Leaderboard

Just finishing up the terminals - North, Smith and the lovely parking garage...

Hi All, Today we began testing a new beta of Real Weather Connector which offers up some more refined clouds and colorations. These are the first tests in such a scenario when utilizing Real Weather Connector. The screenshots are taken at a range of altitudes during climb out from an area in California. Final screenshots are take at FL300.

Folks, while waiting, I thought it would be nice to have a thread with some quiz questions regarding the 737 where you won't typically find the answer in the FCOM. Sitting in the cockpit with everything set up, how would you know if the spoilers extend when rotating the control wheel? Remember, the EFIS 737 doesn't have flight control displays. And no peaking outside the window!Assuming you have all static ports blocked (no altimeter). You took off, flew the numbers according to QRH and at some point levelled off. What ways can you think of to get an estimate of your altitude (MSL or AGL)? (Aircraft was just painted and someone did a really bad job during the preflight :-) )The F/O's course selector is not responding to changes. What could this indicate?If the airplane symbol appears in the lower right corner of the EHSI - what does this indicate?The CRT wears out and suddenly there is a color loss in the EADI. What implications could this have on landing in bad weather?You are having a very bad day (obviously!) and now all 4 CRT's are black/white (complete loss of color). Any implications?Let's start with that :-) Regards YD

To be clear, it reads metar info from external plugins *or* from X-Plane's built-in real weather system - you don't need an external weather plugin to benefit from Real Weather Connector. It will make SkyMaxx Pro's cloud formations much more realistic and immersive with or without one. Things like wind and turbulence are a function of the weather engine. Real Weather Connector's purpose is to tell SkyMaxx Pro about detailed cloud formations that surround you, so it can visually simulate them. Due to differences in how we might interpolate METAR information vs. how X-Plane or external weather engines might do it, I can't promise things like turbulence will correlate perfectly to our cloud placement. But it should be reasonably close, which has always been the case. The new "solid stratiform" and "broken stratiform" effects in SkyMaxx Pro 3 will be used if selected in the configuration, and if the entire surrounding area is reporting overcast conditions. RWC will add towering cumulus and also cumulonimbus clouds to the scene when reported. You don't need extended DSF on for them; clouds will be visible up to the cloud draw distance selected or up to the visibility distance being simulated, whichever is smaller. Screenshots below

Hey there, Honestly, with improvements we've been doing to SkyMaxx Pro 3 as a whole, I'm getting more FPS today with the new build and this new Real Weather Connector than I was with SkyMaxx Pro v3. We'll have more info about SkyMaxx Pro v3.1 later (which will of course be free for existing SMP3 users).

As much as I really, really, really want to talk about SkyMaxx Pro 3.1's new features - we haven't announced those yet! Stay tuned.

Dang, this is serious stuff. Here is my guess, without looking at the AMM and being corrupted by flying Airbuses for 4 years : Sitting in the cockpit with everything set up, how would you know if the spoilers extend when rotating the control wheel? Remember, the EFIS 737 doesn't have flight control displays. And no peaking outside the window!Hydraulic Quantity indication decreasing (as fluid gets caught in the extended cylinders) Assuming you have all static ports blocked (no altimeter). You took off, flew the numbers according to QRH and at some point levelled off. What ways can you think of to get an estimate of your altitude (MSL or AGL)? (Aircraft was just painted and someone did a really bad job during the preflight :-) )Either get into the ACMS and do an Alpha lookup of geometric GPS altitude (MSL). This would also work with a handheld GPS like your mobile phone, if you have an APP for that. You could use your weather radar with a tilt of 0. The beginning of the "ground return" in NM divided by 3.3 is approximately your altitude AGL in thousands of feet. Another way is to get a radar station with altitude readout (military) to scan you, or to have a friendly plane come up and fly alongside ;-) The last possibility is to depressurize the airplane and use cabin altitude indication. The F/O's course selector is not responding to changes. What could this indicate?Some mechanical malfunction of the transducer, or the MCP locked up (usually goes along with altitude going to 50.000 and the altitude alert blaring...). It could also be an electrical failure of a certain bus (no idea off the top of my head which one) If the airplane symbol appears in the lower right corner of the EHSI - what does this indicate?Never seen that conciously or heard of it. The CRT wears out and suddenly there is a color loss in the EADI. What implications could this have on landing in bad weather?The colour is required for autoland, because the FMA is written in "green" and if that colour fails, you could not verify the autopilot status during a low-vis approach. You are having a very bad day (obviously!) and now all 4 CRT's are black/white (complete loss of color). Any implications?This is mostly due to lack of airflow (equipment cooling). The CRT´s might shut down at a later stage, depending on how the internal temperature develops. Try to re-instate airflow by going to an alternate ventilation system. Let's start with that :-) Regards YD

The current state of the "business" will guarantee you something opposite of job. Airlines are very hesitant to hire someone will low hours count, so you need to get those. How? Now, this is the fun part. You might fly charter flights... for free. Literally, the current state of the market allows small airlines or charters to hire pilots for free, offering them an opportunity to gain experience. Also, the pay is outrageously bad for new hires. It isn't unheard of active, inexperienced airline pilots to live on food stamps. Work long hours and be paid for less than they actually did. And that is if you actually find a job. Another pretty common thing is licensed pilots being forced to work as FA, on ramps and so on, becuse they simply don't get the call back. The most blooming aviation area is China, which requires crazy amount of pilots. But... experienced pilots. Probably not going to get a job there is you have less than 3,000 hours on the type you apply for. Now, I assume you have no license whatsoever, Getting from Zero to ATP(L) (which will be frozen regardless, as you need 1,000 as PIC for it to be valid iirc) takes in express mode around 1,5-2 yeras. So you would need to take that into the account. Now, as I think it's enough of the negative nancy, if you have patience, have the financial stability, and you know that is a huge risk... go for it. The legal retirement age for pilots is 65 years old (60 for some airlines), with possibility of it being 67 in the future. So, given everything would go good for you, you would still have plenty of time to surf the clouds. By the time you get your license, the situation on the market can be totally different anyway, as the main reason it is so unwelcoming is the economic crysis we had few years back.

Simple: It won't.

You obviously did. Didn´t watch the videos closely enough! Bad Dr. Nerdrage! Start at 02:00 mins, if you are the impatient type Here is my stance on setting the CG and Weight: When we initially conceived this aircraft, we had the serious simulation user in mind. The guy who wants to experience what the real pilot experiences. This explains why we handle the CG and weight stuff the way we do. Let me tell you what part the pilot has in determining and setting weight and CG. The pilot gets an estimated zero-fuel-weight on his electronic flight plan. Together with his First Officer he reviews all flight parameters, and if he works for a decent airline that care for the life of their passengers, and not only their money, he gets to determine how much fuel (in excess of the legally required minimum) he takes. Obviously he can´t overload the aircraft, and sometimes you have to make a call between taking more fuel and leaving payload behind. Once the loading is completed (and no, the Captain doesn´t tell every passenger where he needs to sit), he gets a printout of the electronic load-sheet. A bunch of numbers, along with the actual Zero Fuel weight, and the CG. He punches those into the FMS and thats it. No clicking on seats. No sliding bars to fill cargo holds. No neat little represenation of load and trim envelope, moving CG´s or stuff like that. Now we know that you guys dig that stuff, though, and we might get to it later, for now this first release is favouring virtual pilots, not the virtual loadmasters. Jan

Found a few issues. Steps have been taken to get it right. Testing has started and is looking good, but I want to test it further to make sure it's working correctly under all conditions. Incidentally, the link you provided leads to an article not found error.

I see atmospheric scattering mentioned. For me, Outerra nails it far more than X-Plane does out of the box. I'll gladly pay for a plane, but not for clouds or atmospheres or "more realistic dusk and dawns" textures and filters. To me, Outerra looks more organic. While X-Plane obviously has the upper hand in simulation as per now.

I didnt bother to ready the entire thread, so I humble ask How would this work for all of us that choose not to use SkyMax Pro?

Where can I download the 787? And you need a freakin site!