PanelSight 1.3.5: The first helicopters, and a new layout editor

PanelSight 1.3.5 supports its first helicopters, the Airbus H125 and the Bell 407. The layout editor is redesigned: you can now select several instruments at once, then line them up, give them the same size and space them evenly. The Fenix A320 gets its transponder panel and AUTO BRK keys.

Our first helicopters

Before, PanelSight gave helicopters a basic panel. Now it recognizes the H125 and the Bell 407 and gives each a panel built from its own cockpit:

• Airbus H125: the VEMD engine display and the GTN 650, copied from the sim; the rotor and turbine speed indicator, airspeed, attitude, altimeter, radar altimeter, HSI, vertical speed and turn indicator, drawn on the H125's own dial faces; and the GTR 225 radio.
• Bell 407: the round LCD engine gauges and the clock; the airspeed, rotor and turbine tachometer, attitude, HSI, altimeter, vertical speed and turn indicator; and the GNS 530, the GNS 430 and the GTX 330 transponder.

Both helicopters come with every edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Not there yet on either: the caution panel.

A redesigned layout editor

Open it from Settings, on the Screens tab, with Custom layouts…. To select several instruments, hold Ctrl or Shift and click them, or drag a box around them. Then you can:

• line up their edges or their centers;
• give them the same width or the same height;
• space them evenly, side to side or top to bottom;
• bring them in front of the other instruments, or send them behind.

You can also resize an instrument from any of its edges, and it snaps to the gaps between the other instruments. To remove an instrument, drag it off the layout. An instrument you made very small can still be moved and made bigger again.

Airbus airliners

• Fenix A320: its transponder panel. The captain's PFD and ND no longer go missing when some flights load, and after you restart a flight, every screen shows its own picture again.
• Fenix A320 and iniBuilds A320neo: the AUTO BRK keys with their lights, and the weather radar panel, with the switch that clears PRED W/S OFF.
• On every Airbus, PanelSight finds the screens more reliably when a flight loads, and the lettering on the panels is closer to the real cockpit's.

Other changes

• Pilatus PC-12 and PC-24: the softkeys down each side of the screens, and the controller beside each PFD. The softkeys keep working when you swap the two MFDs.
• Knob popups no longer close when the mouse moves a little outside them.
• Instrument Switcher: on a short screen, every tab now fits. Before, the last ones were cut off at the bottom.
• The GTN 650 and the King Air's G3X screens now have exactly the shape of the real screens. Before, they were slightly off.
• An add-on aircraft with the same name as one PanelSight supports still gets that panel. Settings now says we haven't confirmed the panel for it, and offers Help us support this aircraft…
• Aircraft details: the first time you fly an aircraft, or a version of one, that we haven't seen before, PanelSight sends us a short record of its screens and controls, so we can support it. To turn this off, open Settings, go to the About tab and clear Send aircraft details. The privacy notice lists what the record holds.

Who this is for

• If you fly helicopters, the H125 and the Bell 407 now have their own panels.
• If you make your own layouts, the editor now lines up, sizes and spaces instruments for you.
• If you fly the Fenix A320, it now has its transponder panel and AUTO BRK keys, and its screens appear more reliably.
• If you fly the PC-12 or the PC-24, you can now use the softkeys beside its screens.

How to update

PanelSight checks for new versions by itself. When one is out, a notice appears next to the PanelSight icon in the Windows taskbar. Click the notice, then click Update now in Settings. PanelSight downloads the update, installs it and starts again on its own. You can also run the installer from the download page again.

Updating always installs the newest version, which includes everything in this release.

For every change in 1.3.5, see the changelog.