TOM'S BLOG THREE

[Tom Goodrick]

I'll see about that gauge. I am not sure but I'll try.

The lowest price I was paid for one of the 45-year-old guns I sold was $200. People should either learn to use their guns (and live with them safely) or sell them. There are plenty of bad guys out there that want to take away all you value including the lives of you and your wife. Sometimes guns can be useful. There were two incidents down here recently where just having a gun in the house scared away a bad guy (or girl).

[Tom Goodrick]

Sorry, no, I cannot make the TQ1 gauge read in ft lbs. The reason is that the name of the variable being read by the gauge is "ENG 1 PERCENT MAX TORQUE".

This is unusual. Normally a parameter is read with a name such as ENG 1 EXHAUST GAS TEMPERATURE and then you give a unit for the value such as degrees F or degrees C. But in this case it is percent of max and nothing else.

[n7rg]

- <Gauge Name="Eng1 torque" Version="1.0">
<Image Name="torque_Background.bmp" ImageSizes="82,82,82,82" Luminous="1" />
- <Element>
<Position X="39" Y="39" />
- <Image Name="Engine_Gauges_Needle.bmp" PointsTo="East" ImageSizes="20,8,20,8" Luminous="1">
<Axis X="-9" Y="2" />
</Image>
- <Rotate>
<Value Minimum="0" Maximum="12000">(A:ENG1 TORQUE, ft-lbs)</Value>
- <Failures>
<SYSTEM_ENGINE Action="0" />
</Failures>
- <Nonlinearity>
<Item Value="0" X="27" Y="67" />
<Item Value="1000" X="8" Y="48" />
<Item Value="2000" X="14" Y="22" />
<Item Value="3000" X="22" Y="13" />
<Item Value="4000" X="40" Y="9" />
<Item Value="5000" X="54" Y="10" />
<Item Value="6000" X="63" Y="17" />
<Item Value="7000" X="71" Y="27" />
<Item Value="8000" X="73" Y="40" />
<Item Value="9000" X="70" Y="50" />
<Item Value="10000" X="69" Y="55" />
<Item Value="11000" X="66" Y="60" />
<Item Value="12000" X="59" Y="67" />
</Nonlinearity>
<Delay DegreesPerSecond="20" />
</Rotate>
</Element>
- <Mouse>
<Tooltip ID="TOOLTIPTEXT_ENG1_TORQUE_FT_LBS" />
</Mouse>
</Gauge>

[Tom Goodrick]

Where did you find this: (A:ENG1 TORQUE, ft-lbs) ?

I looked through my list of variables in the Panel SDK and did not find that.

There is another way to do it. The max torque is given in the aircraft.cfg file. We could make a gauge that only works with that particular aircraft by simply taking that value from the file and putting it into a multiplication function in my original gauge. I would rather find some way putting in the max_torque as a variable. Then the gauge would work with any turboprop.

[Tom Goodrick]

OK. Thanks, Richard for the proper variable name. I inserted it into my digital gauge "Digital_TQ1FP" and it works fine. I tested it on a Fairchild Merlin III ( I made one for ENG 2) and it works fine. Values are shown as integers. I sent a copy to Bill. Any one else who wants copies of 1 and 2 should send me an email.


This gauge will fit right in with the other gauge values on the TG/DG panel. I tested it on a Fairchild Merlin III and it worked okay but there are some considerations.

1) The percent value is preferable in general because it does not require specific knowledge of the engine. We all know 100% is a max temporary value, 90% is high sustained and cruise values should be down near 70-80%. Obviously real pilots have that specific knowledge and often set power usiing actual torque values. I recommend using my Percent Power gauge for a Tprop as an additional aid because it is a technically correct backup. In your case I guess you have specific torque settings to use. That's fine. Beech probably uses percent values since the default King Air panel is approved by Beech.

2) I noticed torque values that went beyond the max limit for the Fairchild. (I knew it was 2780 from just looking it up in the aircraft.cfg file.)
My TPower gauge showed 110% as the torque went over 3000 ft-lbs. It may be very difficult to control the engines properly. But maybe that is realistic. I have noticed the Tprop copilots working very hard to keep the power set correctly on takeoff. They are watching temp limits and torque limits.

Let me know if there are any problems. This should be a gauge of general application.

[n7rg]

HI Tom
I found the line of code by doing a search for TORQUE in the gauge folder, and open
the xml files until I found one that had foot lbs. But your right it not in the SDK
FS8 or FS9. I did find those two line in the TokenVar.doc.
RECIP_ENGINE1_BRAKE_POWER N Power delivered to the shaft (ft-lb/sec).
RECIP_ENGINE1_PROP_TORQUE N Torque required by prop (ft-lb).

You can go here ( www.fs2x.com/Tutorials.htm ) and look a round.
on the lower right side find #10)Internal variables (output) there you will
find ( ENG1 TORQUE ) and #4) Help ID's and Tooltips you will find
TOOLTIPTEXT_ENG1_TORQUE_FT_LBS.

what I am looking for the code that control the cockpit camera.
have any idea there are?

Rich

[Tom Goodrick]

Any RECIP parameter is null when a turboprop is in use.

Which "cockpit camera" do you want to control?

There are two. One is the view you see when you start with a view of the 2D panel. This affected by the eye position in the aircraft.cfg file. You could even put this eye point at an X,Y in the cabin. I think it is also the view you get in the virtual cockpit. The height of this view point can be modified with a key that is set in the Key Assignments Controls menu. The angle of that view is controlled in View statements within the panel.cfg file.

The camera used when you "look out the window" is controlled by more statements in the View section of the panel.cfg file. There can be a set of lines for each direction for which you have controls by default - left forward, left, left rear, rear, right rear, right, right forward, and up. for each of these you set a "yaw, roll and pitch" of the camera. (Roll should always be zero.) For example, left forward (or it may be "forward left" my memory does flip flops) would normally have a yaw of 315 and a pitch of 0. But you might want to use yaw 325 and pitch 5 (+down 5 deg) to avoid being blocked by the windshield support. Like wise Left at 270 may be blocked by a wing so you can use yaw=290 to look forward of the wing and pitch 10 to look down more steeply. In this section you can also change the magnification - widen the view angle.

[n7rg]

HI Tom
sorry my mind is working about a light year and 1/2 ahead of my
communication skill as usual.

What I am looking for,the pan input codes of the VC camera,
( right left up down ). And can I control the camera with a XML gauge.

Richard

[Tom Goodrick]

You can simply change the control key or joystick button that operates the pan view. Any such gauge you would make would still require some sort of activation (probably by mouse). Would that be superior to the key/button activation?

See options, controls, key assignments.

[n7rg]

HI Tom
I try to change it, but it would not take key only a hat switch.
I will send you an Email in a day or two with more info
Rich

[Tom Goodrick]

A hat switch is very useful on a joystick. You should get a stick or control console that has one. It is the best way to do a quick look around the aircraft.


I want to say a few words about the credibility of various aviation publications.

JANE'S ALL THE WORLDS AIRCRAFT is a British publication that has been, since WWII, the primary authority on aircraft specifications. It has a standardized presentation so it is fairly easy to look things up. They check all details quite well. You can find copies in many libraries. Buying your own copy is often difficult and very expensive. Last I checked a copy cost $600. They publish about every 2 years but that may depend on the economy which has reduced aircraft production recently. I used to keep track of what Barnes and Noble offered. They have had old copies for under $100 and some publisher's over runs at $100. I was able to get the 1998-1999 edition on a deal like that. There was a special World Aviation Encyclopedia with a little info on a wide variety of aircraft. There was also a special WWII edition just a few years ago that has been very handy.

Aviation magazines in terms of Credibility:
1. Aviation Week and Space Technology.
2. AOPA PILOT.
3. FLYING.
4. Others?

Aviation Week is mainly an engineering publication but is also intended for executives in aviation - people in the flight departments of corporations and the offices of airlines. Subscriptions have been restricted to people in Government and the Aviation Industry.

AOPA PILOT gives very good pilot reports, mainly on piston aircraft, singles and light twins. They have discussed turboprops and light jets.

FLYING was solid in technical reporting many years ago (early 1970's with John W Olcott, Tom Block and Richard L Collins. In recent years with Mac Mc Clellen the quality of info declined a little bit. Today the competence is questionable. FLYING has not published a tech spec box with an aircraft article recently. I sent them a strongly-worded letter about this recently which will probably be ignored.

There are other publications such as the British FLIGHT and some commercial aviation magazines that are good. If anyone has some specific ones they like, please let us know.

[louross]

Just as a point of info, some real a/c gauges are shown as torque foot-lbs. One example is the Beech 99. I don't specfically remember what the Twin Otter used, as I was flying 99's after the Otter and for a longer period of time.
lou.

[Tom Goodrick]

Some of you may have heard that we had a little storminess here in Madison, AL, on Wednesday, April 26. We did. It missed us. But, we lost power that evening and just got it back today (May 1).


Wednesday was a bad day. We have a siren just a block away. It is turns on when an actual tornado is seen entering the boundaries of Madison County (fairly large). We are near the southwest corner of the county so we typically are near any tornado that enters the county. The siren sounded first at 7:30 am. It sounded for the tenth time at 8:30 pm. Just after that we lost power. It may have been activated after that but we did not hear it. It needs power. The tornadoes went south of us and north of us, as close as four miles. We had no damage, not even any of our 90 ft pines. We have no shelter from a tornado. Very few houses down here have a basement. Some have bought shelters that are dropped into a big hole in the ground with a door a short run from the house. We have a large closet under our central stair case that would suffice for Diane and me. But what about the two dogs, 7 cats and the bird? There was a time a few years ago when the cats were small when we had them all in one carrier (only had three then) and the bird in his cage all with us in the living room while a tornado went by.

We had the TV on to a local station that has state-of-the-art radar. They were tracking the storms all day. One of the meteorologists lost his home. He went home to check and came back and stayed all night.

It was bad for many people but not for us. We were mildly inconvenienced. I had to go unplugged for almost four days.

[flaminghotsauce]

Yea! I've been checking in every day to see if you would check in! I know some people in Tuscaloosa, and I have been watching the devastation.

Glad you're okay.

[Bill Von Sennet]

Glad you didn't have any damage.

We don't have a basement either, and plan to take refuge in our interior hallway. My wife plans to sit on the floor, but I wouldn't be able to get up so I will grab a chair and my cell phone.

We aren't in a tornado alley, but do get occasional warnings and there was a bad tornado SW of Greensburg PA about a month ago. (about 20 miles from us)