Now and then I want to change from the stress of air-combat to the relative relaxation of civil aviation and when I looked for a sim to install on my new PC, I quickly realised that Microsoft FlightSim is a wee bit long in the tooth (although 2020 version is due out pretty soon), so I switched to XPLANE 11. This is a brief post to look at that installation.
Setting up DCS WORLD was straightforward and installing the aircraft (and learning to fly them) has been fairly trouble-free. Xplane 11 on the other hand, has been a little more involved - mainly I guess, because it's all new to me.
The first choice to make was whether to use STEAM or the independent download version - I chose the download version for more control. The download took forever due to the file sizes involved but that's to be expected and is after all, no different to DCS in that respect.
The Xplane environment took a little time to get familiar with but I'm quickly feeling more comfortable in the Settings section and I have now configured my 'throttle & stick' to a stage that I'm kind of happy with, although I'm certain that I'll be altering it all again. The thing I initially struggled with getting right was the Views within the cockpit, but now I've got that sorted and I hope to make it even easier with the addition of the X-CAMERA PlugIn.
Rather than play with the provided aircraft, I thought it best to choose a really top-notch payware model and focus purely on that. I was looking at allsorts from Jumbos to Cessnas and in the end opted for the TBM 900 by HOT START. It is an extremely highly rated aircraft and looks worth the investment of study time.
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I have to admit though, my first attempt at flying the TBM 900 didn't go too well. Unfortunately, there's no hot start (excuse the pun) - so you have to do a cold start each time. No doubt that will become a simple process once I've got it memorised and properly understood, but in the mean time I've ended up with either flat batteries or engine fires LOL.
In my frustration, I turned to the the 747 which I'm more familiar with from FS2000 days. This seemed to be working fine until I released the brakes and pushed the throttles forward - at which point I just turned around in circles! I'm sounding like an idiot aren't I??
At first, I thought it was the Nose Wheel Steering at fault and I messed around with the joystick assignments, but in the end, I discovered (by physically watching the throttles in the cockpit) that only engines 1 and 2 were being pushed forward! It was a simple case of changing the separate throttle-assignments from Throttle-1 and Throttle-2 to just "Throttle".
So for the sake of people searching Google for the answer to the problem, here's some keywords to help find this page......
- Xplane aircraft keeps spinning around on runway
- Xplane nose wheel steering not working
- Xplane spins to the right
It's worth pointing out (in case you're a bit of a dumbo like me) that you do also need to switch the NWS on when taxiing :-)
Anyway, back to the main aircraft, the TBM 900. She's a beautiful, single-engined turbo-prop and this particular rendition from HotStart is immaculately presented. The model is ultra realistic like none before and requires a great deal of study-time. There's no cheating - you have to do cold starts every time and selecting the wrong buttons in the wrong order can lead to damage to the aircraft, which you then need to have repaired (and pay for (virtually)). There is a log of all maintenance and repair costs, which gives you some inkling of just how expensive it might be to own an aircraft like this.
When you first enter the cockpit, there's a tutorial (voice and text and arrows) to help you learn the start-up procedure and I strongly recommend that you write this down with a pen and paper (using the pause button to give you time to do so).
One very frustrating thing about this plane (or maybe it's an Xplane thing) is that if you cock something up, you can't simply press a RESET button and start from scratch. For example, I ended up getting the start-up wrong and an engine fire ensued. I thought I'd just start again, but every time I returned to the cockpit, the fire was still in full blaze! Apparently, I had to spend virtual money and get the maintenance guys to repair it LOL.
So there you have it - I'm slowly getting used to it and despite some frustrating sessions (which usually result in me switching off the PC and walking away), I'm quite enjoying learning. I'll update as my knowledge improves.
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