FCS Lancaster Questions

[nagpaw]

Hello, all! I finally picked up the FCS Lancaster (I'm so late to the party that the party is officially over and everyone involved is back home in their jammies). I've searched the forum and found some guidance, but I need some help with a few things.

1) All the links to the patch are dead, including the one from FCS's website. Does anyone have that file?

2) The boost gauges don't appear to read negative values. Does the patch fix that problem?

3) I've read about someone creating a paintkit. Was that an official FCS work or the result of blood, sweat, and tears from an esteemed SOH member? Is it available anywhere?

Thanks, everyone!

[Naismith]

They have a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/First-Class...-165797603577/ but it seems a bit inactive since 2015!

[nagpaw]

I found FCS's Facebook page, but got tangled up in the cobwebs! I've tried contacting the publisher through the Excalibur Games website, but haven't received a response yet. Here's hoping!

[MustangL2W]

Good Afternoon,
I have Flown the FCS Lancaster quite a bit. I am not sure I understand you correctly, but think the solution to your Boost Gauge problems are the Booster Coil Switch located under the Fuel Control Switches and just right of the Magneto switches. The Boost coil switch has to be on to bring the Boost Gauges to life. I hope this helps.
The FCS Lancaster is a nice representation in FlightSim. Seems like there are quite a few repaints for it in the FSX Skins section of the Library here. Best of Luck.

[nagpaw]

Thanks for getting back to me, Mustang! I've got the Booster Coil switch on and my Boost gauges do work. The problem is their indication. Although the gauges are marked with negative values, the needle doesn't go below "0" boost. The gauges only begin indicating once I advance the throttles enough to get a boost above zero. For any power setting below zero boost, the needle simply stays at zero, which isn't accurate. The equivalent would be a manifold pressure gauge that doesn't indicate pressures below to 30 inches of mercury, an altimeter that shows "0" for any altitude below sea level, or a dosimeter that won't read above 3.6 Roentgen regardless of the actual radiation level (not great...not terrible ).

It's not a deal breaker, but it's certainly a little annoying. I've tried reinstalling with no change. Hopefully that gauge behavior is something corrected by the patch. No word from FCS yet, I'm afraid.

[srgalahad]

I don't have the model in question, and am not an expert in gauge coding. However, I suspect it might be an issue if it's an .xml gauge. I did some beta testing of a model with .xml gauges and I use a below-sea-level airport for testing so I can get accurate SL performance tests. I noted that the altimeter would not display the actual (-150' asl) elevation of the field. The answer came back that the .xml code couldn't produce negative values. Lacking the programming skills I have to accept that answer for now.

If that's the case, it follows that the gauge might suffer the same issue. Since I haven't seen a similar gripe about other boost gauges, it could be in the way the FCS code was written.

[nagpaw]

Thanks for that, srgalahad! I was afraid it would come down to poorly designed gauges. Coding .xml is way beyond my level, but I could probably figure out how to substitute gauges in FSX. Maybe I'll give it a go!

[nagpaw]

No response from FCS yet. I don't suppose someone here has the 1.0 patch for the Lancaster?

[michaelvader]

Hallo friends
even if I am definitly out of flying as I have no more operational flightgear any more I continue to look what is going on
So I found this topic concerning the manifold pressure gauges
I have the Lancaster from just flight and I did a simple engine test
When the ac is parked with all systems on the mp gauge indicates "0" as soon you start the engines the gauge indicates as it should value under "0"
I had a look on the gauge - the programming part is ritten in xml format
I also had a look on my german gauges before starting the engine they show about 1ata, engine beeing started the needle goes down
Back into the Lanc's mp gauge xml - there are negative calues written in it
So it would estonish me if there will be a bug in your gauges
I will have later a look on my other british aircraft to see where the bug might be
Yours
Papi

[michaelvader]

Hallo again,
just had an other idea to test if your gauges are going wrong or your sim
take as start location Kabul in afganistan
this airport is at a quiet high altitude
so before you start your engines with all systems on your mp gauge should indicate -4 as value,
as soon you start your engines the needle gooes further down
The best would be to test thaith some different planes having british mp gauge(s)
Yours
Papi

[nagpaw]

I'm not having the problem in any other airplane, including Dave Garwood's Mosquito with similar boost gauges. Apparently the boost gauges in the FCS Lancaster simply don't read or operate correctly. The indications are grossly inaccurate as well (maximum boost being +24 instead of +12 for the Merlin XX).

I've been looking at xml coding, and it doesn't seem too hard. Maybe I can correct the error myself? Thanks for the input and helping narrow down the problem!

[DickB]

I eventually gave up on the FCS Lanc. Although it looked quite nice, there were too many problems. I can't recall how many the patch fixed, but certainly not all of them. I'll bundle up my notes and send them to you in a PM.

Although I still have the model installed, I don't seem to have the patch file. I did find a link to a paintkit, but unfortunately it didn't work.

If you're into older Lanc models, have you tried the Plane Design Lanc ? The interior textures look a little dated now, but I converted it to native FSX and tweaked the textures and some other stuff, and it flies (and looks) very nice now. Better than some more recent models IMO. There are some nice repaints out there for it too.

[nagpaw]

I'm on the verge of abandoning my efforts, as well. I've now determined that the vertical speed gauge doesn't read correctly (i.e. 1,000 fpm on the gauge is only about 700 fpm for the airplane), the turn and slip gauge doesn't function as it should, and the altimeter has the wrong needles keyed to the thousands and hundreds of feet. I got your PM, DickB, and I really appreciate you compiling all that I'll have a go at fixing some of the Lanc's failings, but I'm afraid that she's an extremely poor effort that may be beyond fixing.

At least I got her on sale!

[DickB]

I'm on the verge of abandoning my efforts, as well. I've now determined that the vertical speed gauge doesn't read correctly (i.e. 1,000 fpm on the gauge is only about 700 fpm for the airplane), the turn and slip gauge doesn't function as it should, and the altimeter has the wrong needles keyed to the thousands and hundreds of feet.

Yep - all those problems (and more) were reported to FCS. Gauges (and in fact anything else which doesn't require changes to the mdl files) should be fixable. Good luck !

[dhazelgrove]

you could always take a look at this offering.

Dave