Well, here we have the crux of this sad and sordid tale. I listened to that stupid little voice. I did a search, and found this nifty little web site: http://home.wanadoo.nl/mike.dolle/Flightsimulatortweaks.htm Now, let's see just how much character you have. DON'T GO THERE!

*Waiting patiently*

You went, didn't you? I knew it. There are several rather intriguing suggestions contained on that site. You don't have to be a 'puter geek to do most of them, but it sure helps. I always break into a healthy sweat any time someone even mentions meddling with the Registry. See where is says "type regedit..."? Ignore it. Go grab a Molson, some chips, and put on the hockey game. Shovel the driveway. Go to the dentist. Anything, but typing regedit. Why? Can you type "format C:"? It is super easy to arrange to spend a day with your favorite Dell tech, simply by hitting the delete key when you really meant to hit enter.

There is great truth to the saying "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." These words were never as true as when dealing with the computer. I've managed to get comfortable manipulating cfg files, mostly. I love to play with the panel cfg. I actually resolved a rather sticky problem involving my beloved default 737 panel. I use a modified panel (GREG737.ZIP) I started a flight using Radar Contact. Now, I'm accustomed to having FS2004 auto tune my transponder, and so happily ignored the controller as he assigned my transponder number. Well, here I am climbing through five thousand, when the controller informs me he is not picking up my transponder, and would I please stop goofing off and set it. OK, no problem, until I notice the little transponder window is on vacation, because it certainly is not on my panel.

Here's where a little knowledge is a good thing. I opened the cleverly saved default cfg, which I had the foresight to create, and found the entry under the gauge caption for the transponder. I then looked for that in my modified cfg (to be found in the aircraft/panel folder), and sure enough, it was absent. A quick copy/paste job, updating the gauge number to be next in the sequence, and voila, we've got a transponder panel!

Of course, in keeping with the philosophy of yin/yang, there is always an opposite. Yesterday, following some direction on that wretched tweak site about modifying the FS2004 cfg file, I made a change. Let me tell you something about changes. Aside from the heartfelt advice about not doing them, which I know you'll ignore anyway (I certainly would, if I were you), make only one at a time! I'm beta testing some software, and after I modified the FS2004 cfg, I figured I'd update this beta program. With eager anticipation, I restarted FS2004, waited a good seven or eight minutes while one of my favorite flights loaded (stupid machine...), and then found myself in the usual and customary gate at KJFK, preparing for my short hop to KALB. Figuring now would be a good time to do a quick walk-around, I hit the "shift-s" key combo, fully expecting to enjoy the outside of my repainted 737. Nada. A small chuckle, and I tried enabling the battery with "shift-m". El Zippo. Starting to get a little nervous twitch, I opened Assignments, and to my horror discovered that virtually every keyboard assignment was missing. Erased. Deleted. History. In the archives.

"OK, you idiot... now what?" This is a thought I often have when attempting to tweak FS2004 into something better than it was. I began the process of manually entering as many key combinations that I could recall. After two, I realized the futility of this effort, and with a great deal of reluctance, decided to do the delete/reinstall.

I don't know how many times you've done this procedure. For me, it's a wonder the disks are still intact. On my machine, we go to disk two at 27%, disk three at 49%, and disk four at 69%. Notice, too, when beginning the uninstall process; a little checkbox indicating your desire to remove all saved assignments and files. The first time I performed this exercise, I did not check that box. Half hour later, when I was next sitting in the somewhat drab and uninspiring default cockpit of the default 737 with the default paint job in a default airport, I was greeted with that same dull-eyed stare from the computer, as pressing any keyboard assignment produced nothing but my increasing level of angst and frustration. Back goes disk number one, and this time, we check that damn box.

A word of advice. If you have the disk space, copy the entire FS2004 file and rename it before you delete, then paste it to your desktop. This way, you can always go to it for whatever you would have otherwise wished you hadn't deleted. Things such as texture folders for repainted aircraft, perhaps the modules folder. Also, and I'm speaking from recent experience here, make a copy of your saved flights folder! Be sure to name it something you will recall. I swear I copied that folder, but for the life of me, I have no idea where it went. Back to square one with all my favorite flights.

So, a little knowledge is dangerous. I thought I knew what I was doing, and was in fact congratulating myself on yet another successful operation on the various cfg files when all hell broke loose. And to make matters worse, I had no idea what it was I had done to unlock the gates of hades. I'd made a couple of changes, all small and to my mind, insignificant. Of course, the computer was all the while smirking and preparing its little gift to me.

Well, it's installed and purring right along, as expected. I'm back to default everything. Tonight I intend to open yet again my add-on directory, only this time I've created a separate section entitled "Absolute Must Haves". These are to be the absolute bare bones minimums to be installed, one at a time, after which I'll run FS2004 and evaluate any impact on my beloved frame rates. A few mesh/scenery files, an ambiance program or two. I swear this time I intend to take a good, long, hard look at my simming habits over the last few months, and be brutally honest with myself as to which add-ons I have actually used with any amount of regularity. I mean, what good is that absolutely fantastic GA aircraft if I'm not flying it? Sure, it seemed like a good idea at the time I bought it. And I've flown it, once? Twice? Looks like this beauty will remain zipped, at least for now. I'm thinking perhaps I'll start swapping out aircraft. Add one, but delete one first. And I will use every bit of restraint within me to keep from enhancing scenery. I'll continue to refrain from adding any AI traffic (I now have three - count 'em, three - payware AI add-ons, each of which regularly kick me in the wallet as a reminder of my less-than-perfect restraint).

I swear, this time it will be different. Damned if I'm going to go through this process again! No more tweaks! No more add-ons! And no more single digit frame rates at FL260! My FS2004 is going to remain a lean, mean flying machine. I can't wait to fly again!

But first, I have to go check out that new PIC 737. I hear they're close to going gold!

Three Green!

Chip Barber
rfbarber@optonline.net