Where the hell am I going ?

[whoarmongar]

I also could never find the runways.

The only way I can find them now is to turn "Roads on", and "grass off", in the settings and hey presto I can now see runways.

As for turning left or right to find the runway after spawning in a hanger, damned if I know.

I find it rather tricky just getting OUT the hangar, esp with no outside view.

[klem]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

Well, to be fair, even if you start with a pre-set gyro it will drift over time and you will have to reset it anyway, so take a minute and learn to do it.

You don't even have to be directly looking at it, just click on it to align the course setter bars with the compass "line". You can also click with the stick in the way, it will still work and you still get the on-screen text telling you at what heading it's set. If it still bothers you trying to click on it, assign a couple of keys to do it and just watch until the yellow course selector lines are parallel to the white compass line.

I was confused because i didn't know how to read it until another forum user explained it in another thread, now i have no problems with it. The linked thread in SimHQ shows how it's done and it's very simple.

In short:
1) Align the yellow line of the course selector so that it's parallel with the main compass line (the big one), taking care to place the marking for North on the course selector ring on the edge of the compass line that has the small "T" on it.
2) Read the resulting heading from the on-screen text.
3) Turn the directional gyro to match it.
4) Repeat every 10-15 minutes or after violent maneuvers.

This is still damned difficult because a lot of the time the compass needle ends are hidden by the stick. If you move the stick you change your heading and by the time you've settled it down you're either off-track or back where you started. Being off track is exactly what you are supposed to be avoiding!

The idea of viewing the instrument panel WITHOUT the stick in view is a good one because we are unable to simulate what happened in RL with the pilot leaning sideways enough to see the needle end and rotate the bezel. The cockpit head limitations prevent this no matter how much I stretch my TIR. The head limitations are there to stop daft outside views beyond what was possible but the compass should be seen around the stick.

Of course we could have a 'look down over the stick' or 'look more round the stick' view

[ElAurens]

Given the limitations of in cockpit view angles, implementing this "feature" was not well thought out.

I have adjusted my TIR, Ive tried it with the canopy open, but there is just no way to do it in flight in a Hurricane. (I never fly the Spitfire).

[Blackdog_kt]

It is a bit difficult and yes, i agree that the "look at the instruments" view should be probably modified a bit to allow viewing the compass. I have that view mapped to a button on the base of my sidewinder precision pro stick and it works only as long as you keep pressing it, while also disabling head tracking for the duration, so you get a pretty stable picture on all instruments. This was a big help to me when i first started flying the sim, because i wasn't accustomed to CEM yet and i wanted a way to do brief checks on temps, RPM and what-not without bending my neck too much and without losing a lot of time during the fight.

If that view could be moved slightly up and forward and angled downward a bit more for the RAF fighters, it would probably manage to "clear" the top of the stick and display a clear view of the compass.

In the meantime however i have found a suitable workaround. I temporarily disable my head tracking and use the mouse to move the view down, as it so happens the compass is somewhat visible, extending behind the left side of the stick if you do this. You can do this via head-tracking too, but it's harder because you have to move your head sufficiently down and roll your eyes upwards to keep it in sight, plus the tracking LEDs get a bit harder to track at such a position, so i prefer pressing F9 and paning the camera with the mouse.

Sure, you can't follow this method mid-combat but i doubt anyone is calibrating their gyro compass during that time anyway. I just do this routine when cruising every 10-15 minutes and you don't even have to keep the entire compass visible. As long as the left side of it is visible you can work with it, since you just need to make the course setter lines parallel to the main compass line and read the resulting heading value from the info window.