Different to the Integrated version, the design of my Standalone C172 Heading Gyro doesn’t come with any
indication of wind direction so as to render a more realistic appearance.
Many users, however, have been requesting to include such a feature because it is a useful reference while taxiing on the ground so that proper aileron and elevator actions could be conducted against strong headwinds, crosswinds or tailwinds as in the real life situation. Continue reading
Due to the coming of Christmas and the new A36 and B58 gauges, plus the C172 gauges have been released for nearly a year, prices of both the Integrated and Standalone C172 gauges have been reduced up to 25% off.
In addition, the latest versions of both series, now equipped with the newly written installer, are fully compatible with both the file structures from the old and the new Saitek drivers as well as the SPAD.neXt driver as mentioned in the previous post.
Installation is even simpler. Continue reading
SPAD.neXt (Saitek Panel Advanced Drivers neXt Generation) by Ulrich Strauss is a replacement driver for Saitek’s Flight Simulation Panels. The just released version 0.8 now provides full support to Saitek’s Flight Instrument Panels as well.
Indeed, the recent drivers from Saitek have brought improvements over older versions. That’s no doubt about it. But they are still lack of flexibility and configurability. Especially, the company’s FIP driver still only support a subset of the simulation variables. This has caused incompatibility issue among those 3rd-party aircrafts which use the simulation variables extensively in their designs. Continue reading
Lately, half of my minimal flightsim time were spent on creating new FIP gauges for Baron B58 (both default & Carenado versions) and Bonanza A36 simultaneously as they share many similarities.
Different from the last C172 gauges which categorizes into Standalone and Integrated versions, and charges separately, the new B58 and A36 gauges to come will include both Standalone and Integrated or Extended gauge face-plates altogether in a single package, when applicable.
This includes customization for both default and Carenado aircrafts, making some of the gauges consisting of up to four different versions.
In addition, the installer for the new gauges will be compatible to Windows 10 and the new Saitek drivers file structure as well.
Followings are a few more preview screenshots of the gauges already completed or about to complete. Continue reading
A friend recently asked if there is a simple way to change the barometric units from inHg to mBar on the Altimeter. Unfortunately, no, it is NOT possible on the earlier free gauges. But YES, it is possible on the paid gauges as their codings and image designs have been rewritten.
This automatic barometric unit switching feature should have been implemented earlier. Anyway, here it comes at last.
Users of the current Continue reading
Received some comments from friends who said the faceplate of the current Standalone Wet 
Compass is a bit wide. Well, it very much depends on personal preferences.
Anyway, here’ the face-lift version. Current users should have the new faceplate in their mailbox now.
If not, let know me in the Comment section below.
The ability of starting up multiple FIPs in specific order everytime has been a feature requested by almost all FIP users for a long long time. Saitek has finally implemented it onto its new drivers. However, this feature may need another tweak in order to function.
After the installation of the new drivers, a file called “SaiFlightFip.xml” containing the current setup information of the FIPs and the gauges should be created accordingly.
Via this “SaiFlightFip.xml”, the start-up order of the multiple gauges can be specified as desired.
The file is supposed to be stored under: Continue reading
Normally, driver installation should be no more than pointing-and-clicking on the mouse. Saitek’s new ProFlight drivers, “ProFlight_FSX_Plugin_7_0_40_9_x64_Software” and “Saitek_Pro_Flight_Instrument_Panel_7_0_40_9_x64_Full_pfw”, however, might need a little tweak.
Some friends said to me that the installation of these two drivers was as easy as snapping fingers. However, there were others telling me the opposite. To be more exact, their FIPs wouldn’t start up after the installation, even though all the other Saitek gears work as usual.
To me, both statements are true since I experienced both extremes myself over the last few days. Continue reading
Some friends asked me what would be the next gauges to fill up their “post-11th” FIPs after the 
10 Standalone plus the one Integrated Fuel Gauges.
Alright, here is the newly done full-size Wet Compass designed to match with the Standalone Gauges, in which the OMI Markers and Signal Sound Indicators are included.
Followings are two videos Continue reading
FS Times 