Post by BW901 on May 3, 2021 11:01:42 GMT
One of the biggest problems with trying to use historical scenery, and historical charts is Magnetic Variation, perhaps more properly called Magnetic Declination. The Earth's magnetic field changes with time, so the variation or declination between True North and Magnetic North at any point on the earth also changes. X-Plane's magnetic variation model is hard-coded into the sim, making it impossible to access or change. The result is that the headings or bearings you'll see in X-Plane will not match what you read on the old charts, which makes life a little different!
This "instrument" contains Magnetic Variation databases for 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010, selectable through the Properties tab. For current day select XP default, and the X-Plane magvar dataref will be used.
By constantly reading the aircraft geographical position the magnetic variation for your selected year is calculated, which changes smoothly so there are no sudden "jumps" on your gauges as you fly from one lat-lon block to another. The instrument generates Air Manager variables for magnetic variation, and the difference between that and X-Plane default magvar. These variables are displayed on screen and are transmitted across your AM network so they can be read by any gauge running in Air Manager which displays magnetic headings - for example your HSI and RMI, and can also be used to correct Autopilot heading and course readouts.
If you want to use your aircraft's default virtual cockpit then you can just manually apply the displayed correction to your charts, and so relatively easily allow you to make the appropriate mental arithmetic corrections.
The AM System Magvar gauge is packaged with Felis 742 - Captain Instruments
This "instrument" contains Magnetic Variation databases for 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010, selectable through the Properties tab. For current day select XP default, and the X-Plane magvar dataref will be used.
By constantly reading the aircraft geographical position the magnetic variation for your selected year is calculated, which changes smoothly so there are no sudden "jumps" on your gauges as you fly from one lat-lon block to another. The instrument generates Air Manager variables for magnetic variation, and the difference between that and X-Plane default magvar. These variables are displayed on screen and are transmitted across your AM network so they can be read by any gauge running in Air Manager which displays magnetic headings - for example your HSI and RMI, and can also be used to correct Autopilot heading and course readouts.
If you want to use your aircraft's default virtual cockpit then you can just manually apply the displayed correction to your charts, and so relatively easily allow you to make the appropriate mental arithmetic corrections.
The AM System Magvar gauge is packaged with Felis 742 - Captain Instruments