It’s the little things that matter

I tried to post this on "SWITCHING AIRCRAFT" but the thread is closed.

 

 

IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS THAT MATTER

 

I have had very little to talk about lately.

MSFS is running smoothly.

So, I decided to keep my mouth shut and my eyes open to see what I can learn from flightsim.com.

On several occasions I would read a post that I could use to better my flying ability.

Many times I thought it would be nice to change planes without having to go back to the beginning.

Then I read this article and gave it a try.

It worked just fine.

(I don’t want to hear from someone telling me that it is cheating)

I said this before. It is the little things that mater. You add one little thing to another little thing and soon you will haves something big.

From the looks of things there will many useful things to be had by turning on this developer thingie.

 

Two birds with one stone.

 

I have only a couple of issues that I have been toying with and I can’t decide if the problem is me or something else. (no big deal)

Example: I have an issue with my beloved Baron 58.

When on Final I like to hold off lowering the landing gear until around 4 or 5 hundred feet.

From the ground it looks cool to see a plane coming in wheels up until the last minute.

However I can’t do that because every once in a while the landing gear will attempt to lower but It slams shut and refuses to lower.

No matter how much I fiddle with the assigned button #12, it some times will not lower.

At 500 ft. I don’t have much time before I have to go around.

I don’t seem to have this problem If I lower the gear during Base or sooner. (I’m not sure that this statement is true)

The problem shows up on my other two planes (DA62, Bonanza) but not as often as the Baron.

VFRguy

Hi Glen, glad the sim has been working well for you. Same here :)

Maybe they will add the ability to change aircraft at some point, without having to go to the main menu or use developer mode. Afterall, you could do that in all the previous sims.

 

As for your landing gear.. have you checked to make sure you don’t have more than one key/button/controller set up to do it? I’d go into the control settings page and search for “gear” - maybe you’ve got a duplicate assignment.

Another thing... the button/key that you use.. is it set to toggle gear up/down? If so, try setting two keys.. one for up and the other for down. Maybe allocate a couple of buttons on your controller?

I am fortunate to have the Honeycomb Bravo.. which actually includes a landing gear lever (which even lights up red/green!) this is effectively two buttons.

Prior to getting this, I even made my own lever of sorts.. a metal toggle switch.. again using one position for up & the other for down, rather than toggle up/down.

 

 

Regards

Steve

Maybe they will add the ability to change aircraft at some point, without having to go to the main menu or use developer mode.

 

Using developer mode sure allows for some advanced features otherwise unavailable, but I've often read that's not the advisable default usage mode because it can cause other problems (even if I don't know what are these). What do you think?

Oh I know, some say it causes problems. I don't often use it just in case, although I can’t say I’ve ever had any issues with it. You can exit developer mode without even going back to the settings page.. so I have occasionally turned it on.. switched aircraft & then exited developer mode. It’s still much quicker than going back to the main menu to change aircraft

 

Regards

Steve

I hear you guys.

I am painfully aware of the traps that one can fall into by fiddling around with stuff you know little or nothing about.

However I can not resist using that switching planes thing.

I will leave the rest of that stuff alone for now.

As for the landing gear problem I will tell that I made a change.

I made 15 landings with the change and I did not encounter any problems.

I also flew 15 or so miles at 20 ft. while toggling the gear without problems.

I would tell you what change was made but I can not believe that it had anything at all to do with the problem.

It is stupid to even think about the change.

It will take a few days of flying before I will even think about calling it a success.

I would tell you what change was made but I can not believe that it had anything at all to do with the problem.

But there are all sorts of interactions in computers and software that people don't expect, so if you share your solution you might help someone else. So your disbelief is normal and nothing to be embarrassed about.

LANDING GEAR PROBLEM SOLVED ….I THINK

 

I have 6 Joy Sticks and 1 Yoke. See listing below.

About two months ago I proved that the Landing Gear problem was not with the controller.

Today I posted my problem and Steve Harding gave me a few things to check and or change. I did not want to disturb My button 12 (TOGGLE GEAR) assignment just yet so I made assignments in the Key board using two keys to raise and lower the gear.

I made several attempts to duplicate the problem but no success. (that was a good thing)

I then unassigned the #12 button and the #11 button and assigned #11 to raise and #12 to lower the gear.

I made several landings and I could not make problem appear. (again that is a good thing)

I am not willing to have two buttons to raise and lower the gear. I only have 12 buttons and I need all of them. I am happy with having only one button to toggle the gear. I can work through the problem.

However, I put the two buttons back the way they were with one exception.

The assignment for the #12 button was originally on the left slot and I moved it to the right slot. I figured what the heck, I’ll give it a shot.

I then fired up my Beloved Baron and started a bunch of Touch and Goes.

The problem will usually appear on Final around 500 ft.

I made made many attempts to make the problem show it’s ugly face but it never would.

I then flew 15 miles at 20 feet above the ground while raising and lowering the gear.

The problem appears to be gone.

My best guess is that moving the assignment from the left side to the right side had no bearing on the problem.

It was the fact that I unassigned and reassigned the button that did the trick.

Kind of like a Mini Reboot.

VFRguy

 

ONE EA. LOGITECH G SAITEK EXTREME 3D PRO…....ACTIVE LOVE

 

ONE EA. LOGITECH G SAITEK EXTREME 3D PRO…..BACKUP LOVE

 

ONE EA. PXN-2113 FLIGHT STICK……………….…STANDBY RETIRED

 

ONE EA. PXN-2113 FLIGHT STICK……………….…STANDBY RETIRED

 

ONE EA. THRUSTMASTER T-FLIGHT HOTAS X FLIGHT STICK....HATE

 

ONE EA. WIZZO GLADIATOR JOYSTICK...............................…......HATE

 

ONE EA. LOGITECH FLIGHT YOKE WITH THROTTLE……...….….HATE

Edited July 18, 2021 by VFRguy

Thanks for clarifying that. Software does, indeed, have oddball glitches and sometimes needs a "kick in the pants" to straighten it out.

I’M CALLING IT FIXED.

 

This AM I visited 13 airports along the NE coast USA.

All 13 landings were made by me waiting until I was lower than 500 ft. AGL before I lowered the landing gear.

This is my second day enjoying many landings without any problems with the landing gear.

I spent two months with this nagging problem.

At times I would think I was doing something wrong.

Then I would dismiss that idea. I have made thousands of good landings. I should know if I am doing something wrong.

I also dismissed the idea that something was wrong with the airplane itself as well as any hard program error.

After being pointed toward an assignment error I dismissed several items until I finally got around to completely unassign the button #12, which was assigned to Toggle Landing Gear, and reassign it.

It’s a little strange how a problem can appear to be unsolvable and when a solution is found the fix would turnout to be as simple as it gets.

All you can do is ask your self “why didn’t I do that in the first place?”.

VFRguy

Edited July 19, 2021 by VFRguy

It’s a little strange how a problem can appear to be unsolvable and when a solution is found the fix would turnout to be as simple as it gets.

 

Actually, that's MUCH more common than you might think. As one who has done troubleshooting in both hardware and software in two types of analog plus many digital computers (not to mention non-computer stuff), hindsight often makes you wonder “why didn’t I do that in the first place?”

 

This is where KISS* applies big time -- many's the time I've kicked myself for overcomplicating things.

 

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* Keep It Simple Stupid