Classic British Flight Sim

A lovely bird for low'n'slow VFR flight. I've been away from the MSFS scene for some time with heart problems but now I'm back I thought she might be just the job to sharpen up my in-air skills (or lack thereof) before I move up to my much-loved MAAM Dakota DC3.

Two small issues. What is the panel Heading Indicator on the Rapide for? It doesn't seem to control anything other than a heading readout. Is it just a heading reminder for a forgetful pilot? If so, I guess they knew I would be the one to fly her...

The other thing is the compass. When I used to use that sort of compass real world, you could rotate the glass cover until the T pointed towards heading required. When the compass needle aligned with the T, you were going (roughly) in the right direction. Is there any way to do that in Dave's model?

TIA

Tom

Hi Tom and welcome aboard

The directional gyro is just that mate.. not attached to anything in particular.. just a representation of where you're going. The compass (and the DG) are stock M$ items and the compass in particular has come in for some serious scrutiny of late. It was realised when doing the Chippy V2 that M$ got it dreadfully wrong!! :roll:

Good news is (if you are running FSX that is).. DG has a new Rapide in beta with fully modelled VC. I've not seen it yet as I need to install a new HD before I put FSX on but I guess the compass will be similar to that in Rick's Chippy and as such, will work correctly

ATB

DaveB :tab:

As Dave said, the compass in the upcoming FSX Rapide works correctly

DaveB wrote:Hi Tom and welcome aboard

Thank you kindly, good sir!

DaveB wrote:The directional gyro is just that mate.. not attached to anything in particular.. just a representation of where you're going.

Thought that sounded like the case...

DaveB wrote:The compass (and the DG) are stock M$ items and the compass in particular has come in for some serious scrutiny of late. It was realised when doing the Chippy V2 that M$ got it dreadfully wrong!!

Gosh! I am amazed! :roll:

DaveB wrote:Good news is (if you are running FSX that is)..

Got it but not yet installed it. Like you, I need a larger HDD first... Probably need quite a bit of hardware updating, too, but that can wait. I may be able to (just) run FSX with a larger HDD, but not without.

Funny how history repeats itself - always need more brute force to run the next version of MSFS. Still, at least these days you don't need to buy a totally new computer system, as when FS1 moved from Apple IIs and Trash80s (Ah! those wire frames!) to Microsoft's version on the IBM PC. Proportionally, though, and allowing for inflation, I guess there hasn't been much difference in price for each incremental step. It just seems worse...

DaveB wrote:DG has a new Rapide in beta with fully modelled VC.

Sounds good... Meanwhile I guess I'll have to mark slightly larger "triangles of (un)certainty" on the chart :sad:

Thanks very much to you both for confirming my fears and to you, Dave, for such a lovely lady.

Best to you both as well

Tom

You're very welcome Tom (what a nice man!)

If you fancy putting the old girl to some productive use, we have lot's of them available on our VA (shameless plug I know) In addition to the repaints already available, you'll find representations of the entire BEA Islander Class available for download in the VA forum under 'Aircraft and Routes'. They're all based on DG's recent G-AFEZ paint for the v2 model and have the correct names/registrations

Glad you're enjoying the model/panel.. despite M$'s best attempts to misrepresent the actual gauge operation. The panel btw is based on DL up at Coventry

ATB

DaveB :tab: