What is FSFlightMax?
You are now reading about the only reproduction of the Avidyne FlightMax 850 avionics device made for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 and 2000. FSFlightMax is a sophisticated instrument containing moving map, weather radar, TCAS traffic, terrain information, lightning tracker and much more. It is an integrated device containing all the above functionality in one unit. FSFlightMax is menu driven (just like the real one) and contains more than 30 different screens, menus and submenus. It comes complete with the genuine manuals and user guides from Avidyne Corporation, the manufacturers of the real FlightMax 850.
Installation
Run the setup.exe program located in this archive and follow the screen prompts. When installation has completed, you will have a "FSFlightMax" group in your start menu. It it recommended you read the User Guide before using the software.
Registration
FSFlightMax is shareware. Information and online ordering at
http://www.simsystems.com.au/fsflightmax
The limitiation of the shareware version is that FSFlightMax will stop updating after 20 minutes. You can of course run it for as many 20 minute periods as you wish.
User Guides
The user guides that ship with FSFlightMax are in PDF format. If you don't have a PDF viewer (most people do), then you should download the free Acrobat PDF viewer from the web.
FSUIPC.DLL
FSFlightMax relies on the FSUIPC.DLL utility to function correctly. This utility was written by Mr. Peter Dowson and has kindly been made available for the flight simulation community at no cost. If you have never used FSUIPC.DLL, please visit
http://www.schiratti.com
and follow the links to the Peter Dowson page. The FSFlightMax setup.exe program will take care of the installation of FSUIPC.DLL for you, but it is recommended you check the above link for newer versions and to gain a better understanding of what the DLL is and what it is used for.
We would like to pass on our sincere thanks to Peter Dowson for his generosity. Without his efforts, applications such as FSFlightMax and other quality Flight Simulator addons would simply not be possible.
We would also like to thank Avidyne Corporation, the manufacturers of the real FlightMax 850. They have generously given permission to use their manuals with our software which makes FSFlightMax even more realistic.
KNOWN ISSUES
There are three issues (bug is such an ugly word) that we are aware of with this release of FSFlightMax. They have been reported by the beta team but are not easily reproduced nor will they affect most systems.
1. Error message in Flight Simulator when starting FSFlightMax with the default Caravan or 737 aircraft. It has been reported that if FSFlightMax is first displayed when the current aircraft is either the default Caravan or 737, then FS may produce an error message a short time later. If you experience this error, the workaround is simply to load one of the other default aircraft (say the Cessna 182), display FSFlightMax for the first time, then load the aircraft you require. Most won't experience this error, we believe it is a video card/driver combination issue. As soon as we find a permanent fix for this we will provide an update immediately.
2. Some video card/driver combinations may cause very slight frame rate degredation. Although the impact is very small, we don't think any loss in framerate is acceptable. This will not affect most systems. As soon as we find a permanent fix for this we will provide an update immediately.
3. When using FSFlightMax with no other instruments visible (panels, aircraft, views etc) some frame jerkiness may occur. Having any instrument or view visible will prevent this (small compass window, main panel, overhead panel etc). This seems to be Windows XP and video driver related. Again, as soon as we find a permanent solution for this we will provide an update immediately.
WHAT IS COMING
This is version 1.0 of FSFlightMax. We still have a lot of exciting things planned for FSFlightMax. A decision had to made where to draw the line for the features vs time equation. We will progressively be adding the planned features as soon as they are complete and fully tested. To give you some idea, here are some of the major features to be added:
1. FSMeteo Support
2. Full Network Support (TCP/IP, IPX, WideFS, Modem-Modem, Direct Cable)
3. Fly II Digital Charts Support
4. Squawkbox Support
We expect the first update to be two to three weeks after initial release and contain most (if not all) of the updates mentioned above.
