B21 19 Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 I've updated the ASW28 created by Peter Franke with new instruments. A lot of the glider models out there are stuck with the complex 'DLL' CAISET instruments that have been carried over since FS98 (!) and now with sim_logger and CumulusX the DLL gauges should really no longer be necessary. So I've written a set of pure FSX 'XML' instruments and installed them in a new panel for the ASW28 (the model originally created by Peter Franke in 2002, with a variety of other contributors on the panel and flight dynamics). For this version I've modified the virtualsoaring.air flight dynamics file we created for the 'SOAR' version of the DG808S. I created the panel mainly because the 'UKVGA' society wanted a cross-country task consistent for both FS9 and FSX, and wanted to use the ASW28, so I decided it was worth the trouble of reversing out the DLL instruments so we don't drag FSX users back to FS98. Hence this ASW28 is branded the 'UKVGA ASW28', now uses standard FSX features like its flightplan, sim_logger, CumulusX, and is a simple drag-and-drop install. Download the UKVGA ASW28 here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruin 3 Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 Thanks Ian, Great job. It flies like a baby (not Grunau), and the instruments look and work super. One thing though: When running FSX in DX10-preview mode, the ASW28 is all white on the outside. It has to do with the texture-format of most of the 2002/2004 models, which are not compatible with FSX-DX10. I have the same problem with Max Roodveldt's 2002 Astir CS, that I converted to FSX. On that one in DX10-mode even the inside cockpit is transparent, as if you lost some parts of the fuselage Bert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B21 19 Posted February 10, 2010 Author Share Posted February 10, 2010 yeah I updated the panel, because I just couldn't live with installing the old DLL instruments, but the model is unchanged - as with quite a few others it's not compatible with DX10 preview mode. B21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulau 0 Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 I finally got a chance to fly this bird on a task last night. In Condor, I always fly the ASW28 for Standard Class task, so this was a way to compare apples to apples, and it turned out to be as docile and easy to fly. The only issue I noticed was difficulty getting it to slow down when circling, requiring almost full up elevator at times. Need to fly it some more to rule out pilot error. The moving map is certainly an excellent tool for orienting yourself to the task. In the Condor PDA, north is always fixed to the top of the display, and it took a few minutes to get used to the aircraft icon being fixed, but once acquired, having the icon fixed is much more intuitive when maneouvering. Of course, the B21 vario is your "one stop shopping" for soaring info, MC, netto, arrival height, averager, all clear and easy to read. The arrival height behaves as I expect when flying through lift...i.e. it increases. Ian's TE vario, also good to have. Both this instrument and the ASI were indicating knots, which was not unexpected since this is, after all, the UKVGA ASW28! This is the same case as these instruments in DG-808S, where they also are only calibrated in knots, however, the B21 vario and the altimeter pick up my metric settings in FSX, so I'm left with an odd mixture of metric and imperial. I'm not familiar enough with FSX to know how this is supposed to work. I gather that some instruments can switch, and some cannot? I had trouble getting full range of elevator trim with my rotary, and had to always apply some forward stick pressure for anything over 80 knots. It was possible to get a little more by clicking the mouse area on the panel, but it seemed only about 1 in 10 clicks were registering. This may be simply a conflict between having trim on an axis, and the click to trim function of this gauge. Also, this may be realistic, I don't really know. In the SOAR DG-808S and the LS-8-18, I've been able to get more forward trim out of the rotary. Same thing for pitch up trim, which may have been a factor in my difficulty getting it to circle slower. The GPS, Ian, is this the same FSX GPS as in the DG-808s, or have you tweaked it any? Video from this flight to come soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Roodveldt 0 Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 :rolleyes: I'm not familiar enough with FSX to know how this is supposed to work. I gather that some instruments can switch, and some cannot? Yes, it has to be programmed inside the instruments - there are three settings: 0 = US system, 1 = partly US / metric and 2 = metric. Each instrument using variables like knots / kmh, feet / meter, lbs / kg need to have it's setting adjusted accordingly. That's where the real fun starts: when Bruce wrote the first versions of FS all the variables were metric ( I'm sure he expected the world to transfer to metric in the near future - like I did - it has been 50 years since ISO). For FSX dear Microsoft couldn't make up their minds - some of the new entries are in Imperial and some are in metric. Conversion is the name of the game. One little example: the entries in the aircraft.cfg for the water ballast system are in US gallons but the weight of those gallons are in Kg. It's like 1 Pound = 20 shillings, 1 shillings = 12 pence or 12/24 hours = 720/1440 min = 43200/86400 sec... What's wrong with 0.1 / 1.0 / 10.0 / 100.0 / 1000.0 ? It's a !@#$ miracle to get anything working at all... Pity the poor programmer... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B21 19 Posted January 13, 2011 Author Share Posted January 13, 2011 yeah the units shambles is scary, and there's so many examples of disasters as a result - some Mars spacecraft had moments programmed in foot-pounds (!!! I am not kidding) while the motors were actually working with Newton-meters. And someone's large passenger jet ran out of fuel (from Canada maybe?). There's been an evolutionary story to the instruments in freeware aircraft that extends years. For much of the time the overriding concern has been to provide a *compensated* variometer, as the default FSX gauge is uncompensated 'vertical climb' and niceties like switchable backgrounds (so you see knots or m/s) haven't been high up the list. But the instruments are still evolving. I think my update to Wolfgang Piper's LS8-18 is finished, I'm just testing it with a couple of the UKVGA 'Lasham Regionals 2009' tasks and will make it available to download. You'll be pleased to hear *all* the instruments are now switchable imperial/metric. The most significant 'systems' improvement is the needle on the LCD vario is indicating 'speed-to-fly' (the others are netto and te). I've worked on some documentation for the panel, available here: http://carrier.csi.cam.ac.uk/forsterlewis/soaring/sim/fsx/simobjects/ls8-18_b21/ The actual "LS8-18 B21" download will be available later this weekend (whenever I get a chance to fly a 2.5 hour task...) Wolfgang has modified the ASH 25 open-class glider for me to add a surface for a yawstring, and I'm in the process of transplanting the XML instruments into that. At the same time I'm adding water ballast and adjusting the polar to get 60:1 (I could be wrong, but I measured the current polar at 48:1) At some point, I'll retro-fit the instruments into the ASW28, maybe before the ASH25, as it's such a trivial exercise. That way you'll get the switchable backgrounds, the speed-to-fly, and the more legible GPSNAV. B21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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