panels and how they get in the way during landing

[Fozzer]

I've always thought those 2D panels were the most unrealistic part of FS.  Aircraft are not flown continually staring at a huge instrument panel directly in front of you. This gives the completely wrong impression & is bound to lead to bad habits if you ever take up flying in the real world. If you look at any real aircraft you will see the pilot's viewpoint is well above the panel so he can be constantly looking outside with the occasional glance down at the instruments.

Some 3rd party 2D panels feature a 'look-down' view which is probably the best that can be done with this type of panel. The next best thing is the mini-panel view that commoner mentioned.  The most realistic view possible in FS is the DVC which is the reason that 2D panels are being phased out. Not before time. IMHO
I strongly suspect that FSXI will not feature default 2D panels.

I find the the 2D Instrument Panel is unfortunately "Huge" because of all the complete information, at a quick glance, which it has to contain for operating the Aircraft in flight.

....which is nice...

Everything is at hand for instant use, without peering/scrolling around, which is handy when rapidly approaching the Runway at a fair rate of Knots!

I find it is nice to have ALL the instruments and controls I require within view on one fixed screen...
This applies particularly to my hands-on, VFR, General Aviation, Piston Prop aircraft.

Commercial Passenger Jets probably take care of themselves, automatically, I would assume?... ....!

Paul....G-BPLF... ...!

Doug...If you become the cause of the demise on 2D Instrument Panels in the Flight Sims I will be forced to come round to your place, and kill you!... [smiley=evil.gif]...!
...LOL... ... ... ...!

[Hagar]

I find the the 2D Instrument Panel is unfortunately "Huge" because of all the complete information, at a quick glance, which it has to contain for operating the Aircraft in flight.

....which is nice...

Everything is at hand for instant use, without peering/scrolling around, which is handy when rapidly approaching the Runway at a fair rate of Knots!

I would have thought that is precisely the time you want to be looking at the runway, not a panel full of instruments.

Doug...If you become the cause of the demise on 2D Instrument Panels in the Flight Sims I will be forced to come round to your place, and kill you!... [smiley=evil.gif]...!
...LOL... ... ... ...!

Don't blame me. This has been on the cards for a long time. They did away with the 2D panel in CFS3 back in 2002. I'm surprised they were still featured in FSX.

[Allen_Z]

W

CTRL+W

[Romflyer]

I havent used a 2d panel since fs98  ;)  
hey dringer there are plenty of great freeware AC out there of every size, with pretty good quality DVCs

[beaky]

[EDIT]
I meant "shift, Enter" or "Shift, Backspace" earlier...

[Romflyer]

I have one of the toggles on my Saitek AV8R set to raise and lower my eyepoint/seat and it works really well.

[RDinger]

thnx for all the replies. I tried a few landings using the APP button on the autopilot and it worked well. One question: It keeps the airplane centered but does it also descent automatically? I thought it did one time, but when I tried it again it didn't...

I know that there are several great freeware aircraft with good VC's. I downloaded a few of them and they are great. 2 Bad that many other great airplanes don't have them. Sometimes not even the correct 2d panel...but that's another story....

I will keep training on the auto-approach thing...
Thnx again!

[Paughco]

Guys:  I enjoy flying my Cessna 195 out of Arlington Airport in Washington.  Recently I discovered a pretty easy way to see the runway on landing.  All you do is simply click and drag the panel downward!  Not too far, just far enough to simulate craning your neck upward.  You still see the important instruments.  

Hope this isn't too far off topic, but how does one add instruments to the mini-panel.  I really would like to modify the mini-panel for the Learjet!  I mean, here I am breating a sigh of relief that I got the thing down from 35,000 feet without making the wings fall off, and there is the runway, way off in the distance, and I hit 'W', and up pops a mini-screen that totally blocks off the view of the runway!!  I forget if I tried moving it to the side...

Seeya
ATB

[uncleyuk]

 I found that the easiest way to raise or lower the panel for a better view of the runway upon approach is to assign eyepoint up and eyepoint down to the 3 and 4 keys on my joystick.  This can be found in the controls section of settings.

[commoner]

Hope this isn't too far off topic, but how does one add instruments to the mini-panel.  I really would like to modify the mini-panel for the Learjet!  I mean, here I am breathing a sigh of relief that I got the thing down from 35,000 feet without making the wings fall off, and there is the runway, way off in the distance, and I hit 'W', and up pops a mini-screen that totally blocks off the view of the runway!!  I forget if I tried moving it to the side...

Seeya
ATB

If you just want to move the Learjet mini panel out of the way a bit then change the position in the Panel.cfg in Window 06 to another number......0 for top left 8 for bottom right.........

[Window06]
position=0
size_mm=188,256
child_3d=1
background_color=0,0,0
ident=MINIPANEL

gauge01=Lear_45!PFD,   0, 0

To add gauges to a mini panel do just that.....copy a gauge from any main panel and paste it into the list of gauges in the mini panel..change the number to the next consecutive and move it around by changing the two numbers after the gauge which are the position on the display..if there are four numbers the last two are the size of the beast........

 ..have fun...commoner

[Paughco]

Thanks Commoner!

I have my Learjet parked permanently in the air, in the middle of the night, IFR, heading for an ILS approach into Spokane Airport.  Any time I want I can call up the program and have another go.  I read that sticky on how to do an ILS approach and it worked!!  Plus I found that the quickest way to get ILS frequencies is off the map.  

Hmm.  Now I need to add a map button and a DMW readout to the panel on my trusty Cessna 195.  I flew that thing around the Olympic Peninsula of Washington yesterday, about 2,000 feet the whole way.  

Seeya
ATB

[Boomervet]

The easiest way to allow landings using 2D panel is to selct the letter U on keyboard in your assignments section of setup for change eyepoint Up  and the letter D for Change eyepoint down. save it and fly your aircraft as normal. passing the final approach fix or when cleared for the respective visual approach, simply depress the U key, to change your eyepoint slightly higher...in a real airplane this is analogous to adjusting your seat height slightly higher. so as to be able to see over the top of the panel. the only thing you have to take into account is that changing your eyepoint higher will also give you a different visual cues for the approach....possibly causing you to fly lower on the approach than required to account for the VASI lights. You will get used to making this correction.I simply prior to take off, adjust my eyepoint so I can see well over the nose..this is especially helpful with tail draggers...like the Corsair and many of the warbirds one can add on

[mustang51]

When I fly taildraggers, for real and sim, the ones like Cessna 195's and Staggerwing's, I use a 180 degree final, after alerting traffic, and always have the runway in sight to my left.

[beaky]

When I fly taildraggers, for real and sim, the ones like Cessna 195's and Staggerwing's, I use a 180 degree final, after alerting traffic, and always have the runway in sight to my left.

Certainly a good idea in those two planes... I'm surprised the 195 didn't come with a periscope.