rlink 0 Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 I just installed CumulusX in FSX and purchased a personal license for it. I love this program! I do have one problem with the Smart Towplane though. While I can change the towplane to any aircraft that I have installed in FSX using CumulusX, I cannot seem to make the towplane fly right-hand tow patterns. All that it does is fly left-hand patterns, no matter whether I select the right-hand pattern or not. This is towing out of airfields that have no high terrain on either side of the airport. The Smart Towplane is suppsed to fly a pattern, then fly to the nearest visible lift area, but all that it does is fly the left hand pattern without seeking out any lift. Also, after release, the towplane simply climbs and flys away, instead of returning to the field like it is supposed to. Before CumulusX I had a little add-on program called Aerotow installed. I removed Aerotow before installing CumulusX. The Smart Tow feature of CumulusX is acting as though it is controlling the selection of the towplane feature, but it is not controlling the direction of the tow plane. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Randy L. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Lürkens 30 Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 Hi Randy, dou you have mapped the "Request Towplane" command to a joystick button? regards, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlink 0 Posted August 3, 2011 Author Share Posted August 3, 2011 Hi Randy, dou you have mapped the "Request Towplane" command to a joystick button? regards, Peter Hi Peter, Yes, I have the "Request Towplane" command mapped to one of the buttons of my joystick. Randy L. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Lürkens 30 Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 Hi Randy, please check if Aerotow is really deactivated and try with the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl-Shift-Y) and tell, Cheers, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlink 0 Posted August 4, 2011 Author Share Posted August 4, 2011 Hi Peter, I removed the joystick button assignment and used the Shft+Ctrl+Y command to request the tow-plane, and now it works as advertised. I am able to command the tow-plane to fly both left hand and right hand patterns now. Thank you so much for your help. I would like to make a suggestion concerning the Smart Tow-plane for a future version of CumulusX. There are times when I would like the tow-plane to simply fly a continuous left hand or right hand pattern around the airport without it leaving the vicinity of the airport to look for lift. The problem that I have with the tow-plane making just one right turn (or left turn) and then going off to look for lift is that it often leaves me miles from the airport at a very low altitude. If I break the rope then I don't have enough altitude to make it back to the runway. I think it would be a good idea to not have the tow-plane leave the traffic pattern to look for lift until it has reached at least 1000 feet AGL. That way if we break the rope on tow then we have enough altitude to make it back to the runway. I would like to suggest that in a future version of CumulusX that in the Configure Tow-plane menu that you keep the current choices that you have, but then add two more choices to the Configure Tow-plane menu. They would say something like "Left hand patterns around the airport to altitude" and "Right hand patterns around the airport to altitude". If one of these items is selected, then the tow-plane would simply fly a continuous left or Right hand pattern around the airport (of course there will be wind drift) until the glider pilot releases the tow rope. Again, thanks for your help, and thank you for CumulusX. It is a terrific program! Take care... Randy L. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Lürkens 30 Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 Hi Randy, glad to here that it is working for now. The same problem has recently popped up with some other user. The next release will have a workaround for that weird problem. Actually, the current tow plane pilot doesn't have the RADAR eye either, so he will look out 5 km at most for visible thermals. If there aren't any in that range, he will stay in the vicinity anyway. Thanks for your valid recommendation, I think I can make it. Cheers, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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