, if you'd put it into a regular job, you could have paid for flight training and a personal real MU-2 for every one of your customers!

I never really got into repaints - in fact I've only made one, and it was for the MU-2. I picked an imaginary registration "VH-XHV" and put VHXHV on the wing underside. It doesn't make a difference that it's a mirror image!

I think the race is on to see if I can complete my SEP2 autopilot console and be the first to build a Teensy-based X-Plane hardware device :-) I have a good headstart though - all the switches and LEDs are wired to the board with a temporary harness and I've written a Teensy sketch which allows me to confirm they're all working. Got four out of eleven inputs definitely working too before I had to go to work! Edit: I'm not the first! Curd Zechmeister beat me by nearly two years, integrating L-1011 avionics to X-Plane.

That's great Tom. I take it there is going to be support for Teensy-using throttle quadrant builders too...?

Fantastic Tom! Can't believe it's almost here. I may need to buy a pay-as-you-go mobile internet thing for my main PC so I can download and activate it!

The deer rapidly became invisible deer on my install. They didn't really improve my sense of immersion...

The .org users are the beta testers then?