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Hopefully someday this amazing aircraft can be brought into XP12.

I'm not sure why I feel compelled to give an update today....probably because I'm optimistic about the future and I'm "coming out of the fog". The fog in this case is "X-Plane Developer Documentation", which I've been crafting for over 2 years now and getting close to deploying for a soft-launch/preview/feedback/evolve phase. What end-customers probably don't see, is that there is a major rework going on within X-Plane....the kind where we (Laminar) say to ourselves, "we need to plan and retool for the next 10-15 years". X-Plane has been stretching old tech for a long time....and a deep introspection and plan had to happen. Being that I've been around since 1999, and have worked for Laminar in the past, I thought I might could help ....and in doing so, protect IXEG/Togasim's future in the process, but at the cost of taking time away from overhauling my own products and giving that time to Laminar for the remodeling effort. So my part in the Laminar overhaul, is in the simplest terms to "train developers" how to make awesome add-ons for X-Plane....doing so through better documentation and tutorials...and make development a lot more fun and satisfying for folks who want to try it. Developing is a fun hobby...if we can remove the pain and friction of having to hunt for sparse information. You may recall a major challenge I've had with my products was converting all my source code from Gimzo Lua to C++ so we could be less dependent on 3rd party tech. This is like building a RV-7 experimental airplane...and then saying, "I want to turn my RV-7 into an RV-8". I mean....better to start form scratch. Another reason I'm optimistic is because of AI. In the last week, we have successfully used AI to convert my MU-2 source code from Lua to C++.....BUT....this is incremental, not just a 100% compatibility swap, there are some fringe functionalities we are still working through...and in addition, we are learning how to better use AI along the way and of course we have to check ..every....single....corner of the code to make sure it works. Further, we have to 100% understand what AI did in the conversion. As of today, I'm quite excited about getting back to developing add-ons and participating in helping others improve their add-ons. AI is really making quite the change for the better, and a lot of the initiatives we've been working on internally are fast approaching internal testing and getting closer to making their way to the community. So as far as my own add-ons go.....we are steadily working through this conversion from Lua to C++ and starting to see some quite impressive success. It won't look much different to end-users obviously, but for our part, this is a major, major milestone. Mind you once this AI conversion is done and we have the workflow.....coding will no longer be the long straw in aircraft development. We will be able to focus on 3D quality and systems accuracy and not get burdened down in compilation and coding syntax and the physical time lost to typing. It really is an exciting time, and I know its been a bit of a burden having to wait for AI to grow up to enable this point. First up will be the MU2....probably around late September or October if our current success is any indicator. ....it will be our prototype test case for leveraging AI. Then we'll take that experience and expertise and apply it the 733 and get it ready for another decade of service....and with no upgrade charge to existing customers. On the one hand, I'm bummed its taken this long, and on the other, I really couldn't see any other path, as annoying as its been. This is just the nature of technology evolution...and taking the time to retool was the wiser and more prudent path for long term sustainability. Ben Russell's Gizmo Lua opened the door for incredible products and enabled really creative folks to execute their visions and for this I am very grateful. As with anything in life though, it comes in seasons and we need to look to the next one. -tkyler

To get rid of raindrop marks on windscreen, got to the aircraft folder, you will need to do this for all 3 variants, Normall Aircraft/X-Aviation/Saab 340. Objects folder, find the " Rain.obj " file, open with a text editor. Delete everything after, IDX10 41082 41080 41082 41083 41084 41085 41086 41084 41086 41087, thats the last row, so should be # wiper2 down, delete and than save. Youll have clean glass

zzz....oh man...just woke up after a 18 month hibernation! Seriously....Nothing is forgotten, only life has happened. Here's a quick summary: Spent last 18-24 months in a significant life transition as I approach and prepare for retirement. Lots of loose ends to tie up and leave in the past. I now work full time for Laminar, a big change...and I have been positioning myself to stay in X-Plane work exclusively for the future. I'm wrapping up a 2-year private contract for the BETA ALIA production aircraft (which will be in X-Plane). I'll complete that work next month. Gizmo based code in all my products is nearing end of life and had complicated the update process due to the volume of code to rewrite......however AI has enabled a path to relearn concepts & rewrite the code as its become "X-Plane SDK aware" in the last year...This reduces the effort drastically and is a major catalyst. No fees for future updates on the MU2 or IXEG when they eventually go out. Updates will always be free for existing customers. They've earned that. After ALIA delivery, I'll return to push an update to the MU2 with the Gizmo code-base....I won't get OCD....I'll just push what I have, which is a good amount. After MU2 update, I begin code rewrites to serve as my future code platform for the MU2, IXEG and the forth-coming 717. This is foundational and absolutely required to guarantee long term compatibility for these products. Those aircraft will be the only three products I will maintain into retirement and beyond. That's the highlights. This gap in work has been all about my focus and preparation to sustain myself after retirement, and stay within the X-Plane ecosphere in the process.

Thought I'd share this.. been practicing some holds along the way. to spice things up..

UPDATE: The issue (when autostarting the SAAB340) seems to happen during the Left Engine Start verification. Just sits there forever, verifying. In one test, several errors appeared on the warning display, and the master warning light was triggered. This time around, I discovered some things: -The GPU was removed during the process. Viewing the auto-start externally, the GPU is never brought in, but the chocks, etc are removed at the start. I thought maybe this was just a visual thing, but noted that the External Power indication in the overhead panel was off... so the auto-startup was occurring (supposedly) under the plane's internal power... which may explain why I would sometimes get warnings/errors (battery low?... and then other things get affected as a result?) -The infinite hold/stop that occurs when the Left Engine Start is being verified can be fixed by manually setting the throttle from GRND IDLE (which is what the autostart sets it to) to MIN. This results in the rest of the auto-startup to occur, up until you reach the Right Engine Start verification, whose pause is also then fixed by manually moving the throttle to MIN. The remainder of the auto-startup occurs, and successfully concludes (complete with Auto-Start Complete message). And, the lovely and previously absent Beta engine growl finally occurs. The only other issue I've noted so far, which I can't find a workaround/fix for, is that the windshield of the SAAB340 in XP12 appears dirty (as if covered by 'calcium stain' water drop marks). It seems begging for the windshield wipers to be used, but unfortunately they have no effect. In XP11, the same installed plane doesn't seem to have this window texture (or it's extremely faint), but instead it has a window scratch texture, which seems to be absent in the same plane in XP12. So, that's a bit of a mystery. The 'raindrop stain' texture appearing in XP12 doesn't seem 'wrong'... it just seems like rain staining after a storm, which could/should be removed by the windshield wipers (but unfortunately isn't). Maybe some 'window dirt' flag/value is (mistakenly) set to high/full on startup, compared to 'clean'. The window scratches, meanwhile, seemingly should be present and at a constant, non-increasing value... but isn't, in XP12. Not seeing any windshield rain effects currently, either... at least with a stationary, unpowered SAAB340. So, it seems the only issue as far as auto-starting is that (seemingly) the throttles have to be manually set to MIN after each engine start (verification). I'm going to have to try a manual startup again and see if I succeed that way, too.

I can't put it mildly, but it is not possible at this time. With Gizmo development stopped, there is no simple way to achieve XP12 compatibility. Said that, there is a possibility in the future, to remake everything from scratch in a form of payware, with complete proline avionics and more.

View File D-AWBF Hot Start Challenger 650 This is a livery for the Hot Start Challenger 650, inspired by https://www.jetphotos.com/registration/D-AWBF (Air Independence) To install, extract the zip file into the "liveries" folder. You can supply your own registration, D-AWBF is not printed on the cowlings. Submitter pilotdeviation Submitted 03/24/2024 Category Hot Start Challenger 650 Livery For https://www.x-aviation.com/catalog/product_info.php/take-command-hot-start-challenger-650-p-212  

When the APU encounters a fault, you'll need to hop out of the plane and reset the APU ECU to clear the fault. Go to the tail of the aircraft near the cargo door, pop the latches and pull the little door open under the left engine nacelle: Inside you'll find a panel with 3 buttons. Push the "RESET" button, close it up and you should be good: