No 3rd party plugins are required for the G5 version - we custom-programmed our own G5 simulation with assistance from a Certified Flight Instructor who specializes in transitioning pilots from analog-gauge panels to glass-panel flying.For those who prefer flying with an Aspen EFD1000 glass panel, your purchase includes our E1000 version featuring our custom Aspen EFD1000 simulation. We believe our G5 simulation is the best available for X-Plane. In these screenshots the CG position is shown in meters and the airplane weight in kg but in the REP’s settings menu you can switch to inches and lbs if you US units of measure are more familiar to you.We will soon release version 6 of our Piper Arrow III featuring our custom-built Garmin G5 and Aspen E1000 simulations (no add-on plugins needed)!!Ĭompletely rebuilt from the ground up, the new Arrow III has modern laser-cut instrument panels with our own G5 PFD/HSI combination built by vFlyteAir. You will actually see the plane changing its pitch when the center of gravity position is set. When you are fine with the payload of your airplane, just press the “Apply” button and REP will set the X-Plane payload and center of gravity accordingly to your settings. If your plane is too heavy or the CG is outside its limits, you will get a red cross outside the envelope, as shown below. In that plot, you get the airplane weight on the Y axis and the CG position on the X axis.Īs long as the small green cross is inside the area delimited by the blue line (that’s the CG envelope!) you are good to go. REP then takes care of everything and shows you the CG envelope plot you can see in the right pane of the screenshot. In the window shown above you can set the passengers weight and the fuel load. So here is where REP takes action providing you a new tool to calculate and apply the load balance of your airplane into X-Plane.Īll you have to do is go in the REP menu and choose “Weight & Balance”. This is far from reality, where you can slightly move the CG only by moving the load inside the plane. Also, you can manually adjust the CG at the position you prefere by going into the “Weight and Fuel” menu.
X-Plane doesn’t come with a tool that lets you easily do the calculations described above.
If you want to get more information about this, I think that this video shows a lot on how to calculate the load balance of an airplane. If the TOW is below the MTOW and the CG is inside its limits (defined in the plane’s operator handbook, or POH), you are good to go. You will get a number that is the distance of the center of gravity from the reference point of the aircraft. Now all you have to do is sum all the moments of force and divide the result by the TOW. Then, knowing how far each load station (such the front seats) is from a reference point (defined by the airplane manufacturer), you calculate its moment of force. To do that you have to make some calculations to see if the Takeoff Weight (TOW) of your airplane is below the Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW) and that the center of gravity (CG) is inside its limits.īasically, you sum the airplane’s empty weight (EW), the passengers and baggages weight (Payload) and the fuel weight to get the total weight of the plane on takeoff (Takeoff Weight).
When you are going to fly a real airplane, even before doing your ground checks you have to make sure that at the current load your plane can safely fly into the sky. Making things more real lets you have more fun but also lets you learn something about real aviation.įor instance, the first thing you want to learn when you take your step from flight simming to real flying is safety. The Reality Expansion Pack project is all about taking the real things and putting them into X-Plane as much as possible.