compass request

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by Phazon

Good idea. Its really hard to get a look at it especially in some of the British planes, even with TrackIR as you say.

I'd love a button like the "look at dashboard" button we have now, except the camera focuses down on the compass instead.

That was exactly my idea too, back when it was first discussed. I don't mind having to set the course setter to read the headings, in fact i like having to do the proper steps.

It's just that it's hard to see and at the same time fly the aircraft with its lack of aileron trim, so i pause my freetrack and move the camera with the mouse until i have the compass, the artificial horizon and a bit of the real horizon looking out of the cockpit in my view, otherwise the aircraft rolls and drifts off the heading while i'm setting it

If we had a "look at compass" key it would be much simpler:
Press key to glance at compass, release key to go back to normal cockpit view. Now start rotating the course setter to the appropriate direction while looking outside the window and flying the aircraft. Press key again to glance at compass and see if any further corrections are needed, release key and keep flying. Then it's easy to set the directional gyro.

Heck, it would even be easy to use the course setter like a, well, course setter: say you want to fly a heading of 120 to Dunkirk, rotate it until it points to 120 and then turn until the compass coincides with it (the reverse process of obtaining the compass read-out).

So, my +1 vote for a "look at compass" command