PhantomTweak

No dam water?? They need to install more dam dams! That gives our famous, intrepid, dam airman a better dam chance to make more dam water landings. AND we all know darn well (HAH!) how much he loves those dam water landings :D No waves to contend with in dam lakes... Have fun, all! Dam great flights to all and sundry :) Pat☺

Zippy, do NOT get me started on dam puns. They're like coffee to me: Once I start, I just can't stop. They're just so dam addictive!! Have fun, all! Pat☺

OK, then, how about: @echo off D: cd \steam\steamapps\common\FSX FSX exit Please note, the two lines that read D: cd \steam\steamapps\common\FSX Are dependant on where YOUR FSX.exe file is located. Is it on your F: drive? Change the first line I referenced to F: . The line cd \steam\steamapps\common\FSX is dependant on the actual location under the main drive letter you designated. MINE is where shown, on my D: drive. I don't know if the batch file commands have changed since I used them in DOS so much, but I never needed the quotes around the cd \ line. If they've changed now to require them, well then, put them in as shown in post #6. Also, in the line that reads "start FSX" : I never used the start command. I just put in the EXE file I wanted to run. As long as it was in the subdirectory I specified in the "cd " line, it ran. It' as though YOU typed in all the commands, but they run automatically when in a batch file (*.bat). If they've changed it to require the "start" command, then use it. It's a simple change :) All you have to do is tell the computer exactly where the FSX.exe file is located, that's the key. Finally, to autostart FSRealWX lite, I use the EXE.xml file that FSX utilizes. Just easier for me, is all. You can use the same batch file to call the FSRealWX lite exe file if you want. Same rules apply as with starting FSX. Simple, No? I meant to mention: If your Steam client doesn't load when you start Windows, which you can set it to do, then just use the batch file to fire it up before you start FSX itself. Mine starts with Windoze, so that I can fire FSX up more quickly and easily. I don't have to wait for it to start. I'm just lazy, is all. :D There is a very good guide to batch file located HERE Good luck to you! Pat☺

You may have deleted the entire FSX folder structure, HOWEVER: I wager you didn't delete the folder found at C:\Users\All Users\Microsoft\FSX . THAT'S where the scenery.cfg file that is giving you trouble is located, not under the main FSX folder. First, make a backup of the scenery.cfg file located where I specified, then copy the one found under the root FSX folder to that location. It's an emergency reserve back up file, and the game uses it to initially place the empty scenery.cfg file. Empty save for the default scenery. All the world's airports, mountains, cities, and so on. Everything you add or subtract using the Scenery Library feature goes into the remote file. The one in C:\Users\All Users\Microsoft\FSX . Thus, if you're having trouble with the world's scenery, THAT'S where to look, not under the root FSX folder. A side note: If you add a scenery, let's just say KLAX for example, using the Scenery Library feature of the sim, and then decide you don't like it, do NOT just go into the Addon Scenery folder, or wherever you place it, and delete it. You will get problems like this. Use the Scenery Library feature to remove it FIRST, and THEN you can go delete it's folder, should you desire. Good fortune! Pat☺

Tut-tut! It didn't "throw" the plane down, it just made a good Navy landing in a plane not made to make Navy landings. 7-800 fpm descent rate, never, ever flare. Good Navy landing :cool: :rolleyes: :pilot: Now YOU need to find a plane with an undercarriage made to take such landings. Problem solved... Seriously, you can, CAN mind you, use the ILS all the way to touchdown. You don't HAVE to, but you CAN. The ILS is only guidance. You can let the AP fly the plane on down the ILS beams, OR you can use the instruments to monitor the glideslope and localizer while you fly the plane. Putting down the flaps, gear, and so on, slowing down or speeding up as appropriate, etc, etc. Alternatively, you can ignore the ILS system entirely, and use visual ques to fly the plane down to touchdown. So, three possibilities. A lot depends on how YOU prefer to fly. If I can see the airport/boat, I prefer to fly the plane visually, overall, using the instruments to verify I'm doing it correctly. And, no, I usually am not, but I do what I can. If it's a CAT II or CAT III landing, I use the instruments a lot more, since all I can see outside is dark and clouds. :rolleyes: Have fun! Pat☺

Auto-Land? Just a guess... Pat☺

I was I-Level, so our read "Bench check RFI IAW HSI". Ready For Issue, In Accordance With Handbook of Service Instructions. Usually preceded by "R&R'd (select part{s} name{s} here)". Alternatively, we would put "BCM-7 IAW HSI". No good, off to Depot, usually for disposal. If we couldn't fix it, it was probably not fixable. I can't recall how many thousands of parts got one of those statements written in the Corrective Action block of the MAF. More than lots! ;) Egad, what a ton of scribbling I did. No computers in those days. At least if I had hunt-n-pecked the MAF it would have been legible. No wonder my handwriting is illegible now. I just got lazier and lazier...:p Have fun, all! Pat☺

Rule of thumb: If it works in FSX Accel, it works fine in FSX:SE. Only real difference is the way Steam stuffs the FSX folder deeper in it's folder structure than the FSX Box. Does this help? Pat☺

Nice pictures of two verry pretty aircraft. Thanks for the post :) From what I understand, Rockwell GAVE Bob Hoover that yellow P-51, to fly around to airshows, etc. Great advertising for Rockwell, and FUN for Mr. Hoover. Rockwell payed all his expenses, so the only thing he needed in his wallet was his pilot's cert. Nice setup for him, it really was. I saw him several times at the Reno Nationals. He would do shows of his own aerobatic skills, which are staggering, and he would start the Unlimited each year. He had an amazing skill at flying the start formation around low, out of sight and hearing of the crowd, until they "magically" appeared behind the stands, and as they ROARED over the stands to the start line, he would pull up and give the famous "Gentlemen, you have a race!". They would have the radios piped to the loudspeaker system, so we could, barely, hear him. Those engines are LOUD! Should a racer have a problem, and pull up and off the course, Mr. Hoover, who had been doing aerobatics up high over the course for his own entertainment, in that P-51, would seem to magically appear on the racer's wing, good tight formation, and guide the racer down to the runway. Many times the failure would involve the failure of the oil system, and the race pilot would be totally blind, with oil, or something, covering the windshield. Having Mr. Hoover to guide them down would be a huge help to them. He would stay on their wing until their wheels touched the runway. Some truly amazing flying on Mr. Hoover's part. Thanks again for the pictures! Pat☺

It sounds like you're in a Bob Hope/Bing Crosby movie! "The (Air) Road to Mandalay" You break into song, I'm leaving, though! :p Have fun, all! Pat☺

Boy, the title sure gave me a scare! I had the horrible fear you had something about my ex flying around. :eek: I thought it was a little early yet for her to out of her cave, but ya never know... I'm sure glad it wasn't related to my ex at all! Nice pictures. Thanks for a fun post! :) Pat☺

Calistoga is where I learned to fly. Gliders, because I was too young to get a powered lisence. I was 14 when I started, and turned 15 the day I soloed. A week later, I had my cert. My father had arranged that I could work at the glider port for flight and instructor time. Work I did, too. It was hard for a scrawny, 14 year old kid, shoving gliders around the field, helping the tourists into the planes and strapping them in, carrying ballast weights around, etc etc. It got easier as I did more and more work, though. But it was the flying I was in love with. Had an awesome instructor, all I know is everyone called him Goldie. He didn't let me make a mistake more than once either. I never knew when he would reach forward and smack my head with his yardstick, but it really sank the lessons in. I lived on the road out to the geyser power plant, and petting zoo, with my grandmother, and rode my bike to work every day. There was a girl lived next door, Laura Longoria. Most beautiful girl I had seen in my life. Still stands out in mind, but I was too busy working and flying for dating then. Too darned tired at the end of the day, too :rolleyes: Good times! Thanks for the stroll down memory lane! Pat☺

Sounds like you're running shy on fuel. A LOT of variables go into the range you can achieve. Passenger weight, fuel weight, climb speed, cruise speed, baggage weight, winds aloft, engine condition, etc, etc. The list is looooong (not too distinguished, though :cool: ). Sounds like you're trying to use fuel that is either not transferring from tanks someplace to the main use tanks, not transferring fast enough, should have been used first, or something. Do you check the quantity you have in the tanks, ALL the tanks, and have the proper fuel pumps running? Do you calculate the fuel you need for the total trip, start to finish , plus reserves, etc, before you start, and then ensure you have that fuel aboard? Are all the proper tanks, main, wings, auxiliary, etc filled with the correct amounts? Are the transfer orders set and utilized correctly? Are you at the optimum altitude for the weight you're carrying? That's what it sounds like to me, anyway. Probably wrong, though. Good fortune to you! Pat☺

I bought FSX:SE the day it first came out. I was curious to see what all the excitement was about FSX in general, and SE in particular, and I figured that for $5.00, I couldn't go wrong. If I didn't like it, for whatever reason, I could get rid of it, with a minimal loss of cash. The cost of a hamburger, let's say. I haven't looked back yet. My big fun "thing" in it is doing Naval Ops of various sorts. Carrier landings under different conditions, the various fast movers the Navy has/is using, etc. I even got roped into the project of improving, updating, and adding to, a very popular and well designed F/A-18. I am having a ball with it. Best for me are the moving carriers, as well as the helicopter/VTOL sling loads I can pick up and set down, hopefully gently, some place. The deck of a moving destroyer, an airport, an oil rig, heck, a logging camp someplace deep in a virgin forest someplace, whatever. So far I have had a total of ONE, single, solitary OOM CTD. I'm happy with my choice. I could probably go to P3D, but with my very limited income, that's not happening any time soon. So says my beautiful, loving wife, so thus it shall be. A $5.00 sim is a lot different than a $50.00 some-odd one. At least in my little world... There's my 2 cents worth... In my opinion, and yes, I know what those are worth, use the one you enjoy. After all, isn't that the whole point? I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, or argue that this is better than that, in any way. Just throwing my thoughts out there to see what sticks. After all, I get so few any more... Have fun, all! Pat☺

I think you mis-understand me. If you rclick on most .exe files, you will see a choice on the menu that reads Run As Admin. It doesn't give the user Admin rights to anything but that particular file, and only while it's running. As long as they don't have Admin rights to the folder, or anything else, they won't be able to get in very much mischief, if any. What it does do is make sure the file runs with the max permissions, to ensure the .exe can do what it needs to do, with it's own accessed files, like an aircraft's files, scenery files, etc. Not the user, just the .exe file, see the difference? I do not believe the user can do any more than granted in their Login status. Give it a test: log in as a user, as if you were one of the visitors, after setting the FS9.EXE file to Run As Admin when it's opened by anyone, and see what you can get away with. Of course, I may be totally out in left field, but I do know that the Run As Admin thing is pretty important to allow the sim to do any number of things it needs to. Not the USER, as I said, but the .exe file it's self. Good luck. Glad you never updated to W10. It seems like every update they put out for it causes more difficulties for the sims, and simmers. Then again, there are people that don't seem to have any trouble at all with it, so make your own decision. But read the forum threads to see other people's experiences when you get a chance :D Pat☺

Semper Fi, Steve! A lot of MSFSes, whether FS9, FSX, or whatever, don't work worth a rat's tail (ahem) without being in Admin. Especially in Win10, and double especially if the Sim is installed in C:\Program Files, or C:\Program Files(X86). Win10 has some severe personal problems with allowing the sim, or the user, to do "things" in those two folders in particular, and on the HD in general. Best thing to do in that case, at least IMHO, is make backups of all your specials, whether planes, paints, scenery, whatever, and then completely uninstall the sim, and re-install it in a different location, like C:\MSGames\, or D:\Sims\, whatever. Remember, that an uninstall means .cfg files, flight plans, shaders, registry entries, leftover folders, EVERYthing. There are some good guides on this site, someplace, on "How-To" do a proper uninstall. After you install it again in the chosen, new location, you can add all your specials back in, just as though you had just found them, brand new, and want to get them into the sim again. A handy hint: Once you get the sim freshly installed, before you add ANYthing to it, make a backup of it as-is. You can do it to an external HD, a thumbdrive, whatever. Called a "vanilla" install. If something goes wrong, you can then either reinstall from your backup MUCH faster than off the discs, or, if needed, you can reinstall any small part of it. Scenery, gauges, default planes, AN individual scenery, AN individual gauge, you name it. Finally, and it sounds dangerous, but it's not, really, always start the sim in Admin mode. Same for NotePad. Easiest is to make a shortcut for the FS9.exe, and set it to Start as Admin. Do it for any user that wants to start the sim. ALWAYS set it to start as Admin. Make sure you have the "no disc", and v9.1, mods added in, too. Hope all my rambling helps a little... Good luck to ya! Pat☺

Glad you got it! :) May I make a small suggestion? If you're gonna be FS9'ing much, you may want to make a shortcut on your desktop to places like where the FS9.cfg file is located (there is a few others you may need in there too), where the root FSX folder is located so you get to things like aircraft.cfg files, and so on, places like that. Once you have a shortcut, it saves a lot of "Where WAS that dern file???", or "point-click, point-click, point-click" getting to the file(s) you may want, or be advised to, edit for some reason. Things like adding paints to aircraft, changing an aircraft's flight characteristics, etc etc. The list is endless, and the longer you fly the sim, the more likely you will be to start "tweaking" some, or all, the files FS9 uses. Good fortune to you, and enjoy the sim(s)! OH, I wanted to mention: I was a Sergeant. Not a "Sir". Officers are "sirs", and I worked for a living, unlike them. heh-heh-heh... :cool: Pat☺

Make sure you're looking in the folder located here: C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FS9 There is a folder setting that will permit you see "hidden" files and folders. Look up where to find the FS9.cfg file for your OS. I believe there is a stickie someplace, darned if I can find it right now, but I just woke up, that has the information on 1) Just where and how to search for the .cfg file, and 2) how to make the hidden files and folders visible to you. Here is an image of where to find this setting: I use Everything.exe for such searches. It's faster, and more efficient that the Windows search feature. Remember, do NOT make any changes to the FS9.cfg contained in the FS9 root folder. That's the basic .cfg file that FS9 installs to the location I specified during installation. From then on, the FS9.cfg in the location I specified is the one that gets changed when you add new airplanes, gauges, .dlls, etc etc. Also, ensure you make a backup, once you find it, of the .cfg file before making any changes. If things go totally pear shaped on you, you can always restore the backup, and start over. It's a safety thing. Hope all this is some small help... Pat☺

ANY plane that lands on a carrier, not counting helicopters, has a tailhook. The S3-A, S2 Greyhound, etc. Any plane that's designed for a carrier landing. They also have the beefed up landing gear and airframe required to trap aboard the boat. Not the MV-22, of course. It lands like a helicopter onboard a carrier. Does this answer your question? Pat☺

A quick, easy, solution to problems like this: reset you default flight to the default that comes with the sim. C172 at Seattle, IIRC. Just open your FS9.cfg file with NotePad, or NotePad++. Ensure you're totally and completely out of the sim. Never use a word processor program, like MS Word, to edit a cfg file. ONLY ever NotePad (included with Windows), or NotePad++, a freeware editor that is much more versatile and capable than NotePad, and readily available on the net for download and installation. Once you have your FS9.cfg open, find the line that says SITUATION= . What comes after the equals sign is not relevant, as you're going to delete it. ONLY the words, letters and symbols following the equals. Save the file, close it, and start the sim. Once the Freeflight screen loads up, load the plane, and location you want, and go flying. I'll wager the engines stay on. Generally, this sort of problem is caused by having the wrong settings saved off on you default flight. Usually the Mixture, which in jets is the Fuel Valve, is off, but it's a good idea to use the default, default flight, because it will set all the different aircraft variables correctly for almost all aircraft. For those who want to jump in and go, it a huge benefit. You don't have to actually LOAD the default, default flight into the "world", just have it for when the Freeflight screen loads in. Good fortunes to you! Pat☺

I was an E-Tech from the start of my career. The Navy was kind enough to send me to enough schools that I hold the Naval equivalent of a BS in Electronic Engineering. I worked on radar systems for the Phantom II, in addition to a few other jobs the Corps thought I was good for. :cool: Hence, my screen name. Adjusting electronic circuits is called "tweaking" them. I tweaked on Phantoms, see? After I got out, I went to work on a different radar system, but Radar is Radar. I worked electronics a long time. I was also micro- and mini-component replacement, including multi-layer board repair, which is a royal pain. That's why I got so bloody verbose. Sorry if I was too long-winded...:rolleyes: Anywho, I just thought the info was important. I just hope it helps a little :D Pat☺

Hi! Pots don't necessarily have a ground wire attached. The three wires on a pot are HI (resistance), LOW (or no resistance), and WIPER (the part that moves). The WIPER connection is where the signal you want is picked off. USUALLY, the WIPER is the center terminal, but not invariably. It can be verified by placing an ohmmeter between one end terminal and the center, then reading the ohm value on the meter while turning the pot. If the resistance changes, that's the wiper. If it doesn't, you've got both ends of the fixed resistor, and the remaining terminal must thus be the WIPER. The other two set up the conditions that signal will have. A pot is a resistor, with a wiper that moves from one end of it to the other. At one end, it reads maximum resistance, and at the other, minimum resistance. Thus, at one end of it's travel, the wiper is nearly at the minimum resistance end, at the other, the max. This gives, on the wiper terminal. Max voltage at one end (the minimum resistance end), then decreasing voltage as it moves towords the other end, less and less as it moves along the fixed resistor part, until it reads the minimum voltage at the max resistance end. All that clear as mud? :rolleyes: For example, the HI resistance wire will have +5VDc on it, the LOW might have something like +2VDc on it (created by the board from the USB's +5 VCC supply. Thus, the pot's wiper can pick off, depending on where it is positioned at any given instant, a voltage between +2 and +5. A 3 volt signal is available: +5 minus +2. This why the 3 wires may or my not include a black wire. It may, or may not, be directly attached to ground. In VDC coding, NORMALLY, red is hot, whatever the supply voltage might be, in the case of USB +5VDC, and black is ground. In AC code, usually, black is hot, for example 120 VAC, 60 Hz, white is return, and green is ground. It's a good idea not to confuse the two systems, and connecting black to ground in an AC circuit, like you house's outlets, for example, can be very detrimental to the system...:p The different colored wires going to a pot will indicate the various voltages supplied to it by the board, and the wiper's signal back to the board. Always verify, without a schematic, do not assume. You can damage the board, or the pot. SO, what I'm saying in my long winded way, is do NOT presume that one of the wires on a pot is necessarily ground. It might go the board for a voltage, not ground. Beware, too, not to bridge terminals when soldering a wire to the pot. Always use a low power ( Do not fall into the "the bigger the glob the better the job" trap. Use the least amount of solder that will do the job. After you solder the connection, wipe the iron again, and apply a little solder to "tin" it again. Yes, the next join you make, you will wipe it off but it's important to have a clean iron tip. Wiping on a damp sponge and immediately tinning it will ensure this. Do this as soon as it heats up, and every time you pull it out of it's holder from then on. Flux will ensure the solder will flow cleanly into the join. Not ONTO the join, INTO it. If you do it right, you shouldn't need to apply the solder from it's spool to the connection. It will flow off the iron into the connection, giving a nice, clean, bright, shiney, low volume of solder, physically strong, join. Good quality solder irons of different power ratings, good holders for them, flux, desoldering mesh, solder, heat-shrink, and all the rest is readily available through a McMaster-Carr catalog, available on line or in print. Beware, the print version is very thick and heavy. Finally, before closing up, always use canned air to blow out pots. They get a speck of dust inside, and you have a "dead" spot, or noise in the signal. Bad, bad, bad. This is why many joysticks have gone to Hall Effect sensors instead of pots. They either work, or not. They don't get dead spots and noise like pots do. Good luck! Pat☺

Two things to bear in mind: First, FSX:SE doesn't automatically make a DLL.XML for you. You have to create one of your own, in the right place. Looks like you've got the place locked down, so that's not a factor. You just have to now place a DLL.XML there. Best to use NotePad, or Notepad++ to do so. Remember you need the initial part of the DLL.XML file first, THEN the part concerning your object placer, thus Launch dll.xml False False first, then the Object Placement Tool False False ..\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Mission Creation Kit\object_placement.dll part. Of course, your pathing will differ, depending on the second factor I mentioned, to wit: FSX:SE doesn't include much of an SDK. Only a simple, very abbreviated version. It doesn't include a object placer or anything like that. What you need to do is download and install the P3Dv1.4 SDK, which you can find here: https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/resources/prepar3d-v1-sdk.227/download Once you have the SDK installed, and you can place it pretty much anywhere, OTHER THAN C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files(X86). Windows, and Win10 in particular, will give you fits if you try to use or change just about anything in either of those two folders. Once you have the SDK installed, you can find the object placer you desire, then put it's path in your DLL.XML file. I do not promise it'll be in the same place it was in the old FSX box version's SDK. IE: If it's not in the Mission Creation section, try the Scenery Creation section, or whatever. Remember, the DLL.XML is very touchy about the pathing. You must type in, or copy-n-paste, the path to your object placer's dll file exactly. Capital/lower case letters, symbols, periods, spaces, everything. That's where copy-n-paste comes in handy. Just go to the top of the page it's on (the object placer's location's page), and copy the path you can see up there straight to your DLL.XmL file. Then add the name of the file to the end, like this: C:\SDK\Mission Creation Kit\object_placement.dll This is an example ONLY. It's from my DLL.XML. Your path will most likely be different. I hope this helps a little... Pat☺

The simplest formula for converting the dew point to humidity is: RH is approximately equal to 100-5(T-TD), where RH is relative humidity, T is the current temperature, in degrees C, and TD is the current dew point, in degrees C. Yes, it's an approximation (I couldn't find the right symbol for "approximately equal to", which actually looks like a wavey equals sign), but the error in the equation is 5% or less, which, in this application, is relatively meaningless. Remember the correct order of calculation: Inside parenthesis first, then multiplication/division, then addition/subtraction. SO: in this equation, do the T-TD first, then multiply by 5. Finally, subtract the result from 100. This will give you a close approximation of the relative humidity, in %. Does all this rambling answer your question? It gives a formula, and defines the variables, as desired, yes? Pat☺

First and foremost, is you default flight the sim's original default flight? The trike over Friday Harbour? If you try to make the default flight something else, the plane's internal variables won't preset correctly. Also, do you try to start from a saved flight, or from the Freeflight menu? Always start from the Freeflight menu. Again, if you don't the plane's internal variables won't set correctly. If you do NOT have the sim's default flight as your default, simply make sure the sim is completely shut down, and that you have saved a backup copy of FSX.CFG. Go into the FSX.CFG file, Using NotePad ONLY. That's the text editor that comes with Windows. . Then, find the heading [uSERINTERFACE]. Under that, find the line that reads SITUATION=. What comes after the equals sign ( = ) doesn't matter, as you need to delete it. IOW: Delete any and everything following the equals sign. Save the file, close it down, and, like magic, the original default flight is restored. Start the sim, go to the freeflight window, ensuring that the default plane is the trike, and that Friday Harbour is the current airport. Pick your airport, just like normal. Do NOT select a saved flight. Select the MV-22 from the Change Plane menu, and, once it loads into the world, make sure you follow all the checklists. Do you start the plane with the APU running and it's switch in the overhead positioned correctly, then shut it down once an engine is running? I also seem to recall the necessity for starting one of the engines first. Like you always have to start the right engine first, or something like that. I'll glance through the flight manual again to check. Speaking of, did you read, I mean study, the flight manual thoroughly? This isn't a "hop in and go" plane. You MUST follow the checklists and procedures, startup to shutdown, or it won't function properly. Especially the cockpit switchology. Not like a default plane where you can select it, the airport you want, and once it loads, slam the throttle full open and take off. In short RTFB! ;) Good luck, and let us know what happens :) Pat☺