On Cockpit Instrumentation..and..Lay Out.

[chief-]

     Was just looking through "Cockpit" An Illustrated History of WWII Aircraft Interiors by Donald Nijboer, photo's by Dan Patterson. It struck me, at least on the P47.  Why arent the cockpit instrument panels modeled like the originals?
     Im not knockin HTC, I think they are doing a wonderful job.  Just that being the historical freak that I am, seems kinda disapointing that when Im in the P47 etc..Im not looking at the instrument panel setup that was in a real one <scratches head>.
     Anyone know if they plan to eventually update them to specs?

Chief out      

[dosequis]

Well, I'll get on the playability thing for a sec...

I like to "scoot up" in my seat, and my forward key view lets me "slide back" in my seat to get a more panoramic view forward.

So, with the placement of weapons, like in the A6M, it can be hard to "fly" and sometimes it seems HTC puts the airspeed and gyro up high, and that's a good thing. Climbrate and altitute can be below my LOS, unless I look forward/down and that's fine. the things I wanna just quickly glance down at as I'm in a fight are:

airspeed
trim
flap position
alt is nice in a twisting fight at dusk

Any concessions they make toward that is welcome. After all, we don't have some of the viseral cues that real pilots did, and some cheating on panel layout to me is no big deal.

My $.02

XX

[Fishu]

more detail, wheres german and japan instruments  
(hey HTC, someones lives in areas where people *still* use kilometers and wouldnt it be alot more historically correct  )

[Sharky]

Chief,

You have to realise that we are still dealing with a 2D display here. (Computer monitor)  With that there are some things that are going to be out of your "field of view".  Climb in your car and look out the windshield as if driving down the road.  Most of the gauges will be out of your field of view.  However in RL a quick glance allows you all the information you need (if you are familiar with the instrument layout)

I'm sure the same was true of WWII aircraft cockpits, while looking through the windshield I'm sure few instruments were in the pilots field of view.  Now in computer sims, a quick glance take on a whole new meaning.  Keys have to manipulated and the "view shift" is very obvious, some may think even distracting.  

I'm sure that HTC takes this into account and places the most useful gages where the majority of systems will have them displayed in the foward view.  But like an decision, some will like it some will not.  A gauge that you rely on heavily may not be one thats in the foward view, personally as soon as the fighting starts, I don't look at gauges, so I don't mind if I have to view switch to see all of them.

I agree with you in that I would like to see the cockpit layouts exactly like their historical prototypes, but I think most would want the gauges layed out so as to see the more important ones in the foward view.

Sharky

[juzz]

I really don't see why cockpits where you can see all the guages, like the Spitfire, P-51, Me 109 etc. aren't historically correct.

It's understandable why some fudging is necessary on planes like the P-47 where you can't see everything at once, but even so I would still prefer them to all be as historically accurate as possible.

 

I'm sure that HTC takes this into account and places the most useful gages where the majority of systems will have them displayed in the foward view. But like an decision, some will like it some will not. A gauge that you rely on heavily may not be one thats in the foward view, personally as soon as the fighting starts, I don't look at gauges, so I don't mind if I have to view switch to see all of them.

Exactly: What you think are the most important gauges isn't the same as what the next person might think. So why should HTC bother trying to guess what people want, and just put in the historically accurate layouts? No matter which arrangement of gauges they choose to try and make it more user-friendly, someone will be unhappy about it.

[chief-]

  cc, I agree totaly with you both (Sharky, XX)  as far as the playability issue and restrictions to fwd views goes.  
  Being that, let me explain a little better, the panel looks nothing like the original. (shape of cockpit does)    Now these guys (a/c designers) consulted pilots when they designed the panels right? (Engineers put on Nomex at this time)  
  The picture's Im looking at  have the most important instruments, believe called the primary pack?  These are outlined with a yellow band....Altimeter, VSI, AS, Arti Horizon, turn and slip indicator, nav aid...and I beleive this holds true to this day.  You scan the primary pack constantly, glancing at the secondary pack  (eng instruments, fuel,  elec) occasionally.
  The P47 panel isnt like this, I would rather look down to check my flap status, than have to look down for my VSI for instance.  Or look down to see my gear status and not have to for fuel.
  I just feel like the layout coulda been re-arranged somewhat better and what better place to get that arrangment than from the actual aircraft.
  If you look at the photo shots, they dont show the whole cockpit (because of FOV etc) but the primary pack is up top where the pilot wouldnt have to work real hard to see it.

nuff of that
Chief out

[Daff]

Actually, they didnt get a "standard" layout for instruments until after the war...looking at some of the WW2 panels it looks like very little thought went into where to put each instrument. (And if you read general pilot reports of the various planes, you'll often see instrument layout mentioned).

Daff

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CO, 56th Fighter Group
"This is Yardstick. Follow me"