Lukasz

Thanks! Yes, it's a general purpose tutorial and it applies to other birds and even other simulators as well, provided they do model helicopter flight dynamics on a comparable level to X-Plane. There will be some additional items to remember and to look for, if you're flying anything other, than US-designed single rotor helo, but the general rules, as outlined in the tutorial, are the same.

Have a close look at the gauges' readings vs. real values that the plane is operating with. It's my version of the flight model, at full throttle. The reason for the difference is, that some gauges are still calibrated to the original Javier's engine model. It's also a known issue, which will be adressed after Javier has more time, with regards to CRJ and X-Plane 10 development, that he's taking part in. That's correct, that the plane feels "less powerfull", but remember, that's a relatively heavy aluminium and somehow old design, military training aircraft, not a modern composite aerobatic one. Loops are still possible, provided you have plenty of entry airspeed and you carefully manage it throughout the maneuver. Use G-load meter and AOA indicator for a reference.

ADF and transponder work good, on both versions. I've just loaded the plane to make sure. Both are "grab and drag" type (instead of "click" type), so you have to point the mouse over the switch, click and hold left button and then move the switch with the mouse movement. Both are operated with mouse move towards the nose or tail of the aircraft (along longtitudinal axis). Clicking alone won't do anything. As for the propeller lever, it's a known issue. It's because when I've changed propeller modelling, it has also changed the data streams that are connected to it. And since the prop lever is animated by one of such data streams, when the data changed, so did the animation (dataref is the same, but the numbers going out of it are different). Right now the propeller behaves correctly, it's only the lever animation, that's off, but it doesn't have any influence on how the plane flies.

As far as sounds go, there is also a substantial difference in playback quality between computers, with regards to hardware installed, drivers version and specific configuration. It's the same matter, as with graphics, but it is less obvious. You won't get "low framerate" with sounds (extreme cases aside); the playback will be smooth, but with degraded or distorted quality. Also some people are more sensitive for small differences in sound (like musicians), than others, which will further influence the way they hear them. For example, I hate tuning up sound equalizers, usually it looks like "an hour into the work and I'm still not satisfied"

Because white paint reflects the sun rays the best. Parts of aircraft, that are painted in different colurs, reflect and absorb different amounts of solar energy (what isn't reflected, is absorbed). Since most materials change their dimensions upon heating/cooling, the white parts change their dimensions by a different amount, than dark areas. This producess stress forces in the airframe skin, which has some long term negative impact, as the skin slightly deforms from its original shape during each cycle under the sun. It's not a coincidence, that paintwork is usually done on sides of the fuselage, while top of it and top of the wings stays white. Colourful aerobatic planes are a different story, because of the way they're operated and maintained. I suppose, there is also a financial matter, as elaborate paints are more expensive, than simple white finish with few stripes here and there. Search for an "antiflash white" camouflage, for an extreme case of this principle.

"Miss Loraine" - a nice tiny detail to fit the story

Art needs time. Just imagine Michaelangelo painting Sistine Chapel, high on a scaffolding, with a crowd yelling from below: "Hey Mike, is it done yet? How soon, Mike?"

SkyVector http://skyvector.com/ An online collection of real charts of all kinds for USA, complete with a a simple flight planner and METAR weather information. I wouldn't survive Alaska Challenge without this website. I wish there was something like that for Europe. Route Finder http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/ "Route generator for PC flight simulation use" XMovMap http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?autocom=downloads&showfile=6942 Freeware utility for X-Plane. Can be used as a flight planner or for tracking the progress of flight, on a separate system. Sim Routes http://www.eleventhstreet.com/fb2/ShowPlans.aspx "The system currently allows users to search for flightplans between two airports, or all routes to/from a specific airport." Vroute http://www.vroute.net/ Server tracker for VATSIM, also has a capability for creating flight plans, or using the ones submitted by other community members. Complete with weather information and terrain profile (premium version).

I'd call it "preferred awakening"

Ah, for once I find myself to live in a sane timezone, with regards to Shuttle launch

Nice photos! One advantage, that X-Plane has over real flying is that, you can take photos of your aircraft from the outside, while inflight It has struck me now, that you don't have windshield wipers in Cessnas, even with their relatively flat glass. I've never thought about this before, but it seems they could have their uses.

I can only wonder, what will you write, when 747 is out ;D One of my last logbook entries for FS9 contains this information: 2008-02-17 Boeing 747-400 Paint2 4.2 7.2 0.1 11.4 Frankfurt to Hong-Kong, if memory serves me well. For now, it's good to see you having so much fun

Granados, I had the same troubles with X52 and other aircraft. I had to reassign pitch and roll trim to a "tower" hat, because of conflicts. The axis bars in the sim may appear to be stationary, but in fact there is always a tiny bit of random fluctuation in signal coming form the potentiometers. Unfortunately, it's enough to "trip" custom autopilots and mess with flight - I've experienced sudden pitch up to 20-30o, when signal from the wheel peaked by like 0.005. Custom autopilot reset itself and the aircraft went aerobatic, when its flight controls jumped out of sudden, to the most inappropriate position. For now, it's either not to use wheels for trim or build a subsystem into an autopilot plugin, that recognises such signal peaks and ignores them, while preserving full trim funcionality. Like a "deadzone" on a regular joystick axis.

Tell me more about it! Hope to see you on the track soon

Seminole has piston engines. Feathered prop would create too much drag during a normal startup of piston engine, because of its impulse design. Bang (short kick of power) - pfff pfff pfff (engine rotates) - bang (second cylinder fires up) - pfff pfff pfff, and so on. Prop would slow it down too much during power off phase and even if you could start it up, the strain on starter, battery and electric installation would be tremendous. I have 50A in my home mains, starter can take 200-250A and though the voltage is approx. ten times lower, it's the amperage that heats the stuff up. That's why piston engined planes have this "lock" feature designed to be automatic, because it's so critical on them. And since prop pitch change and feathering mechanisms are usually operated with pressurised oil from the engine, there would be no way to unfeather the prop without engine first started. Turbine engines burn fuel constantly, instead of cycles and because of that, are less "worried" about prop being feathered on startup. There is no need to use the starter to push the cylinders through a compression stroke, so it's just the prop moving in relatively thin air (as opposed to the one inside of cylinders). The turbine turns all the time and if you have a free-turbine engine it's even easier, as prop is totally disconnected from the engine. Theoretically you could start it with prop being tied down, however there are other reasons for not doing that. Mu on the other hand, has fixed turbine engines, but they still gain from turbine design, rather than piston. As for the "invisible" features hidden in aircraft, I think that they are instrumental in building "immersion". Having the knowledge, that there is something, that awaits for my mistake or just watches my moves, adds that thrill to a flight, even if I'm never going to see it actually taking place.

It's an attitude indicator from a Spitfire, in case anyone wondered, who possibly might have that kind of sense of humour

Look at it from a different perspective, Perry All the time without Saab, can be spent to other things, like riding a bike, talking to people, enjoying the sun. Because when the Saab is ready, the roles will change - developers will see the sun again and the pilots will lock themselves in their basements, studying the manual, learning to fly and - in the end - flying And you know, Saab will be finished eventually, but for pilots - there will be always "just one more short flight" ;D A neverending effort! So, enjoy the sunshine, while you still can

One of the things, that caught my eye and bumped up my interest in Mu, apart from that I really like it's overall and original shape, are unique engines. For someone accustomed to King Air, this was a surprise at first, but after I did my homework and get used to them, I felt in total love. And now you're going to add even more unique and seldom modelled features to the engines That's awesome.

Not everyone has TrackIR and it's really nice, that some developers remember about such pilots and provide additional features for them, in order to make their flying more comfortable and enjoyable. Even having TrackIR, I use such features from time to time, because after 2 hours of flight my back starts to ache, from constant moving, stretching and peaking around things. Unfortunately my "cockpit layout", while fairly ergonomic, falls short of a real plane.

Two sources, that I have, support method as described in the CRJ tutorial. By the way, "3" factor is used for calculating last possible, reasonable TOD. You can use a factor of "5" to calculate the earliest reasonable TOD, anything in between could also be valid. It all depends on winds aloft, use smaller numbers for headwinds and larger for tailwinds. "Reasonable" in this context means fast enough for ATC purposes and slow enough for passengers' ears comfort - aircraft may be pressurised, but the cabin altitude also changes along with outside altitude. There is also a matter of GS and VS during descend, as they have to be correlated with themselves and distance from TOD to level off point (or airport). To find VS, multiply GS by 5* and you'll get feet per minute value. For example, I was flying yesterday in x737 at 440 knots TAS, but thanks to headwind of 50 knots, GS was actually 390 knots and the VS for descend was 1950 fpm. * EDIT: multiply GS by 5, if you've calculated TOD with a factor of "3". If you've used a factor of "5", multiply GS by 3.33 for obtaining VS instead. So, if I wanted yesterday to perform "long descend", I would have used ~1300fpm. For other combinations, archaic E6B flight computer does the job

I wouldn't be much surprised, if it turned out, that the wiper scratches are dynamically generated and cumulative between flights ;D Actually, I wouldn't be surprised at all, with this amount of other details. With the night lighting on, I should be able to sneak in, with a couple of screenshots, to airliners.net

Heads up! Have a look at a gem, that I've found yesterday, while browsing youtube for videos of some old school sims, down the memory lane. Wings Of Fury 2: Return Of The Legend http://wingsoffury2.com/forum/ You'll get hooked in no time, I guarantee! And the best part is, it's free, however I'm strongly considering small donation for this fantastic and refreshing project.

Solo Flight - Atari 65XE Mig Alley Ace Wings Of Fury Chuck Yeager's Air Combat - Commodore Chuck Yeager's Advanced Trainer - Amiga 500 Gunship 2000 F-15 Strike Eagle Birds Of Prey (Amiga 500 old-school sim) various stuff from Novalogic (never really enjoyed them though) - first PC and currently I'm on third PC Team Alligator (little known Ka-52 sim) Jane's Longbow 2 Falcon 4.0 (and later upgraded to SP3, SP4 and Allied Force) Gunship! (the biggest disappointment ever!) BoB2: Wings Of Victory Enemy Engaged: Apache/Havoc & Commanche/Hokum (later upgraded with community mods - flyable Hind included) Vietnam Med-Evac Flanker 2.0, then 2.5, then LockOn and then Dangerous Cliffs v.1 Il2 Sturmovik (I've started at Pacific Fighters and them moved to 1946) MSFS 98 then 2002Pro and then 2004 (FSX - never moved past horribly low fps demo, instead purchased XP9) Orbiter Dangerous Waters (flyable MH-60R Seahawk and P-3 Orion) DCS: Ka-50 Black Shark Condor X-Plane 9 These were either flown for many hours or are rememberable for other things. Add to the list some other, that were "flown" the Julius Cesar way: "I've installed, I've launched and I've uninstalled." Fly!, Flight Unlimited, Sierra Pro Pilot, Combat Air Patrol, Rise Of Flight and few others, that I can't remember titles for right now. Does a scene from Modern Warfare count as AC-130 time?

Your "flight test" methodology is flawed and therefore you can throw all the "results" and screenshots out the window. If you have proven anything to me right now, is that you are really a troll, without any real insight into how things work. Arno & co. did a superb job on the plane, that can be only admired. That's all I'd like to say in this topic.

He is 25 and a half years old. Last time, when he played his X-Wing games, was a good amount of years ago But then again, he is interested in martial arts, so he may have a good coordination, that allows him for such quick adaptation. To be clear - I'm not arguing, which helicopter is better or more controllable, as it is a highly subjective thing Everyone has its own favourite one, I was just sharing the results of my experiment, which were highly surprising to me, in the first place. Good idea to give him the bird with the stability turned off I may also introduce him to DCS Ka-50, which can be flown either with an art stab in one of two modes or without stabilisation at all (not recommended and actually forbidden in reality). And that is a heavy thing! All X-Plane helos are like dragonflies, compared to the Black Shark. I just have to wait, until my "guinea bro" is around again