Satellite View

[Wayne Conrad 989233]

Does X-Plane have an overhead, outside view like FS9's satellite view? I find it invaluable for positioning my plane on the ramp prior to connecting. With X-Plane's truncated airport scenery, I've got no idea where it's putting me, and without taxi signs, I need the satellite view to get a picture of where I'm at on the airport. I'm not willing to call the tower and say "I'm not sure where I am or where the taxiways are, but how about you just let me taxi around at random until I find the runway?"

[Reece Hunter]

Wayne,

 

I have since forgotten what MSFS's sattelite view looked like but there is a view in X-Plane that I find really useful for positioning aircraft. If you click on the Output menu item then click on the Local Map sub-item, you will get an overhead view. Click on either Sectional or Textured tabs first then you can use the + and - keys on the keyboard to zoom in and out. There are also two buttons on the lower right side of the view that perform the same actions.

To position your airplane quickly, simply click, hold and drag it to wherever you want it to be when you exit this screen.

Hope this helps!

 

RH

[Ian Elchitz 810151]

Keith provided a good pointer that the "low enroute" tab renders the quickest and thus allows you to zoom in/out much quicker.

 

Do doubt about it - output - local map kicks.

[Wayne Conrad 989233]

I knew you guys would come through. Thanks! I'm getting closer to having the courage to throw away my comfy, worn FS9 and give X-Plane a try online.

[Ian Elchitz 810151]

I loaded up X-Plane, flew offline and configured for 30 mins. Then connected.

 

Just do it Wayne. I can't imagine you being 1/10 as bad as some people are the first time they go online.

 

It's a learning environment and all for fun.

[Reece Hunter]

A couple of things I struggled with at the beginning but eventually resolved:

 

- It took me several tries before I got the proper setting that would give me the right feel of the controls. I kept adjusting the realism, linearity and null zone until I got what I thought was the right feel. This took probably two hours over the span of two days. I still do not know where these settings are saved so I can at least backup the file for a quick restore for the next version. If you guys know, I would appreciate the info. (Could it be the same xml file where the preferences are stored?)

 

- The autopilot for the big irons was different from the other "sim". It involved a change in thinking for me to grasp the concept of FL change and others. I even had to turn on the flight director now to engage the auto-pilot!

 

- The more realistic flight model did not bother me...until I flew an ILS approach by hand while it was still fairly new, with what was supposed to be the same model of King Air. Man, what a difference it was!

 

Having said the above, I love the sim (yes, including the occ[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ional bird strike and the nose gear that won't stay locked but good thing there is a manually-pump-the-gear option). I love the flight model and flexibility. It seems that serious pilots eventually graduate to X-Plane and always find other elements missing from the other games. I guess that's why we stick with it.

 

RH

[Wayne Conrad 989233]

You guys are right, the local map is pretty good for positioning the plane.

 

However... I load up X-Plane, and my plane is at LAX. I select overhead/local-map and drag the plane to where I want it. I close the map screen, and my plane drops to the pavement and shatters, because the airport elevation is different in the new location.

 

No problem. Select file/open_aircraft to get another airplane from the airplane dispenser. And that does fix my airplane, but it puts me back where I started when I loaded up X-Plane.

 

Drag again, shatter plane again, reload plane again, get moved away from where I put it. Repeat.

 

What am I missing?

[Reece Hunter]

Wayne,

 

You can also select the altitude, heading, airspeed, etc on this screen. Try changing the altitude to the field elevation before closing this screen. LAX is 125 ft MSL (http://www.airnav.com/airport/KLAX)

A second option is to simply fix all the gravity-induced-damage where you stand. Go to Settings->Equipment Failures then click on the Reset all systems to operational button in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

 

RH

[Wayne Conrad 989233]

Reece, Thanks for the hints. I've got "sloped runways" enabled, which means that the ramp at one end of the field can be at a different altitude than the ramp at the other end. Do I have to turn that off to be able to slew using the map? That would be sad. I was looking forward to sloped runways.

 

Resetting the equipment failures doesn't fix the plane after I break it by having it drop 20 feet to the pavement. Even after resetting the failures, The prop is missing, the engine won't run, and a "structural over-G" message remains on the screen until I select a new airplane.

 

Is there a way to keep selecting an airplane from moving you? That would fix everything.

 

If I could add new ramp locations to the airport, that would be groovy. But the docs say to do that using edit->airport in World Maker, yet World Maker has no edit->airport.

[Keith Smith]

Turn off sloped rwys, Wayne, if you're going to be flying online, otherwise you'll find that other aircraft are drawn well below the pavement. It should also fix the placement problem where you're being dropped 20ft onto the pavement. Also, can you confirm you're running 8.60, Wayne?

 

For taxiing, I swap to the external view (shift - \ ) hold up arrow a little bit to get a view from above, and then zoom out to get the lay of the airport. Once I have a rough idea of where I'm going, I'll zoom in again, but will usually still taxi from the external view since the situational awareness in the sim (on a single screen) is much less than real life.

 

You can add ramp startup positions to x-plane by editing the apt.dat file (under resources\earth nav data). This is done by placing the aircraft where you want it, noting the lat/lon (using data input & output screen), and then making an entry in the apt.dat file. For example, here's a startup location at KSFO:

 

15 37.619556 -122.387344 10.00 CAL RAMP AREA

 

Here's a docomeent explaining the format of the apt.dat file:

http://x-plane.org/home/robinp/Apt850.htm

[Wayne Conrad 989233]

Awwww, but I like sloping runways. Ok, done whining. I'll turn 'em off.

 

The external view tip is perfect, as is the instruction to edit the apt.dat file. Thanks!

[Jeremy Castellanos 1007109]

Turn off sloped rwys, Wayne, if you're going to be flying online, otherwise you'll find that other aircraft are drawn well below the pavement.

 

I don't have sloped runways on and I still get planes looking like they are sliding on their bellies on the pavement. Using 8.60 also. Could be depending on person to person.

[Keith Smith]

With sloped rwys, they'd be so far under the rwy, you wouldn't see them at all. What you're seeing, Jeremy, is the difference between where MSFS considers the vertical center of the aircraft, and where xplane measures it.

[Jeremy Castellanos 1007109]

Oh ok. Well I like Xplane the most anyways since it goes by GPS points and I would say actual ground levels. MSFS software always upset me that they just guess at stuff including the way they line up their airports.

[Peter Larsen 885332]

I normally just use the "Local map" with textures to taxi via, i think it gives you a great overview.