maestrogn

Tom: All is well in Graz. Just did a series of approaches from various direction and the airport is exactly where it should be. Thank you so much!!!! Happy Holidays. G

TKyler: Thank you so much for that plateau fix. Graz airport is now exactly where it should be and I did several takeoffs and landings to try it from different directions. I really appreciate your help and it is so good to be able to fly the scenery I'm actually in now. Happy Holidays! mGN

Tom: Thank you so much for that plateau report. We just got back from the opera here in Graz and are going to bed at midnight. So, I'll get into that file tomorrow morning and attempt the fix. All best ... Garyth

Tom K. Perhaps I am having a bout of refrigerater syndrom (where you tell your wife that you cannot find something and she moves one item and there is it), but I the scenery discussion is currently blocked. So I don't know where you meant to ask the question. I went to X-Scenery.com thinking that was where you meant for me to post. It gives me a tip to use a "forum link" above, but I cannot find the referenced link. So, in the meantime, I will state my problem. I'm visiting Graz Austria for the next month and am flying xp in my laptop. I downloaded Graz airport scenery that was converted over from FSX and made available on X-Plane.org (I downloaded it yesterday). The scenery is quite accurate and enjoyable (and, at the correct altitude). However, If I take off and fly a circle route to get on the approach back to this airport to land on runway 35C, the entire airport is sitting on a 4500 foot high plateau rising above the surrounding countryside. My question is, is there anyway for me to correct this? I've not tried yet to fly there from another airport to see if this plateau still appears, but it definitely does when I leave and return to Graz. Because of the blockage of the forums, I cannot contact the person who did the conversion. Thanks for your earlier answer. mGN

Thank you, Tom K. I'll go there now. mGN

So when will it be safe? Is it being worked on because I would love to post a question for the scenery folks. mGN

Cameron: An update -- bought the full XP 10 and have all controls working and fps is very good. Now, I'm takling the complex problem of how to get better scenery in my favorite areas -- a whole other issue! Again, thanks for all your help. mGN

Thank you all for the help on this question: Kaphias – thank you so much for that hint about plane maker. I looked at that place and, lo and behold, the transition speed is set at 30 kn. So something in the interlock between X-Plane and the Challenger 300 is overriding that down to the 15 kn level. If any of you out there know another place in the programming where that number might be operable, I'd love to know it. So far, my ground steering set up experiment is as follows (please keep in mind that this is a work in progress and I am refining it as new situations crop up – but even in this configuration things are much more realistic) Tiller steering = spare axis on the CH yoke Rudder steering is assigned to the numbers (on the keyboard) 1 (left), 2 (center), and 3 (right). That way, I can keep my right hand on the throttle and use my left hand on the keyboard to steer with the rudder during the takeoff roll. I use the tiller steering to go onto the runway and put the plane on the centerline and then switch to the keyboard to steer with the rudder as I spool up the thrust. By the way, I sent a message to Ian over at X-Plane.org (Ask the Challenger 300 pilot…). Here is his extremely helpful answer to my questions about handling the 300 on the ground. "1. The real airplane has +/- 7 degrees of nose gear steering travel with the rudder pedals. Anything beyond that requires the tiller. During takeoff, the left hand is on the yoke and the right is on the power levers - no hand is on the tiller so there is no "transition" (this is different from many airplanes I have flown in the past). There is plenty of nose wheel steering authority through the pedals to keep the airplane straight even if there is an engine failure." "2. The rudder is big and quite effective. It starts to help early and is very effective by 80kts. A better question might be "When is the rudder effective enough to control the airplane in the event of an engine failure" (without nose gear steering). That is VMCG or Velocity Minimum Control Ground and it's 111kts in the Challenger 300. Because the Challenger 300 can be a bit of a hand full if you loose an engine at VMCG, they have raised V1 (decision speed) to a minimum of 116kts (VMCG +5) to give us a bit more control authority for the takeoff or abort."Finally, I felt so stupid after I realized that, with the better modeling in X-Plane, of course if I tried to steer with the CH-yoke it would work the ailerons! After that realization, this effort to gain tiller and rudder steering gives me much more control and realism. mGN

OK, I had some time early this morning to experiment with the tiller steering. Here is the report: I had one more axis left on the CH Yoke and I assigned that to tiller steering. It works. At 15 kph while taxiing, the sim switches you to yoke steering (a little low, it might be more realistic to have the switch over at 20? -- any real 300 pilots out there who know?) Once the sim moves you to yoke steering, it is not with the rudder, but with the ailerons (which is why, when approaching Vr, the plane can actually try to roll (bank) while still on the ground. THAT is an unrealistic oversight in the code. I hunted through all the menus and could not find a way to have the plane rudder steer instead of with ailerons. Does anybody know how this can be changed? So, we can make things more realistic with a yoke while on the ground. However the 15 kph switchover is unrealistic. Max taxi speeds vary from plane to plane, company to company, but most routinely allow 20 k on a straight line and 10 k on turns while on the ground. Is there anyway to alter that number in X-Plane 10? mGN

Here's a thought -- is there any way to reassign my mouse wheel for this? I fly with the CH Yoke, Saitek Throttle Quad and the Saitek Multipanel. Having something else in front of me that looks like only Darth Vader's mother could love doesn't exactly appeal to me. Two other possibilities just just occured to me: assigning the pitch wheel on the CH Yoke for this, or, using the flap lever on the Quad ... it feels like it has the same detent that the throttle levers have -- going below that detent spot at the bottom sends out a button signal that might be reassignable to the nose wheel steering. That's the way the reverse on the throttles for the Quad works - I'll poke around this stuff on Sunday (tomorrow is a sailing day -- for real). I'm on such a steep learning curve here that I reading mounds of material and easily forget where I read something. Somewhere, I think I read of a way to use the numberical keypad 4 and 6 keys to steer the nose. Sound familiar? In the meantime, if you have any thoughts, they will be greatfully received. mGN P.s. Doesn't anybody make a basic vanilla joystick anymore? I don't need the thing to make coffee and give massages!

No, Chris, I don't. This afternoon the problem "fixed itself" -- so, I'll keep a watch on it and keep you informed. I was able to finally save a situation. How I wish you could type out a title like "EWR dep 22L CRJ 300" and not have to type the whole thing all over again in order to overwrite the file with improvements in the learning curve. I've taken to calling the home runway situation simply, "1". When I have more, I gues I'll have to keep an equivalency chart that will have "1 = EWR dep 22L CRJ 300." mGN

When I try to save or load a situation in the latest beta XP 10, the situations menu comes up but won't accept input. Does anybody else have this problem and should I file a bug report? mGN

Thanks to Cameron, et al, I have XP10 running well with the Challenger 300. One concern that I couldn't find in my Internet searches ... When I am steering on the ground (i.e with weight on the landing gear), the ailerons are working so, during a landing, when I make little corrections the plane tries to bank. I don't have rudder pedals (nor, frankly, do I want another piece of equipment at this point). So, is there a set up that will let me truly nose-wheel steer under a certain speed? BTW, I know that the nose-wheel steering toggle doesn't do what I want the airplane to do. Thanks for the help. mGN

Thanks Cameron, that may do the trick. I've had no luck getting it to work right with the 74 in the XP10 demo. My full global will be here in the next several days and then I'll load in my new CRJ 300 (that has an A/P more like I'm used to). At that point, I'll really put the Saitek box through its paces. Thanks to all for a nice, warm welcome to the forum! mGN

Thanks everyone. chris k: I do have something to ask. No matter how I googled it, I could not find support for my Saitek Multipanel. Do you know of anything past that driver for the Mac side in 2009? I'd love to have the utilit8y of that panel working with the X-Plane autopilot. Got my Yoke and Throttle Quad working fine ... now we just need the Saitek. Thanks load for the offer of help. mGN

Guy, thank you so much for the welcome and the advice. I've saved the text under an X-Plane advice and solutions folder. This has been quite a go-postal on Microsoft week -- rebuilding this machine and getting everything working has been an exercise in frustration to say the least. Now, all is working at top speed, at the right temperatures, chip and memory pass tests with flying colors, etc. I don't want to see the inside of this case for quite a while! The XP 10 disks should be here in two days. I'll install those and then the Bombardier and go flying in what feels like a far more realistic sim. mGN

Dear Cameron: Please accept my apologies for my faulty logic and assumptions about how the complex X-plane should work on my conputer. When you mentioned the little amount of vram, it alerted me that, in my rebuild of this computer, I had neglected to install my NVIDIA video card. This morning I installed it with the latest drivers downloaded from NVIDIA and, what do you know, X-plane runs perfectly fine. So, thanks to you, I now have the correct video card installed, the computer runs great, and I just ordered the global X-Plane 10 along with the Bombardier 300 Captain's edition and cannot wait for those to arrive so I can get out of the 74 and see my home scenery. Thank you so much for your patience! mGN

Cameron, thank you so much for your help. I'm only now, thanks to your replies, realizing the difference between vram and ram and had no idea of the severe limitation on the onboard video of the mobo. I have a dedicated video card (and NVDIA GeForce GTX 500 ti) that I had not yet installed and will do so and try X-:Plane again with the 2 gigs of vram that has and see what is happening. If you don't mind the two more questions, I can understand why the sever limitation of vram would make the fps so slow, but how would that figure into controls not working (like gear up). I will still write to Laminar even if my fps go up with the NVIDIA card plugged in. Do I need individual drivers from CH for the Yoke and Saitek for the Quad, or, is that all supposed to be taken care of in X-Plane's architecture? Again, thanks so much for the help -- it is helping me to learn more about how to make this thing work. mGN

Will do Carmeron. I don't think that the machine is thre problem because I can run Dragon Naturally Speaking, a notorious machine hog and it runs at about 98% accuracy and right with my dictation. It baffles me, so, I'll contact the company.

One more question -- when I'm on the settings page for the controls, all of the inputs coming from the yoke and throttle quad show up in those horizontal windows. They all show the appropriate graphic for the motion of the levers. So, if they all show up there, why don't they work when I go back to the plane?

Also, I just checked and I have the demo 10.05 rl -- is there any demo beta to see if reworked ati drivers will help? Or, does the full version work -- I don't want to shell out any money on that chance, I think you'll understand. So, I'd like to get the demo flying. I did hook up my laptop to the Yoke and Quad and could fly and land the 74 in the demo -- mystery as to why it won't work on the desktop!!! mgn

chris k and rjm22: Thanks for your replies. I was rebuilding the desktop and installing Win 7 (quite a journey) during the last several days, hence my absence. I have the latest version of XP 10 demo and still have the same symptoms. Also, please note that, because I didn't receive any emails saying that this topic had replies (is there a toggle for that?), I opened a new topic last night with a lot more information. This is very baffling. mgn

Hi, Cameron. The video is currently coming off the motherboard, so I don't know where it gets its RAM. I have a G force card that I can install. As for performance of the sim, I saw the 1 fps when the demo first ran (that down through the clouds to the airport and the 74 bit). The screen changes once a second (fps could be faster, but that's what it looks like. Because I cannot get throttles to work, I haven't seen the real performance. Right now, the plane will move down the runway very slowly (at idle thrust?), again, at that visual 1 frame every second. Yes, I've checked on the controls setup and all the visuals move when I move the various controls with the yoke and the quad. What interests me here is that some of the assigned controls work -- flaps, spoilers, roll on the yoke. But, nothing else. So, when I move them while looking at the setup screen, they are clearly being read by the program (the bars move as expected). Also, note that the keyboard controls don't work ... F1 and F2 do nothing to the throttles. I have reinstalled the program on a second HDD in the machine; same performance (or lack thereof). I'm sure you find this as baffling as I do. I thank you for your help.

Also, what would vram have to do with no controls working? mGN

Don't know, Cameron. Here is an install log if that helps. Windows 6.1 (build 7601/2) Service Pack 1 This is a 64-bit version of Windows. CPU type: 586 Physical Memory (total for computer): 4025671680 Maximum Virtual Memory (for X-Plane only): 2147352576 CPU 0: AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor Speed (mhz): 2500 CPU 0: AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor Speed (mhz): 2500 CPU 0: AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor Speed (mhz): 2500 CPU 0: AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor Speed (mhz): 2500 X-System folder:'', case sensitive=0 WGL_COLOR_BITS_ARB 32.000000 WGL_RED_BITS_ARB 8.000000 WGL_GREEN_BITS_ARB 8.000000 WGL_BLUE_BITS_ARB 8.000000 WGL_ALPHA_BITS_ARB 8.000000 WGL_DEPTH_BITS_ARB 24.000000 WGL_STENCIL_BITS_ARB 8.000000 WGL_SAMPLE_BUFFERS_ARB 0.000000 WGL_SAMPLES_ARB 0.000000 WGL_SWAP_METHOD_ARB 8234.000000 OpenGL Vendor : ATI Technologies Inc. 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