MyCessnaSim Blog

AT&T True Natural Voices

2007-03-31T01:40:00.000-07:00

Use VoxATC like I do? Tired of that robotic voice?

http://www.nextup.com

That is your answer. $35 gets you AT&T True Natural Mike and Crystal at 16khz. Awsome quality compared to Microsoft Sam and Mary!! Get them today!

1. Install Cyrstal first

2. Install Mike second

3. After both are installed, open control panels, then speech. Set the default voice to either Mike or Crystal.

Enjoy!

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

FS Flying School

2007-03-30T19:55:00.001-07:00

I found a virtual flying school program which seems really cool!

It's called FS Flying School. What FS Flying School does is it gives you a virtual flying instructor. For a test I took off in a Cessna 172 from Chicago Ohara and then landed. During it the guy was barking at me and then told me to check the logbook. When I did, well.. read on:

Riggins piloting Cessna Skyhawk 172SP ended Friday, March 30, 2007 at 19:42
FSFlyingSchool Version 1.5 (Friday 23rd February 2007)
Using: FS2004
Visibility: 70.41 Miles Wind: 0 Knots

Aircraft: Cessna ID: N324CR Airline: Flight: 1
Flight plan: NAV1:
Failures: None at landing

Landing Score:0.00

Landing was successful in the following areas:

Gentle touchdown.

Good landing speed - not too fast.

Wings were level.

Good pitch control after touchdown.

Good pitch at landing.

With flaps - good job.

Good controlled final descent to touchdown.

Landing included the following problems:

No glideslope information was available on visual approach.

No runway alignment information was available on visual approach.

No glideslope - could not compare flare to glideslope.

Touch down not aligned with the runway - let's point down the runway.

Throttle(s) forward - should be idle.

Poor steering after landing - stay on the centre line.

Definite room for improvement...

Flight Score:88.06

Flight commended in the following areas:

Smooth turns.

Nice banking.

Correct matching of flaps to speeds.

Comfortable G forces.

Smooth pitch control.

Flown within aircraft's maximum speed limit.

Gentle taxi turns.

Good take off steering.

Rotation was not late.

Appropriate position of flaps during taxi.

Smooth braking during taxi.

Well coordinated turns.

No stalls.

No flying dangerously close to stall speed.

Smooth comfortable descent rate.

Pitch not too high.

Pitch not too low.

Flaps down on time.

Approach speed not too fast.

Low altitude speeds not too fast.

Good clearance of obstacles.

Flight included the following problems:

Poor attention to taxi speed - dangerous to yourself and others.

Loss of altitude during takeoff - climb smoothly.

Wings not level near ground - danger of clipping a wing.

Definite room for improvement...

Pretty cool! You can check them out at:

http://www.fsflyingschool.com/

You can download a demo that will let you fly around the Chicago area. The full product is $44.95

If you'd like to see a movie of the product, here it is:

http://www.fsflyingschool.com/movie/fsflyingschool061005.wmv

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

Vatsim Chart Finder

2007-03-30T01:12:00.001-07:00

Another kudos to the vatsim.net network! They have a chart finder available for free to use!

http://chartfinder.vatsim.net/

Simply put in your airport's ICAO code (IE klax) for every chart listed!

Blue skies Vatsim!

(If you are not sure what vatsim is.... click below)

http://www.mycessnasim.com/movies/N324CR_vatsim.wmv

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

View the entire VATSIM.NET Virtual Network in Google Earth!

2007-03-30T01:08:00.001-07:00

Do you have Google Earth installed?

If yes, then click here!

http://www.vatnz.net/cd/vatnz.kml

This file shows every ATC controller and pilot online the vatsim.net virtual flying network we fly on!

Wow!

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

Cessna 172 Panels

2007-03-28T10:48:00.001-07:00

For those of you wanting to print your own 172 panels, I've included two files available for you to download. I modified these for my own cockpit and then took a cd to Kinko's to print. If you view the Sim Photos 1 link on the website you'll see how it printed out and how I traced it with carbon paper.

Here are the panels!

http://www.mycessnasim.com/files/cessna172panels.zip

They are commonly opened in Adobe Illustrator. If you don't have Illustrator I do not know how you'd open these, they come in a .dwg and a .dxf format. Please do not ask me for support on these files.

Enjoy!

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

GPS AND Weather Radar, one screen, and how to switch gauges!

2007-03-25T20:48:00.001-07:00

I found a solution for using GPS and Weather Radar on the 7" GPS Screen in the simulator (so both gauges are stacked) and switch between them!

First, I found Reality XP, who makes a lot of various avionics gauges. Check them out at:

http://www.reality-xp.com

I bought their WX-500 Weather Radar, which is a gauge that is resizable in game. Great, but the problem was still how to stack two gauges on top of each other and switch back and forth between them. I found no way to do that originally which is why I was looking for a GPS/Weather all in one solution.

Well I found the answer!

Here's what you do:

Go into your Microsoft Flight Simulator 9 folder and look for the Aircraft folder. Open that and open the folder of the aircraft you fly. Inside is a panel.cfg file. Open that with wordpad or the like. You'll see some various [window] sections, like

[window00]

[window01]

[window02]

Etc.

One will be your GPS screen. In the case of Reality XP they provide a program that auto sets up the panel.cfg to include a [window] section for the weather radar. In my case it was [window08]

Ok so if you go into the menus in flight sim and open up both gauges, they are on screen. In my case I get them over to the 7" GPS screen but one is on top of the other. How to switch? Well the secret is not to switch back and forth, but to TURN ON/OFF the one that is on TOP! You turn a gauge on/off by pressing SHIFT-X, where X = the WINDOW NUMBER!

So I put out the weather radar screen (window08) and then on top of that the GPS screen (window03). If I press SHIFT-3 it will turn on/off the GPS gauge thus revealing the weather radar below! I assigned shift-3 to one of my GoFlight P8 buttons and now, I can switch back and forth between GPS and Weather Radar on the 7" GPS screen but turning on/off the GPS gauge! It works GREAT! I have not yet figured out if I can customize keyboard buttons to change weather radar functions but that is to come.

Click here to see a movie of this feature in action:

http://www.mycessnasim.com/movies/mycessnasim_gps_wxr.avi

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

SimFlyer Products

2007-03-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

So for those of you that are looking for alternate GPS gauges, weather, etc you should check out the SimFlyer line:

http://www.simflyer.net/

They have some really cool GPS/Weather alternatives that are worth looking into. I recently purchased their MDF/WXR because I wanted to have a GPS and Weather screen all in one solution for the cockpit. Unfortunately due to some limitation in Flight Simulator or a coding issue somewhere, it appears most gauges use an overlay on top of a GPS window for weather related information. This overlay can't be resized in flight simulator. That presented a problem with the MDF/WXR I bought because of unique circumstances in my cockpit. For me, I have to bring up the GPS on screen, move it half way off the screen towards the 7" GPS (tv) screen, close the GPS window, then reopen it for it to "pop" over to the 7" screen. Then I have to mouse over to the 7" screen and resize the GPS window to be full screen. Since the overlays for weather can't be resized in game (only via the panel's config file) it, unfortunately, does not allow me to use the cool SimFlyer MDF/WXR I purchased.

But how cool is SimFlyer. I contacted them regarding this purchase, and first reply got some helpful tips. I tried those to no avail unfortunately, so asked if I could have a refund. They asked me for some info about my order and after emailing them that, gave me a refund! Very cool of them to do that. I removed the installed software, the wrapper and the registry entries. Naturally if I reinstalled I would get charged again. But I thought that was a cool thing for them to do.

If you use gauges on screen or have a secondary large screen where you store your gauges at, SimFlyer offers some sweet products! Check em out!

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

Vote for MyCessnaSim.com! (Free)

2007-03-18T19:40:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I entered a sim contest and I'd appreciate it if you voted for my simulator!

It's easy and free, just click this link below and choose us for 1st place cockpit!

Click here:

http://www.goflightinc.com/contestentriessetup.shtml

1. Go to the VERY bottom of the page. (Where the Cast my Vote button is)

2. Scroll up, I am the 4th cockpit entry from the bottom of this page.

If you are not exactly sure which sim we are, here are the two pictures for you to match.

http://www.goflightinc.com/images/contest/cp/20070314224431_1.jpg

http://www.goflightinc.com/images/contest/cp/20070314224431_2.jpg

THANKS ALOT!!!!

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

iVibe Tactile Feedback

2007-03-17T23:06:00.000-07:00

I ordered my iVibe Tactile Feedback setup today. Check it out at:

http://www.ivibe.com

Basically it's a controller that connects to your computer via USB and gets information from Flight Simulator. Using a "module" as part of it's intellivibe system(and I'm assuming it uses FSUIPC) it sends information to one of three zones in a seat cushion unit that you place on your chair giving you all sorts of realist feelings in your back and legs. From the ivibe website:

"Contained within the TFSU are 6 powerful electromechanical actuators, arranged in 3 pairs: one pair in the back section, one pair in the left leg section, and one pair in the right leg section. All three zones can function independently or in unison. By having three independent zones, games that support intellivibe can render things such as vector based gforce, acceleration and braking cues, direction-based incoming flak, and just about any other thing you can think of.

Our tactile feedback actuators use heavy duty industrial brushless 26 volt Mabuchi DC motors. These are among the highest quality DC motors available on the planet. Each is expected to last for years of heavy use."

They have 3 demo videos on their website showing how the software pulls information from Flight Simulator and sends it to the correct zone. The movies are here:

http://www.ivibe.com/downloads/video..._EXTRA300S.wmv

http://www.ivibe.com/downloads/video..._BOEING777.wmv

http://www.ivibe.com/downloads/video...AIR_SF-260.wmv

I already own the Buttkicker Gamer which in itself is a magnetic actuator that sits on the bottom of your chair. What the buttkicker does however is takes the sound from your sound card, amplifies it and uses that amplification to power the actuator. So, any and all sounds "move the motor" per say. The only issue right now is it rattles the hell out of my chair, even at low volume which then vibrates the floor and bothers people.

The ivibe gets software input directly from Flight Simulator to power the correct "zone" based on what information is being sent to it. Much more intelligent it seems and I'm hoping less actual "floor" vibration.

We'll find out soon!

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

New flight cockpit movie!

2007-03-17T20:45:00.001-07:00

http://www.mycessnasim.com/Home/Sim%20Movies.html

Click the "Go" under Cockpit Flights, and view the KPDX - KHIO movie!

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

Kingair

2007-03-10T23:41:00.000-08:00

So while my simulator is a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, I recently installed GoFlights GF-LGT landing gear and trim control module.

http://www.goflightinc.com/order/images/gflgt.gif

Always wanting to play with things that I have no use for in a Cessna, I wanted to try out the landing gear handle. It also lights up the 3 LEDs when gear is up, down or in transition.

Not wanting to go to the heavies, I ended up flying a Beechcraft Kingair. Needless to say, the gear going up and down was awsome, and it's twice as fast as the Cessna 172. WIll probably fly it for a while just for fun.

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

Propeller Torque Effect

2007-03-07T18:54:00.000-08:00

So for a while now, I guess since I built the new sim rig, I noticed everytime I'd take off my Cessna would veer to the left. For a few days I figured this was due to the yoke/peddles needing calibration. So today, I calibrated them, and calibrated, and calibrated. No luck. Still, heads to the left.

Then, I remembered about engine propeller torque. And to confirm what I remember from so long ago, found on this post:

http://wiki.flightgear.org/flightgear_wiki/index.php?title=Understanding_Propeller_Torque_and_P-Factor

"Torque effect is the influence of engine torque on aircraft movement and control. It is generally exhibited as a left turning tendency in piston single engine propeller driven aircraft.

According to Newton's law, "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction," such that the propeller, if turning clockwise (when viewed from the cockpit), imparts a tendency for the aircraft to rotate counterclockwise. Since most single engine aircraft have propellers rotating clockwise, they rotate to the left, pushing the left wing down.

Typically, the pilot is expected to counter this force through the control inputs. To counter the aircraft roll left, the pilot applies right aileron.

It is important to understand that torque is a movement about the roll axis. Aileron controls roll. Prop torque is not countered by moving the rudder or by setting rudder trim. It is countered by moving or trimming the aileron.

This correction induces adverse yaw, which is corrected by moving or trimming the rudder (right rudder).

On aircraft with contrarotating propellers (propellers that rotate in opposite directions) the torque from the two propellers cancel each other out, so that no compensation is needed."

To further backup the theory that Flight Simulator was actually doing this, I googled "fs2004 torque effect" and found this post:

http://flyawaysimulation.com/postt25992.html

Which confirmed that yes, my left banking is single engine propeller torque, cool!

(Note: Someone in that post mentioned you could "Press 5" to correct it) But since I want it to be a realistic as I can possibly make it, I'll let it torque left and use right airleron to compensate.

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

The VFR Config File. PanelAsTexture=0

2007-03-04T14:52:00.001-08:00

If you are using the VFR config file below and just so happen to have weird things happen to your panels, you can't use your GPS or Radio Stack panels, etc simply open the fs9.cfg file and under

[DISPLAY.Device.WHATEVER YOUR VIDEO CARD IS.0]

remove the line that says

PanelAsTexture=0

They added this in to increase FPS, but as a result you lose all access to any of your 2D panels.

-Matt

Universal Flight Controls

2007-03-03T04:52:00.001-08:00

Mike Lehkamp, great guy and President/CEO of Universal Flight Controls has created a universal chart holder with overhead lamp for any aircraft!

Check it out:

http://universalflight.com/chart.html

I've already placed my order. This will look great in the Cessna!

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

VFR Flight & Frame Rates

2007-03-03T04:42:00.001-08:00

I built a new sim box recently (see specs at first post in this blog) and was bummed to see that while at KPDX, with Flight Scenery's KPDX package installed I was getting horrible frame rates. I'm talking 12fps on an Intel Core 2 Duo! Also, I hate blurries, which occures when you are flying and you see blurred textures in the distance that pop sharp when you are close.

I was changing an option in the fs9.cfg file called TEXTURE_BANDWITDH_MULT=30

30 is the default. Some put this up to 400 to remove blurries but then can get some shuttering, etc. I took mine to 400 and loaded FS9.

Suddenly while on the active at KPDX, my fps dropped to 1fps. I knew something was wrong.

I started looking up the option I changed and for one, noticed I had it twice. Once listed under [DISPLAY] and then once under [TERRAIN]. Both with different options and I remember specifically a post saying put it in [TERRAIN] and leave the one in display alone. Well, terrain was already 400.

At this point, a light came on and I realized I was only running FS9 version 9.0. I had not updated. I grabbed the 9.1 updater:

Download Here:

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulator/fs2004_update9.1_english.asp

And installed. For one, this fixes a memory leak with auto gen. That alone is a killer. But while doing this, I did some more research and came across this post stating to be what you want your cfg file to look like if you fly VFR in prop engine planes:

http://www.com-central.net/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=43588

Naturally not all fs9.cfg files will work for everyone, but I dumped this text into a text file and loaded it.

AMAZING! KPDX full 19.6 average fps!

If you want to see what KPDX looks like (and note the top left FPS is 19.6, locked at 20fps) check out these shots from the sim;

http://www.mycessnasim.com/Home/Scenery.html

I've zipped up the fs9.cfg file, exactly as it's listed on that site above (minus the comments). Download it directly here:

http://www.mycessnasim.com/config/fs9.cfg.zip

(Remember, always make a back up of your own fs9.cfg file!)

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

VoxATC

2007-03-03T02:49:00.001-08:00

In an effort to put as much useful information out to the sim community as possible, I want you all to check out this program for Flight Sim. It works in FS9 and FSX:

http://www.voxatc.com

In short, would you like to talk back and forth to ATC within your flight? This allows you to do it. No more ATC on screen, no more push 0 through 9. Speak real ATC lingo and hear it back. NOTE: This uses Microsoft's Text to Speech in order to talk to you. Some people expect a real voice. You won't get that. What you do get is much better, REAL WORLD ATC lingo spoken to you, and you speak it back. Free demo download on their site allows you to use at 2 or 3 airports. In March they are expected to release a new deluxe version that incorporates two AT&T True Natural Voices (Which normally costs about $300 per voice) in their product. (Which is all of what, $50 dollars?)

AWSOME program, you'll love it.

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

LiveATC

2007-03-03T02:45:00.001-08:00

This is posted on the sim's website but incase you haven't checked it out yet (and why wouldn't you?) head over to:

http://www.liveatc.net

Has live internet radio feeds from ATC all over. You can even save them in a playlist in iTunes for later listening!

Los Angeles Tower Cessna Four Charlie Romeo ready for takeoff.

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

GREAT KLAX Scenery!

2007-03-03T02:43:00.001-08:00

This scenery package only works under FS9, but is awsome!

http://www.fscloud9.com/php/products.php?lang=EN&id=138

They also offer a score of other products, I have not tried any of those but I love this KLAX upgrade. They are even offering a 50% off discount right now. If you put in this coupon code: BLAH then the package comes out to a little over $10. Moving cars, lighted KLAX light poles, great airport scenery! If you fly into or out of Los Angeles international airport in FS9, you'll want this!

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

FlightScenery.com

2007-03-03T02:40:00.001-08:00

I've tried many scenery downloads and purchases over the last couple of years for creating better looking airports. NOTHING has ever come close to the products offered by Flight Scenery!

http://www.flightscenery.com/products.htm

They even have a page for optimizing Flight Sim:

http://www.flightscenery.com/optimizingfs.htm

If you'd like a demo movie from my sim (forgive the horrible video and sound, this movie was taken under the old sim and Fraps took my TH2G 3 screens) look at this video I made of their Portland area scenery I purchased:

http://www.mycessnasim.com/movies/flightscenery_kpdx_mycessnasim.wmv

I can't recommend this companies scenery enough!

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

FSAutoStart

2007-03-03T02:16:00.001-08:00

I can't recommend this utility enough:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/FSAutoStart.shtml

Carl Hackman from http://www.flight1.com mentioned this to me while trying to tweak the sim for Ground Enviornment Pro II. Later I looked it up and I'll never fly without it again.

In short, you run FSAutoStart and it shows you all your windows services that are running. (Print spooler, MSN, Anti virus etc) Naturally, you don't need these while flying. It lists them out and when you mouse over each one, it'll give you information (as much as available) about what that service is and what their general recommendation is. The options are "No Action" which leaves the service running while FlightSim is running, "Stop" which stops the service entirely until you reboot or "Stop and Restart" which stops the service while FlightSim is running and then restarts it once you exit out of FlightSim.

Simply put, this can save you some valuable processor cycles and memory, thus giving you better performance in Flight Sim!

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

A few useful tips

2007-03-03T02:05:00.001-08:00

I've posted the following PDF file:

http://www.mycessnasim.com/tweaks/FSXTIPSJAN2007.pdf

It shows some pretty nice basic info to some, on location of config files, using the Traffic Toolbox, a free memory status program and other useful tidbits.

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

Flight Sim Tweak Guide

2007-03-03T01:49:00.001-08:00

Here is a great guide to understanding most of FSX and how to change things to improve the experience. Also note that some of these tweaks work in FS9 as well. Download the PDF here:

http://www.mycessnasim.com/tweaks/FSXTweakGuide.pdf

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com

The Simulator

2007-03-03T01:48:00.001-08:00

Thought I would post the specs on the MyCessnaSim PC that runs the whole thing:

OS: Windows XP SP2

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13GHz overclocked to 2.35GHz
http://indigo.intel.com/compare_cpu/showchart.aspx?mmID=884352&familyID=1&culture=en-US

MOTHERBOARD: Asus P5N32-SLI Premium Motherboard w/ dual PCI-e 16x SLI slots
http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=337&model=1325&modelmenu=1

VIDEOCARD: BGF Tech Nvidia 7600 GT Overclocked 256 meg PCI-e
http://www.bfgtech.com/7600GT_256_PCIX.html

MEMORY: 2 gig Kingston PC5300/667 Dual Channel DDR2

HARDDRIVE: 160GB Western Digital SATA 7200RPM

PSU: RAIDMAX 420W

DVDROM: MadDog DVD ROM

Under FS9 I'm getting max fps locked at 25 with pretty much every slider maxed out. However default scenery is still not as good as FSX but performance is better.

For photos see the Sim Photos links at http://www.mycessnasim.com

Matt

VATSIM Pilot, USA-W

Coral Airlines, N324CR

Pilot ID: 908853

http://www.mycessnasim.com