GREAT 48! Grand tour of US states. Week #47: Oregon - BRONCOS!

[Storm]

Football season approaches. What better than to fly through the Land of the Ducks in OV-10A Broncos, in NFL liveries!

Week 47: Oregon KEUL>KBKE>KHRI>KDLS>KSPB Full flight plan: Leg #1: KEUL > KBKE - direct Leg #2: KBKE > (KLGD) > KHRI Leg #3: KHRI > river > KDLS Leg #4: KDLS > river > KSPB FLIGHT PLAN Legs 3 and 4 will be low level following the course of the Columbia River. KDLS is in WA and separated from the city it serves by the OR/WA border! (Map.) We may change course on approaches for full stop, according to surface wind. Download the PLN flight plans file here. Flight plan in tabular form, flight maps and airport diagrams here. CRUISE Speed: 210-230 knots (70% throttle when level) Altitude: 6,500 ft (first two legs), then very low along the river AIRCRAFT North American Rockwell OV-10A Bronco preferred. See our Vault page here.* * If the Vault download links are not working please go here: Main aircraft NFL liveries This version has no autopilot by default. To install one, see here. Please fly your favorite team's colors, or a neutral livery. Please install as many liveries as you want to see others flying! I will be flying the Bronco in Denver Broncos colors. Note: Flying an equivalent speed prop aircraft instead is OK! RESTRICTIONS No jets. WHICH VERSION, CLASSIC OR STEAM? You're welcome to fly in Classic, Steam or P3D. Security in Steam is not guaranteed. Flight lead will be in Classic/Boxed. WEATHER Live server weather will be OK. Client side real-life weather generators such as Active Sky Next are highly recommended. Some smoke and haze is expected early in the flight. Clearer weather with head winds is forecast along the Columbia River Gorge. Our final destination should have brisk and gusty quartering breezes. SCENERY Default scenery is OK. Orbx scenery is optional. Orbx Central Rocky Mountains and Pacific North West users note possible elevation discrepancies with default. Highly recommended: FSgenesis US landclass (inexpensive payware). FTX Global 1.30 and Vector 1.20 good but optional (expensive payware). Vector users please see recommendations here. I will be using default + FS genesis landclass + FTX global + FTX vector. (No CRM or PNW.) NEXT WEEK IS LAST WEEK! Our final Great 48! flight will be next week, through Washington state. We'll be flying S.T.O.L. aircraft with a strict limitation on wingspan (50 ft absolute maximum, preferably less), at 140 kts and at up to 3,000 ft. Having started last September at the easternmost airport in the US Lower 48 (KEPM), this will take us to the westernmost (KUIL).

OV-10A Bronco by Tim "Piglet" Conrad. Denver Broncos livery by Novawing24. Centennial airport (KAPA) scenery by Todd Harrell.
Aircraft is parked at KAPA less than 1 mile from Dove Valley, the Denver Broncos' HQ and training facility.

[Storm]

INSTALLING AN AUTOPILOT IN THE BRONCO
Tim "Piglet" Conrad's excellent version of the North American Rockwell OV-10A Bronco has no autopilot included by default, even though full autopilot capability is enabled. For this Great 48! flight, you don't need autopilot. However, to ease my task of being flight lead, I will be flying with full autopilot for the first two legs, and at least altitude hold for the second two legs.

If you wish to install an autopilot in the Bronco for this or future flights, here is one way to do it:

1. Navigate to the FSX SimObjects\Airplanes\OV-10A_FSX\panel folder.
2. Make a copy of panel.cfg (in case you want to restore the original after this mod).
3. Edit near the beginning of the panel.cfg file, inserting text as follows:
   BEFORE
   

   Window03=GPS
   
   //--------------------------------------------------------
   [Window00]

   AFTER (new code in green bold italic)
   

   Window03=GPS
   Window04=Autopilot
   
   [Window04]
   Background_color=2,2,2 
   size_mm=230,120
   position=2
   visible=0
   ident=RADIO_STACK_PANEL
   window_size= 0.225, 0.168
   
   gauge00=Beech_Baron!OMI Lights, 1, 1, 12,40
   gauge01=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio Audio, 13,0, 217, 40
   gauge02=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio AP, 0, 40,230,80
   gauge03=Cessna!Nav_GPS_Annunciator,  6, 60, 14, 17
   gauge04=Cessna!Nav GPS Switch,            20, 60,  14, 17
   draw_order01=gauge02, gauge03, gauge04
   
   
   //--------------------------------------------------------
   [Window00]

4. Save the panel.cfg file.
5. If FSX is not running, start it. If it is already running, reload the Bronco as your current aircraft.
6. The autopilot will now be accessible during flight in the top-right of your screen by typing Shift+5. ILS markers and comms audio buttons are also provided. The NAV/GPS switch is overlaid on the left of the autopilot.

[Travis]

Thanks Storm! I appreciate you adding this easy to modify instructions!

[Storm]

Flight plan, flight maps and airport diagrams.

Download the PLN flight plan file here.


Flight plan in tabular form:




Flight maps:










Airport diagrams (full-stops bordered in orange; the rest are touch-and-go):

[Storm]

INSTALLING AN AUTOPILOT IN THE BRONCO
...

INSTALLING AN AUTOPILOT IN A DIFFERENT AIRPLANE
Someone asked me last night why this technique didn't work for another aircraft they felt needed an autopilot. They had successfully followed the instructions and installed an autopilot in the Bronco. However, when they used the same technique on another autopilot-less aircraft, the autopilot displayed but was inoperable.

The reason is that installing an autopilot requires two separate operations:

1. The autopilot gauge must be installed via a modification to panel.cfg
2. The autopilot functionality must be enabled and configured via a modification to aircraft.cfg

In the Bronco's case, the aircraft was supplied with stage 2 already completed. It was therefore only necessary to do stage 1, as I described above.

Normally an aircraft without an autopilot is not supplied with the relevant code already in aircraft.cfg, and it is necessary to add it.

• How? The easiest way is to copy the relevant section from another aircraft of similar size and performance that has a working autopilot.
• What is a "section"? Sections, in aircraft.cfg files, begin with section headers, and each header is a name enclosed in square brackets. Thus the autopilot section begins with [autopilot] and ends with the next section header, i.e. the next line that opens with a square bracket.
• What if there's already an [autopilot] section in the plane I want to modify? Check there is a line saying "autopilot_available= 1" plus a host of configuration lines afterward. If so then you shouldn't need to copy in anything. If it there is a line saying "autopilot_available= 0" plus lots of configuration lines following, simply change that line to "autopilot_available= 1". If there is just a line instead saying "autopilot_available= 0" with no configuration parameters following, you will need to copy in the section from the other aircraft.cfg file.
• What should be copied? You would copy from and including the [autopilot] line up to but excluding the next section header, i.e. the next line that opens with a square bracket.
• Where do I copy it to? The easiest place is at the very end of the target aircraft.cfg file. Alternatively, anywhere after the [General] section is good. Ensure you do not add the new section in the middle of an existing section!
• What about those configuration parameters? There are lots of mysterious configuration lines in between that you shouldn't touch unless you know what you are doing (but which are described in overview only on this Microsoft web page).

Be advised that not all airplanes benefit from an autopilot or are easily configurable when fitted. A case in point is the Rutan Quickie that used to be on my OneDrive. I do normally make changes to the autopilot configuration for new aircraft. However, the Quickie proved very difficult to configure to follow it to capture a heading or track quickly without excessive overshoots. (The Quickie is a small aircraft with unusual tandem wings and a great deal of interaction between axes.) In the end, since a full autopilot in such a simple home-built aircraft was unrealistic anyway, I opted for installing only an altitude hold.

[ak416]

You should copy/paste this info into it's own thread in tips and tricks forum, would make for a good sticky!

[Storm]

You should copy/paste this info into it's own thread in tips and tricks forum, would make for a good sticky!

It needs better info than this, with examples and illustrations. But consider it a "note-to-self" reminder.

[Bic]

I was the person that asked about installing the autopilot into another aircraft.

Following Storm's clear, concise and coherent instructions I was able to accomplish Step Two by copying the autopilot section (from a Carenado Cessna C185) to the Foundair Bushhawk XP aircraft.cfg file. I've been practicing STOL techniques with the Bushhawk in preparation for next week's final Great 48 flight.

Thank you Storm for another great informative and helpful post. It is posts such as Storm's post above that make MSFlights such a great community.

[Storm]

Reminder: Join us in your Bronco + favorite livery at KEUL for our 9pm departure tonight!

Trivia:

• "It's All Righta!" When?
• Pendleton (second leg) has a sister city in Japan called Minamisōma. Why is that ironic?
• When is a rooster not a rooster?

Answers and guesses during the flight itself please. :eagerness:

[Storm]

Oh, and what has this picture to do with our flight tonight? And what does it have to do with our flight around Las Vegas three weeks ago?



Hint: It fits in between the first two questions in my previous post.
To recap, they were:

• "It's All Righta!" When?
• Pendleton (second leg) has a sister city in Japan called Minamisōma. Why is that ironic?
• When is a rooster not a rooster?

Again, answers and guesses during the flight itself please. :eagerness:

[AIRWOLF]

[AIRWOLF]

[Space Taco]

Here are some of my screenshots from Steam (click for full size!):


Landing at KBKE.


En route.


Heading into the river with Mt Hood in the background.


Inverted under a bridge.


Sitting on the ramp at KSPB.

The remaining screenshots can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/KVtk0#0

[Razor]

http://imgur.com/a/gxgMC Here are my pictures

[Lazerbolt]

Bronco snaps!