829: REX Update Patch Admin Right Fix

Three days ago, REX Simulations’ AccuSeason Advanced Edition released a technical update patch for bug fixes, etc.  However,  the automatic update function of the app in my system failed.  So I need to perform a manual update by downloading the patch and run to install it.

Sadly, the update patch installation also failed with some “access right” errors, meaning the patch requires to be run with Administrator Right.

So I right-click on the update patch in *.msp format.  But there is no “Run as administrator” option available.

Following is what I do to run the patch as administrator:

574: FIP Broken Knob Fix

In my Post 574, I mentioned that the two knobs on the face-plate of the FIP, if broken, are simply unrepairable, but Oz Flyer (David) in the Comment suggested two possible solutions to repair them.  Here’s the first one I just tried since I don’t have a 3D printer as required in his second suggestion.

Stuffs needed are just some super glue and WD40, and I put everything on a piece of paper to avoid either the glue or the WD40 spilling over onto the table.

562: Turn Off FIP Button Light the Hard Way

Many friends asked if it is possible to turn off the light of the buttons on the Flight Instrument Panels (FIPs) and continue to keep their functions active at the same time.  The answer is NO under the Logitech driver as described in Post 215.

However, from the teardown of the broken FIP reported in last post, I came up a hard(ware) way to do it.

558: Making Your Own Aircraft Reference

As mentioned in my last post, not all default nor third-party aircraft come with an aircraft reference file.   If needed, to create a missing one isn’t difficult at all.

The Aircraft Reference is basically an html-formatted file with a name containing “aircraft model” + “_REF“ and a filename extension of “.htm”   It is located in the aircraft folder under “SimObjects/Airplanes“.

If you don’t have much knowledge about html, you could simply:

471: Adding FIP Plugin to X-Plane

Adding FIP Plugin to X-Plane is very simple:

Step 1
Download the “X Plane Plug-in” from Logitech’s support page — No worry even if you are still using the previous Saitek drivers and not the recently renamed Logitech drivers.

Step 2
Run the downloaded file to install the Plug-in — A new folder called “XSaitekProFlight” will be added to the “\X-Plane 11\Resources\plugins” folder automatically.

That’s all you need and you are good to fly with the default gauges in X-Plane.

Fine-Tuning

459: My Cockpit Rev #06 – Colored Switches

My Post 111 described the swapping of toggle switches on the Saitek Panel to make them easier to be identified in a dim environment.   On my new Yoke, I have the toggle switches “color-coded” with heat shrinkable tubes.

The modification is a lot simpler and meet the same purpose.   And it prevents, or to the least covers up, oxidation on the switch handles.   Also, they are cheap and easy to replace if worn out.

383: A2A Aircraft 2D Cockpit No Sound Fix

A friend told me he heard no sound when flying A2A aircraft under 2D cockpit mode, and ask me if there’s a fix.   I believe there is information about it on A2A’s Support Forum.   Anyway, here’s the solution using C182T as an example.

• Open panel.cfg file in the aircraft’s folder
• Search for //gauge01=A2A_C182!cockpitBuilder, 2,2,2,2
• Remove the comment marks “//” from the beginning of the line
• And lastly save the file.

That will do.

360: Skipping Orbx Online Verification

Besides backing up my system images, I also make individual copies of important files on my computer regularly.   Orbx addon registry is certainly one of them.

During installation, Orbx addons firstly performs an online-store verification and then creates a corresponding entry containing the serial of the product in the registry.   With this information in place, the verification process is no longer needed, no matter how many times the product is again reinstalled onto the same computer.

This principle similarly helps in my recent system break-down incidence.  

296: Installing FSX from HDD

Even though you are probably not one of us who tend to rebuild FSX for this and that reasons from time to time, putting FSX installation contents onto a hard drive and running from there not only improves convenience but also significantly reduces processing time required.

The conversion is simple.   Just copy everything from the installation discs to any folder (e.g. FSX Deluxe Edition and FSX Acceleration) on your specified hard drive.

But do remember to copy the discs in their installation order, and answer [NO] when prompt to overwrite files already copied to the hard drive earlier.

In addition,