I definitely fly more planes thanks to spad.next because it’s trivial to switch between them! Set up once (usually using one of my existing default profiles) and it auto-switches in the future.
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Yes, I know how auto-switching profiles work, and I love that ability in SPAD.
But you have to agree that if you want to program the maximum of buttons/switches/levers/gauges/etc. for each individual plane it takes a lot of time - even if you use snippets that can be shared between them.
Sure, takes a few minutes for the ones with oddities, sometimes a half hour or more for really complex ones. Small one-time time investment.
I spend more time skimming manuals, I guess, so this doesn’t seem like a burden. 
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I guess I need more practice. It takes me DAYS to get each profile working the way I want. 
Mostly because using Data Monitor and Event Monitor (while cool) can be a bit cumbersome.
I use those a lot, and even use Developer Mode Behavior tool to suss out some of the more difficult VARs.
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About 90% of the customization I do is for throttles on airplanes that don’t respond to the default throttle axes Other than that I don’t often need to customize much beyond the general controls I have setup.
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Took me all weekend to do the PMDG 737. Im faster with SPAD now, but that was still the benchmark of complexity. Then you have to add in the time for making placards for the switches - I’d never remember otherwise. But its nice - I can do nearly everything without using a mouse and what little I cant are always ground-based tasks.
I wouldn’t try to compare what you are doing vs anyone else. Half an hour of tinkering is just scratching the surface. It’s not realistic to do a whole aircraft that is vastly different in that time frame. Each of us has different levels of customisations so the time factor will be different. There is not one of mine that takes less than days but that’s because I’m going the full hog, not just setting a few axis and buttons which sometimes I never have to touch anyhow. It’s figuring out what events/vars work best, circumventing those blasted Bvars and for me graphics that takes the time.
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It certainly doesn’t take days, but it helps if you know what you are looking for, and especially HOW to look for it.
It may not take days for you. Like I said, I need more practice. It’s one thing to mine the VAR info, and I’m slowly getting better at that. It’s another to learn how to best use SPAD to make those VARS do what I want them to do in the cockpits - both virtual and hardware.
It would be much easier if devs would release a full list of VAR’s (like A2A just did for their Comanche.)
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I don’t think spad/AandO are the common issue here, but “having tons of custom displays and controls that i as the player want to be uniquely specialized to the extent that I will spend huge amounts of time on it because it’s an important factor in what I consider part of the fun”, which is very different from what I do – “make sure the standard controls all work so I can fly”.
To each their own taste. <3
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Yep that’s exactly it. Everyone’s time will be different because everyone’s goal is different. They shouldn’t be considered comparisons but more observations.
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