I agree. The AI generated content is garbage. Career mode overall is garbage though. I’m not planning on playing career mode again. Career mode would be good for people who aren’t involved with aviation in real life. But for people wanting more it’s very lacking.
I haven’t even tried any aerial firefighting stuff in MSFS 2024. It doesn’t surprise me at all though to hear it’s missing a bunch of stuff like ag is.
I have released my nav mod to flightsim.to. This is essentially the same as the beta version posted above.
https://flightsim.to/file/89968/agriculture-sat-nav-and-light-bar
Congrats on releasing it! That’s awesome.
Now we just need Microsoft to implement this awesome addition. I’m flying a lot of helicopter spraying missions and it is just so difficult to get good coverage.
Maybe they’ll approach you or you them and perhaps a nice little cooperation can come from this?
@Sal1800 The accessory cannot be used. Nothing can be seen on the screen. Nothing is visible on the white part of the display, the white color is burnt out.
Please fix it, a tutorial video would be nice.
Thank you very much! Amazing work!
I only fly the H125, there the lightbar is always perfectly visible and readable. The computer screen can be difficult to read in direct sunshine, but I only use that to set up the area, and then sometimes to check the mix level.
A gps tracking system to see what was already sprayed is definitely a must for agricultural aviation missions in career mode. It’s a shame that the mod created by @Sal1800 cannot be used in career mode. Perhaps a version of it that runs as a standalone app could work? Not ideal but better than nothing.
Should be usable in VR.
But really, this should be allowed by Asobo, in general, we should be able to pick the aircraft for missions, as long as they are compatible with the mission type. Which @Sal1800’s mod clearly is, as it is the same helicopter.
There are a couple of paths where this mod could be available in career. One is if Microsoft opens up freeware to the marketplace or approves me for the platform. I could make this for the marketplace for free or the minimal price.
The other way would be to somehow override the default preset that is used in career. I won’t release a version that does this, but theoretically, it might be possible.
As for VR compatibility, it should work but the UI might be too small. I already think about making text as large as possible just because as I get older, my eyesight is not as good. But I am always thinking about how to make things more clear.
I am close to finishing an update with a “pro” version of the lightbar that has more information to help aid the job but other than that, I don’t know where else to take this.
My comment about VR compatibility was about the standalone app, as that should somehow be displayed in VR too.
What you have now works perfectly in VR.
Any possibility to somehow make this mod available in career mode?
I have been testing a new variation of the lightbar. This one has extra displays showing ground speed and spray area plus a 4-digit cross track display to make it a little easier to line up your turns.
I sprayed this field in the Cessna 188 and was very satisfied to fill it out with 68.9 acres sprayed and less than 5% of the area missed. While it might be nice to earn points in career mode, I think this mod works well when making your own missions and goals.
That looks great! The 4 digit display will be helpful, and more realistic for sure.
The ground speed display will also be great to have.
It got me thinking that since the turn radius for each turnaround is known, the computer should be able to give you a turn rate to maintain for a perfect turn. Is that something that is shown in real-world lightbars? An indicator that tells you to turn sharper or less?
I think that’s what the lights at the bottom of the lightbar are supposed to help with. Honestly, I don’t look at them though. Maybe I should, but I’m able to intercept my line by just looking at my distance from the line. We do have one AT802 pilot at our operation that says that the “intercept lights” are helpful though.
For me, it’s more about just knowing how the airplane is going to act with the conditions and knowing how much turn I need to get on line. For example, if I’m turning into the wind, I know that number (R 1200 for example) isn’t going to decrease as fast as if I was turning with a tailwind. I sort of just eyeball my rate of turn. Not saying that’s the best way to do it, but it works for me.
The short answer is besides what you already have in your lightbar, there’s nothing in real life that tells us what our rate of turn should be.
A lot of it too is just looking outside and kind of knowing where you’re going to end up. It’s really hard to do in the flight sim, since everything sort of looks the same. But in real life fields you sort of know where to aim for. Even in a racetrack. Lets say there was a sign by the road that I dove over on my current pass. Next pass I know I’m going to be to the right of that sign. So a lot of times I don’t really even need to look at the lightbar until I get close to diving back into the field. I know the general area I need to be, and the lightbar just helps me get right on line.
Ok, that makes a lot of sense. I think one thing that makes the sim more difficult is that it can be harder to look around and really see the surrounding landmarks without something like head tracking or VR. So if you’re just looking out the front, it’s much more limited.
I am coming into this with no previous knowledge about agriculture aviation so I’m still thinking about how to make it easier. But at the end of the day, it’s a challenging job that requires a lot of precision and that’s what’s so engaging. I can see how repetition can improve your skills and that’s pretty cool.
You know you can see the area you sprayed in the EFB, right?
It even gives you actuall coverage in 3 different colours, yellow, green and red, which show “not enough”, “just right” and “too much”.
Edit: This only applies to career mode though. It’s not showing in free flight.
Thank you very much for this mod! Love it.
I tested it and found that when I set the racetrack, that the longer line ( which helps you align for the next pass) is most times off to the actuall pass-lines. Not sure if that’s intended or a limit. I fly in an area with moslty small, oddly shaped fields. The lightbar seem to show the center towards the actual next pass.
I wonder if it’s possible to mark the set up area (with A,B and C point) you want to spray with a light gray background.
Or if we could mark cornerpoints of a field (grey marked area) seperately from the spraylines setup, so we can set up oddly shaped fields. The actual sparylines setup would be independent of that, like in the Vid here:
Yes, not being able to look around definitely makes it harder. Having a head tracker helps, but still isn’t a complete solution. Like I said before, simulators are great for practicing procedures. But things like maneuvers and landings are very difficult to practice in the sim. There’s no special awareness or depth perception. I can’t tell how high off the ground I am in the sim. I go into third person mode a lot.
It takes practice! Just like any other aviation job!
VR helps. A lot.
