Relative Wind Gauge ... FS2004 Only.

A Relative Wind Gauge shows the direction relative to the heading of your aircraft. You now have a visual indication of the exact nature of the wind ... Head Wind, Tail Wind, Cross Wind, etc., as well as its strength.

Gauges have been available for this task previously but they mixed the magnetic heading of the aircraft with the True direction of the Wind, rather than the Magnetic Direction of the wind. Thus they did not accurately portray the relative wind in FS2004.

At Last, a properly-reading FS2004 Relative Wind Gauge.

Thanks to Johan Van Wyk, DCA-1026, who provided the needed XML code and to Tim Cook, DCA-813, who incorporated it into an existing wind gauge, we can now believe what our eyes show us. See a pic of the Relative Wind Gauge here if you are unfamiliar with it, 

	http://www.dc3airways.com/wind_gauge.jpg

INSTALLATION

If you are not somewhat familiar with panel.cfg files, I suggest that you request additional help via a Forum Post for the installation, although it is very simple.

First, back up your existing panel.cfg file ... in case you discover ten thumbs on your hands and an error creeps in.

Open the Panel.cfg file with NOTEPAD ... not with a Word Processor. Scroll down to the Main Window section, which should look SIMILAR to this:

//--------------------------------------------------------
[Window00]
file=dc3_wr.bmp 
size_mm=1024,768
position=7
visible=1
ident=00
window_size= 1.000, 1.000
window_pos= 0.000, 0.000

gauge00=DC3_Sperry_flaps,  962,501,45,131
gauge01=cessna!Pitch_Trim,  914,642,72,119
gauge02=cessna!VOR1,  12,441,135,135
gauge03=Cessna!Heading_Indicator,  297,601,172,169

Scroll down the list of gauges in THIS SECTION [Window00]
and add the following line to the end of the list of gauges:

gaugeZZ=RELwind_2004!RelWind,  X,Y,W,H

Change "gaugeZZ" to the next higher gauge number at the bottom of the list of gauges. If the last gauge is

gauge40=

then you would change gaugeZZ to gauge41=

The X and Y are the distance, in pixels, of the top left corner of a box that would surround the gauge from the left edge of the panel and from the top of the panel. Most FS2004 panels are 1024 pixels wide by 768 pixels high. W and H are the width and height of the gauge. This gauge is symmetrical, so H and W should be the same number. You might try 118 for both H and W.

Experiment with the numbers until the gauge is positioned where you want it and the size you desire.

One caution ... when you are looking at a panel in Flight Sim and change the panel.cfg file, you must exit that aircraft and load a new one up. Then load the DC-3 back up again so that it can read the new values.

Enjoy.

May, 2004
DC-3 Airways





