durangoflyer

Hello! I apologize for not responding to your posts on my Moving Map Tool. I have not checked this forum in a long time. I still use the program from time to time, but most recently I started playing around with one of the iPad programs that does roughly the same thing. The iPad takes up less space than the laptop on my desk anyway. I did end up adding zoom buttons on the main screen to quickly move the eye level in the Google Earth. It is Windows 32/64 only and I have only tested it in Windows 7. I will look into making it an install package along with some instructions for usage if anyone would like to try it.

Good write up, thanks. It really helped me to have already learned to fly radio control helicopters years ago, but I am forming the new muscle memory using the joystick and pedals in XP10 vs an RC radio transmitter sticks. Hovering is time consuming to learn, but I think transitions in and out of forward flight take a long time to get right. Coming in to land after flying around in forward flight is all about the approach. Being able to fly a helicopter and land on oil rigs in XP10 is very rewarding!

Thanks for your input. Not many people flying helicopters and even fewer that are setting up more realistic controls for them, so it is good to hear from you. I recently purchased a racing wheel and foot pedals for Dirt3 and saw the plugin that allows you to use racing pedals as yaw (fools X-plane into mapping them from brakes to yaw) and it works very well. I did a practice session last night and it sure beats twisting the joystick. I like the fact I can rest my heels on the deck of the pedals, but they are not realistic in that you can press both pedals at the same time. When you press one pedal on the Combat Pedals, does the other one come back towards you by force like a real helicopter?

I am working on my XP10 flight controls to make them more realistic for helicopter flight. I have been looking at pedals (using the twist motion on the joystick for now) and have made several observations about what is available out there. Ch Pro Pedals: I used to own these years ago on FLY!, but never tried helicopters. The fact that your whole foot has to sit on each pedal kind of bothers me. These are cheap and last a long time. I found a mod video that might make these an affordable way to go. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxWtyIQ1Wn4 Saitek Pro Pedals: Never tried these, but they look like the same design as the CH ones where your feet have to sit on the platforms. Saitek Pro Combat Pedals: These are my top pick as they let you rest your heels on the platform and I think would feel the best for helicopter flight. They also seem very beefy and have metal parts. The new Cessna branded ones with black plastic seem to be similar. These are upwards of $175 US or more and are more than I want to spend. Anything else I have seen was way out of my price range

I see them once in a while (when I am looking for them). I have my traffic set at the Siberia setting, too many objects and lots of roads.

Hi Chris, No third party scenery, just the stock airports that came on XPX discs. I have found quite a few, but the latest was ABQ. It is usually the front skids that go in. Could it be something with the BK117 file too?

I seem to be running into this problem all over. I land in the BK117 only to find the helicopter tilts over into the ground and crashes! One time I was taxing the Cirrus Jet and it got stuck in the taxiway like it was in two feet of mud. Really disappointing after making a great flight and landing to have this happen. Anyone else seeing this? Is there a setting I can fix this with?

I would really love to see someone do the HH-60JJayhawk USCG.

I would like to see a Eurocopter Astar AS350 with a photo realistic 3D cockpit. Several liveries including law enforcement and heli skiing would be really nice.

I use this all the time now and it is working really nice. Several things I plan to work on before I share this: 1. More robust UDP functionality. I need to put more error trapping among other things. 2. Put a slider control on the KML setting for the Eye Level so you can change the height quickly.

Calgary to Banff in the BK117.

I am using TrackIR 4 hardware with the latest software in XP10 on both fixed wing and helicopters and I love it in general, but I am finding it hard to "stay in the aircraft" sometimes. What I mean is that I will move a little too far sometimes and go right through the floor and outside usually during some critical moment. I remember reading about a utility/plugin called PilotView. Is this what I need to set limits perhaps on a per aircraft basis that would restrict how far I can move in the cockpit? Can this be achieved another way?

Like the topic says.... I wanted a way to view my current position in XP10 without having to pause the simulation to open the local map in the sim, so I created my own custom application to grab the UDP data gram and build a KML file that is read by Google Earth on a timer. I can specify the eye level for the zoom and provide a custom icon for the aircraft position. I run this on my laptop over a wireless link sitting next to my XP10 monitor. Development was done in Visual Studio Express 2010 as a WPF Tray Application in C#. I use IPEndPoint and UDPClient objects on an interval timer to fetch the data and a BinaryReader to parse it out into Lat and Long for the file which is just an XML File. Google Earth is setup with a new Network File pull to the location on a interval of 2-5 seconds. Sectional Overlay: I found a KML link file called Aero_Charts that allows me to toggle a sectional chart on and off for my location. If anyone is interested in trying this tool, I am close to having something to distribute.