Com-Central.net

Anyone know of an "HSI" guage for a Cessna 172? I am sure I can find the guage - but adding it to the stock C172 confuses me.

My stepmother apparently flies FS9 as well as is a profesional flight instructor - who knew?!

- JG300_Hunt

My stepmother apparently flies FS9 as well as is a profesional flight instructor - who knew?!

DUDE!!!! Buy that woman some roses NOW and some chocolates too!!!!! I'd be suckin' up big time for some free flight lessons!!!!!!

You can "borrow" an HSI gauge from any aircraft in your FS9 hangar that has one, and edit the panel.cfg file in the panel folder. The Beech Baron has a decent one, and since it's a stock gauge it should be pretty straightforward and nothing needed to download or install. What you wanna do is replace an existing gauge with the one you want. For this case, it makes sense to replace the default C172 heading indicator with the Beech Baron HSI.

Here's what you do (or how I just did it, since it makes a nice upgrade so I thought I'd guinea-pig it for ya):

Find an aircraft with an HSI that you want, and go to it's folder, then into it's "panel" folder, and look for the gauge. Usually they're sensibly named, and you'll find it in 3 different sections usually. One for the regular 2D panel, one for the 2D "minipanel" (HUD mode) if it's a primary instrument, and one for the VC. Just get the name. For the Baron, it looks like this (in blue boldface):

[Window00]
file=Baron_background_640.bmp
file_1024=Baron_background_1024.bmp
size_mm=640
position=7
visible=1
ident=MAIN_PANEL

gauge00=Beech_Baron!Annunciator Gear Up, 130, 22
gauge01=Beech_Baron!Annunciator Left Alternator, 160, 22
gauge02=Beech_Baron!Annunciator Right Alternator, 190, 22
gauge03=Beech_Baron!Annunciator Starter, 220, 22
gauge04=Beech_Baron!Annunciator Aft Door, 249, 22
gauge05=Beech_Baron!Flight Director Switch, 3, 102
gauge06=Beech_Baron!Autopilot Switch, 3, 119
gauge07=Beech_Baron!Clock, 34, 61
gauge08=Beech_Baron!Instrument Air, 23, 87
gauge09=Beech_Baron!Airspeed Indicator, 94, 64
gauge10=Beech_Baron!Attitude Indicator, 190, 51
gauge11=Beech_Baron!Number Plate, 334, 52
gauge12=Beech_Baron!Altimeter, 308, 63
gauge13=Beech_Baron!Kneeboard Icon, 4, 158
gauge14=Beech_Baron!ATC Icon, 18, 158
gauge15=Beech_Baron!Compass Icon, 32, 158
gauge16=Beech_Baron!ECU Icon, 46, 158
gauge17=Beech_Baron!Map Icon, 60, 158
gauge18=Beech_Baron!Avionics Icon, 74, 158
gauge19=Beech_Baron!GPS Icon, 88, 158
gauge20=Beech_Baron!RMI, 2, 174
gauge21=Beech_Baron!Turn Coordinator, 92, 170
gauge22=Beech_Baron!Horizontal Situation Indicator, 190, 164
gauge23=Beech_Baron!Vertical Speed Indicator, 308, 166
gauge24=Beech_Baron!Strobe Lights, 2, 269
gauge25=Beech_Baron!Beacon Lights, 20, 269

The numbers after the gauge are for the horizontal and vertical placement location of the gauge. You probably don't want to use the numbers from the Baron since it's panel layout is different. So just get the gauge name without the numbers at the end.

Go to your Cessna 172 folder, then into the "panel" folder, and back up (copy/paste) your panel.cfg file just to have a safe backup. Then edit the panel.cfg file with notepad as follows:

In the [window00] section, find and replace the Cessna 172 Heading indicator (gauge #10 in the list, or "gauge09" since they start at zero) with the Baron HSI.

You'll also probably have to fudge with the placement location numbers from the Cessna since the Baron HSI is a different size - AND you may have to add two more numbers in the statement to re-size the width and hieght of the gauge. Here's what I ended up with for the 2D panel (Window00):

[Window00]
file=panel_background_640.bmp
file_1024=panel_background_1024.bmp
size_mm=640
position=7
visible=1
no_luminous=1
ident=MAIN_PANEL

gauge00=Cessna!ADF,545,86
gauge01=Cessna172!Airspeed,145,56
gauge02=Cessna!Altimeter,347,57
gauge03=Cessna!Attitude,246,56
gauge04=Cessna!Avionics Switch,240,286
gauge06=Cessna!DME,544,49
gauge07=Cessna!Flaps,598,286
gauge08=Cessna!Fuel_Selector, 451, 287
gauge09=Beech_Baron!Horizontal Situation Indicator, 246, 158, 100, 100
gauge10=Cessna!IOAT, 482, 50
gauge11=Cessna!Master_Alt_Bat,55,288

Window05 is for the minipanel (HUD view) and in that view mode, it is gauge #4 (gauge03). You want to do the same thing for that.....again here are the numbers I ended up with for location and sizing as well:

[Window05]
position=7
size_mm=631,100
child_3d=1
background_color=0,0,0
ident=MINIPANEL

gauge00=Cessna172!Airspeed, 0, 1
gauge01=Cessna!Turn_Indicator, 102, 0
gauge02=Cessna!Attitude, 207, 0
gauge03=Beech_Baron!Horizontal Situation Indicator, 310, 2, 100, 100
gauge04=Cessna!Altimeter, 417, 0
gauge05=Cessna!Vertical_Speed, 531, 0

Lastly, go to the section called [VCockpit01] which is for the VC, and replace heading indiciator with the HSI one last time. For the Cessna VC, this is gauge #17 (gauge16). In this case, I ended up using the default coordinates and sizing that were used for the Cessna's heading indicator, no experimentation needed:

[VCockpit01]
size_mm=512,512
pixel_size=512,512
texture=$C172s_1
background_color=0,0,0

gauge00=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio Nav-Comm 1, 0, 0, 205, 77
gauge01=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio Nav-Comm 2, 206, 0, 205, 77
gauge02=Cessna172!Clock, 413, 1, 93, 93
gauge03=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio DME, 0, 86, 198, 51
gauge04=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio Audio, 201, 85, 198, 34
gauge05=Cessna!Annunciator, 403, 96, 109, 30
gauge06=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio AP, 0, 136, 198, 59
gauge07=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio Xpndr, 0, 196, 198, 61
gauge08=Cessna182s!VOR2, 257, 129, 126, 126
gauge09=Cessna!ADF, 385, 130, 126, 126
gauge10=Cessna!VOR1, 1, 258, 126, 126
gauge11=Cessna!Vertical_Speed, 129, 256, 126, 126
gauge12=Cessna172!Airspeed, 256, 256, 128, 128
gauge13=Cessna!Turn_Indicator, 384, 256, 128, 128
gauge14=Cessna!Altimeter, 1, 383, 126, 126
gauge15=Cessna172!Tachometer, 128, 383, 128, 128
gauge16=Beech_Baron!Horizontal Situation Indicator, 256, 384, 128, 128
gauge17=Cessna!Attitude, 383, 384, 128, 128

This should yield the following results:

2D Panel:



Mini Panel:



and the VC:



And it works well, too. In the shots above I'm lined up with the runway on an ILS approach and you can see the ILS path and glideslope indicators on the newly-installed HSI from the Beech agree perfectly with the glideslope and path path indicators on the VOR1 indicator.

Lastly, note that in the Cessna 172 folder, there is also a panel.ifr folder - this is a second, extended panel for the IFR-equipped version of the Cessna 172. The above mods were tested on the more standard (VFR-panel) C-172, you'd also have to edit the panel.cfg file in the panel.ifr folder the same way to make the same changes to the C-172 IFR panel version (which makes more sense to do anyway since you'd want the better instrumentation).

Just be sure to do this at night or choose a 'donor' Baron on the ramp that's equipped with window covers, so no one sees ya in there pryin' that high-dollar HSI out of the Beech panel with your screwdriver, and the doctor or dentist who owns it won't be none the wiser.....

Hope that helps!

Made sticky...

Great job explaining that Stoopy and is a great tutorial for those 'tinkering' with panels...

WOW Stoopy - Wasn't expectin such a thorough writeup! This one seems to be a cinch! Think I'll re-package something for her and email it off as an early XMAS present! And believe me, if I lived back east, I would surely be buckin' for some freebies! She does however live in your neck of the woods! Perhaps I could pursuade a discount

Thanks again man, much obliged!

Sure thing, it was no problem and a good question. Hey, if need be, we can make up a self-installer for her...brownie points still go to you though, for when you visit.

Hopefully thats the HSI gauge she was lookin' for. There are fancier ones, but borrowing one from the cockpit of a Learjet didn't seem appropriate.

I had her take a look at the Baron on - loved it. Planned on modifying the files this weekend. What program do I use to make a self installer -- never had to make one to be quite honest! I planned on making a ZIP with the FS9 folder structure built in for a simple copy paste job.

I use a program called Install Creator (free version).

www.clickteam.com/eng/...reator.php

Nice tool!

You know, I meant to add, I've been doing some looking and also found a better AIR file available for the Cessna 172 that provides much more realistic flight responses, stalls, evens spins. It's from the payware RealAir Cessna 172 and they made it available as a freeware package that got very good feedback. So it's good.

So I meant to add, if you haven't done a self-installer and don't want to make a rush job, I can make it for you while you get Install Creator cooking...? Since I've gone ahead and updated my Cessna with the Baron HSI (both panels) as well as this ew air file. I can send you the project file for it when done and then you'll have a good reference to make others....

That would be great Stoopy! Going to grab a copy of it and play around a bit. Much appreciated as always

Going to take a look for the RealAir 172 - will post a link in the forum when I find her.

AvSim library is where I got it.....shoulda mentioned that. INstall is pretty easy, you make a copy of your existing C-172 folder and install the new air file and texture set. It uses the default FS9 C-172 model and other stuff.

So what you can do also is take the .air file fomr the RealAir version and put it in your default C-172 folder (renaming it to the same name after backing up the original of course) and bada binga boom, done.

I'll whip up the installer and PM you for details....we can make this custom for your stepmom (hey maybe a custom paint job to match any real one she flies?)....

I grabbed the one from AVSIM - wanted to keep the original C-172, so followed the instructions - pretty straight forward. A gem to fly compared to the default - I noticed a slight difference in flight for sure.

I appreciate you setting up the self-installer Stoopy! As far as a custom paint job, wow.. I don't know if I have a picture of the one she flys.. Would have to cash a rain check on that one..

Yep, sounds like a plan.....Done! Check your PM inbox and tell her Happy Holidays from the gang here at Com-C!!!