Eyepoint

[stickshaker]

I have one question about this otherwise excellent plane. The eyepoint in the Virtual Cockpit is very close to the instrument panel and level with the gunsight. Unless you have a widescreen this makes it almost impossible to see the runway past the nose on takeoff out of tjhe corners of your eye. When I move the eyepoint aft, I quickly get all kinds of aircraft parts in the way (black stripes and patches). I am sure that real pilots, while perhaps moving their heads towards the gunsight while shooting, would, in normal flight, have their heads a bit more backwards and a bit higher also (even though I realize that the canopy did not give much headroom). Is their a way to change the eyepoint without getting plane parts in the way, or increacing the view angle?

[Panther_99FS]

Edit the VIEW section of the AIRCRAFT.CFG file (Minus in the first set moves the view back) to your liking

Panther

[PhilC]

Panther is right. Here is a little more info...

Open up that aircraft's aircraft.cfg file, which is located in that aircraft's main folder.

Look for this section:

(Views)
eyepoint=-8.3, -0.9, 1.45 //Longitudinal, Lateral, Vertical (feet)

The first number moves you forward / back, the second moves you left / right, and the third moves you up / down.

Adjust one or all of the three figures as required.

NOTE: You can make these changes while FS is running and your aircraft is loaded! Make the change, save the aircraft.cfg, then switch to another aircraft then back to the original aircraft you have made the change to in order to check it. My favorite way is to assign a key combo to the reload aircraft command in FS9. Then I just make the changes while FS is running and press my key combo to see the results.

Also, if money is not a factor, consider purchasing the TrackIR3 with Vector Expansion from E-Dimensional. It will make taxiing and flying tail-draggers (and all aircraft for that matter) much easier and much more realistic. With it you can actually lean over to look around the nose or lean in to look at a gauge closely. I can't imagine flying without it anymore.

[stickshaker]

Thanks Panther and PhilC, for taking the trouble to post. This is very useful indeed, also for other planes. I'll work on it and report the result!

Best regards,

Stickshaker

[stickshaker]

Hello PhilC and Panther,

Your tips were very useful. Although I have TrakIR I still wanted to adjust the eyepoint and have much more satisfaction flying the plane now. My new eyepoint settings are -5.44, 0 and 2.98. I think this is still within the realm of realism (my head should still fit in the cockpit). And if it is a bit beyond realism, it compensates for the small field of view of our monitors.

Thanks for your help!

[Mitchell - A2A]

Regarding eyepoint adjustment: I don't want to rain on anyone's computer operating parade, but I am just an old stick and rudder man and these things just confuse me. When flying in FS9 and I want to adjust my eyepoint, I just hit shift-enter to go up and shift-backspace to go down. You can do this before or during the flight as much as you want to, just like in many real aircraft. It certainly tames many taildraggers and makes takeoffs and landings a lot easier.

Mitchell

[Panther_99FS]

I know you can do that Mitchell but IMHO to be very frank, "doing that just sucks".....

Panther

[stickshaker]

Panther, I think moving the eyepoint is quite legitimate. I flew a real Tiger Moth twice and on both occasions I translated my head up and left-right during landings to get the nose out of the way. And some planes indeed had seats adjustable during flight, to be raised when taxiing and landing.

[Scott - A2A]

I have the eyepoints mapped to my keypad. Two taps and I'm sitting up. I do this for takeoff and landings on almost every aircraft.

Scott.