Any aircraft
The instruments follow the aircraft you fly: its airspeed arcs and V-speeds, its engine limits, a twin’s two engines, its fuel tanks, its outline on the map. Headingstar knows thirteen aircraft by name, and flies every other one as a generic aircraft of its kind.
How the Hub tells which aircraft it is
Section titled “How the Hub tells which aircraft it is”- A known aircraft. The Hub reads the simulator’s aircraft title and looks for a name in it: 172, 182, 152, 210, Archer or PA-28, SR22, DA40, DA62, Bonanza, Baron, Seneca, Vision or SF50, CJ4. The first match picks the profile. The known profiles, with their speeds and limits, are listed under Aircraft.
- Any other aircraft. The Hub asks the simulator what it is: its engine type, how many engines, whether it’s a helicopter. It then picks one of the generic profiles:
| The simulator says | Profile |
|---|---|
| a piston engine | Generic piston |
| two or more piston engines | Generic piston twin |
| a turboprop | Generic turboprop |
| a jet | Generic jet |
| a helicopter | Generic helicopter |
If the simulator doesn’t say, the Hub falls back to the Cessna 172. This works in MSFS and in X-Plane (in X-Plane 12, helicopters are recognized too).
A generic aircraft
Section titled “A generic aircraft”Headingstar assumes nothing it doesn’t know about the type:
- No engine limits: the gauges show the values without colored arcs or red lines.
- V-speeds only from the simulator’s own design speeds.
- No takeoff and landing distances, and no Smart Glide (it needs a glide ratio).
- Alerts only where the simulator’s data allows them; low fuel at 15 % of the tanks.
The engine pages follow the kind of engine:
- Turboprop: torque (TRQ) and ITT, then Ng, prop RPM, fuel flow, oil pressure and temperature.
- Jet: N1 and ITT, then N2, fuel flow, oil, volts.
- Helicopter: rotor and torque (a turbine), or rotor and engine RPM (a piston), then the rest.
- A second engine is shown beside the first when the simulator reports two.
On the map, in weight and balance and on the aircraft card, a generic aircraft has its own outline: a single or twin turboprop, an airliner for a jet, a helicopter with its rotor.
Your aircraft in Settings
Section titled “Your aircraft in Settings”Settings → Aircraft & Pro → Aircraft shows the aircraft the instruments are set up for, with its registration. Touch it for its card: for a known aircraft its blueprint, speeds and engine limits; for a generic one, what it’s flown as.
Use as…
Section titled “Use as…”The Hub’s choice can be changed on each device. Under the aircraft, touch Use as… and pick:
- Automatic: as the Hub chose;
- any of the thirteen known aircraft;
- a generic profile (No limits or speeds assumed).
The instruments, limits, speeds, alerts, engine pages and outline then follow that profile. The choice is kept on this device, for this aircraft (by its title in the simulator): fly a turboprop the Hub doesn’t know as a generic turboprop, or a 172 variant with an unusual title as the 172.
Weight and balance for any aircraft
Section titled “Weight and balance for any aircraft”The FlightBook’s W&B page takes the stations from the simulator, under their own names, with the tanks, the empty weight and the maximum weight. For an aircraft with more than eight stations (thirteen at most), a helicopter or an airliner, they’re a list: touch one to set its weight. The center of gravity is drawn on the handbook’s envelope for a known aircraft, and on the simulator’s own limits for any other. See The FlightBook.