Can you see, and change, which way you face

[aesmith]

Hi,

I'm looking for how you change the direction that the "operator" is facing in FMS, and how you know that direction.

For example, in the default scenery I face a hut - which makes hand launching a bit interesting! I'd like to turn and launch in my direction of choice.

Similarly on the slope scenery, I'd like the wind to blow up the slope. I can set the wind direction, but how do I know what direction I should set if I don't know which way I'm facing.

I think I'm missing something really obvious, but at the moment its a bit like flying with no wind sock or compass.

[KEW]

Hi,

The plane always faces West on startup in FMS. Winch launches are always to the West. You can use that to figure out which way to set the wind from. 270 degrees will make the wind blow straight down the runway.

You can change the default landscape to put you behind the plane. That way, you will hand-launch straight down the runway. To do this:
Load the file "c:\Program files\FMS\Landscape\World.scn" into MS Notepad.
Edit the third line to read "PILOT_POSITION -170 -185 0".
Save as "World.scn" in the same directory.

If you make your own scenery or modify an existing one, you can make the runway face in any direction and start the plane from any place in the scene. You can always taxi it onto your runway, facing the way you want (as long as the plane you are flying is steerable on the ground!).

If you are interested in working on the scenery, read the Landscape Programming Manual that i wrote. It is in this forum under Landscapes.

Regards,

KEW

[aesmith]

Cheers. So the plane and runway are always facing West, that means the pilot's facing South, and wind from 180 will be right in my face. Am I understanding you correctly? I'm practicing for gliders / electric gliders, so these are all hand or winch launch. I think it might make sense for me to make a copy of the default landscape with the pilot positioned as you suggest, and use that one for hand launching. Maybe parallel to the runway would be better but I can try and see.

Thanks again. By the way, there isn't a way of looking around while in flight is there? Once the plane's up all I can see is sky and I don't have any orientation relative to the landscape. What I'd like to be able to do is glance down now and again.

[KEW]

Hi,

Yes, you got it, except in the default scene the pilot is facing North West towards the hut! Wherever you stand relative to your glider, a hand-launch will send it directly away from you. If you move the plane to just off the edge of the runway and stand directly behind it, you will be launching into a West wind.

You can not look around while the plane is in the air but you can zoom in and out using the number pad "+" and "-". This may help you to get re-oriented with the field. If you do this, count the number of times you push zoom-out so that you can return to the original when you zoom back in, otherwise, the plane will appear to be closer or further away when you try to land.

Regards,

KEW