Popular SimVars in Microsoft Flight Simulator
A list of the most desirable SimVars to display and control from your simpit, IMNSHO of course. The list arose out of a discussion I had with the programmer of that incredible app, Sim-Dashboard.
Updated 12th Aug 2023
Sim DashboardThe most important displays in a cockpit (IMO)
| SimVar | Already implemented in Sim Dashboard? |
|---|---|
| Gear | YES |
| Parking Brake | YES |
| Taxi Lights | YES |
| Landing Lights | YES |
| External Lights | YES |
| Flaps | Rotary from UP to FULL | Rotary | - |
| Spoiler (Air Brakes) | IN/OUT | On/off status | - |
| Reverse Thrust | On/off status | - |
| Angle of Attack and G Force | separate or combined, rotary | - | Total Fuel remaining in lbs / gallons | - |
Videos showing Sim Dashboard in flight
SimVar: FLAPS HANDLE PERCENT
Flaps: Position 0-100% Rotary dial
Flaps: ON/OFF
Defn: Percent flap handle extended. (This definition is from MS docs. It should read "Percent flap surfaces extended"... I think
Position
A rotary dial similar to the generic one shown below. Only 1 needle is necessary.
A typical flaps position indicator.
The range of movement on this dial from 12 0'clock to 8 o'clock is quite typical.
I suggest labelling:
- 12 o'clock position (0%) as UP
- 8 o'clock position (100%) as FULL
By operating the flaps control the pilot will immediately see how many stages of flaps are available in any particular aircraft. It is typically 2 or 3 stages.
SimVar: SPOILERS HANDLE POSITION
Airbrake / Spoiler ON/OFF
In many a/c they are called airbrake or speed-brake. Spoiler is the airliner term, I think they apply it to all the a/c in MSFS.
Units: Percent Over 100 or Position (16K = down, 0 = up)
Military airbrakes usually extend a surface into the airstream and typically below the fuselage. In fly-by-wire jets such as F/A-18, F-35, Su-57 etc the control surfaces are reconfigured by the computer to create drag.
It is critical for the pilot to know the status of the airbrake.
Airbrake on the MiG-29 extends both above and below the fuselage.
SimVar: GENERAL ENG REVERSE THRUST ENGAGED
This will return 1 (TRUE) if the reverse thruster is engaged, or 0 (FALSE) otherwise.' Boolean
SimVar: ANGLE OF ATTACK INDICATOR or INCIDENCE ALPHA
Dial | vertical scale | numeric
Unit: Radians
Up to 30 degrees would be good, as these higher incidences are used by aerobatic and fighter aircraft.
"AOA is the angle between the chord line of the wing (solid line) and the relative wind (dashed line)."
From AOPA
From AOPA
Typical generic AOA as is often retro-fitted to older light aircaft.
Combined scale and numeric
Rotary AOA indicator from the Icon A5.
Soviet style combined AOA and G meter as used across the entire fleet.
SimVar: CANOPY OPEN
Canopy OPEN/CLOSED
Descr: Percent primary door/exit open.
Percent Over 100
SimVar: TAILHOOK HANDLE
Tailhook YES/NO
Boolean
SimVar: AILERON TRIM | AILERON TRIM PCT
Aileron Trim position, Angle deflection. | The trim position of the ailerons. Zero is fully retracted.
Vertical scale from full up to neutral to full down.
On/off - from AILERON TRIM PCT = 0
From the SDK:
Percent elevator trim (for indication).
Position (-16K to 0) -16K = full down
Elevator trim mechanism. Adjusts the pitch.
Typical elevator trim indicator
Typical elevator trim indicator
Typical elevator trim indicator
SimVar: ELEVATOR TRIM NEUTRAL ON/OFF
Elevator Trim neutral ON/OFF
Radians
... confusing to me. I thought it would be boolean. The purpose of this is to light an indicator when elevator trim is at the neutral position
SimVar: RUDDER TRIM | RUDDER TRIM PCT ?
Angle deflection | The trim position of the rudder. Zero is no trim.
Horizontal scale Left | Centre | Right
On/off - from RUDDER TRIM PCT = 0
SimVar: ANTISKID BRAKES ACTIVE
Anti-Skid ON/OFF
True if antiskid brakes active.
Navigation & Autopilot
SimVar: AUTOPILOT AIRSPEED HOLD
Autopilot Airspeed hold ON/OFF
returns whether airspeed hold is active (1, TRUE) or not (0, FALSE).
Boolean
SimVar: AUTOPILOT ALT RADIO MODE
Autopilot Radio Altitude Mode ON/OFF
If enabled the Autopilot will use the Radio Altitude rather than the Indicated Altitude.
SimVar: AUTOPILOT ALTITUDE LOCK
Autopilot ALTITUDE LOCK ON/OFF
SimVar: AUTOPILOT APPROACH HOLD
Returns whether approach mode is active (1, TRUE) or not (0, FALSE).
Boolean
SimVar: AUTOPILOT ATTITUDE HOLD
Attitude hold active
Boolean
SimVar: AUTOPILOT HEADING LOCK
Returns whether the autopilot heading lock is enabled (1, TRUE) or not (0, FALSE).
Boolean
SimVar: AUTOPILOT MACH HOLD
Mach hold active
Boolean
SimVar: AUTOPILOT WING LEVELER
Wing leveler active
Boolean
SimVar: AUTOPILOT YAW DAMPER
Yaw damper active
Boolean
HSI
The HSI is a complex, combined instrument, so please regard that as the lower priority.
The Sim Dashboard HSI is only a couple of features short of being a fully featured HSI
Full featured HSI
Extra features
Probably a better diagram
MS SDK: HSI SimVars
Physics
SimVar: AIRSPEED MACH
Current mach.
Mach 1 = the speed of sound.
Rotary dial
Upper limit adjustable in the Sim Dashboard editor from mach 1.2 to mach 10
MSFS includes the "Darkstar" as seen in 'Top Gun:Maverick'. It is specced at 5,300 kts in the sim, and Mach 10 in the movie... so ...
Planes like the real life SR-71 flew at Mach 3 +. Most fighter jets will go Mach 1.2 to Mach 2.5.
SimVar: VERTICAL SPEED
Feet (ft) per second
SD currently has Vertical Speed Indicators in community designs, where I sourced this.
Please create a widget similar in style to your existing rotary Altimeter and rotary IAS.
It does not have to be customisable. The values shown here are standard across all aircraft.
SimVar: G FORCE
G FORCE = Current g force
MAX G FORCE = Maximum G force attained
MIN G FORCE = Minimum G force attained
Rotary showing: current, max, min and with a reset button
Max and Min stay at their maximum/minimum reading until the reset button is pushed
A widget similar in style to your existing rotary Altimeter and rotary Inicated Airspeed would be appropriate.
It does not have to be customisable. The values shown here are standard across all aircraft.
SimVar: TOTAL WEIGHT
Total weight of the aircraft
Pounds
Numeric
Used by the pilot to calculate landing speed
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EICAS = Combined Engine | Fuel | Hydraulics display
Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System (EICAS) is defined as is an aircraft system for displaying engine parameters and alerting crew to system configuration or faults.
They are replacing analogue gauges in all types of aircraft.
The basic elements for assembling custom EICAS are already present in Sim Dashboard, the end user can assemble what is appropriate for their aircraft of choice.
I would like to assemble versions for:
- Prop Single engine
- Prop Twin engine
- Jet Single engine
- Jet Twin Engine
This would cover 90% of the use case scenarios.
What is lacking at the moment are:
- Numeric readouts for some of the SimVar
- Rotary readouts for some of the SimVar
Engine
"Many of the SimVars listed require an engine index. This is a value between 1 and 4". 1 = Engine 1, 2 = Engine 2, 3 = Engine 3, 4 = Engine 4
SimVar: ENG N1 RPM:index
Shows the indexed engine N1 rpm. RPM (0 to 16384 = 0 to 100%)
Existing SD widget: RPM: Customisable
Existing SD widget: RPM: Horizontal Bars
Please add Percentage as an option.
Range 0 - 110 %
This would make the instrument usable on any aircraft without having to enter specific RPM values for each type.
Jets usually refer to engine RPM as a percentage, props usually as an absolute number.
Engine RPM 1 and Engine RPM 2 are often combined into one dial. The scale is in percentage. The range 100-110% indicates afterburner.
SimVar: ENG EXHAUST GAS TEMPERATURE:index
Existing SD widget: Engine | Exhaust Gas Temperature
Please add rotary and numeric readouts, and for engines 1 to 4.
These readouts are often combined into one instrument per engine, e.g. In this Boeing EICAS display, 3rd row down.
SimVar: ENG FUEL FLOW PPH:index
Fuel flow in pounds per hour for the indexed engine
Rotary and numeric, as above
SimVar: ENG OIL PRESSURE:index
Rotary and numeric, as above
SimVar: ENG OIL QUANTITY:index
Rotary and numeric, as above
SimVar: ENG OIL TEMPERATURE:index
Rotary and numeric, as above
SimVar: MAX EGT
The maximum EGT, as set using the egt_peak_temperature parameter in the engine.cfg file.
Displayed as a red line on the rotary scale, and as flashing state for the numeric readout.
Rankine (?)
SimVar: MAX OIL TEMPERATURE
The maximum oil temperature, as set using the parameter oil_temp_heating_constant in the engine.cfg file.
Displayed as a red line on the rotary scale, and as flashing state for the numeric readout.
Rankine (?)
SimVar: TURB ENG AFTERBURNER:index
Afterburner state for the indexed engine, 1-4
Boolean
Fuel
SimVar: FUEL TOTAL QUANTITY
Total fuel quantity of the aircraft for all tanks.
Gallons
Should be lbs too... !
SimVar: FUEL TOTAL QUANTITY WEIGHT
Current total fuel weight for all tanks of the aircraft
Pounds
SimVar: FUEL TANK ... QUANTITY
Gallons
Display as a numeric value
FUEL TANK CENTER QUANTITY
FUEL TANK CENTER2 QUANTITY
FUEL TANK CENTER3 QUANTITY
FUEL TANK EXTERNAL1 QUANTITY
FUEL TANK EXTERNAL2 QUANTITY
FUEL TANK LEFT AUX QUANTITY
FUEL TANK LEFT MAIN QUANTITY
FUEL TANK LEFT TIP QUANTITY
FUEL TANK RIGHT AUX QUANTITY
FUEL TANK RIGHT MAIN QUANTITY
FUEL TANK RIGHT TIP QUANTITY
Use examples
I can build and share these instruments as the SimVars become available in Sim Dashboard
Soviet style control surface instrument combines Airbrakes/Spoiler, Flaps, Gear
External References
Sim Dashboard in the Flight Sim Museum
W.I.P. About 80 videos in the playlist ATM. There are about 250, and I will add the rest as I conduct maintenance.
Aug 2023
Digital superceding Analogue
- Most aircraft now use electronic displays rather than analogue gauges. Sim Dashboard already has the tools in place to take advantage of this.
- Average user of Microsoft Flight Sim has between 20 and 80 aircraft in the hangar, therefore need for generic solutions becomes apparent. The premium version now has 37 a/c types included.
There are 6 ways these digital panels display data:
- Text strings (mainly for WAYPOINT ID etc)
- Numeric value
- Rotary scale
- Vertical Scale
- Horizontal Scale
- On/Off status indicated by change of colour
If the Sim Dashboard user has the choice of applying any of the SimVars to any of the 5 scales, then you have the complete toolkit!
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