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Hello All, This will serve as a formal forum announcement that we have released the version 1.1.0 update for the CL650. All customers who have purchased the CL650 up till now have been sent an e-mail by X-Aviation with complete instructions on how to obtain your update. We have made this a very simple process! For those that purchase the CL650 from today forward, your purchased download will already be updated to version 1.1.0 for you. IMPORTANT! Some customers have experienced performance issues where FPS in sim got very low or unflyable. If this has happened to you, please read the following on how to handle the situation: NOTE: This update brings the simulation of gear pins and probe covers. Be sure to conduct a proper pre-flight check of the aircraft to avoid issues with retracting the gear or air data. For more information, please watch the following videos: https://hotstart.net/cl650/pins.html https://hotstart.net/cl650/covers.html https://hotstart.net/cl650/chocks.html What if I didn't get the update e-mail? If you did not receive your update e-mail don't fret! X-Aviation has updated our system to allow all customers to update with ease, regardless of whether you received an e-mail for the update! Here's what to do: 1. Login to your X-Aviation account here: https://www.x-aviation.com/catalog/account_history.php  2. Find your original Challenger 650 download and re-download the file. It will download as the latest version! The following is a list of additions/fixes included: What's New / Changed: New Features: 2264: Added oxygen refill feature 2263: Added oxygen service gauge 2266: Implemented fire extinguisher bottle servicing 2334: Implemented replay support of doors and switches 2339: Implemented animating chocks during replay 2375: Implemented gear pins 2375: Added physically simulated probe cover flags 2393: Added downscaled texture version for GPUs with less VRAM 2404: Added a new hint window at the top of the screen to help with potentially missing preflight 2418: Added and animated window shades with drag manipulators Documentation: 2383: Included training scenarios document in release documentation package 2384: Updated "Expanded Normal Procedures" and "Operations Reference" docs with latest copies from Graeme 2385: Engine start checklist hint image needs to instruct pilot to push boost pumps back in before starting left engine 2386: Flight compartment checklist hint image 42 needs to mention combined IGNITION message, not two separate ones 2387: Flight compartment checklist hint image 66 needs to mention ATS and NAV arming 2388: Auto-install stock failure scenarios into Output/Failure Scenarios Bugfixes: 2239: Setting landing lights to on should also turn on the taxi lights 2240: Don't allow manipulating probe covers mid-flight 2242: Ice detector wasn't taking its cover into account in determining ice accumulation 2252: Truck hoses and cables weren't showing up in sim 2249: Cabin Environment Study window, text error. 2245: Ground elec power access panel sometimes didn't close when removing ground AC power 2255: Activating a new SID in the air can crash if the departure waypoint is an airport and has the DIR-TO-FROM flag set 2259: ASU hose wouldn't disconnect if the ASU was shut down and the airplane moved 2260: AFCS VS PID needs to respond a bit more slowly, to avoid overshooting the VS target 2261: Airframe manager was reporting spurious distances when reloading a nearby state 2269: FL alert must avoid triggering if a baro switch causes a bump-up in altitude 2273: Do not exclude non-IFR airports out of the airport database 2281: FMC aiport database shouldn't exclude airports with only grass runways 2284: Airportdb could crash if it encounters an airport with no name 2285: Typo on refuel-defuel study window labeled left main tank as right main 2287: HOLD page FIX ETA line should be populated any time we have an ETA to the waypoint 2288: PAX DOOR STOW should show when T-handle isn't stowed, not when T-handle cover is left open 2293: IRS units fail crossing antemeridian / international date line 2304: TSS isn't resetting X-TCAS output ops resulting use-after-free crash during soft reload on boot 2312: Crash due to phys lock assertion fail 2316: When an airport is part of an FMS flight plan or simbrief route, the route parse will fail 2317: Regmark object needs to be separate with Outside lighting mode to allow the logo light to illuminate it 2318: Bus short circuit failures weren't working 2322: Wind component indication on MFD DATA NAV STATUS page was reversed from actual components 2330: Need to control X-Plane default light datarefs to get the beacons to show spills in sim 2328: CDU LW =/= MFD LW 2291: CBP-4 No animation on line C 2333: Entering a distant waypoint into final descent could crash due to bad altitude computation 2340: ALT hold function shouldn't be affected by baro setting changes 2344: SPKR volume button on ACP isn't lighting up when pushed in 2345: FAA charts provider didn't work on Windows due to CA list not being configured 2338: Crash when entering FBO: assertion "mgr->filenames[active] != ((void *)0)" failed: 2305: Crash after deleting a standalone HOLD at the end of a procedure 2342: Crash during datalink upload of flight plan. Crash occurs in error reporting code 2336: DEP/ARR crash 2325: BRT and OFF labels are in the wrong positions on lighting controls 2313: Entering excessively low ISA deviation on PERF INIT page will crash due to negative fuel burn 2314: Nose light spill missing 2354: Don't lock out 112.00 MHz, it's VHF channel 57X 2352: ISI is still prone to "toppling" 2359: Refueler should also be using US gallons in US territories outside of the contiguous States 2360: Takeoff and landing computer should round weights to nearest 100s to avoid non-obvious VSPEEDS DISAGREE 2361: Automatic transition from ALTS CAP or ALTV to ALT captures the wrong altitude 2358: NRST APTS page crashes when it encounters a non-ICAO airport 2364: LNAV might turn the wrong way on a course or heading intercept leg 2366: N1 split or overspeed should put ATS in DISENG'D, not FAIL 2376: Duplicate dataref registration in abus wire is causing a crash when datarefs are accessed in DRE 2380: APU hobbs isn't set on initial load if the APU ECU is powered down 2381: Using default X-Plane checklist command binding crashes 2394: If IAPS breaker pops due to FCC overload, it can enter an inescapable excessive power-draw-reset state 2395: FMS elevation should be using GPS HYB INS elevation so LPV approaches work correctly with misset altimeter 2398: AC UTIL BUS 2 was labeled as "UTIL BUS 1" on AC synoptic page 2400: Operating the T-handle shouldn't be possible while the locking handle is up 2349: CTD when starting new flight. 2401: libswitch can crash on init if replay worker thread isn't initialized before first floop call 2367: Modifying SEC LEGS causes crash when PRI has legs 2410: FREQ CONV breaker was permanently popped out and couldn't be manipulated 2411: Hidden not-yet-functional oxygen flow indicator on cockpit oxygen mask panel 2412: Reanimated main door curtain to avoid clipping through its cover door 2413: Left ACP integral lighting was non-functional 2414: Closed up holes around control columns on cockpit floor 2415: Fixed animations for right side ADF1 and 2. Fixed VHF3 on left side 2416: Added PA selection on ACPs 2417: Removed extraneous latch from lavatory door 2419: Re-animated misaligned rudder pedal on Pilots side 2421: Fixed manipulator not animating for door pull-up assist handle 2424: Fixed white halo around text on cabin side panels Improvements: 397: Missing cabin speaker chime for SEAT BELT and NO SMOKING signs. 2244: Engine start hand signal should check for the presence of probe covers 2253: Write back to X-Plane to override windshield icing datarefs to prevent spurious windshield icing 2251: Ship a default outdated GPS almanac for people who are in geo-blocked countries and cannot fetch new almanacs 2256: Fueler should knock if he's trying to get in but the door is closed 2258: Added rudimentary XP systems bridge to force avionics_on and avoid network client sound issues 2262: Increased ground effect a smidge to match closer to real life landing attitude 2265: Yokes need to be upscaled by 15% 2271: Sync up X-Plane barometer setting to ours, so Vatsim clients like xPilot report correct baro altitude 2270: After detecting online flight, don't revert to temperate effects until landing 2275: Disable checking the weight-on-wheels flag in X-Plane TCAS data as libxpmp doesn't set it right 2294: TEMP COMP should default to OFF on a new airframe 2319: Increased the size of the beacon spill to 4m 2341: Need PA position on ACP mic selector 2343: Added support for simbrief PBD waypoint specifications in XP11 flight plans 2346: Regmark appareance editor needs an option to hide the automatic regmark for custom painted ones 2348: Tires take too long to spin down on their own 2357: Write back engine running status into X-Plane ENGN_running dataref 2382: Implemented CAS takeoff and landing inhibits 2390: Drop AFD and HUD drawing priority to low on Windows to help prioritize X-Plane on overloaded CPUs 2391: Apply texture downscaling to objects that got missed in authoring 2399: Implemented remaining fuel on NRST APTS page 2402: Prevent parking brake from being selected without first pressing down the pedal brakes 2405: Surrounded cockpit and cabin in null manipulator to prevent clicking through to exterior manipulators and vice versa 2406: Made all manipulators on exterior panels simple click toggles instead of drag 2407: Hide main door pop-out clickspot when the outer door handle is rotated 2420: Added black areas behind external service panels when the door is closed to prevent light shining through 2422: Fixed Wood texture having excessive grain and increased glossiness 2423: Added current customs sticker 2425: Added animated door locking indicator next to T-handle Enjoy these latest updates, and stay tuned to the forum as we continually announce the latest happenings.

The installer will take care of all of that.

Captains, In the days since release of the Hot Start Challenger 650 there have been concerns that Gizmo and even the Challenger 650 plugins were causing a major performance impact. We went investigating this, and even got Laminar Research involved to understand what was happening under the hood of X-Plane to try and sort this out. As it turns out, Gizmo is NOT the source of problems, and neither is the 650 plugin; not directly, anyhow. What's happening is somewhat complicated, but I'll do my best to be descriptive, yet brief. X-Plane is programmed to use up all of your CPU cores in order to try and attain higher frame rates. In doing so, there's some major texture paging going on. The problem here is that it leaves almost no room for the Challenger to get its CPU operations done in the process, and mixed with a ton of texture paging, everything goes bust and tasks get stuck in a queue where X-Plane drastically slows down, things pause/stutter, and the experience becomes abysmal. If you happen to have your Plugin Manager open in X-Plane while this happens it will present itself as if Gizmo or the Challenger are using up an insane amount of performance, but this is actually just a mean trick when looking at it from a user perspective. X-Plane slows down so much that it LOOKS like our plugins are to blame as their tasks are not yet performed while X-Plane does other things. Before I go further, I should note, this is NOT applicable to everyone! Most customers here seem to have a great CPU/GPU combination that can handle all of this, but if you're one of the people on the struggling end of the spectrum, you'll want to keep reading this post! Version 1.1.0 of the Challenger 650 introduces a new installer that has a selection for GPUs with more or less than 6GB so we can best optimize your install for you. This will help with some of the VRAM/texture paging operations. That said, there's still more to the puzzle. Because X-Plane is using all the cores/threads on your CPU, it is not saving "room" for the Challenger 650 to do its operations efficiently and the CPU becomes oversubscribed. Laminar Research is likely to fix this issue for developers at a later date after X-Plane 12, so in the meantime we have a workaround to use that Laminar has sanctioned to give out to those affected. If you are affected by this issue, please do the following (this is for Windows users, as the issue seems most prevalent with Vulkan): 1. First, find X-Plane's application and create a shortcut so that we can create parameters. Right click on X-Plane > New > Shortcut 2. Right-click on your shortcut, and select Properties on its contextual menu to open the shortcut's Properties window. 3. The shortcut's Properties window is the place where you can add command-line parameters for that shortcut. Select the Shortcut tab and look for the Target field. 4. You will see a place that has the path to X-Plane labelled Target. X-Plane's path will be in quotes. At the end of the quotes, make sure there is a space after the quotes, then type/paste: --num_workers=n <== Replace the red 'n' with a number equal to three fewer processors/threads than your CPU has (this accounts for X-Plane's "main thread"). For example, if you have a 6 physical + 6 virtual processor CPU (known as Hyper-Threading for Intel and SMT for AMD) for a total of 12 threads ("logical processors" as Windows refers to them), you should put the number 9 in place of the red 'n'. Also be sure you have the TWO hyphens/dashes in front of "num_workers"! 5. You can now rename this shortcut to something like Challenger 650 if you like. That way you can just click this one when you know you'll be flying the Challenger. If you are unsure how many processors/threads your CPU has, go into your About Computer setting and Google your CPU model number to find out. Be sure to use the total number with Hyper-Threading/SMT (if enabled) as your starting point! We know this is a bit unorthodox, but we're doing our best to make whatever solutions we can for as many people as possible. Hopefully this makes your flying more enjoyable!

There are plans for better VR support. I can't guarantee how serious that may or may not get, other than there are improvements for that experience planned.

I think the issue is the Quick Start Guide for the TBM, a comparatively simple aircraft, is 45 pages. The quick start guide for a Challenger would probably be three or four times the size. I understand what is being asked for, and it's something in an ideal world I'd like to see with the aircraft too. However to produce such a document is a substantial undertaking and would have added a lot of time to the release. Instead, here we are towards the end of January with excellent community knowledge of how to operate the aircraft, with streams and videos out there to help, and lots of forum and discord engagement. Lots of people have been enjoying flying the jet for two weeks using the resources we have available. Ask yourself if you'd really want to wait until April for a pdf document? Yes, finding some of bindings has been problematic, and some parts of the real Challenger operation are not intuitive or obvious, but together everybody is learning the aircraft. To be absolutely 100% clear, I would have liked to see a quick start guide or tutorial flight too. The developers did an awesome job with the TBM Guide - but trying to condense even basic Challenger operation into a few pages is difficult.

Hi all, First, congratulations to the HotStart Team for this amazing masterpiece! The level of detail and depth of the simulation is astonishing. It might be just me but I can't turn on the weather Radar or, more precisely, the WX Radar seems to be on according to the indications on the PFD and MFD but I don't see any return while flying through an area of intense precipitation. Furthermore, I do not have any control of the Tilt. Any idea? Thanks, Roberto

The Challenger has very good takeoff performance, so everything happens quickly. For the first few flights a heavier weight can help keep things in check. One of the key differences between A320/737 aircraft and the Challenger is there is no speed reference system on the Challenger. Instead the flight directors will give a fixed pitch target when pressing the TOGA buttons. Following the guidance from our subject matter experts, and adapting it for use in the simulation, we've got two easy ways to manage the initial climb, which can be remember as Pitch/Sync and FLC. Try both and see what works for you. Pitch / Sync: Takeoff and follow the initial flight director pitch target. Accelerate in the initial climb maintaining that pitch, retract the flaps at VFTO+5 then at a safe altitude hold the “Sync” button and lower the nose to about 10 degrees to start accelerating. If using autothrust it can be set to maintain a suitable speed, but your primary control is pitch, which can be adjusted easily by holding sync and flying the aircraft to the new pitch attitude. FLC: Takeoff and aim for the initial pitch target before selecting FLC mode to capture a speed of roughly V2 +20. At most weights this will result in a very steep climbout. At a safe altitude, increase the speed to lower the nose then retract the flaps at VFTO+5 A hybrid approach may be useful - remember unlike an airliner the Challenger has seats facing sideways - so while a space rocket climb profile can be fun, it’s unlikely to get repeat business for your VIP transport business.

I like how the fueler is desperatly knocking on the door if he can't enter the cockpit. Old lazy guy like me forgot to reopen the door after de-icing on one of that last flights and only noticed the passengers are still trying to board at the departure airport when I already landed at the destination (and wondering why it's so quite behind me and why they aren't leaving the plane). So for guys like me it would be cool to have a checklist option "passengers already on board ?" or even better them knocking on the door like the fueler.

I absolutely love this product, even though I can't get it to start in VR (yet...). he v1.1.0 fixed a lot of bugs and issues, but I know there are still several open, as well as talks of new features to be implemented later (Wx radar, CPDLC etc.). So that got me thinking, does a "roadmap" for future patches exist, or could it be made? I know that setting a timeframe is probably problematic and maybe not desired, but even a list of what to expect with regards to bug fixes and new features for the next patch or two would be greatly appreciated. If I for example saw that the next patch mentioned VR fixes, then I could relax a bit and just wait for that, instead of me spending hours trying to get it to start in VR by shear luck or trial and error approach.

No, a roadmap is not in existence. Patch one focused on bugs, bugs, and more bugs. Patch two will perhaps focus on other things if patch one ends up not having too many bugs in them. I would anticipate patch two in 3-4 weeks time, assuming there's no big issues brought about with patch one. This is a fluid process, and unlike a huge "work in progress" style product, it is mostly feature complete. Things will come as able, and we're simply focused on making sure things are stable as can be for everyone first.

Yes, you are right it's ambiguous. Speed is what I meant - "low and high" for VS rates. "fast and slow" for speeds. The engine limits are often reached when climbing with too low an airspeed.

Not had any engine limiting issue yet, but this is somewhat ambiguous (IMO); to avoid running into this situation, we: shouldn't climb at slow speeds (i.e. using a lower climb rate if necessary to ensure we have enough airspeed) shouldn't climb at slow rates (i.e. using a lower airspeed if necessary to ensure we have enough climb rate) Regards, Tim

Guys, what you achieved is unbelievable. I feel extremely lucky to fly this beauty. Wow, just wow and wow!

Yes indeed, that's expected behaviour with a hot engine. The reason is the sound is a resonance caused by combustor & flame aerodynamics. When the combustor is hot, the aerodynamics change ever so slightly that it simply doesn't induce that resonance anymore.

Update that I've now flown the same route again twice with the 1.1 release (January 21 2022) and no more crashes for me. Only change was the update. So a big thank you to Hot Start for fixing whatever it was.

Try switching Try changing your audio output device in Windows, then changing it back. Also, try assigning one device as the "default communication device". The reason for this is audio initialization in the GPWS engine failed. Usually just doing these actions solves that problem

No worries. It doesn't need to be there for the aircraft, but when flying a VOR or NDB procedure using the FMS to actually navigate, IRL it's necessary to monitor the radio aid directly, which you do with the needles. The logic behind all this is if the pilot in the left seat is expected to monitor the pilot in the right seat mashing buttons on the FCP to try their best to fly a procedure from the charts using various rules of thumb they've learned - then why not let the both pilots monitor the FMS doing a better job of flying the jet!

Solved! Checked and apparently it was popped out. Resetting it makes it working now, it happened probably because of pilot error. I will do a longer flight just to check how it goes but it should be fixed now. Many thanks!

@DanielR @zhaoqingMal This should now be resolved. You will need to download the installer once more before running it.

the new version 1.1.0 is now compatible with Air Hauler 2. Thanks guys, that means a lot to some of us.

Looks like there may be a bug there. It seems the system should automatically go from AUTO to MAN mode when the flip-flop / transfer button is pressed. Have logged it for the developers, thanks for the feedback.

Deep sigh.

Happy to help, @judeb!

There has never been a plane in XP that is so close to reality. The level of detail and immersion are ingenious. There are only a few developers who can develop such addons.

I was going by what the video that was posted was saying, maybe the lab work this morning took too much blood.

Just to keep you updated Rich, one of the Challenger 650 pilots has reviewed the flight performance and checked your report, and agrees that some more refinement is possible. I've logged the case for the developers, and this thread will be updated when I've got more information. Thanks again for the detailed report.

We may put pop ups for the circuit breaker panels in a future update.

Report 2273 (don't exclude VFR only airports) Report 2281 (don't exclude airports with only grass runways) Fixed in v1.1r1, January 22, 2022

Couldn't we have a least the default XP weather radar? It's better than nothing, it's a bit disappointing that such a great product is lacking this essential tool that we use quite extensively in real life (really love this product btw, specially as I am working on my CL65 type rating)

Sorry to resurrect this but a 1 click button to have any one of the failures trigger randomly at a random time, speed or altitude would be great if it isn't too much trouble. It would make me pay even more attention when running all those first flight of the day items.

View File Hot Start - Challenger 650 - Vistajet livery Here is the Vistajet livery for the Hot Start Challenger 650. Two version provided, one with the Austrian flag (older version since VJT no longer use an Austrian AOC) and one without (actual one, Malta AOC) No Reg' provided, you can do your own via the airframe manager Happy landings ! Submitter Meilstroms Submitted 01/15/2022 Category Hot Start Challenger 650 Livery For https://www.x-aviation.com/catalog/product_info.php/take-command-hot-start-challenger-650-p-212  

We're going to research the amount of wing flex before adding it, if there is any.

I'm blown away. Super fast and smooth performance, and she flies like a dream. Outstanding work!

Definitely a killer for sure! I'd extremely love to see this evolve into a new CRJ-200 addon.

As far as I know this is in development... but as it has relative short and stable wings the flex will not be that much, like on the real thing.

Oh man, after being on the flight compartment checklist for over 1 hour I was still at the packs. Just playing with the environment system and the valves to see what was going on. Same thing with the fuel system. These are truly not an afterthought! Colors change with temperature etc. Outstanding work!

I’m sure Hotstart will start getting calls from training providers. I hope their licence has entertainment and pro pricing points.

Several years ago, I attended a 3-week initial maintenance training class on the Challenger 604 at FlightSafety. The animated systems graphics in the add-on considerably exceed the official training materials in both quality and detail!

One hour? I'll be totally honest, it took me over 2.5 hours very first time to get through the whole thing, and that's without those amazing study pages; this is seriously a golden standard at this point. You know, a lot of planes aren't worth this much, but if they had features like this and simulation this in depth, I'd happily pay for this kind of quality.

Yes indeed, that's the correct behaviour. Thanks for using the study menus to explore the Challenger 650, that's exactly what the developers hoped would happen! Challengers have a system called Supplemental Ground Wing Anti-Ice System. This was originally an option on the 605, standard equipment on the 650 and a possible retrofit for the 604. The system was made standard equipment after some suspected ice related incidents on the Challenger series. On the ground only, the use of cowl anti ice on both engines will feed bleed air to the wing system at a low temperature in order increase the ice protection on the wing. The system is disabled when takeoff power is applied and in flight, then the normal wing anti-ice system is the only way to open the wing anti-ice valves. This system is tested during the long 2 minute test in the after start checklist, but in normal operation the system is fully automatic.

LINK HERE Note: aircraft name is clipped to 12 characters for custom airframes, sadly (limit does not apply to default profiles). Fixed by SimBrief Based on the already-accurate default CL60, with the following adjustments: equipment codes and extra flight plan remarks kindly provided by Graeme_77 here: OEW/BOW updated to match the Hot Start airframe without passengers (12,315 -> 12,556kg, includes two pilots) passenger weights updated to somewhat more closely match the randomized weights as simulated, going with 74+15kg so you can still carry 5 passengers+luggage and full fuel at MTOW if you are flying Kim Dotcom around (supposedly ~141kg or thereabouts), sorry, you will have to make adjustments, or just count him as two passengers see below for more information: Don't forget to add extra crew (anything above the two included in OEW) as passengers when planning your flight! Cheers, Tim

Yes I followed that discussion on discord. It's just that there needs to be a general random failure trigger of some sort with mean time, which I was trying to accomplish this way; I think something like PMDG or FSLABS did (1 random failure every ~10h, if you wish so) would be a popular feature here, it greatly increases immersion if you have a reason to do checklists and watch the engines & co. during cruise. I understand the reason with training, but there is no sense in training if the situation can never occur outside of the training (well, unless you are a real 650 pilot). But I did not want to engage into that discussion here, so thank you for your feedback.

Clicking that tab on the left you indicated opens the submenu, in that, select "Settings". There will be a button in that menu to "Fill TKS Fluid"

Been a while since an update. After reaching a natural break point in the VNAV work at the beginnig of the year, the 733 work has since been waiting in the wings. A few things happened since the last report. 1) I've been working with Laminar for some projects that will eventually make its way into XP12. 2) I wrapped up all my other non xplane contract work so that I now only work on my X-Plane projects full time and 3) I reprioritized my MU2 project as my highest priority now that I'm back developing for xplane full time. I am targeting releasing my MU2 later this year. Progress on that is described elsewhere in these forums...so those wondering what I'm doing if I'm working full time XPlane....then the Mu2 is the answer. Getting the MU2 update out of the way (being long overdue as a 13 year old product) will allow me to resume the 733 work in earnest. A lot of good things have come out of my work for Laminar and the MU2 work that will allow us to improve the 733 in lots of ways, not only the FMS, but also targeting -400 / -500 variants, wing flex and simply improving the product all around. The 733 will not be abandonware...no more so than the MU2, which I've maintained for nearly 15+ years. When it gets in turn in rotation after the MU2 release later this year, it will be front and center for me for quite some time after. -tkyler

Folks, as promised, below is attached a CSL that's usable for showing other people's TBMs. Includes full animations on all flight controls, landing gear, lights. And it's PBRed to top it all off and highly framerate optimized. TBM900.zip

WX radar isn't implemented yet. It'll most likely be a feature alongside with XP12.