21. Widgets and Tools

21.1. Introduction to Widgets

This chapter describes the on-screen widgets, instruments, and panels, in the order they appear on the Widgets menu of the In-Flight Menu Bar. The transmitter panels on the Transmitter menu follow at the end. Every one of them has a key, given with its name below, and every one is on the menu bar, so you never have to remember the key.

Some of the on-screen widgets and panels in SeligSIM.

A few things are true of all of them:

• Every widget is draggable. Each one reopens where you left it, between flights and across restarts. Power Tools sets where each one starts, and Widgets | Reset All Widget Positions forgets what you moved.

• Widgets whose edges are invisible (the Transmitter Display, Screencast Keys, Height & Distance, Wind Compass) outline themselves in cyan while you drag them.

A borderless widget outlines itself while dragged (the Wind Compass here).

• A one-line “Onscreen Widgets:” message at the start of each flight says whether the layout came from Power Tools, from the last flight, or from a playback.

• Widgets | Close All clears the screen.

• Widgets | Widget Sizes… resizes any of them in flight, with one slider per widget, the HUD, and the Data Monitor text. Instruments resize as you drag the sliders, panels and maps at the next flight, and the window says which is which. One Tx Panels slider sizes all the transmitter panels together.

• Readouts follow the units you chose in Options | Physics, or flip them for the session with Left Shift + U.

21.2. Airplane Specifications

Press Left Shift + KP / (the keypad slash), or pick it from the Aircraft menu, to open the Airplane Specifications panel, the airplane’s specification sheet as a panel that stays up. For airplanes that are scaled up or down, it gives insightful information about the characteristics of the airplane. For more details, see the chapter on the Scaling Wizard.

Airplane Specifications - Unscaled Extra 260.

Airplane Specifications - Scaled up Ultra Stick with estimated cost 4.5 times the original scale.

21.3. Screencast Keys

Press Left Shift + / and every key you press appears on screen with the action it ran. Leave it on for a flight and the sim teaches you its own keyboard. It draws into screenshots and video, so a recorded flight explains its own keystrokes.

Screencast Keys Left Shift + / .

21.4. Field Map

The Field Map shows an overhead view of your aircraft relative to the runway. Press M repeatedly to cycle through the maps and then hide the map. Each press names the map that came up, e.g., “Map 1: Field Radar”. The five maps read the same on the map, on the Widgets menu, and in Power Tools, where you can also choose which of the five the M key stops at.

Each map shows a top-down view of:

• Your aircraft (red), and pilot 2’s aircraft in a two pilot session

• Recordings, as ghosts

• View direction indicator (“view fan” in blue), its width the field of view

• Runway or natural site boundary (purple line)

• Wind, and the windsock with a tail cone pointing downwind

• Pilot standing positions and the launch line

• Flight path ground track markers with a fading red tail

• Race course pylons during pylon racing, and target locations in the bomb drop game (red circles)

• Thermals, sized to their usable lift (World | Thermals on Field Maps)

The five maps:

• Map 1: Field Radar is the default, a stable, pilot-centered radar scope with range rings that never “breathes” or slides away. When the airplane flies past the outer ring, an off-map arrow with the distance points at it. A North marker is on the ring.

Map 1: Field Radar M .

• Map 2: 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).

Map 2: Runway-Aligned M .

• Map 3: North-Up. Like the runway-aligned map, but north is always up.

• Map 4: View-Aligned. The view direction is always pointed up on-screen (see below). The aircraft and runway move around the fixed view fan.

Map 4: View-Aligned M .

• Map 5: 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).

Map 5: Aircraft-Aligned M .

21.5. Orientation Map

Press Left Shift + M for the Orientation Map, a circular map centered on your airplane, nose up, the way a drone radar works. One glance answers “which way is it pointing, and which way is home?” Press again for a north-up wall-map view, and again to hide it. It shows thermals sized to usable lift, other aircraft, wind, sun, and your view cone. Widgets | Orientation Map | Settings… opens a window for the disc’s frame, what it shows, and its sizes, live while you fly.

Orientation Map Left Shift + M , heading up.

Orientation Map, north up.

21.6. HUD (Heads-Up Display)

Press H to show the HUD. Repeating H key presses will cycle through 7 different HUD display styles. Three examples are shown below. HUD messages age in place. An expired line goes blank and the lines below stay put, so the stack never jumps while you are reading it. The HUD’s return-to-home arrow shows only in views that follow the airplane, where its direction makes sense. Both of its switches, Home Arrow and Home Arrow Only in Following Views, are on Widgets | HUD. The HUD choice is remembered between flights.

Example HUD layouts H .

HUD with the return-to-home arrow, the green arrow centered at the bottom. This is a following view, the F8 view from the tail of the MiG-15.

SeligSIM Modding Tip

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

21.7. Height & Distance

Press Left Shift + H for a drone-style corner readout. It shows height above you with climb rate, and distance out with ground speed.

Height & Distance Left Shift + H .

21.8. Wind Compass and Magnetic Compass

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

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.

Magnetic Compass C and Wind Compass W .

21.9. Wind Meter

Press Left Shift + W for the Wind Meter, which shows the wind at your airplane. It is an aviation-style direction, speed, and gust readout in LED digits, with a speed scale carrying lull, average, and peak markers. The orange band on the scale is the gustiness. Below it, a strip chart shows the last seconds of wind.

The meter ranges itself, or you can pick a fixed scale with its + / - buttons. Gusts are smoothed with the 3-second aviation standard. And the wind can be sampled at the airplane, at a 10 m (33 ft) field mast, or at a handheld height you set. Every wind readout in the sim follows the same choice. These settings are on Widgets | Wind Meter.

Wind Meter Left Shift + W .

Wind Vectors

Widgets | Wind Vectors draws the wind as a grid of red arrows around the airplane, so you can see the wind field the airplane is flying through. The submenu has Show, sliders for the grid size, spacing, and arrow scale, an arrows-per-frame readout, and Reset to Power Tools Values. Power Tools sets the startup values.

21.10. Attitude Indicator

Press Left Shift + Y for a round artificial horizon with a pitch ladder and bank scale, plus a green flight path marker showing where the airplane is actually going. The gap between the marker and the wings is the angle of attack, the stall warning you cannot see from the ground. Widgets | Attitude Indicator has Show and Flight Path Marker, so the marker can be turned off on its own.

Attitude Indicator Left Shift + Y .

21.11. Wireframe Airplane

Press Left Shift + P for binoculars on a distant airplane. A small corner square draws your airplane as a white line silhouette at its live attitude, magnified, as seen from the camera, so its attitude reads when the airplane itself is a dot.

Three modes are on Widgets | Wireframe Airplane. They are Off, Always, and Auto, which shows it by itself past a set range (default 500 ft). Power Tools sets the mode, the auto range, the size, the start position, the background opacity, and which wireframe file it draws from.

Wireframe Airplane Left Shift + P .

21.12. Variometer

Turn on the Variometer by pressing Left Shift + 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 represents the change in the total energy, i.e., a reading that would come from a total energy variometer.

Variometer Left Shift + V .

21.13. Timer (Flight Log / Timers)

The Timer widget is turned on by pressing Left Shift + L . 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 screenshot was taken). This time will be literally your logbook 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 screenshot 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 Logbook. The Simulation | Flight Time Displays menu also shows the time since reset, since hand launch, this session, and total.

Timer Left Shift + L .

21.14. Landing Target

You can practice your spot landings with the Landing Target 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 center of the target will be shown. The blinking 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 as shown below. Hold T to look at the target (a Snap View). The target also shows as a circle on the Field Map.

Landing Target L .

21.15. 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 too rapidly to give an accurate reading. The image below shows it being used in a pylon race together with the binoculars inset window and a map showing the course pylons.

Radar Gun R .

21.16. 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 .

21.17. 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 Window works for both Pano and 3D flying sites. The Inset Window works during a regular Flight Session but not during playback of Recordings or during Flight Training sessions.

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.

21.18. Replay Panel

The Replay Panel (formerly the Flight Recorder Playback Tool) can be turned on using the Backspace key during a Flight Session. The panel can be used to restart, reverse, pause, slow-motion, play, and fast-forward. The flight recordings being played back are ones that you select from Fly Screens that allow for playing back recordings. The green bar advances through to the end of the flight.

Replay Panel Backspace .

21.19. Sky Grid

Turn on a Sky Grid™ for flight reference by pressing Left Shift + G - a favorite feature in SeligSIM (also marketed as FS One) since 2006. The choice is remembered between flights.

Sky Grid Left Shift + G .

21.20. Tow Force and Towline Tension Plot

Towed launches (winch, hi-start, aerotow) show a pull-force bar automatically. It runs green through the comfortable range and red past the maximum you set, and it gives the pull in pounds and as a multiple of the airplane’s weight. The Towline Tension Plot is a strip chart of the same. Both are on the Widgets menu, and both linger for 30 seconds after the line releases, long enough to read the peak pull after the launch rather than during it. See Takeoff Options and Options | Towlines.

Tow Force bar and Towline Tension Plot during a hi-start launch, about halfway up. The bar reads the pull in pounds and as a multiple of the airplane’s weight. The plot at the bottom is the line tension over time.

21.21. Hand Launch Settings

Press Left Shift + K (or Simulation | Hand Launch Settings on the menu bar) to open the Hand Launch Settings window, a pop-out that holds the Power Tools throw settings so you can tune the launch without leaving the flight. It works for hand launch, hi-start, and winch flights.

The sliders are in groups, top to bottom. Arm Cocking sets how long and how far the arm draws back. Throw sets the throw duration and its peak g-force. Launch Height Relative to the Pilot raises or lowers the release point. Attitude at Release sets the bank angle at release and a random variation on it. Launch Direction shows the current aim (azimuth and elevation, which normally follow the mouse) and lets you fix the direction instead. Elevator Preset on Timer holds an elevator deflection for a set time after release. Extras toggles the point-of-release marker, the toss sound, and the hand launch force display.

Drag a slider, nudge it with the arrows, or Ctrl + click it to type a value. The next launch uses the new values. They last for the run, and Power Tools is never changed. Power Tools values and Standard restore either set. Save Settings keeps one saved set on disk, and Reload Saved Settings brings it back, so a launch you like survives the run. Esc closes the window.

Hand Launch Settings Left Shift + K . The Supra sailplane is set up for a left-bank hand launch (bank angle -35.8 deg). Also open are the Flight Modes & Rates/Expos panel at left and the Wind Compass with its direction readout at lower left.

21.22. 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. The widget shows the current position, the last position, and the distance between the two, which makes measuring distances in the sim easy.

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

21.23. Transmitter Display

To see your stick inputs on-screen, press E to show the Transmitter Display. It is on the Transmitter menu. Press E again to cycle through the transmitter textures (InertiaSoft, TacCon, gimbals only, transparent, and more). The texture name shows on screen.

Transmitter Display E . The red dots are the stick positions, here with the throttle at idle.

21.24. Transmitter Panels

The Transmitter menu holds a set of panels that show the radio at work, from what each stick and switch does, to what the servos are doing, to how the mixes are wired. Each opens with Left Shift plus a letter. Open Tx Basics and Open Tx Full on that menu lay out whole sets of them with one click, and Close All clears them. The same panels are available in the Edit Transmitter window, where they stay live while you edit.

Flight Manual ( Left Shift + I )

The airplane’s controls table, built live from your controller. It lists every stick, switch, knob, and key and what each one does. It is the Flight Manual for the airplane you are flying, as seen through the controller you are holding. Below the controls, the Mixes list shows each mix and what turns it on, a key or Always On.

Flight Manual panel Left Shift + I , for the BD-5J. Each row is one control on your transmitter, with its function and a comment. The clamshell is on key 0 here, and the wheel brakes are on down elevator.

Flight Modes & Rates/Expos ( Left Shift + E ) and Flight Modes & Mixes ( Left Shift + F )

Both panels show the flight modes at the top, with the active one lit, and change live as you flip the switch. Rates/Expos lists each channel’s active rate and expo (a control with no rate or expo reads 100 / 0, and a switch channel prints no values, since rate and expo mean nothing on a 2- or 3-position switch). Bright rows are the ones the flight-mode switch changes, and dim rows are fixed. Mixes lists each mix, lit when it is on, with what turns it on at the right, a key number or Always On.

Flight Modes & Rates/Expos Left Shift + E (left) and Flight Modes & Mixes Left Shift + F (right), both in High Rates. The amber rows are the controls whose rates and expo change with the flight mode. Two mixes are on and always on, and two wait on a key.

Flight Modes & Channels ( Left Shift + C )

Every channel, what drives it (an axis or a key) and what it drives (the servos), with the active flight mode lit.

Flight Modes & Channels Left Shift + C . Elevator on axis 6 drives two elevator servos, and the clamshell on key 0 drives two clamshell servos.

Flight Modes & Offsets ( Left Shift + T )

Each channel’s offset in every flight mode, one column per mode with the active mode lit. expr means the value is inherited from the channel’s expression rather than set for that mode. The values are in channel travel.

Flight Modes & Offsets Left Shift + T . The High Rates column is active and all offsets are zero.

Servos ( Left Shift + S ), Deflections ( Left Shift + D ), and Axes ( Left Shift + A )

These three show the signal at three points. Axes is the raw controller, each axis as a slider with the raw count beside it (the Axes Raw Counts item on the menu turns the counts on and off) and the functions it drives at the right. Servos is one travel bar per servo, scaled to its real configured limits, so a bar on the stop explains why the airplane will not roll any harder. A red tick on a bar is the command the servo is following, and it hides once the servo has caught up. Deflections is the result, each control surface in degrees.

Servos Left Shift + S , Deflections Left Shift + D , and Axes Left Shift + A , open together. The flaps are at 24.7 deg on both panels, and the flap knob is axis 2 with its raw count in amber. No red ticks show because every servo has caught up.

Mix Map ( Left Shift + Z )

How the whole radio is wired, as a grid. Rows are the master channels and columns are the slave channels. A lit cell is a mix that is on, a dim cell is one that is off, a small square is a mix onto the channel’s own surface, and a number is how many mixes share the cell. The bar at the top names the selected mix, and the arrows step through them. The grid re-wires when you switch flight modes. Click a cell and the Mix Bench opens on that mix.

Mix Map Left Shift + Z , on GearToElevatorMix, the first of ten mixes. The landing gear switch feeds the elevator, and the flap knob feeds it too through a second mix.

Mix Bench ( Left Shift + X )

See what one mix actually does. The Mix Bench shows the selected mix in full, its type and table, the master channel with a live slider, its transfer curve with a live dot riding it, and the contributions to the slave channel added up line by line, through the gain, the mode offset, and the clamp, down to the slave channel’s output. Left Shift + , and . step to the previous and next mix, and the Mix Map follows. Crow and the other multi-channel mixes get full parameter cards with a mini plot per surface.

Mix Map and Mix Bench Left Shift + X on the same mix, ElevatorCompensationWithFlaps, the second of ten. The flap knob is the master, the curve trims the elevator a little as the flaps come down, and the contributions list shows this mix and the gear mix summing into the elevator.

21.25. Data Monitor, Messages, and Frame Rate

The Simulation menu has Show Messages, Show Data Monitor, and Frame Rate ( F ). The Data Monitor and the right-edge readouts (timers, frame rate, line tension) are one aligned panel, with labels on the left edge and values and units on the right, so decimal points hold still. Its first row reports the real physics rate, and the Frame Rate row above it pairs with it. What the Data Monitor shows is chosen in Power Tools, or in flight with Simulation | Data Monitor Settings…, a window that picks which of the 80 readouts show, with the monitor’s switch and its text size.

Data Monitor panel, with the Since Reset, Frame Rate, and RESET STATUS rows above it in the same aligned column. Its first row is the physics rate, 300 Hz here. The Sundowner is climbing out just after takeoff, with the sim paused.

The rows adapt to the airplane. An airplane with flaps, clamshell doors, or wheel brakes gets rows for them. The brake rows show whether brakes are available and whether they are on.

Data Monitor for the BD-5J on the runway. Rows for the flaps, the clamshell doors, and the main wheel brakes appear because this airplane has them.