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1. Using notepad, open up your FS9.cfg file - the location of this will vary depending on your Windows version, so it might be best to do a search for it using the finder. 2. Make a backup copy of this file. 3. Scroll way down for the section named (Sim). 4. Find the section which says: (SIM) 5. Add the line show_brake_message=0 below SYSCLOCK=1 Although I did a full install, every time I start FS2004, the program asks me to put CD 4 in the drive. What am I doing wrong? Nothing - this is normal behavior and is the result of Microsoft's piracy protection software checking to see if you have a legal copy. How do I get the aircraft doors to open? Press shift and E together - but remember that you can't open all the doors on every plane! I can see some aircraft folders in FS2004\aircraft that don't appear in the selection menu. What are they and how can I use them? These are the AI planes and they aren't really
intended to be flown, but there are various fixes which
get around this. Try searching for the file ai.zip, which
makes some of them flyable, or dh-8fly3.zip, which makes
all three Dash-8s flyable. You will need to find panels
to use with the planes, though. Rumor has it that the guy that wrote the code for them
moved over to the golf simulation team. Try and stay
calm, don't make any sudden movements and take slow, deep
and regular breaths. The feeling will pass. Assuming that you haven't been sold a beta copy masquerading as the real thing (don't laugh, it happens), try updating your video card drivers to the latest version, as this fixes the problem about 90% of the time. Everytime I open the kneeboard, FS2004 crashes to a black screen. Is there any way of preventing this happening? The problem is most likely an app you are running called RoboForm. The solution is either to kill the app, or to download a version later than AiRoboForm5-4-1. If you aren't running RoboForm, WindowBlinds is another common cause of this particular behavior. How do I steer the twins on the ground? How can I get dual throttle control without
going to the expense of buying a separate throttle unit? Can I use two controllers together to fly planes? I am thinking of using a joystick and pedals. You sure can, but assuming that Windows detects the
two devices, you will have to set them up using the
FS2004 menu - Options\Controls\Assignments will get you
where you need to be. Select the first device using the
'joystick type' drop down, assign the axes (an axis is
anything that swivels) and any buttons, then do the same
for the other device after selecting that. If you are
adding in pedals after using a joystick with rudder
assigned to a twist grip, take care to delete the rudder
assignment on the joystick before assigning it to the
pedals. I am having big problems landing at high altitude airports. I keep crashing on approach. What is the solution? First, make sure you have indicated airspeed set in Flight Simulator, as otherwise the airspeed that is displayed will be below stalling speed half the time. The other is that you need to lean the mixture to preserve power at altitude. I am having big problems flying the planes because I always have to hold the joystick/yoke most of the way forward/back. What causes this? You need to adjust the 'trim'. Raising or lowering the
gear and flaps, or adjusting power alters the thrust/drag
profile of the plane and will cause it to climb or
descend. Real airplanes get around this using 'trim tabs'
on some or all of the control surfaces, altering the
position of which counteracts the tendency to diverge
from the straight and level. In Flight Simulator,
elevator trim is most important, and having this set to
the wrong position is causing the trouble you describe.
To use it, make sure that 'NumLock' is not engaged on
your keyboard, then if you are having to pull on your
joystick to fly level, keep tapping the 7 button on the
numeric keypad until you can relax your pull. If you are
having to hold the joystick forward all the time, keep
tapping 1 on the keypad until you can relax your push.
Remember that you will need different amounts of trim for
climb, level flight and descent, and that in many
aircraft, changes in power settings will alter the trim
requirement as well. If you are sure you have the trim
adjusted correctly, check out your stick calibration as
described elsewhere in this FAQ. Use slew mode. Hit Y on the keyboard, then press F4
until you are a few thousand feet up. Whatever you do,
don't touch the joystick or pedals while slew is engaged.
When the plane is high enough, press F2 to stop the
ascent, then press Y again, to put you back in normal
mode and go glide. You can, but it isn't straightforward - dragging the aircraft folders from one version of FS to another may leave important bits of code (mostly gauges) behind, so the best thing is to do a complete reinstall. Be warned that some planes may not work and that only the developers can fix them. How can I get older add-on planes to show up in the
aircraft selection menu? 1. Open the aircraft.cfg of each plane in notepad. 2. Make a backup. 3. Edit the file to add the lines shown in red - the red is only for emphasis in this example [fltsim.0] If you add the lines hihglighted in red to the file, substituting Cessna or Piper for Commander and Saratogo or 152 or whatever (you can leave the variation line empty), not only will ATC call you up with the right name, but the aircraft will now show in the aircraft selection dialog as the correct type too. Furthermore, if you change the atc_id line, ATC will call you with whatever reg you enter (within reason). I have downloaded and installed various
freeware planes into FS2004, but some of them don't show
up. Why? Why I can not see the landing lights on the runway at night with an aircraft which is not one of the defaults of FS2004? This is because only G-Max (i.e. native FS2004) planes
and specially programmed FSDS (a design tool for FS)
planes are capable of doing this. The short answer to this one is no, unless you enjoy coding in FSDS or Gmax. The VC is part of a plane's visual model and unlike a 2D panel, isn't easy to transfer. I have downloaded and installed a panel in a freeware plane, but there are holes where the gauges should be. How can I fix it? In our experience the most common problem people face when installing new panels is forgetting to put the gauges in the \Flight Simulator 9\Gauges directory, with the result that when the panel loads for the first time they are faced with a bitmap with a series of black holes where the instruments should be. Check out the package you downloaded - somewhere in there you will most likely find a zip called something like "gauges". Extract that into \Flight Simulator 9\gauges and then restart FS2004. Every now and again, you will come across planes which have the gauges in a .cab file - if that is the case, drag the cab into the gauges folder and drop the whole thing in there. How can I prevent the "Flight Simulator 2004 has detected third party software that may not be compatible with this version of Flight Simulator "message appearing when FS2004 starts? Write down the name of the offending module and add an entry like this to the FS9.cfg file - the location of this will vary depending on your Windows version, so it might be best to do a search for it using the finder.[OLDMODULES] Old_module_name.dll=1 Keep on the lookout for upgrades and new versions of the modules concerned, because there is usually an advantage in doing so. I installed an addon plane and would like to get rid of it, but there is no uninstall routine in Control panel. What can I do? Assuming you are reasonably experienced with Windows, go to C:\Program files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator9\Aircraft, identify the folder containing the plane you don't want, highlight it and delete it. The first few times you do this, it is well worth creating a backup of the folder in case you nail the wrong one. Should I ever get concerned about the size (amount of files) of the gauges file? I keep adding new panels and when I delete them I have always left the gauges behind. The short answer is no, it doesn't really matter if there are surplus gauges in there. I just leave them in after reviews, because it is too much like hard work cleaning them out. The only rule I operate is that I am careful not to overwrite newer gauges with older ones when I install a new panel. How do I toggle the target frame rate? With FS2004 running and a plane loaded, go to the top menu in windowed mode. Select options\settings\display then click the 'hardware' tab. The target framerate slider is top right. You can either left click the slider, hold the mouse button and pull it, or you can left click either end of the slider to move it frame at a time. How can I tell what frame rate I am getting in FS2004? Hit shift-z twice. This will bring up the figure top left. Hit shift-z twice again to get rid of it. FS2004 stutters and runs very jerkily, especially in spot plane view. How can I fix that? Try setting the target frame rate to 20 fps. This will improve frame rates in cockpit or spot view at the price of suppressing AutoGen and scenery detail. If this doesn't work, try pulling all the sliders (apart from target frame rate) under the options\settings\display tabs and unchecking all the tick boxes. Then load the default 737 and starting with the aircraft tab, start pulling the sliders back to the right and checking boxes - but each time you alter one, go back and fly for half an hour and keep an eye on what the frame rates are doing. As soon as they start failing to make 20 most of the time, you have reached the limit of what your PC can do. I heard about a thing called 'hyperthreading'
on XP. Can I use this to speed FS2004 up? My aircraft have black textures. Is there anything I can do to fix this? One cause of black textures is a video card that does not support the DXT textures used by FS2004 planes, or textures bigger than 256x256 pixels in size (e.g. old Voodoo cards). In this case, the only work around is to upgrade the card. However, before you do this, it is worth checking out that you have the latest DirectX driver - available from Microsoft via Windows Update. My instrument panels won't load. I know they
are there because the tooltips still operate, but I can't
see them. What can I do? All my lights have black squares around them. Is there a way around this? Go to Settings-Display-Hardware where you will find a check box called 'Transform and Lighting'. Try unchecking it. The following is displayed on my screen when I hit SHIFT Z to display frame rates: FRAMES/SEC = 028.5 (LOCKED AT 30 FPS) +Gs. Does that mean that my graphics card is somehow limited to 30 FPS ? Is it possible to increase the rates by somehow removing this lock ? What the message means is that you have the target
frame rate locked at 30 fps in settings\display and that
your PC is giving an average of 28 fps. If you work
through the display settings dialog, you can drag the
slider to a higher setting. The purpose of target frame
rate locking is to allow your PC to concentrate its
resources on displaying your aircraft, rather than trying
to render every single AutoGen tree to the far horizon,
so use with care! The explanation for this is complex, but it depends on hardware settings for the video card and also on settings in FS2004, primarily the level of bitmapping used. One possible cause is the simulator settings: the "Aircraft Texture Size" slider in the Display settings seems to apply to the scenery textures as well - try dragging this slider to "Massive" if you are affected by blurring. For some strange and unaccountable reason, the "Aircraft Texture Size" slider can affect scenery textures at settings lower than "high" (set at "High" FS2004 uses 512 x 512 texture sheet, the preferred size of autogen). "Medium" (256 x 256) will affect autogen textures, but no other scenery textures. "Small" (128 x 128) will affect most scenery textures to some extent. Checking 'use extended terrain textures' under the display settings will help, as will running in full screen mode, but ultimately the problem is caused by the way FS2004 handles terrain texture loading. If you are confident about editing FS9.cfg, try setting TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT to a higher figure. The default is 40, on a fast machine you may be able to increase it to 300 or more. Is there a setting where I can "adjust" the volume of traffic at the airport or in the air? For example: it's a 5PM rush hour at LAX and there are 10 in line waiting? Adjust ATC traffic using the menu \options\settings\ATC and adjust the traffic percentage slider. If this is set to 0%, you won't see any other planes, at 100% it may be difficult to get taxi clearance at larger airports. Why do my addon AI planes sometimes appear without wheels in FS2004? This is because the planes concerned are non-Gmax designs, and there doesn't appear to be any way of fixing it, short of replacing the offending aircraft with a different one which has a Gmax visual model. My ATC sound is very faint. The weird thing is that the engine sounds are OK, but I have to turn my sound volume all the way up just to make out the words of the ATC, which makes the engine sounds almost unbearably loud. My option sliders are all turned way up on the sound options. How can I fix this? This is most likely to occur if you use Windows XP. Find the DirectX Diagnostic tool (Accessories/system tools/system information/tools/DirectX Diagnostic tool/sound) and change the "hardware acceleration level" on the Sound tab from 'full' to 'basic'. Can I use an old version of FSUIPC in FS2004? Nope. Bad things happen. How do I make the Nav2 and/or ADF2 radios work? Assuming that the aircraft has a workable Nav2 radio on the panel, add the following lines to the aircraft.cfg file. [Radios] How can I increase the pan rate in VC view? You need to edit the fs9.cfg file. All you have to do is increase the number under the pan_rate=400 line - try increasing it to 600 to start with. Also, if you add pan_in_cockpit_mode=1 after the pan rate line, you can pan around in the 2D cockpit view.
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