Good morning all, and many thanks again for the posts here, especially those by fellow developers and repainters. This project would still be a gleam in the eye if it weren't for the massive knowledge base made freely and generously available here and elsewehere. When I started out constructing an aircraft for FS9 I didn't even know how to do a prop blade, until looking up Milton's files showed me how...
Taking up some of the comments made here, perhaps I can say something about the hidden rationale of some features. Yes, the Monitor gauge uses the left, right and middle mouse buttons in a variety of ways, and I particularly hope mid clicks are possible even if the mouse wheel is set up for zooming. One of these functions is to 'arm' the Reverse function. Once REV is armed (highlighted under Monitor > Engines > Throttle) you can activate it even in the air (strongly forbidden and guarded by a lock in the real plane, except for extreme emergencies). To experiment, try it at a safe height and speed, then arm, activate, open throttles, and watch your speed decay at an alarming rate. Then mid-click the Throttle value to go back to 100 percent and recover. Now, for a more realistic emergency scenario, choose a really short runway, do an approach, arm Reverse, and when still a few feet above the runway, activate reverse and open Throttle. You won't need more than a few hundred feet to come to a full stop. Now, the reason why we have a 'water rudder' setting in the aircraft cfg is that this a programmable key which you can assign to a joystick button. While the Strat doesn't have a water rudder you can 'capture' the water rudder keypress and make it do something else -- and for the Strat we have programmed it to activate guess what -- Reverse. Now you can forget about fiddling with the mouse in an emergency landing. Just concentrate on your approach, and hit the 'water rudder' joystick button to engage reverse when you feel the time is right.
Admittedly, the current tendency in the Monitor gauge is that it is overpermissive to an extent that sometimes borders on absurdity. Of course there is some discussion about this in the team. For instance, if you want to fly without pilots, hit the Avionics master switch and they are gone. Or if you want to taxi or even fly with steps and chocks set, okay, be our guest. Or if you want to let down the rear ramps spang through the rear doors, go ahead, it'sa your lookout. The reason the ramps are sometimes blocked and not showing is this. We want to be able to fly the Strat with the rear doors open in order to drop parachutists or equipment -- don't want any ramps obstructing the doors then. That is why if we need the ramps we must make them show up first (by a mid-click, again), and then they will unfold via tailhook etc. (in flight, too, if you insist on it).
Of course, at some later date we are going to implement some sort of error sensitivity and punishment, perhaps as an optional level of expertise. (Ranging from 'entry' level to 'masochist'?)
Now I'll have to run and check whether my hints above on clicks and keys are really accurate...you'd be surprised to see how often I have to check my own tool tips...
