I like this flight simulator feature.

Not 'arf, it's super! I followed the advice and switched from keyboard to mouse and yes, once I'd got used to it it's much easier! As you say the key is to keep movement to a minimum, stay as close to the plane icon as possible with the crosshairs. And the trick when turning is as you finish, gradually move the mouse back to the centre instead of lurching over, otherwise you'll induce troublesome roll.

With the mouse I was able to complete my first full flight, takeoff and landing from Manchester to Liverpool. Sadly I missed the runway by about 100m but it was the first time I didn't bounce :)

Coupla tips:
* The look around feature works even in pause mode, so there's no need to take your hand off the stick to admire the view. Just be careful to remember your original orientation as it's easy to lose the HUD! (More reason to pause)
* Place pushpins at each end of a runway if you want a realistic landing, they make it easy to pick out the direction even when the images haven't loaded. Also switch on other points of interest so you can gauge where you are (soon I'll be printing out maps of the UK and plotting flight plans! I was wondering how GE could get better, now I know)

I tried to use it with a joystick that works fine for Microsoft flight simulator, but the functions for rudder and engine power seem to be swapped. I'm getting tired of constantly twisting the joystick. What now?

hello evryone, some people have trouble starting flight simulator in google earth, on my computer, on the right side of the spacebar, there are three buttons, Alt, something that looks like a thingie, and Ctrl. the combination that worked for me is Ctrl-thingie-A

good luck and enjoy..:)

Hello mates and hi folks, I too cannot start the FS with the combination of keys. I tried banzano's tip which regretfully didn't help. I have a french keyboard. Does anybody have a clue? Thanks.

does anyone know how to fix the Rudder/Throttle swap thing with joysticks? Thanks

@Leo - have you tried setting to English US keyboard in Control Panel? French keyboard = AZERTY so you may need to press the key below your A key, which is where A is on an English keyboard (first left, middle row). Once the mode is enabled it appears in Tools menu and you won't need to change KB again.

Those looking to redefine joystick controls - investigate the ini files in C:\Program Files\Google\Google Earth\res\flightsim\controller
it appears you might be able to change them round but it will take some experimentation. The inis are well commented so it shouldn't be too hard.

" Place pushpins at each end of a runway if you want a realistic landing, they make it easy to pick out the direction even when the images haven't loaded."

Great idea. I thought of that myself but with a little icing on the cake. Under properties for your pushpin, click on the altitude tab and enter something like 1000m(relative to ground) or so at each end of the runway. And to make things even better, name the marker to whatever azimith that end of the runway is pointed to help line up your approach. And for betting visibility, check the box marked, 'extend to ground'. My biggest problem with this program is finding the airports. By doing the above, it's now much much easier.

I'm a UK user, i tried to open it using Ctrl-Alt-A, I read on this site that that doesnt work for UK computers. If i press Ctrl-A should that work?

I am hoping someone will find out how to get this simulator to work correctly with my Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joystick. As it is, the sim seems to be using the "generic.ini" definitions found in Program Files\Google\Google Earth\res\flightsim\controller. The throttle on the stick causes rudder (yaw) in the sim. It should be straightforward to create a custom .ini file for the Sidewinder? Comments?

- Jeff Schallenberg
Saint Lambert, Quebec

Oh, sweet. It DOES work in Linux. =)

I've kinda got the hang of it with the SR22 and would like to try the F16 but can't figure out how to switch. Any ideas?

How can I reload the configuration file withput restarting GE? Is it possibile?
And how can I know if my .ini file has been selected by the simulator???

Hi luca, according to Google you can reload the config files this way:

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R will reload the *aircraft* and *planet* config file on the fly.

Wow! Google rules again. It was really great to discover it works in Linux as well as in Windows.
Now I only have to learn how to stop hitting the ground... ;-)

Just to complement the swapped rudder/thrust joystick control question:

Load this file in notepad: "...\Google\Google earth\res\flightsim\controller\generic.ini"
In the "axes" section, swap A2 and A3 so that the lines 57 and 58 look like this:
A3 set(DP_0, -0.5, 0.5)
A2 set(DR, 1.0, 0.0)

Adding custom button functions is quite straightforward. Buttons are called B0, B1,... Experiment to find which button is where on your joystick. E.g.:

button_press = [
% gear up
B1 set(DG, 0)
% gear down
B0 set(DG, 1)
]

If you want to add you preferred airport to the selection list, add a line like this in the flightsim.ini file in section takeoff_locations:
'LFNM' 'Nice' '04R' 43.646877 7.202800 45.00

'LFMN' - 4-letter ICAO code (can be anything)
'Nice' - city name (can be anything)
'04R' - runway name (here: right runway in 40deg heading)
lat/lon: - easy to get if you put a placemark on the start position. Copy/paste lat/lon values from the placemark dialog box (set GE to decimal degrees in Tools/Options/3D View)
45.00 - runway heading (and aircraft orientation). Zoom on the runway and turn the image in GE until the runway is parallel to the side of the screen. Select 'Add Path', go to 'View' tab and select 'Snapshot'. Copy/paste the heading.

That's it...

Another hint: If you messed up your view (i.e. rotated the viewpoint until the HUD disappeared) you can recenter it easily by pressing 'V' (misses from the flight simulator help file).

I've had my Logitech Extreme 3d Pro working fine the first time I tried the flight simulator, but no I can't seem to control anything with it. It works fine with all other software and it's recognized correctly when I start the flight simulator. I even reinstalled GE...same result.
Any ideas why the joystick is recognized but won't let me control anything?
Any help greatly appreciated!

Hi Martin,
Yes, I have seen that too. It seems to be a minor bug (or rather a hiccup) of GE.
Try this: Launch GE with the joystick plugged. Enter the flight simulator using the key combination (Alt+Ctrl+A or Alt+Windows+A). The joystick should work now. Then exit the FS (Esc) if needed and re-enter using the menu (Tools->Flight Simulator). For me that works.
Let me know if this also solves your problem. If yes, I can file a 4.2beta bug report in the GE group.

Norbert

I have the same experience as Martin :-(

I had edited the controller .ini file to correct the throttle and rudder axes, and it worked fine on Saturday. But since Sunday, the simulator does not respond to my joystick (Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2)m nor to the mouse. Only the keyboard controls work anymore.

Anybody else experiencing this?

- Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Strange. Just a shot in the dark: Do you use a USB mouse and/or other USB devices? Try to disconnect all devices and reconnect only the joystick prior to launching GE.

For the mouse as control device: I believe you know that you need a cross-shaped cursor for the mouse controls to work. If you got a pointer-shaped one, click left once. (Sorry, if this is obvious but just to make sure...)

Norbert

Norbert,

unfortunately your suggestion didn't work. No matter what I can't get the joystick to work. The only other USB devices are the mouse/keyboard and I even tried to unplug those....no change.

Any other ideas?

Martin

I just flew through the Grand Canyon. Very cool.

The flightsim is great. I have a coment is it posible to see your aircraft? Can this be linked to FSX of aircraft and Panels?

Like some other people i'm having the same problem with my joystick not being recognised now . Its a Cyborg 3D Rumble force. So suggest there is a fault and it should be reported back to Google earth team - how do we do this ?

To report GE 4.2beta problems, go to Google Groups: Google Earth Help

Add a comment to the post "Found a bug (especially in 4.2)? Let us know!". Be sure to read the original post as you need to include some essential info to the message to help the Google guys.

A last thing to try: Switch between DirectX and OpenGL (Tools->Options, Graphics Mode) and restart GE. DirectX offers joystick support whereas OpenGL does not. If GE uses DirectX for input devices, this might help but I would not bet on it. However, might be worth a try before giving up.

Norbert

where is the advanced tutorial? i wanna know how to correctly land!

Landing, I Just done it for the 1st time.

level off at about 1000 ft and drop gear's so you dont forget.

decrease speed all the way down to the bottom and flaps up 20% slowly drop below 1000ft and as you do watch the speed (LHS) once you hit 300 or less bring flaps up more steadying out as you go.

300ft 100% flaps and still slowly drop. press . and , at the same time to put on brakes on. point a bit down and level off the speed means you will drop .

once you hit the ground ( and you will know because of bounce) just keep holding brakes and you will stop.

HTH (sorry its a bit poor.)

1 question to open i had to do ctrl + windows key + a but i want to change my plane and nothing on the net tells me how to . any ideas?

How do I move the plane forward?

I can't get the plane to move on the runway. My page up button is the same as my up arrow button. What do I do?

This is ace!

Only small point of logic that might be fixed via the ini files. If, in mouse mode, I pull back to raise the nose, I would expect the white cross (as a stick position indicator) to rise, not fall. Can this value be reversed locally in an ini file?

4:Brittany Balcom
it's easy!
You must change two letters in 2 files
in directory

C:\Program Files\Google\GoogleEarth\res\flightsim\keyboard

are 2 files generic.ini(F-16) and sr22.ini

For resolving your problem you must find and overwrite
string '9' -> A -key A throttle up for you
string '3' -> Z -key Z throttle down for you
bye
jandys

I've also had the joystick stop working altogether, even though it works in other programs and the Ctrl-Alt-A screen says "joystick enabled". It came back for me via checking Tools/Options/Navigation/Enable Controller.

Now on to the throttle and rudder reversal problem: editing my controller generic.ini file to reverse the A2 and A3 axes doesn't change a thing. I even tried commenting out all the A0 > A3 lines and the joystick still works the same. It is being referenced in the flightsim.ini file, and if I try deleting the A0 > A3 lines the program gripes about a misconfigured file - and then the joystick works the same as usual anyway! Anyone have a notion on this one?
tks
steve

Hi Steve,

You do not have by chance a joystick which is one of the preconfigured ones? As far as I see, GE tries to identify the joystick by reading the ID string and matching it against all controller id's found in the controller\*.ini files in lines like this:
Controller('*Logitech*Force*3D*', 12, 12, 4, 4)
So I suppose your simply need to find the right .ini file for your joystick.

Norbert

I have a Saitek X52 stick and throttle. I also have Saitek pedals.
I could not get the stick to work in GE FS until I disconnected the pedals. Now it works just fine (I think)

a good way too land,

line up with the place you want to land and fly down at about -10%, press page down to lower your throttle to zero (it's the lower left line) and raise flaps to 100 and lower your gears, then slowly go down and go horizontal when at the bottom, then just wait till the speed goes to zero

Norbert Sept 24 re my controller question of Sept 19:
- I'm using a Thrustmaster Top Gun Fox 2 Pro (!?) USB joystick. Doesn't seem to be a match for any of the preconfigured .ini files.
- BTW, should the Ctrl-Alt-R trick also reload the controller files on the fly, besides the already-mentioned *planet* and *aircraft* files?
- This is a great start on what I hope becomes a more configurable simulator. For starters, how about a blimp and an external input for the throttle from a stationary bike's wattmeter - then you can bicycle around up in the sky!

I love Flight Simulator! My altitude is very high and I could change the flight into day and night. I could change into window view. SR22 is my little favorite because it has no gears. F16 has. I could take-off but not really landing. For landing I just opened my gear then full flaps then I land safely sometimes. But there's one problem. My gear even it was open then straight off to the runway,why does it crash? Maybe because the gear broke it self.

I've got the MS Sidewinder precision 2 joystick and had the rudder and throttle transposed. I solved it by labelling the controller folder as "Original Controller" and opening a new "controller" folder. I then dragged the generic.ini file into the new folder and then edited it in "wordpad" as suggested by 'serge' above to read:
A3 set(DP_0, -0.5, 0.5)
A2 set(DR, 1.0, 0.0)

I saved it restarted Google earth.
Restared flight sim with "Ctrl+Windows Start+A"

It worked

Now to figure out the buttons!

The way that GE sim uses its .ini file appears to be extremely squirrely. A modified .ini file may or may not be in control. Even the Remove software facility does not work correctly. It was necessary to go through the chain of folders, deleting them one at a time, even after using the Control Panel "Add/Remove software" facility in Windows XP. Originally the flaps button worked fine. Now that I have reloaded GE, the rudder axes works according to the ini assignment, but the flaps function one time and then quit. I think I'll wait until they get some of the horrendous bugs ironed out.
Allen

Hi. I have just opened the simulator for the first time. I have the screen properly prepared (I think), press the page up key — but nothing happens! PS I have Mac OSX running...... Any suggestions gratefully received. PS 2 I am based in France.

Having used GE to look for Fossett and MTurk, I was wondering if there was a way to combine a view of flying slowly across the landscape (nape of the earth) (like a bird, condor, blimp) and looking down (70-90 degree angle) search for Fossett, hunting, exploring?

The flight mode seems to force a logical view based on the horizon and cruising along with what seems fine control of speed forward and back (though actual ground /air speed seems missing)
but the non-flightsim, allows the ground view but a harder to finely control the ground movement with a mouse, always hands on.

I have a playstation pad plugged into a usb adaptor and the controls work fine with the left and right analog sticks.

try that if you're having problems

i can't move my plane on the runway i've tried everything what do i do?

I easily opened the flight simulator in google earth and chose the easy plane, but when it's open i cant get the plane to move. i can move the throttle arrow up and down and the rudder ect.. but i cant get it moving. What am I doing wrong (btw: i'm using a macbook's keyboard, this may be the problem) Any suggestions PLEASE!!!

on my flight mulator i cant seem to see the building like on ur tutorial video
any help?
thanks

Quoted by ej_world above:"I love Flight Simulator! My altitude is very high and I could change the flight into day and night."
Night? There's night in Google Earth??? Certianly he does not mean "City Lights" as I tried to use the Simulator with that Layer activated yet it does not work. If there is a "night feature" I would like to know how to activate it. Thanks!

I too am experiencing trouble having GE function with my MS Sidewinder joystick. For what it's worth, it does work on my desktop, (XP Pro) but not on my laptop (XP Home). I have confirmed on the laptop that the joystick is recognised by the computer; I calibrated it, and all the functions work during calibration. So, what does this mean? I dunno!

Les

...it appears that the joystick function is either an intermittent function, or there is something causing GE to recognize the joystick or not based on something I've (we've) yet to identify.

My laptop just recognized it, then on the next run, did not. When starting, if the "joystick" box is checked in GE, then it means that GE knows there is a joystick attached to the computer, or that the device manager has at one point installed a joystick. But what determines whether the joystick functions or not is yet to be discovered by many of us.

None of which makes GE any less spectacular! I may never have to leave my house again; Wow!

Les

You can simulate the night mode by turning off the atmosphere shading (VIEW>ATMOSPHERE). All works fine for me with a CH Products Flightstick Pro but ... every time after a minute or so the programme crashes, freezes and I have to close it down and start again. Anyone had the same problem and found a solution?

For those that don't remember. The keyboard controls are the same as the old Microsoft DOS based Flight Sim 2 and 3. This is like a flash back to 1992, but with much better graphics.

I can´t move my plane on the runway,what I do?
Please help me!

i've been playing around with this and i seem to be having trouble

the start of the simulation is fine but when i hit about 6000 or turn too fast my computer crashes or freezes. what should i do

-ted

What's everyone's top speed with the F16? I'm currently flying over Kent in the UK at about 1130.

Does anybody know anymore commands for custom buttons for controllers? Iv moded a couple and moded the speed and all. also does anyone know how to change the default maximum altitude for staring in the air, i cant seem to find it anywhere. my top speed now for the f16 is like 17000 lol.

Did you know that you can take of and "land" on water with the SR22? fantastic:an hydroplane that you can stop on water by breaking. By the way,for those who still having joystic problems try to activate it in the tools,options,navigation. it worked for my logitech extr 3D.

I have one suggestion and one Question if I may.

Suggestion - Would it be possible to add the present Lat/Long to the HUD display of the Flight Simulator? So that the runway could be lined up on the Approach Glide Slope?

Question - I am designing with SketchUp an assist for the Approach Glide Slope. It is a copy of VASI (Visual Approach Slope Indecator).

If the airoplane is on the correct 3% approach slope, a red and white indecator will be seen at the beginning of the runway. If the approach is too high, two white indecators will be seen. If the appoach is too low, two red indecators will be seen. The indecators will be seen up to five miles.

My question is - As I am hoping to put this forward to the Warehouse, would it be legal to copy VASI?

Hope to hear from you in the near future.
Yours truly
Frank Sharlock

For those ho have the sim freeze after a short while, I had the same problem, and I solved it by reducing the memory cache size in Tools/options/cache.
I had 1000, took it down to 600, and all seems fine now.

I am using a Saitek X52, and have successfully remapped the keys to get the brakes on the trigger of the main stick.
By default the main hat switch is used by the instruction
P0 set(HAngle, 1.0, 0.0)
But this only uses the left and right part of the Hat switch to look right and left.
II have not found a way to use the vertical part of the main hat switch to look up and down.

By default the up and down are mapped on the other hat switch (upperleft on the stick). I
reprogrammed this one to look around (up down right left) without coming back to zero.

But I am still interested if someone has figured a way to add the vertical view on the main hat switch.
If anyone is interested I will post the content of the ini file.

I've worked out a cool way to figure out where you are when flying long distance/over featureless terrain. Simply read off the location co-ordinates in the bottom left of your flight sim window (point to the ground a little ahead of your flight path) then retype them into earth.google.com in a browser window - hey presto - an accurate reading of where the heck you are! You don't even need to enter the 'degrees' icon, simply type, for example 50 22' 34 18'. w00t!

If you get lost flying in GE, try Ctl-L. Voila, Lat/Long right on the ground.

I took off in a f16 at 220 mph. I quickly maximized thrust and pulled back hard. If you can take off earlier please tell me.

I think the most recent additions to the message board should be on the top.

I think I'll wait till you get it working!! My joystick doesn't work, and the aircraft turns left by itself at an ever increasing angle until it either crashes or stalls and crashes. The scene plays for a few seconds, then stops for s few seconds and so on.

In reference to adding an airport (see pasted message below)in case anyone tries to edit the .ini files in notepad I needed to use edit plus (http://www.editplus.com/download.html -free trial) or another script editor instead and then tell the editor to save it as a unix file. in edit plus this is an option under the documents toolbar heading. Otherwise, if saved in ANSI it is not read in correctly (probably due to how it is delimited). Not sure if other file types will work. also if it helps the path to the file is C:\Program Files\Google\Google Earth\res\flightsim at least if use the default location for GE as i did.

Original message: If you want to add you preferred airport to the selection list, add a line like this in the flightsim.ini file in section takeoff_locations:
'LFNM' 'Nice' '04R' 43.646877 7.202800 45.00
'LFMN' - 4-letter ICAO code (can be anything)
'Nice' - city name (can be anything)
'04R' - runway name (here: right runway in 40deg heading)
lat/lon: - easy to get if you put a placemark on the start position. Copy/paste lat/lon values from the placemark dialog box (set GE to decimal degrees in Tools/Options/3D View)
45.00 - runway heading (and aircraft orientation). Zoom on the runway and turn the image in GE until the runway is parallel to the side of the screen. Select 'Add Path', go to 'View' tab and select 'Snapshot'. Copy/paste the heading.

hello i have a mac i cant get anymore throttle and cannot take off.
how do i fix that ive tried using the page^ button.

Uhh, how do you make the plane take off on a Mac laptop?? No one seems to have the answer to this. Fn + the up arrow doesn't work.

Seems GE Flight Simulator supports only USB controllers/joysticks ?

I have a Parallel Port Joystick, and there seems to be no way to get it working, although Windows recognizes it correctly and GE also "knows" the Controller, but there is no reaction by any movement on the controller.

It's especially sad, as this is a "real" remote control for steering RC models, connected and configured as a "Virtual Joystick"

Guess what? it's great because i did alot of barrel rolls over the ocean then crashed. i wonder what the joystick is like?

Hello,
GE is the best thing going in virtual reality! I really enjoy exploring the Earth with all of that eye candy. The problem that I am having is that I have an old Gravis Blackhawk 4 button analog joystick and would really like to use it with GE without having to go out and purchase more peripherials. It is able to run other flight simulators but does not work with GE :( I do not want to have to dig through files and generate lines of code for this problem... is there an easy remidy for this?

Thank you very much for your advice.

the throttle is full...but my plane isn't moving?! Help?

Hi, F.S. appeared in my Google Earth Window. The F.S. works but when I have finished I cannot exit the F.S.
please help
Gerry

Whenever I put out the flaps, it says "FL PS" instead of "FLAPS". Whenever I go into a stall, it says "ST LL" instead of "STALL". It didn't always do this. Also, the button in the top right says "E it flight simulatior" instead of "Exit flight simulatior". With the fast plane, it won't tell me if the landing gear is out anymore. What do I do?

Hi,
isn´t there any cool developer on the world who could design an addon for GE-Flightsim to have a real aircraft panel and also some sound, like we have it in FS9 or in FSX by Micrsosoft?
Or alternatively, using the GE Flightsim as a scenery (permanent) in FS9 or FSX?
That would be great....dreaming...:-)
Cheers
Michael

I have been using GE Flight for a few months (broke my foot..spent hours flying). I have a Saitek AV8R joystick which worked great until today. For some reason the program won't recognize when I enable the joystick and I receive a message stating "google earth has stopped working". I tried to enable my controller in the options menu and get the same message. The program works fine without the joystick and the joystick works fine with MS Simulator. Any advice??
Thanks
Robert

It is absolutely amazing that no one at Google has fixed the problems with the controller ini. This product has such terrific potential but has existed for a long time now in a terrifically frustrating state.

When I use my Saitek AV8R and enter the flight simulator with joystick enabled, Google Earth crashes ("Google Earth has encountered a problem and needs to close.") Any ideas?

Thanks
Joe

My thanks to the developers of G/E Flight Simulator. It works perfectly! I am using the mouse as the stick. The simulator performs exactly as one would expect an aircraft to perform. Never piloting an F16, the SR22 flys beautifully. The FAA publishes a great book on the basics of how to fly a generic aircraft. Cirrus publishes an SR22 manual on line. follow the V-speeds for the best performance.

If only the planes could accelerate even while climbing or on level flight. But it's great anyhow. I managed to take a 1hr flight from Manila to HongKong with a perfect landing.