The Howard 500 Panel

 


                                 For the MS FS2004 Howard 500

                                          By Milton Shupe, Scott Thomas, and Joáo Paz

                             (With the invaluable help of Nick Pike on the xml gauge programming!)

 

   The Howard 500 is a complex Twin radial aircraft that in the real world is a two pilot aircraft. We have

attempted to recreate all the functions of the Real, N500HP, Howard 500 panel, that Flight Simulator 2004

will allow, and yet, still make it flyable with just one pilot! We recommend that you read over all the Documents

included in the package, and familiarize yourself with all the Panel Documents and jpegs.

 

 The main instrument panel (pilots panel)

 

Some notes on some of the instruments and their functions

 

Main Panel Instruments

 

·      Airspeed. Reads Indicated Knots

·      VSI: Default VSI is set at 1500 FPM

·      RMI: Directional Indicator for Nav 2 and ADF (ADF not present on REAL WORLD N500HP)

·      Radar Altimeter: Height above the Earth. Decision Height can be adjusted, and there is a DH                                                     

            warning on the gauge as well as above the Altimeter

·      Brake Press Gauge: Only indicates Parking Brake “applied”

·      DME: Reads Nav 1 or 2 DME only. Switchable with sliver knob.

·      BMEP: Brake Mean Effective Pressure. True measurement of the engine power output. Mixture    

     is set by peaking the BMEP reading. Best econo   power can be achieved by leaning to 2-10 drop in      pressure reading.

·      ADI Pressure: Anti Detonation Injection system pressure. A dummy gauge that just indicates the ADI is on

·     Fuel Gauge: This gauge just shows total main gallons on upper scales and total Auxiliary Gallons on the   lower scales. The copilot’s panel has the full Fuel Gauge set.

·      Carb Air: Dummy gauge

·      Cabin Differential Pressure: Shows cabin attitude at a given aircraft altitude. Cabin pressure is not adjustable in the Sim

·      Gear and Flap Position Indicator: Shows gear position and flap position, 0*, 14* and 35*

·      Interior Light Switch is a panel spot in the 2D panel. It is a cabin light in the VC Only, and may also be used to brighten the Day VC panel lighting.

 

Main Panel Details

 

Glare Shield Warning Panel

 

 

GPS

 

 

Lower panel

 

 

 

 

Copilot’s Panel

 

 

 

Some notes on some of the instruments and their functions

 

Copilot’s panel Instruments

 

·      Oil Cooler Doors: Responds to Cowl Flaps position

·      Nav Lights: Switch up puts lights in steady state. There is no flashing state.

           This switch will cause the “L” Key light function to operate abnormally

·      Pitot Heat Amp Gauges: Will indicate pitot is on or off

 

Con’t next page

           

 

 

Copilot’s Panel con’t

·      Fuel gauges: The Howard fuel system consists of Left and Right Main Wing Tanks, Left and Right Auxiliary “Rear” tanks, and Left and Right Wing tip “Forward” Tanks. These are all selectable thru the FUEL_MAG Popup.

·      Shadin Gauge: Fuel computer, with zoom function. The gauge shows left and right engine fuel flows and has selectable functions of Gals per nm, Gals to Destination, Gals Reserve, And Time endurance, as well as Total Gals remaining, and Total Gals used. You can also “refuel “ the aircraft by clicking the “ADD” switch

 

A note on the Copilot panel view. You may notice that the view from the copilot’s panel is the same as the main panel, except higher. I haven’t yet, as of this writing, figured out how to change that!

                      

 

Popup Panel Details

Be aware that selecting these in the Copilots panel may cause them to appear “under” the Copilots panel.

Most are not selectable there thru the use of a different GPS in the Copilots panel

 

Fuel-Magneto Popup

 

 

 

ECU Popup

 

 

Some notes on some of the instruments and their functions

 

·      The Supercharger levers are inoperative at this time

·      The ADI switch and Indicators are dummies.

·      The small ECU visible on the main panel, “swaps” with the Large ECU when selected via the icon on the GPS

·      The Throttle, Prop, and Mixture levers may be selected individually or in pairs. The click spot for moving both of any of these levers is located between each pair

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left Console

 

 

 

Note the Color-coding on the switches on both the Console Panel Popups.

Most of the switches on the consoles are dummies that only light a light. These functions are just not available in FS…yet!

 

 

 

Right Console

 

 

General Notes

 

·      There are also a GPS popup, in full size, and the default Radio Stack Popup.

·      There is a “6 pack” zoom function available for the Main Panel only.

·      There is a nice panel light, switched with the small switch on the Warn Panel. This does not illuminate the instruments

·      The start system requires both battery switches be on to function.  It is recommended that the Right engine be started first as the pilot cannot really hear the right engine too well once the left engine is started!

 

 

 

 

 

                          The Howard 500 VC panel                

 

 The Howard VC Panel contains all the gauge functions as the 2D Panel. There are only a couple of exceptions.

 

 

 

VC Panel Notes:

·      Interior Light Switch is a panel spot in the 2D panel. It is a cabin light in the VC Only, and may also be used to brighten the Day VC panel lighting.

·      The levers and knobs on the pedestal are clickable, and move with their associated function

·      The radios cannot be tuned on the VC console. They must be tuned on the Radio popup. However,

The frequencies can be swapped, and the transponder can be tuned here (see below)

 

 

·      All the switches on the Left and Right Knee consoles also work the same as the 2D panel