A model for sailplane enthusiasts. Very aerobatic thermal and slope!

Slope model 4 u to try.

You definitely are an explorer like me. Have just been flying my first 'V' tail glider on new slopes where I moved so will have a play with MANTA. Great Work Jantar!

I have the Spektrum Dx5e and the cable that came with my copy of pheonix 3 but i cannot get the Tx to show int the controller options. Am I missing something really simple? Great looking sim just cant play it yet!

For my dx6i I used a mono audio cable and smartpropoplus (http://www.smartpropoplus.com/)

GeneralFailure,

Would it be possible in a future version to allow the zoom controls to work with the "ground in view" option? Some of the planes get too small to see properly, awfully fast.

While that's true for a lot of real models too, the lower resolution on a monitor makes it a lot harder to keep orientation than it would be in real life.

Originally Posted by Andy2No

GeneralFailure,

Would it be possible in a future version to allow the zoom controls to work with the "ground in view" option? Some of the planes get too small to see properly, awfully fast.

While that's true for a lot of real models too, the lower resolution on a monitor makes it a lot harder to keep orientation than it would be in real life.

Hi Andy,
Well, if you could zoom in it would no longer be "ground in view"
The view basically zooms in as far as possible as long as the horizon is in view. So the trick is to fly low. Maybe I could make it "give up" earlier and switch to plane only view at lower viewing angles... I'll see what I can do.
Cheers,
Davy

Originally Posted by GeneralFailure

Hi Andy,
Well, if you could zoom in it would no longer be "ground in view"
The view basically zooms in as far as possible as long as the horizon is in view. So the trick is to fly low. Maybe I could make it "give up" earlier and switch to plane only view at lower viewing angles... I'll see what I can do.
Cheers,
Davy

Or maybe there could be an optional view port which would show the plane, so you could easily see it's orientation.

Personally, I just don't fly out that far, but it would be handy for faster planes.

This sim is incredible! My biggest complaint is that I can't land on the tractor. Actually the zoom is probably the biggest problem (still not very big).
Are flaperons are possible with this, or are they a feature that may be added later?

Originally Posted by GeneralFailure

Maybe I could make it "give up" earlier and switch to plane only view at lower viewing angles... I'll see what I can do.
Cheers,
Davy

Thanks, Davy. That would be good. I noticed it does give up if you fly high enough. Being able to choose when with the zoom buttons would be good.

I've been trying to fly frankyfly's The Ultimate Bipe and keeping it in view with the "Ground in view" option is really difficult.

An option I've seen that works pretty well in AFPD is the delayed vertical and horizontal camera - you can set the view of the plane to lag behind it so the plane climbs to the top of the screen (leaving the ground in view for longer), rather than being pinned in the middle, and make the view either lag behind the plane horizontally, or better still, lead, so you can see more of where you're going. It has sliders to set the amounts. An option like that in RCDP / the BMI sim would be good.

Originally Posted by tymbrewolf

Here is my tweaked par file for the extra 2. At least I like it better this way...

Where was the rest of that model? It doesn't work with just the PAR file. I accidentally overwrote the Tymbre DISCUS zip with the new par file too, assuming it was a newer version of the entire model. I've found the original for that now.

I'm not sure if the same happened with the Extra 2 - I downloaded all the zips from this thread, in order, letting newer ones overwrite older ones, then unpacked them, a few weeks ago.

Originally Posted by Andy2No

Where was the rest of that model? It doesn't work with just the PAR file. I accidentally overwrote the Tymbre DISCUS zip with the new par file too, assuming it was a newer version of the entire model. I've found the original for that now.

I'm not sure if the same happened with the Extra 2 - I downloaded all the zips from this thread, in order, letting newer ones overwrite older ones, then unpacked them, a few weeks ago.

I think he's referring to the 'extra 3D' or 'xtra 3D' which comes with RCDP. Rename the new par file if it's the same as the original beforehand, so you don't over write it.

You will find the correct folder named 'extra' where ever you installed RCDP. Perhaps in the program files folder. It's not in my documents.

Thanks, Eves. I put extra2.par in the "My Documents\BMI Flight Simulator\Aircraft\extra" folder in the end, and that worked. Maybe I should try renaming it and putting it in the Extra 300 folder too. I'm not sure what the rules are. Apparently the par file name doesn't have to match the folder name, for one thing.

GeneralFailure,

Flying that extra2 version of the extra has made it clear to me why I struggle with the ground in view camera mode. If I use automatic zoom, I can do all sorts of semi 3D manoeuvres without much difficulty because I can clearly see what the plane is doing (though I don't have much idea of where it is), but as soon as I try ground in view, and gain a bit of alititude, the camera suddenly zooms out to the point where I have no clear idea what it's doing. Shortly after that, I tend to lose orientation and crash.

I thought it was just because I was trying to fly small models before, like The ULTIMATE Bipe, but the extra2 is a fairly big model and I still struggle. It seems to me it just tries too hard to keep the horizon in view, at the expense of keeping the plane visible. It's such a sudden change as it zooms out, it almost makes me feel dizzy.

I think the AFPD delayed vertical camera idea would be a better approach - trying to keep the ground in view longer as you climb by making the plane move further up the screen, rather than suddenly zooming out.

I guess there's no way to get the sort of detail and field of view our eyes are capable of on a PC monitor, so tricks of some sort are needed. When we fly real models, our attention is focused on the plane, so it's almost like auto zoom, but as the plane gets further away we still struggle to see it, so it's a softer version of auto zoom.

I think to simulate that the view should smoothly zoom in on the plane as it gets further away, but not so much that it keeps it the same size. Letting the plane move around on the screen could help a lot with keeping the ground in view though.

I just tried putting a copy of extra 2.par in the Extra 300 folder and renaming it "Extra 300-2". That didn't work though - selecting it just confused the sim and it showed a blank box. I see from looking in it that the names of the .x files it refers to don't match, so it's obviously just meant to be used with the contents of the extra folder

Is there any planes similar to the easy star for download?