Flying with CC2 Airways

reider

New member
Hi guys, found another good use for the crystalfontz LCD Modules. I`m currently flying with MS Flight Sim X (the dogs wotsits!) and am in Orly, after flying from Manchester EGCC to Humberside EGNJ, down to some gawd forsaken place downsouth I can`t remember except it was dark and I couldn`t find fuel. In a huff, I took off again and crossed the channel in the dark to Calais LFAC where I hastily refueled while the low fuel light was winking at me. Flying via Dieppe, across Pontoise airspace and toward Paris, touching down at Orly LFPO. Now, morning has broken, time to consult the map, find my next place of call and then enter it into the sat nav before radioing ground control for taxi instructions, followed by the tower for take off. Vive Le France!

I find the modules handy, with a couple of screens I made up whilst in mid flight, lol. One is `Airports` and shows the EGCC, EGNJ Airport codes and what airport this is-I change them to suit the area I`m flying through as on the maps they only appear as the codes. Secondly, I use a `Planes` screen to show me the Flap positions for take off, in flight and landing. I won`t post the screens, since they are a really simple screen setup and a classic example of how easy and quick the new screen gui editor is in producing them.

Might get into a MS Flight Sim editor at some point and change the livery to suit CrystalFontz. I`ll send a pic when/if I do. Untill then, its chocs awayyyyyyyyyy!

Reider
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CF Tech

Administrator
Wow! You will definitely have to post the screen files and pics :)

Last time I played with FS was on a '286 . . . and it was pretty painful, but I imagine it is awesome now.
 

reider

New member
The new FS X version includes a popular line of jets, seaplanes, Cessna`s which are my personal faves (though I`d like to see a Piper Cherokee as I`ve been in one), and an ultralight which is absolute fun. Many airports are included around the world, the UK for once has a fantastic lineup and quite well detailed. The world view equals real time trees, people, animals, cars, lorries, other planes and the virtual screen is excellently detailed. Flying is now aided by the sat/nav consoles we all know and love, on the Cessna Skyhawk SP 172 I use most frequently, its the Garmin 500. This handles flights from (a) to (b) under full sat/nav conditions, including input of airport landing strip number, wherein it performs `flying the pattern` as per the control tower, then switches to `final to approach` under vectors. Turns the plane to the correct direction, pilot slows to half speed manually, as the sat/nav lines up with the airfield runway. Then, nerves all jangling, body temp well raised, telling the dog to STFU, Autopilot is released, throttle lowered, lining up and staying steady with the centre line, flaps adjusted for descent when the speed reaches 55-60 knots, throttle up slightly to compensate for flap adjustment (and the pilots flaps too), throttle down more, nose down (and the plane too), just hovering over the runway, throttle down, as its about to land adjust nose up (and the plane too, lol), throttle off and apply brakes, dig feet into the ground and hope the plane stops!!! This is not counting setting tower frequency, gaining radio permission from the tower, switching to ground control frequency etc....

I damn wish I`d bought the Deluxe version. Didn`t realise until after the event that the Cessnas and some jets and others have a glass cockpit....... Not the normal control equipment in these babies. The console is a full Garmin 1000 display which handles the sat/nav, engine and everything, like looking at a big tv screen. No updates are being made so I`ll have to find a way to get it somehow.

My current trip:

EGCC Manchester - Start of journey

EGNJ Humberside - touched down, cos I like the approach over the River Humber
Flew over The Wash by Norwich heading South, Landed somewhere down there in the dark and couldn`t find fuel. Only 10 gallons left, took off in the dark-I hate that!

LFAC Calais, France - Landed, refueled and awaited the morning.
Suitably refreshed, Sat/nav set for a course to Orly, Paris - I flew via Dieppe, over Pontoise airspace, checked out the variety of surrounding airplanes.

LFPO Orly, Paris - Saw the Trifle Tower on the way in, busy looking place as expected.

EDRK Winningen, Koblenz - Beautiful scenery of the Rhine/Moselle Valley, brilliant landing, refueled and set a course for Switzerland.

LSZB Bern, Switzerland - Had to fly in over a mountain and drop down on the airfield according to the maps and sat/nav, entered the data into another computer and got a satellite image of the airfield to visualise it before I got there. Landing was good, if a little short of the runway, nerves about the mountain I guess!
On the way in I saw and airfield at Reims that looked really good for landing, mental note for another day.

Set a course for Italy, - was suggested at 19,500 feet - erm wonder what the ceiling height of this plane is??? Fantastic snow capped mountains, impressive valleys, so high up, even bigger mountains looming. Height of the plane at that point was only 11,000 feet, needed to go higher and fast. Tried allsorts in vain, even altered the flaps, mixture, fuel pump on, going nowhere fast and a big damn mountain was looming ever nearer, same all around, no way to go around. Checked on the net, Skyhawk subject to weight has a ceiling of a little over 14,000 feet. mmm, jetison some fuel, no way jose! Abort and use nav without GPS to get out of here at the max attainable height. Set a new course for Spain....

LFCR Spain - feeling really clever, I looked at the logs and found out I would run out of fuel en route, so I landed at a one horse, single (luckily tarmac) strip at Rodez. Refueled, straight back in the air and orf we jolly well go. Total trip time from my jaunt in the mountains to my destination was over 5 hours so I set the simulation rate to 16 times to speed up flight over the mountains. The plane attained 18000 feet at this point, slowed to normal and tried, still went up to it - warmer atmosphere??? Altimeter was around 3000 rather than zero when landing so this would equate to some difference. A steep learning slope here, pun intended!

LERM Spain emergency landing at the side of the strip, no time to find it, no tower, Low Fuel warning light on, guages show running on vapours. Another one horse town, with a strip in a field surrounded by fruit trees. No tower, no trucks, no people, no airport buildings, oh damn- no fuel!!! erm, had to cheat and select fuel always full, temporarily. Couldn`t see Jose fetching some on a mule! There should have been enough fuel to get to the destination, have I sprung a leak? Oh, hang on, the used fuel was at the suggested height. I went up to 18000 feet, give or take so then it uses more fuel, doh!!! I think those Swiss mountains on the way to Italy scared me a bit, lol!

LEMD Madrid, Spain Landed, by Sat/Nav location of runway 31L I think it was, 4/5 airfields all close to one another so it was a massive relief to find I`d set the Garmin correctly to manage the approach, which involved what seemed many turns. Massive airport, waited forever for a fuel truck which never turned up, 4am real time-damn wheres the day gone? Will set a course for Portugal tomorrow, I`ve been there in real life, never visit again but this is only virtual so what the heck? Mayber fly over the marina I frequented during my fortnight there. Landing at Faro, last time it was a damn large field with a bumpy track as a runway. I`ll see how its improved over the years. The cabin staff even applauded the Pilot as he landed the plane, which rather worried me at the time...... :rolleyes: :eek:

Reider
 

reider

New member
Ok, editing a simple screen for flying with the new CC2 GUI Editor is easy enough, so I will not post these screens. However, some people will not use the same version of flight sim as FS X or have a different problem with viewing the flaps and other controls. All sim flyers can make use of airport lists, but having one that updates without reloading the screen is a better idea. With that in mind and the earlier request, chocs away........

Planes2:

Display;

F7 Flaps, Take Off
F6 After Take Off
F8 Flaps, Landing
F5 Flaps, Normal



Consists of a screen and a Planes.txt file (enclosed), best place to put this is on the desktop. Wherever you put it the path to it needs to be changed, prior to using the screen, as follows......

[pre]
rows=4
cols=20

[from00]
from="cc2_textfile2.ini"
sec="regex#"
opt01="id_group00=@"
opt02="id_group01=@01"
opt03="id_group02=@02"
opt04="id_group03=@03"
opt05="id_group04=@04"
opt06="update_time=6000"
opt07="file_name=C:\\Documents and Settings\\Steve\\Desktop\\Planes.txt"
opt08="line_num=0"
opt09="match_num=0"
opt10="regex=(.*?)\\n(.*?)\\n(.*?)\\n(.*?)$"

So, yours may be C:\Documents and Settings\Joe Bloggs\Desktop\Planes.txt
Maybe only the name part Joe Bloggs is different, whatever just change it to suit. Then make sure everything has double backslashes to suit CC2 as follows.....

C:\\Documents and Settings\\Joe Bloggs\\Desktop\\Planes.txt

Install the screen in CC2, restart it. Now, the textfile has the Function keys set for the flaps, change them after setting the screen going in CC2, then save the file. If the screen is visible on the module then the changes will show straightaway, if not sooner! If you leave a space after the first 4 lines in the text file then you can add a list of other function keys you can just copy and paste into the four lines, where you have problems sometimes remembering them. Only the first 4 lines will display at any time, so the lower list is a repository for later commands. Alternatively, use this screen to make a copy under a different name and add some more function keys. If you make a repository of function keys then copy any 4 you want displayed, to the top 4 lines with a short (under 21 character description).



Airports2: (the sequel???)

Display;

Airports​
EGNJ Humberside
LFPO Orly, France
LSZB Bern, Switz


Consists of a screen and a Airports.txt file (enclosed), best place to put this is on the desktop. Wherever you put it the path to it needs to be changed, prior to using the screen, as follows......

[pre]
rows=4
cols=20

[from00]
from="cc2_textfile2.ini"
sec="regex#"
opt01="id_group00=@"
opt02="id_group01=@01"
opt03="id_group02=@02"
opt04="id_group03=@03"
opt05="id_group04=@04"
opt06="update_time=6000"
opt07="file_name=C:\\Documents and Settings\\Steve\\Desktop\\Airports.txt"
opt08="line_num=0"
opt09="match_num=0"
opt10="regex=(.*?)\\n(.*?)\\n(.*?)\\n(.*?)$"

So, yours may be C:\Documents and Settings\Fred Bloggs\Desktop\Airports.txt
Maybe only the name part Joe Bloggs is different, whatever just change it to suit. Then make sure everything has double backslashes to suit CC2 as follows.....

C:\\Documents and Settings\\Fred Bloggs\\Desktop\\Airports.txt

Install the screen in CC2, restart it. Now, the textfile has the Airports title, then a list of three Airport Codes change them after setting the screen going in CC2, then save the file. If the screen is visible on the module then the changes will show straightaway, if not sooner! If you leave a space after the first 4 lines in the text file then you can add a list of other Airport Codes you can just copy and paste into the four lines, where you have problems sometimes remembering them. Only the first 4 lines will display at any time, so the lower list is a repository for later trips. Alternatively, use this screen to make a copy under a different name and add some more Airport Codes.

The first line of the textfile is currently a screen title, you can though change it to an airport code instead and have four listed, or more if you can fit multiples on any line. To change the Airports title example to a code you also need to adjust the centralisation code in the screen, as follows.....

[screen]
screen_name="Airports2"
options=0
alt_delay=5000

[r00]
options=10

[r00-i00]
id=@01

Just change this one single figure 10 to an 08, specifically this one, not the rest. Its the one immediately after the screen name="Airports2" section.

The repository list of Airport Codes after the first 4 lines are not displayed, as you know. These are examples for later trips and you can add your own to the list and/or take out any you won`t be using. Then when making a flight simply copy any 4 you want displayed, to the top 4 lines with a short (under 21 character description).

Reider
 

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reider

New member
Maybe this International Airport is more like it, think I see some LCD packages getting loaded.....



Reider
 

reider

New member
Is YPAD an airport you can fly too?
I think you may need a bigger plane though :)
Adelaide International, yes thats a goer. I`m using this Beech King Air 350 for my world tour, it does 1823 NM on 2 full tanks if you ride the throttle on the lowest settings possible, where necessary. I`ve done the Australian leg, but I`ll hit there too at some point. I have to go back because I missed somewhere I wanted to go, might be on the flip flop. Sydney-somewhere I can`t find on my notes, Karumba-Queensland (YKMB) and Emerald-Queensland (YEML) were my destinations. With 2 of the refueling stations being Argyle, Western Australia (YARG) and Tennant Creek-Northern Territories (YTNK). Brisbane Int.-Queensland (YBBN) and this one that really needs several return visits......

Sydney-Kingsford Smith International (YSSY)
Its a sea approach to an island, a short runway and then falls into the sea at the other end. Its like hit or bust time and I hate sea approaches anyway. Thankfully they do have fuel. I am definately going back.

I use this plane because it has a good ceiling of 36,000 plus, a fair fuel return and a bit big for some small airports but ok for most. Its an 11 seater plus pilot/co pilot. There are bigger planes and airliners available, but they fly too high to get the view this one does. I can go on low level airlines with this one and use fly by sight.

FSX had planned to allow observers in all the control towers around the world, then stopped it from happening for one reason or another. We found a way in the backdoor at them all and can still use all the comms/radar equipment. Guess where I`m going? Adelaide Control Tower for a look behind the scenes and all around the airport. ;)

I`m going to alter the panel on my plane and put a 635 module in place. Never know, might find a way to get a weather feed or something at some point. That would be real cool. On multiplayer, anyone from the internet can join you as a co pilot in your plane, handy to teach people how to fly. Imagine someone asking what the 635 module is about, lol? They talk in realtime and/or use chat too.

Reider
 

Heffo

New member
While you are back hopping around Australia, drop past Albury (YMAY, I think) the airport is about a 5min walk from the house I will be soon living in.
 
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