Are 3rd party aircraft OK?

[Kirk]

I'm thinking about buying a 3rd party Cessna 172 for use with FSX. Mainly because the instrument graphics on the default C172 are just ugly and kind of difficult to read.

 

I've tried both AirManager on my laptop (works good) and RF Cockpit on my iPad (also works good). But I'd like to get away from having another piece of software to have to worry about, plus I don't want to raise my monitors up so high as to be able to view these instruments in front of them. Having a nice looking, easier to read, instrument panel in the actual aircraft would be awesome.

 

So my questions are... do any of you use 3rd party aircraft, specifically a Cessna 172? Are instrument panel graphics better? Does the system take much of a hit as far as FPS? Can I buy one that doesn't require me to check the oil daily (A2A's Cessna looks awesome but right now I just want to get in the cockpit and fly).

 

Any suggestions, ideas, recommendations, or shared experience would be awesome!

[Hossfly68]

I just bought the Carenado 172n about a month ago. Flies pretty much like my real one did. The cockpit graphics could be called a bit better but nothing to write home about. The night lighting is horrendous, but it matches the way it looked in my 1967 Skyhawk, except I haven’t found a way or even if it’s possible to turn on the red light for night flying. I may break down one day and buy the A2A 172, but no time soon. No hit to FPS that I’ve noticed.

[Kirk]

Thanks, hossfly68. That's some good info. I appreciate it.

[turbodak]

You may have thought of this already but if you use the "search files" facility on this site and type in "cessna 172 panel" you might find freeware panels better that the default one.

 

And it may save you money!!

[Kirk]

Actually, turbodak, I didn't think of that. I forget there's so much more here than just the forum. thanks for the suggestion. I'll do that.

[Downwind66]

Kirk - Let me see if I read this correctly, "Instrument graphics on the default C172 are just ugly and kind of difficult to read...................??? The default C172 might not be as fun to fly as the more complex props and jet aircraft, but, instrumentation being ugly and kind of difficult to read, I don't understand that? The panel, in my opinion, can't get much clearer, and you couldn't squeeze much more onto the panel, than what Microsoft has afforded us! Very well equipped, I would say!

 

 

Is this the way your C172 panels appear? It looks a whole lot clearer at 100%, but I had to reduce the pic down to 60% to get it accepted as a reasonable size for attaching! It looks a whole lot better than what I had for my Private Pilot training, that is for sure!

 

Rick :cool:

Edited November 26, 2018 by Downwind66

[mrzippy]

Have we gone through the FSX resolution matching your Windows resolution, yet? Show a screenshot of what you think is wrong.

[Kirk]

Maybe I'm just being picky I guess. I've never actually sat in a small aircraft like a C172. Here's a section of AirManager's C172 panel. It's much sharper and cleaner. I've read that many of the 3rd party C172s have panels more like it.

 

Edited November 26, 2018 by Kirk

[Kirk]

And here's my default panel.

 

Yeah, my monitor resolutions all match up. 1920x1080.

 

[mrzippy]

Interesting! Your shot of your default panel is showing oval distortions in your panel gauges.

 

I did find that the 2D panel has slightly oval gauges and the VC gauges are a lot better. Go with what looks best for you.

 

Edited November 26, 2018 by mrzippy

[tiger1962]

All the default FSX 2D panels were designed for 1024x768 displays and FSX stretches them sideways to fit today's 'widescreen' displays, resulting in oval gauges. You can find adapted widescreen 2D panels for the C172 in the AVSIM Library by Jeff Cork, try his Cessna 172 Wide Screen 2D V1.2, it's the third one down:

https://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=jeff+cork&CatID=fsxpan&Go=Search

Edited November 26, 2018 by tiger1962

[Kirk]

Yeah, the VC instruments are circles. I only posted the 2d version because I think that's what downwind66 posted.

 

Yeah, me thinks me is being too picky, maybe.

 

Thanks, Tim!

Edited November 26, 2018 by Kirk

[Hossfly68]

Just a random thought here, Kirk.. In your FSX.cfg file, do you have a line that says "WideScreen= False" or something like that?

If it says False, change it to True and try it. That might be affecting the way you're seeing the panel. If not, forgive me. Christmas Rush just hit at FedEx and I ran 150% more stops today than I normally do and I'm too old for that these days! My mind is still delivering stuff.

[mallcott]

Just a random thought here, Kirk.. In your FSX.cfg file, do you have a line that says "WideScreen= False" or something like that?

If it says False, change it to True and try it. That might be affecting the way you're seeing the panel. If not, forgive me. Christmas Rush just hit at FedEx and I ran 150% more stops today than I normally do and I'm too old for that these days! My mind is still delivering stuff.

 

Nothing to do with it. See