Oh No! Not another NG!

[BW901]

A couple of weeks ago I was talked into (or maybe talked myself into) building panels for the NG. Can't be too difficult I thought, it's just an updated Classic..famous last words With the promise of assistance with cockpit access/pictures and any technical advice I needed I started. Still a way to go, but it's now at the stage where I am flying the Zibo with the work so far. Rear overhead is 60% complete, fwd overhead 90%, MIP about 60% and pedestal 50%. I won't do a throttle quadrant as most users have some sort of hardware throttle, though I will add in things like the trim indicators, or maybe a schematic-type quadrant for reference.

These are coded for the Zibo (I only have X-Plane) and will be made available as freeware, as the Zibo is a freeware aircraft. I should be ready to start releasing stuff in a week or two, will post initially on X-Plane.org and my forum. Here are a few shots, still WIP so some colour-matching and details like mounting screw sizes/alignments to be done. Also the logic for the ILS selector switch on the mechanical standby horizon needs to be coded, but otherwise what you see here works. All my original work. Night effects are implemented. More info to follow once the first package is ready to go.

Split screen with captain's side on a separate monitor


Forward overhead. A little more work to do on graphics, and I need to add the new-style CVR. The overhead fits over 3 screens which can be switched with an invisible sidebar. Each sub-panel is a separate AM instrument so you'll be able to build your own custom panel layouts.


Old and new style MCPs and standby instruments

[frumpy]

Wow!

[Malaromane]

Very nice work.

[BW901]

Thanks for the comments there, much appreciated.

The Forward Overhead is now available to download at https://classicjetpanels.freeforums.net. AM instruments are contained in a zip file, unzip that into a temporary folder and just import the .siff files. A separate panel file built for 2560x1440 resolution is also available, which allows panel view to be switch through a hidden touch bar on the left hand side of the screen. For other resolutions you may need to build you own or the view on screen may be garbage, but Air manager scripting is very easy to pick-up.

Welcome any feedback, and of course any human errors in there - there are bound to be a few!

[BW901]

The forward overhead is also available from X-Plane.org for anyone who'd prefer that to Dropbox. I'm almost complete now with graphics work on the whole cockpit, only 5 or 6 sub-panels left to do and then it's just coding to finish.

I'm hoping to release the glareshield and MIP shortly, but in the meantime here are a couple of snippets to show progress, both complete, working and with night effects.

[BW901]

I'm at the stage of packaging up the instruments for the MIP, which is a task that always takes longer than you initially plan for, making preview images, cleaning out old image files, etc. Here's how the centre MIP looks now, with the different standby instrument options and night lighting.

The CATIII and Brake notices can be shown or hidden by clicking on the blanking plate screws. I'm not sure about which dataref to use to drive the Yaw Damper indicator, as the Zibo itself doesn't have one fitted, but I'm including it as it is installed on some aircraft.

[BW901]

I'll end previews here, as work on the 737-800 panels is coming to an end. This is a mosaic image of instruments and panels currently available for download at https://classicjetpanels.freeforums.net. I'm making a couple of tweaks to the Rear Overhead, so that will be available shortly and the Pedestal is missing the Cargo Fire panel. Hope you enjoy using them, and please let me know any feedback, corrections or improvements.

[BW901]

Here are the completed graphics of last four modules in "Phase 1" of my Zibo panels build. I'll hopefully finish coding shortly and that'll be the basics for the passenger aircraft done. I will add a quadrant and also look at the EFB.

[BW901]

The initial "basic" cockpit for the Zibo is almost complete, I just have to fix 3 "technical" issues with coding, and there are 8 sub panels/modules to upload to Dropbox.

For the next stage I will add elements of the quadrant, and I guess I also need to look at the EFB. No promises on timeline though! I will probably also remove the requirement for streaming on the nav/comm modules. That was the quickest solution to get working panels, but I would prefer them to be fully standalone, i think it's a more efficient way of working.

Also as most of my real-world aviation life was spent working with cargo and not Self Loading Freight I will look to add the appropriate cockpit modifications for the Boeing and AEI freighter conversion STCs - I'll do both as they are quite different.

Finally, these panels are of course coded for the Zibo. I have just bought MSFS, mainly for the FSS 727. If there's anyone out there with the PMDG aircraft who'd like to help re-code these for the PMDG please get in touch, and I'd be happy to make them available to a wider user set.

[cyberguerro]

Are they will be available on the store for android tablets?