The way I use X-Plane, is that I have the numberpad keys mapped to quick view. These snap views quickly pan to the view you have chosen, ie, if I press 4, I look out over the left wing and 6 looks over the right wing. 5 quickly brings me back to center. This way my left hand sits on the number pad and switches views. I sometimes map all 9 keys so I can have quick views for many areas. This is faster and more precise than panning. Since I use a joystick I do not need the numberpad keys to fly the plane and feel free to modify them. This is totally optional, but the way I personally have MFS setup. Proceed at your own risk.
This is my procedure:
First, create a new flight. Move the view to look over the left wing using the various controls. If you set up the POV hat pan feature, use that to look out the left window. After you find a position you like. Press CTRL-ALT and 1 from the top numbers over the letters in you keyboard. You can then access this view at any time by pressing ALt-1. Follow this procedure to create other views, like over the right wing, etc You will have to set up these views for each plane you fly, but the numpad keys will work with all planes This ALT-1, is a slight awkward combination so I mapped it to the numberpad in the following way:
- Go to controls/keyboard. Use the new profile you created to modify the POV hat.
- Go to Keyboard/flight control surfaces. Clear all the number pad choices, except for 7 and 1 as these are used for trim. If you have trim setup another way you can clear these. I use trim often in the GA planes I fly.
- Go to general/keyboard/camera/cockpit camera. Choose all and then expand all in the left box.
- Choose “load custom camera 1” and then click on the second box to the right of the command, click input and scroll down to numberpad 4 for the view you setup for the left wing. Click validate.
- Do the same for other views you have saved.
- I mapped the numberpad 5 to “reset cockpit view”
- After you have made the modifications, click F11 on the bottom, apply and save.
Let me know if this works for you. You can certainly map the numpad keys to any other command you choose in the same way.
Note if you clear numpad 1 and 7 you will lose those keys for trimming up and down, so I don’t recommend changing them. I did modify my joystick to change trim by pressing keys next to the POV hat switch.
This is my setup, your experience may vary.