A4 Skyhawk Msfs

[Fidelia Boldul]

Assumeyou're using the standard version of MSFS. In which case, no, it would need a complete rebuild of the aircraft file. I understand there is a version of the C172 with the older instrument panel in the Deluxe version - but you need to buy the whole DeLuxe package again, you can't just upgrade. (Wonder how many folk have regretted just going for the standard MSFS version?)

Funny pricing model based on which aircraft you can fly, and yet, no matter what version you have you can add more aircraft. So the price differentiation was very artificial, as all versions can eventually have lots of extra aircraft and scenery except for the "special" ac like the 172 with steam gauges. They and they alone will eventually separate those that spent more or less at the start.

Honestly, this is a poor example of price discrimination, a standard practice to offer a lower price for people who will never pay full price. Good examples are lower bus fare for students, bad example is various versions of flight sim, which after several years will be, for all intents and purposes, identical, but those that paid more can have a classic 172. So silly, as I'll bet a std gauges 182 will show up, as well as the other way with a c140 taildragger.

It makes me think this was the first time Asobo tried to establish such a pricing. Remember how MS did the same thing, but smarter, when they provided the sdk only for the higher price. That made sense. No one could obsolete the need for an sdk, for those who wanted to do dev work.

But a nice 172??? That's supposed to make me spend more? Cmon...this is the first version of flight sim in which I even use the default aircraft. The french versions of skyhawk type performance ac are fine for now.

Having said all that, this sim is the best ever for ga flying. Flew yesterday from Boeing field to Olympian at 4pm with live weather. So realistic as to be amazing, having made that flight many time in real life.

The standard 172 does have a conventional localizer gauge so I'm guessing that the radio tuning for COM & NAV is what you don't like? I agree that it's a little weird tuning the radios on those Garmins, but after just a couple of minutes it's pretty easy.

Yes, it does have a conventional localizer, and I thought it wasn't working, even though I had dialed in the localizer frequency on my Logitech radio panel--in this case 108.30 for R20/2 at Watsonville. This afternoon, however, I took a closer look at the panel to confirm that the localizer frequency that I'd physically dialed on the Logitech panel was displayed on the sim panel, and it was. Then, squinting, I saw the buttons above the NAV frequency display and realized that the Garmin was set on GPS instead of NAV, so I mouse-clicked NAV and the vertical line on the localizer immediately shifted left, which it was supposed to, because I was still idling at the entrance to R20, left of the runway centerline. So, all fixed!

By the way, Cavulife, as I was coming around for my first of three successful (woo-woo!) practice landings at Watsonville this afternoon, I saw your ID in the nameplate displayed for a Cessna 172 that was parked near R27. Were you just hanging out? I parked my plane next to yours, but I didn't see you. ;-)

As for those landings, the first two were long; I came in too high and ate up most of the runway before I touched down. But the last one was almost on the money, only a bit too much so, since I touched down before the hash marks.

Thanks. I noticed that you can open up separate windows for components of the instrument panel. But as I use TrackIR, I'm able to look at them more closely by leaning in, and if that isn't sufficient, I can combine leaning in with zooming in with my mouse. I'd rather not open up a window for part of the panel, because the window could obscure the rest of the panel and interfere with my ability to scan all the instruments, plus the horizon more or less simultaneously.

From what I remember from messing avout with FSX, it wasn't too difficult to remove or add things to a panel. I think there was a program called Panel Maker' to make it easier. Hopefully in time, we will get a program like this to simply drag and drop the Garmin out of the 172 and put the 152 radio stack in its place. I would also like to add a DME to the 152 panel.

Must be that the plane was still parked there after you ended your flight. I noticed that when I parked next to it, it turned kinda ghostly. Maybe I'll "see" you in San Jose. I think Watsonville is a good place to practice landing any GA plane, up to corporate jets. (GraniteRock, a locally based construction outfit, had a Cessna Citation based in Watsonville, back when I was a reporter for the Watsonville paper. The airport manager at the time was also their pilot, as I recall.) The Watsonville runways are less-forgiving and more challenging targets than say, the wider runways at KSJC or KSFO.

By the way, with your interest in aviation, did you ever go to the annual Watsonville Fly-In? I covered it for the newspaper a couple of times. One time in the late '70s, I witnessed a crash at that event during a short-takeoff contest. The pilot took off too soon and climbed too abruptly, stalling the plane. What I remember most vividly was seeing the plane turn slowly on its longitudinal (?) axis before nosing over and slamming into the runway. It looked like the engine/prop was turning the plane instead of the other way around. Fortunately, there was no fire or explosion. Perhaps the pilot had the presence of mind to cut the fuel when he realized he wasn't going to make it. He and his passenger suffered serious injuries.

I notice yu are commenting on TRACK IR ... I use it with latest MSFS 2020, and seem to note that the Hat switch for exmple no longer works, at least 80% of the time. I can no longer look left or right, or magnify the TrackIR position by using that POV button. Other features seem to go away as well - all related to viewing the cockpit, ,and use of camera functions?

Is there something I am missing? I noted that the Settings in CAMERA Setup within MSFS seemed to be critical and aggravatingly complex. And the camera definitions change within the menus. Kinda easy to identify and fix ? for most over 18 ers. I digress...

I have no problem using the hat switch with or without TrackIR. Sometimes I use it to recenter the instrument panel in TrackIR (somethng I only realized I could do with it). I have more than 50 flight hours in MSFS 2020 now and I still don't understand how to use the camera in external view, and been too occupied with learning to fly better to bother understanding how to use it. I can use the hat switch to zoom in on instrument panels while using TrackIR, which I've found is sometimes preferable to leaning in to look at them more closely. I have been finding TrackIR a distraction when on final approach. I'll be 100-50 yards from the runway, when I'll suddenly find myself looking at the plane's ceiling, or out the left-hand window, and I have to jerk my head to look at the cockpit again. I'm not sure why this happens. It may be because the IR camera is above the level of my hat. I guess I should lower my monitor a bit, but then the two-panel instrument stack on top of my flight yoke would conceal part of the screen. So I haven't tried that. The simpler solution to this problem, I've found, is to go to the camera menu and turn off TrackIR on final. I also find that useful when I need to fiddle with dials on the Garmin G1000 MFD screen. TrackIR is good for seeing where an airport runway is when you're flying a landing pattern. Otherwise, it's very nice for just sightseeing, especially when the plane's on autopilot.

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