20. Widgets and Tools

20.1. Introduction to Widgets

This chapter describes all of the widgets shown below, and additional ones. There are 15 widgets and tools described here.

Example On-Screen Widgets and Tools in SeligSIM.

20.2. Magnetic Compass and Wind Compass

A basic Magnetic Compass can be displayed by pressing C . As the view direction follows the aircraft, the compass will naturally change its visual orientation, while always pointing north.

Press W to turn on the Wind Compass. The arrow points to where the wind is blowing from, simulating a perfect weathervane.

Magnetic Compass C and Wind Compass W .

20.3. Map Overlay

The Map Overlay shows where your aircraft is relative to the runway. The map will autoscale to keep your aircraft and the runway always in view.

To see a map overlay:

• Press M repeatedly. This cycles through three maps, and then hides the map.

Each map shows a top-down view of:

• Your aircraft (red).

• The direction of your view (blue “view fan”).

• The view fan shows the field of view (FOV) - the wider the FOV, the wider the fan.

• The runway or natural site boundary (purple line).

• Windspeed and direction indicator (green).

• Flight path ground track markers with a tail that fades out (red).

• When pylon racing, the map will include isometric drawings of the race course pylons.

The map orientation changes as you toggle through the three maps:

• The first map is runway-aligned. Up is typically north, but depending on the field the map may be rotated such that “up” could instead be south, east, or west. The runway is fixed and you see your aircraft (red) fly around. The view fan is the direction that you are looking, whether you are standing fixed on the ground ( F1 view) or flying along with the aircraft using an onboard camera ( F8 view).

Runway Aligned Map Overlay M .

• The second map is view-aligned. The view direction is always pointed up on-screen (see below). The aircraft and runway move around the fixed view fan.

View Aligned Map Overlay M .

• The third map is aircraft-aligned (up on-screen is flight direction). The runway and view fan move around the fixed aircraft. This map is helpful when using a chase camera view ( F6 , see Camera Views).

Aircraft Aligned Map Overlay M .

20.4. Transmitter Display

To see your stick inputs on-screen, press E to show the Transmitter Display.

Transmitter Display E .

20.5. HUD (Heads Up Display)

Press H to show the HUD. Repeating H key presses will cycle through many different HUD displays. Three examples are shown below.

Example HUD layouts H .

SeligSIM Modding Tip

The HUD list and files defining the layout and color of each HUD are in the SeligSIM install folder ~/HUD.

20.6. Landing Distance Widget

You can practice your spot landings with the Landing Distance Widget. Press L to start. The landing target will be on the ground nearby your position, and the scoring widget will show on-screen. After landing and coming to a stop, the distance to the target center will be shown. The yellow indicator means that your position is being tracked while your aircraft is still moving. The indicator will turn green once the aircraft has stopped moving and the distance will be displayed.

Landing Distance Widget L .

20.7. Sky Grid

Turn on a Sky Grid™ for flight reference by pressing G - a favorite feature in SeligSIM (also marketed as FS One) since 2006.

Sky Grid G .

20.8. Inset Window

To open the Inset Window, press I . The default view is “Binoculars” which will keep the aircraft zoomed in. The drop down menu lets you pick many other views such as the one shown below that always faces north. The Inset Windows works for both Pano and 3D flying sites. For more details about the Inset Window, see Cameras | Inset Window Widget.

Inset Window I .

Inset Window I showing all 10 views available for 3D flying sites.

20.9. Radar Gun

The Radar Gun turned on by pressing R can be used to continuously take a snapshot of your flight speed. When the display is slowly flashing the speed is accurate. It will flicker when the speed is changing to rapidly to give an accurate reading. The image below shows it being used in a pylon race together with the binoculars inset window and Map Overlay showing the course pylons.

Radar Gun R .

20.10. Hover Training Assistant

You can learn to hover airplanes with the Hover Training Assistant™, turned on by pressing O . The lower bottom switch on the widget can be used to turn the assistance on and off. Use the green +/- buttons to increase/decrease the amount of assistance. When set to the maximum value hovering will become very easy and is a great place to start learning. Lowering it will make the hovering more natural until at the lowest value the assistance is effectively turned off. No matter what the setting, during normal cruise flight, the assistance setting has virtually no effect, i.e., it cannot be “felt” in the control sticks.

Hover Training Assistant O .

20.11. Variometer

Turn on the Variometer by pressing V . It will show your rate of climb. In Options | Sound/Music you can also turn on the Variometer Sound (faster, higher beeps mean more lift). The variometer sound represent the change in the total energy, i.e., a reading that would come from a total energy variometer.

Variometer V .

20.12. Flight Log / Timers

The Flight Log / Timers widget is turned on by pressing T . It shows a readout of the flight time log and up/down timers and their controls. In the example below, it is showing the “Total Time” of flight for all models to be 6 hr 51 mins (when the screen shot was taken). This time will be literally your log book total flight time since the simulator was installed on your computer. The “Model Time” is the current flying time for the particular model being flown (when the screen shot was taken). It is 55 mins. As flying continues, these timers automatically keep track of your flight time. Below the first line are the Count Up / Count Down timers for the Flight Session. The Count Up timer is turned on by pressing the START/STOP button, and the timer is reset by pressing the RESET button. The Count Up time is showing 17 sec. The Count Up time only starts when you press the START/STOP button. The Count Down timer counts down from a time you set. The setting is made using the “Min” and “Sec” Up / Down buttons. The Count Down timer is controlled by its START/STOP and RESET buttons. The Count Down timer is set here for 4 mins, and it is not yet turned on (not yet counting down). In the sim, it is possible to associate voice callouts with the Count Down timer.

To see the flight logs for each airplane, see the Log Book.

Flight Log / Timers T .

20.13. Scaling Wizard Report

By pressing the / key, the Scaling Wizard Report will display basic data about the airplane. For airplanes that are scaled up or down, using this tool gives insightful information about the characteristics of the airplane. For more details, see the chapter on the Scaling Wizard.

Scaling Wizard Report / - Unscaled Extra 260.

Scaling Wizard Report / - Scaled up Ultra Stick with estimated cost 4.5 times the original scale.

20.14. Flight Recorder Playback Tool

The Flight Recorder Playback Tool can be turned on using the Backspace key during a Flight Session. The widget can be used to restart, reverse, pause, slow-motion, play, and fast-forward. The flight recordings being playback are ones that you select from Fly Screens that allow for playing back recordings. The screen shot below shows the playback tool while playing the recordings of two pylon racers. The green bar advances through to the end of the flight. The two green bars in the playback widget correspond to the two recordings, i.e., the two pylon racers in the image below.

Flight Recorder Playback Tool Backspace .

20.15. Save Position to File

To save the current position of the aircraft to a local file press ' . The position gadget will be displayed and show the point in the North-East-Down coordinate system. Pressing ' repeatedly will save a point for each key press. The points are saved to the position_data.txt file in the SeligSIM installation folder. The tool (shown below) can be used to show the position continuously if the “Clear” button is clicked once. Click “X” to close the widget.

Save Position to File '
(file: position_data.txt ) .