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How To...Magnify FSX Panel Instruments By Mike McCarthy 11 August 2008 The panels of some simulated aircraft will show an enlarged version of a gauge if you click inside the gauge, a good example being the PFD of the default 737-800 in FSX. However, most panels don't have that feature, and while I hadn't missed before, yesterday afternoon I suddenly had to do something about it. You see, I have color vision problems. Today I installed the CLS DC-10, reviewed by FlightSim.com member Nigel Martin, only to discover that I was generally unable to read the yellow "flying wing" pitch-and-roll bar of the attitude indicator. (It's the instrument directly below the four pale yellow indicator lamps just beneath the glare shield.) If you click on the small image of the panel to enlarge it you will see it rendered as its original 1024x768 image. Even now the flying wings bar is hard to read, as are the flight director crosshairs. Because most of my flying is IFR, by itself this kind of thing is a showstopper for me. However, this is such a nice aircraft that I decided to put on my thinking cap on and try to do something about the situation. First I held a magnifying glass in front of my 14-inch monitor, which is small to begin with. This helped, but my not having three hands would have meant my constantly setting the magnifying glass down only to have to pick it up again, effectively depriving me of one hand. I then tried using a business-card-sized thin pocket magnifier. This was an improvement because I would have been able to build a standoff for it out of index cards. However, the required standoff distance was about six inches, impractical and ugly ... And then it hit me. Windows has a built in screen magnifier, one that can magnify a portion of the screen. I'll cut directly to the chase and show you the result, after which I'll show you how I got there. Here's what the solution looks like ... This solution can be used with any instrument panel. To magnify the ADI image I have only to move the mouse cursor to the center of the instrument. In fact, by moving the mouse cursor around I can magnify any instrument on the panel. To achieve this result you must first run the magnifier. To run the magnifier do Start, Programs, Accessories, Accessibility, Magnifier, as shown in the following picture ... When you start the magnifier the result will at look like this ... But fear not! That ugly image is easily fixed as discussed immediately below. However, please note that you may want to do what I do which is to uncheck the "Follow keyboard focus" and "Follow text editing" check boxes ... Next you must undock the magnifier window. (The magnifier software doesn't use that term, it instead says "Click and drag the window to make it float") ... Once the magnifier has been undocked, the instrument panel will no longer look squashed and the magnifier window can be moved and resized as you see fit. Again, I like things arranged like this ... You can hide the magnifier at any time by restoring its control panel and unchecking "show magnifier", and you can unhide the magnifier just as easily. Now I can take my shiny new DC-10 350 miles west for the tricky bad weather arrival and approach into runway 16L of the USA's KSLC (Salt Lake City, Utah), something I devised for the FS Flight Training joint venture of PC Game Controls and FlightSim.Com. (Can you say "shameless marketing plug"?) Mike McCarthy mike@pcgamecontrols.com

Introduction To Instrument Navigation Meigs/O'Hare Navigational Exercise By Dennis Simanaitis Here's a navigational exercise of flying from Meigs to Chicago O'Hare. It starts with your aircraft at Meigs on runway 36 (that is, the default MSFS opener). First, set up the navigational system for your destination. O'Hare is northwest, sort of, from Meigs, so pick runway 27L as your easiest approach. According to the manual, its ILS is 111.1. Set this on Nav1 (as only Nav1 supports vertical as well as horizontal alignment). The manual shows several ways of adjusting the various navigational equipment, but I've settled on a combination of keyboard and mouse. To set the Nav1 or Nav2 frequencies, I use the mouse. Click on the left digits to go up, the right to go down, as I recall, on either side of the decimal point. To switch between Nav1 and Nav2, I use the keyboard: v and 1 or v and 2 (that is, in succession). Whichever is ready for adjustment will light yellow. Then, I use the - or + to adjust each. To adjust OBI1, type v, 1 and its numbers turn yellow. Then, since you know the desired runway is in the direction 27, use the - and + keys to enter 270 in yellow. The needles won't register anything useful as yet, because you're too far away. But Nav1 is now all set for your landing once you get close enough for ILS. Use Nav2 for O'Hare's VOR. Use the mouse to enter its VOR as shown in the manual, 113.9. Immediately DME2 will show that O'Hare is 15.5 nm away. Then type v, 2 and the OBI2 numbers will turn yellow. Use - or + to center the needle. From Meigs, it'll read around 299 on center; that is, O'Hare's VOR is toward the northwest. You're now all set to go. Take off, get stabilized on a course of 299 (miss the buildings!) and check things out. You'll probably find that once you get the plane headed to 299, it's no longer centering the OBI2 needle. This means your actual course to O'Hare needs some fine tuning. Use - or + to center it again. When I tried it recently, I had to alter my course to 295. Steady as she goes on 295 (or whatever) as you see DME2 diminish mileage. As you get closer to O'Hare (around 7.3 nm, with my flight), OBI1 will come active. Keep at around 2000 ft until the glide slope shows you're a bit high (i.e., needle below), then adjust power/trim a little to keep this horizontal needle centered. Stay on 295 for the time being. At 5.0 nm, the lights will become evident. The vertical needle of OBI1 will be off to the right (i.e., you're left of the desired course). This, I believe, is where real pilots continue until they "intercept" the ILS course. They know enough to prejudge their turn; I don't. From there on, I used a combination of visual alignment and gauges. Line up for 27L on the proper glide slope and you'll see both OBI1 needles centered, more or less. (This, to me, is quite a thrill). At 1.7 nm, the Middle Marker buzzer sounds. Continue right on down to a greased landing. Or, as I did, bounce along a bit to the left of 27L, but get on the tarmac before the passengers demand their money back. Hope this helps. Cheers! Dennis Simanaitis EngEd@aol.com