Feb 24
We had a wonderful visit with a Southwest Pilot this weekend, Heidi Hitzeman. She was generous enough to give me some 737-800 tips and pointers to flying and landing one of these beasts in my humble simulator. We quickly determined that my flaps control only goes to flaps 15, when we needed to go to …
Permanent link to this article: https://m1sims.com/2020/02/24/737-training-session/
Oct 02
I was recently featured on AFSBI.org. AFSBI promotes the flight simulation ecosystem by supporting its many dimensions, across flight training, professional and personal users, aviation industry, research and innovation. See it here: https://www.afsbi.org/member-profile-brian-dressel-m1/ I had a very nice talk with Gabriel Accascina, private pilot, certificated in over 5 countries. Wow! We had a good time discussing …
Permanent link to this article: https://m1sims.com/2018/10/02/feature-story-on-afsbi-org/
Oct 02
I recently taught myself how to use Autodesk Eagle in order to create custom panel electronics with a much more professional look and to keep things working. It’s taken me about a year on and off to learn it, but having recently made my first few successful PCBs, I’m really happy I invested the time …
Permanent link to this article: https://m1sims.com/2018/10/02/pcb-design/
Jun 13
I actually finished this a few weeks ago, but I keep tidying up wires and stuff when I can. In the past few months, I finished rewiring the Garmin 530s, transponder and audio panel from Customsims. The board they sent was absolute garbage. I also completed the landing gear switch with LEDs, got all the …
Permanent link to this article: https://m1sims.com/2018/06/13/finally-finished/
May 08
I finally gave up trying to work with the poorly designed board from Custom Sims and connected each of components (2 GNS 530s, 1 audio panel, 1 transponder, 1 autopilot) into 3 Arduino Megas directly. I spent the weekend connecting jumper wires one by one, and got everything working better than ever. All of the …
Permanent link to this article: https://m1sims.com/2018/05/08/almost-finished/
Mar 20
This is a bit off-topic, but if you haven’t checked out the Flightradar24 app, it’s worth it. I use it on my iPhone to track flights around the world (for fun). My favorite feature is the AR mode. You can aim your phone at a plane flying overhead. If it has ADS-B Out, the app …
Permanent link to this article: https://m1sims.com/2018/03/20/ot-flightradar24-app-is-really-cool/
Mar 11
I have spent the past few months on and off struggling with my frame rate in X-Plane. Lately I had been getting no higher than 22-24FPS. Since the newer betas, I have been getting slower and slower framerates and it’s been very frustrating, as I used to get 28-32 FPS. I have gone through about …
Permanent link to this article: https://m1sims.com/2018/03/11/get-more-fps-out-of-x-plane-11/
Mar 11
The goal of this tutorial is to teach you how to modify your ArdsimX Arduino code for 3rd party libraries and utilize somewhat more external electronics in your sim. Our task here is to add an LED bar graph trim tab to work with X-Plane 11 to show us where the trim elevator is currently …
Permanent link to this article: https://m1sims.com/2018/03/11/ardsimx-tutorial-2-elevator-trim-led-bar/
Mar 06
Having the ability to control time of day in X-Plane is a fun and helpful feature. It took a lot of research to figure this out, so I thought it would be a great first step in using ArdsimX in a fun way. In my sim, I find it more fun to fly at sunrise …
Permanent link to this article: https://m1sims.com/2018/03/06/ardsimx-tutorial-2-x-plane-time-machine/
Mar 05
After multiple versions, I finally managed to adapt a 3D printed stick extension, wiring and mount. The Hotas flight stick is so smooth and accurate with seemingly infinite resolution, it just feels like the real thing. On my first test flight, I greased the landing at 35 FPM, which is much smoother than my normal …
Permanent link to this article: https://m1sims.com/2018/03/05/new-control-stick/