Fuel Reservoir
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I've addressed this a few times before, but I thought I would chime in again. The reason I haven't addressed this relatively simple seeming feature in my aircraft is because it's substantially difficult to separate fuel control from the simulator's native fuel shutoff, fuel selector, mixture, and (most of all) condition lever hardware inputs.
As you might imagine, not much would be worse than someone downloading my aircraft for the first time and being unable to use any of their existing hardware controls for the most essential part of starting/running the engine. These are the kinds of decisions I have to make pretty regularly to ensure a good user experience.
I have, however, thought of some ways to do this without having to touch those native controls. I will just have to see how practical they are. Thanks, guys!
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I’ve read about this, in previous threads, and thought to myself, that people are just being overly pedantic. ”Just don’t shut off both fuel selectors”, right?
Then the other day during a flight, I went to turn back on the fuel selector I had temporarily turned off, in order to balance the fuel tanks, when I instead accidentally turned off the other fuel tank as well. ”Oh! I see the problem now…”, I thought, while I had to practice an air start for the first time.
If it’s at all possible, I also wouldn’t mind a brief grace period.
Regards,
Mr Clumsyfingers -
I've addressed this a few times before, but I thought I would chime in again. The reason I haven't addressed this relatively simple seeming feature in my aircraft is because it's substantially difficult to separate fuel control from the simulator's native fuel shutoff, fuel selector, mixture, and (most of all) condition lever hardware inputs.
As you might imagine, not much would be worse than someone downloading my aircraft for the first time and being unable to use any of their existing hardware controls for the most essential part of starting/running the engine. These are the kinds of decisions I have to make pretty regularly to ensure a good user experience.
I have, however, thought of some ways to do this without having to touch those native controls. I will just have to see how practical they are. Thanks, guys!
@Black-Square said in Fuel Reservoir:
As you might imagine, not much would be worse than someone downloading my aircraft for the first time and being unable to use any of their existing hardware controls for the most essential part of starting/running the engine.
First of all: Thank you for your quick reply.
I understand the concern and while I don't know how feasible this is, I'd like to suggest to make this into an option in the EFB. That way you have a clear separation and people start with the default bindings working, but can opt into a more complex system that requires some more setup on their part.
Thanks for your consideration.
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@Black-Square said in Fuel Reservoir:
As you might imagine, not much would be worse than someone downloading my aircraft for the first time and being unable to use any of their existing hardware controls for the most essential part of starting/running the engine.
First of all: Thank you for your quick reply.
I understand the concern and while I don't know how feasible this is, I'd like to suggest to make this into an option in the EFB. That way you have a clear separation and people start with the default bindings working, but can opt into a more complex system that requires some more setup on their part.
Thanks for your consideration.
@Morten I wish it were so easy, unfortunately. Deciding whether to intercept and intervene in hardware input events is not something you can turn on/off on the fly. I appreciate the thought, though. As is often the case, the method I'm thinking of would actually be more realistic, with a real additional hopper tank that's fed from the main tanks. The only reason I didn't do this in the first place was because I thought it would be confusing for users looking at the native payload interface and wondering what this third fuel tank was for.
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I think this illustrates an interesting distinction between a very well-made aircraft aimed at the general public and a truly “study-level / professional” simulation.
Personally, I would rather have the aircraft faithfully reproduce the real system, even if this means that the pilot has to understand how it works. In my view, it is better to teach the pilot how to operate the aircraft than to simplify the aircraft itself in order to make it easier to understand.
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I think this illustrates an interesting distinction between a very well-made aircraft aimed at the general public and a truly “study-level / professional” simulation.
Personally, I would rather have the aircraft faithfully reproduce the real system, even if this means that the pilot has to understand how it works. In my view, it is better to teach the pilot how to operate the aircraft than to simplify the aircraft itself in order to make it easier to understand.
@Sloanof I absolutely agree. When aircraft are "accessible" vs "Study Level" they loose some of their soul and aside from looks, they become pretty much the same. Personally Im happiest when I have to operate an aircraft in the manner in which it must be operated. Thats where I can discover quirks, soul, and experience. The black square aircraft are the best that get me the closest!
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I think this illustrates an interesting distinction between a very well-made aircraft aimed at the general public and a truly “study-level / professional” simulation.
Personally, I would rather have the aircraft faithfully reproduce the real system, even if this means that the pilot has to understand how it works. In my view, it is better to teach the pilot how to operate the aircraft than to simplify the aircraft itself in order to make it easier to understand.
@Sloanof said in Fuel Reservoir:
even if this means that the pilot has to understand how it works
I agree, but the pilot understanding how the aircraft works is a completely different beast than receiving hundreds of support tickets and bad reviews because an aircraft "doesn't work" due to hardware issues. I understand you completely, but these are the difficult choices aircraft developers must make. I already assume that my users will put up with the systems realism, but I consider hardware/input issues very carefully.
