Lukasz

Transitions are all about pitch and collective control. I was asked about them before and I'll try to upload a video tutorial on my Youtube channel http://www.youtube.c...er/BirdOfPreyIX soon. EDIT: The video is available Because of length and time issues, I decided to break it into two separate tutorials: transitions and traffic pattern (to be posted next week). EDIT 2: I've posted a second video on takeoff, traffic pattern, approach and landing. As before, it's an example flight with a description highlighting what's important there and how to achieve similar results. Have fun!

I'm glad that you find it useful

Play it loud, Mr Wagner, play it loud! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGBDWER-wUI

I tried both updates. No joy. ~15fps on default settings at KSEA, ~20fps in the wilderness. I turned off or down all settings, which upped my count to 30fps, still nothing to write home about - less fps than XP9, while looking much worse than it. But what is really interesting, is that usually my CPU works at 55%, RAM is used in 75% and VRAM in 33%.

Try hovering over "zebra" stripes on the end of a runway. They will give you excellent ground reference for hover training. At first, try to concentrate on a distinctive feature on the horizon and maintain stable attitude with regards to that feature, with only quick check-looks at the ground below. The more you feel comfortable with maintaining constant attitude, the more time you can spend on looking at the ground, in order to null last small helicopter movements or to aim for that helipad. Another valuable training exercise, it trying to land with both skind inside runway "numbers" or even better, within a "belly" of 6 or 8. In this case, use the runway for a reference.

Yeah, we were given planes with 3D cockpits and switches to flip and flight models and stuff. Excellent! Then why do I feel, like if they have promised me a car and after downloading the demo, I found this: http://ifotos.pl/img/raehrp.jpg Well, it is a car, afterall... Honestly I had no hopes for a Lamborghini, but a nice Peugeot would do. I'm pleased with flight model improvements and additional features in Plane Maker, as they will allow me to make my own default planes, for the time being.

By a definition, demo shows (or demonstrates) the capabilities of a full version, but in a somehow limited scope. So, we have a limit on time to fly, we have a limit on a scenery, we have a limit on acceptable aircraft (ooops, sorry for that), but having a limit on basic and widely advertised features, is a bit too much, don't you think? On the bright side, FSX demo sucked as much, if not more and yet the dev team turned it into a succesfull product, which was enjoyed by many people. We'll see.

I don't use ETL fix, because I don't want to and I don't have to. I've learned to fly X-Plane helicopters in a careful and performance-wise manner. It's more interesting that way and some of the skills I developed while doing so, translate to other aircraft as well. The more sweat in a training, the less blood in a fight, they say... BK117 is a nice helicopter, both in real life and in X-Plane, a number of my last "logbook flights" were flown with it and I enjoyed every minute if them. But it makes a horrible trainer aircraft, because of artificial stability systems. How can you learn to fly it, when computers do the hard work for you? It's like learning to shoot with magic bullets, which always hit a bullseye. That will get you nowhere. Try something stable, but free-flying, like MD500. XP10 default B206 is also very good. A bit demanding, as it should be, but still a nice one. Bk117 is a bird for advanced pilots, who want to explore IFR world. XP10 fixes the ETL, that's correct, but other flaws of helicopter flight model were corrected around XP9.6, if I remember correctly. It's not absolutely perfect, but still very good and it's possible to develop an accurate helicopter, with a bit of thought and a lot of reading. So it's not always "a problem in XP9 flight model"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mt7M3Ak_jQ&feature=channel_video_title Read the description, watch the gauges carefully, read about ETL, search on the forums. BK117 is even more prone to this error in X-Plane flight model, so try other helicopters. MD500 or default B206 will be the best in a role of training helicopter. Learning to hover first, also will help you with landings.

I see Thank you for the answer!

Benny, I understand that osm2xp generates 3D buildings and trees. What about underlying ortophoto? On the screenshots it looks different that default X-Plane's textures. Is it being generated or downloaded by osm2xp itself or do I need to get it from somewhere else (like Google maps or something)?

Actually I'd like to have more options accessible from X-Plane's interface. Dew point - anyone? I like the spartan looks of the GUI itself, it gets the job done in a very efficient way. Which is how every interface should be. Even my Windows XP still run "classic" theme and I was relieved, when I learned that there is something very similar for Win7, which is going to be my next OS of choice.

Do you think you could fly it? Plane's own inertia, sensitive and breakable engines, sneaky gyrocompass drift, everything has to be set manually and monitored afterwards all the time, and now gyro lag in the basic instruments - forget modern standard six! Now, add some night or clouds - or both - to the mix and the fun starts. I know I could - Bell 206 isn't that bad afterall... By the way, this gyro lag description seems to be exaggerated and not precise. I've investigated the matter a bit and even the old school gauges are way more accurate. I've also read the whole article, that you've taken this excerpt from, and it raised even more concerns, as to the accuracy of content.

I like this repaint, it fits the bird. So small, so aggressive

James, You really ought to read less forums and more Pratt & Whitney manuals...

I don't know But starter overheats and burns out after 30 seconds of continuous cranking...

In the mean time, it's me, who is breaking engines, while testing enchanced startup procedure. Battery on, fuel boost pump on, master ignition on, magnetos and primer all set ok, mixture in idle cut-off, everything else looks normal, yet the engine won't cooperate for some obscure reason. Throttle cracked to the "appropriate" position? Nope. Darn... not enough air for a startup. Once again: battery on, fuel boost pump on... Ooops! Overprimed Once again...

Vox populi, vox Dei!

No, it's not funny. Yet. But it will be, when I add negative G-load effects...

Mi-26 (and similar) is an exeption: it has so much power, that it pushes the earth away

At least Simon isn't writing stuff like that: if( late_hour = true )then go_to_sleep = 1 computer_on = 0 else morning_headache = true local lost_in_time_zones = 1 end

XPFR Stampe is one of my long time favourites.

Sweet movie you've made, as usual Few days ago Cirrus opened its training center in another city in my country. It has a full motion simulator, complete with an original cockpit, running on X-Plane 9. It's open for non-pilots, so I think I may need to make a trip there in a future. But when I saw you peacefully "drifting" on approach, against the winds, I just couldn't help, but try a bit more extreme variant http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OV62ZeDCCKI

I'd say, that the very composition and choice of colours on the first screenshot says it all about Simon's state of mind

Here I'm returning to my base of operations, after another long day of work on the plane. The smell of oil, fuel fumes and all kinds of metallic sounds made by wrenches touching screws and other parts of the plane were tiring, but I was pleased because I've completed work on the heart of the plane Some flight testing is required, to make sure nothing will fall off in a turbulence, but it should be good. Now I can think about adding some extras One of nice things I've made so far, is automatic mixture control. For as much work as you'll have to do, to keep the engines in a good shape, the mixture adjusts "by itself" - and you have two settings to choose from. Auto-rich is used for high power operations, like takeoff and climb. It gives you the most power and provides enough fuel to keep the engines from overhating, preignition or detonation. Once you got to a cruise level, reduced power and cooled the engines to a cruise value, you can switch to auto-lean. This much leaner setting provides better fuel economy and is easier on the engines in the long run, at a cost of slightly lower airspeed. Of course, using the auto-lean in a combination with high power or a hot engine, sooner or later will cause you much trouble So beware on go-arounds! To complete the picture, you also have idle cut-off position to stop the engines for any reason and an emergency rich position - should automixture fail. This floods the engines with a maximum amount of fuel, which is very uneconomical and doesn't provide any correction for changing flight conditions (altitude, for example), so you will loose the power and performance. The thinner the air, the bigger the loss. I've also mentioned cooling the engines to cruise temperature. There is something odd about the cowl flaps, but I'll let you figure it out by yourselves