Cal Classics disappearing panels

[hurricane3]

After about two weeks without doing any flying on FS9 I downloaed both Cees Luftwaffe airfield and the CR1 HP 0400. I decided to fly one of the Cal Classics planes. I have the Convair 440 ,DC4,DC6a and b, and DC 7.
All these planes except the Convair had lost their panels. It seems only the Douglas planes from Cal Classics were affected. Some had the C- 54 panel but the popups wouldn't work, some had blank panels with no instrments and one had the stock Cessna 172 panel.
I had to redownload all the Ca Classics Douglas planes to get the panels back. All have the Ken Mitchel panels.
Any idea's why these planes were affected, and what could cause this?

 

[Milton Shupe]

If I had this happen to me, I would do the following:

1) Open the aircraft folder and check the panel folder contents.
2) If the panel is there (incl panel.cfg, bmps, etc.), then the aircraft cfg must not be pointing to the panel folder correctly. (Or, if the panel cfg aliases to another aircraft folder, then that aircraft folder has been changed or removed)
3) Open the aircraft cfg and look at the "panel=" parameter to see if it names the panel folder correctly, or if blank, that the panel folder has no name.
3) If all this is correct, then then depending on what you see in the sim (panel background, no gauges), then you must open the panel.cfg to see what gauge cabs or folders are referenced.
4) Those gauges folders/cabs must be in the panel folder, or in the FS9/Gauges folder. If the panel.cfg was aliased to another aircraft folder, then that aircraft folder is changed/missing, or aliases to another aircraft that is changed/missing.

Follow the leads ... where do they take you.

 

[SSI01]

Sound advice. In a situation like this, I examine the config file to ensure the proper panel is listed within the individual aircraft's configuration. Whenever possible I've aliased my panels through the use of a "dummy" config file that steers the computer to a centralized file folder where it can find the proper instrument panel. That way, you don't have to reinstall the same panel for different aircraft. If you're not aliasing to a certain aircraft but to a centralized panel folder, it could be the alias config isn't sending it to the panel folder, if you're going that route. BTW you can do this for aircraft sound files as well.

Another thing that can happen is for the panel to show up but the gauges are missing. In this case ensure you installed the gauges - or .cab files, if they came with the aircraft that way - into your main FS9 "Gauges" folder. Don't unpack the .cab files, they're zipped and meant to be that way - just install the cab file as a whole, just as you would any other gauge. In order for them to work, be sure you also unzip the gauges and/or cab files into the aircraft's panel folder - or that master panel folder - as well.

 

[hurricane3]

Thanks Guys

First ,thank you both for the replys. I checked Windows Explorer and found in the Aircraft tree that there are two separate panel folders for the DC6 and DC 7 and it says to place these in the different panel folders of the DC6 and DC7 versions. Since these planes had self installers I didn't check this before. I don't know why the panels showed up in the first place but they did without me doing this.There is also a separet file with the DC4 that if you check the panel files of the various DC4 versions said they all are alisied to this file.
So maybe that was the problem.
I still can't figure out why the panels showed up all the this time and why putting the folders (which also have panel config files) would work but we'll see if it happens again.

 

[Tom@Cr1-Software]

In the case of Cr1- Products. I don't support 2 d panels, so in the case of the Hippo I turned them off. Reason is that I don't like them, and I don't like working on them. You can get some of the old panels in my planes to work again but you will need to find where the older versions of these planes are and down load those and re install the panel folder.

Sorry but I just have never been keen on older 2d panels.

Thanks!

Tom

 

[tgibson]

CalClassic aircraft and panels are set up this way:

1. You must download and install the Base Pack to get the panels and sounds (UAL DC-6B for the DC-6 panel, UAL DC-7 for the DC-7 panel).
2. Download and install any other DC-6 or DC-7 Base Pack you wish and they will use those panels automatically.
3. Add any other liveries to the Base Packs.
4. Aircraft will be in folders named for the planes (i.e. DC-6B CB-16).
5. The DC-6 panel is in a folder called dc6pnlKMCC, the DC-7 panel in dc7pnlKMCC. These folders are placed and belong in the main Aircraft folder.
6. In the plane's PANEL folder is a panel.cfg file that aliases this plane's panel to one of the panel folders listed above. No folder copying is needed or should be performed.

Hope this helps,

 

[hurricane3]

I followed the instructions

If you open the panel config file it says to place the separate panel files into the main panel file of the various versions ,so this is what I did ,and so far the panels have been ok.I left the separate panel files in the main aircraft folder ,just copy and pasted them to the main panel files.

 

[tgibson]

The panel.cfg files I include certainly do NOT include any such instruction! But I'm glad they are working for you.

 

[hurricane3]

Thats weird

[fltsim]
alias=dc6pnlKMCC
//This file is to be placed into each plane's PANEL folder that you wish to use the Ken Mitchell/Cal Classic DC-6 panel.
//Copyright 2006 by Tom Gibson ,this is whats inside the config file of the main panel file for the DC6's and the same(only=dc7) for the dc6 and 7. I don't doubt you at all but for some reason this is what mine says.