Keith Smith

*stands up and starts the slow clap*

This is the sort of stuff that happens when you model systems at a nice low level...all sorts of subtle nuances start popping up for "free" in terms of developer time. Great job. I recall having something similar happen when we were first testing PilotEdge's radio system...we had a pilot drop down too low while he was too far from the transmitter that was in use (our fault for not swapping him to a frequency with a more local transmitter). We low two way comms with the pilot but noticed an aircraft flying at a much higher altitude not too far away. We asked that pilot to hop over to the lost pilot's frequency and relay a message to contact Oakland Center on freq xxx.xx, and then to return to this freq after the relay was done. The pilot said he'd give it a shot. Low and behold, we get a message 20 seconds later from the lost pilot on the right frequency. Even I was shocked after that one. When you model a system after the real thing, all sorts of neat stuff just happens as a result.

"What problems?" "Here are the problems..." "I quit." Wow.

- Make it clear which network you're going to use (sounds like it's VATSIM, if so, edit the first post). - The post certainly sounds like this is the 'official' X-Pilot fly-in, which apparently, is incorrect. - Make it clear if you plan on having ATC for the flight or not. If there is no ATC, then what is the plan for voice communication between the fly-in participants? If it's going to be teamspeak, tell people which teamspeaker server. - what TIME is the fly-in? The original post says "Sunday" and that's about it. - what is the DURATION of the fly-in? - Are people going to fly TO or FROM the target airport? What route? Those are some things that jump to mind. There's more, of course, but that's a start if you'd like to attract people to a fly-in.

What that will actually result in is that you will be navigating by moving map and occasionally referring to the vor. You truly can do the entire flight using a vor receiver, or just by looking out the window. The vor receiver tells you if you are on course. I love GPS, but it isn't needed for this flight.

Nightflight, which 'flightplan' are you referring to? If you're asking how to assemble the route on skyvector.com as a flight planning tool, then just use the link above, it already contains the route. If you mean the flight plan in X-Plane, there's no need. The point I was making was that you can fly by just tuning the VOR's.

Or, you could skip the GPS and just use the VOR's that work REALLY REALLY well in that airplane: V45 PSK V59 BKW V258 HVQ Here's the route: http://skyvector.com/?ll=37.12470231381898,-81.05822754262331&chart=301&zoom=5&plan=A.K7.KGSO:F.K7.PROVE:F.K7.FREON:V.K6.PSK:V.K6.BKW:V.K6.HVQ:A.K6.KCRW

Here's the video/audio from the first VFR workshop (VFR Airspace): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1YEKGW0ve8 Here's the 2nd workshop (Scenario-based VFR flight planning): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msfxcx3vUsc Hopefully this gives a better idea of what these are about.

I just got the Windows 64-bit plugin working for PE. Onto the Mac build next. That said, I think the decision has been made to use another network (and I think it's the right decision) for the fly-ins.

The Windows build is done and was tested this afternoon, shall be released shortly. Starting on the Mac build next.

PilotEdge is a network that offers online ATC, primarily geared towards people pursuing real world flight training, as well as for discerning sim enthusiasts for whom high quality ATC is a "must have" To that end, we are running a series of real-time, interactive workshops covering the practical issues that commonly arise during VFR and IFR flights. The workshops are available to everyone, you don't need to be a registered PilotEdge member to attend. They're a great way to get your questions answered and to walk through all of the practical aspects of IFR and VFR flying in a fun, interactive format. The first workshop (VFR Airspace) was a great success and was attended in real time by ~35 people. A video/audio recording of that event is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1YEKGW0ve8. It was a bit too long, though, so we're going to make efforts to time box the core material of this event to 2 hours. Tue Dec 18: All about VFR! Airspace, practical rules & regs, and chartsTue: Jan 1: Scenario-based VFR flight planning and communicationTue: Jan 15: IFR – Departures DemystifedTue: Jan 29: IFR – Enroute Procedures, decoding enroute chartsTue: Feb 12: IFR – Arrivals and precision approachesTue: Feb 26: IFR – Non-precision approaches explainedThe workshops are held every other Tuesday at 7pm PST (Tue 10pm EST, Wed 0300z) and everyone is welcome to attend via TeamSpeak3 over at ts3.digitalthemepark.com. A docent will welcome you to the server, verify your audio is working, and will escort you to the Workshop voice room. Once the workshop starts, a link will be posted on the TS3 text area to a screen sharing URL that will allow you to see the presentation and charts in real time. The next workshop is tomorrow (New Years day), and is all about Scenario-based VFR flight planning and communication. It will build upon the concepts introduced in the first workshop. Feel free to come along! Note: PiloteEdge ATC service will be suspended from 4pm PST today (NY eve) until Wed, Jan 2. So, don't be concerned if you don't see us online tonight and tomorrow. All the more reason to come to the workshop instead

A simple solution, I forgot to mention, is that if it's decided that ATC is not a desirable feature, then simply use a non-towered departure and arrival field. That solves a lot of problems instantly. Stay in Class E/G airspace throughout the flight and chat way on TS....should work great for a fun fly-in/fly-out.

Chris, VATSIM controllers will be very happy to have the traffic, IF the traffic wants to participate with ATC. If this is more of a social/casual gathering, OR if not all of the pilots are familiar with ATC interaction, then it's going to get hairy. Limits with teamspeak: - no frequency dialing, it's room-based - becomes a chatroom environment very quickly (not necessarily a bad thing, really depends on what everyone is looking for with the fly-in) - can be hard to juggle between the real radio and TS (if you're flying with ATC). As long as everyone's on the same page, though, it can work fine. Thanks for the feedback, Ryan. Most student pilots struggle with radio, even on CTAF, but it sounds like you have it under control for now. Very good!

Ryan, I see you're working towards your first solo, congrats. I'd actually be stunned if PE didn't help you towards your real flight training. PE costs $14.92/mth if you use the annual subscription option, or $4.95/mth and $2/hr if you use the hourly option. For someone doing flight training, it's usually perceived as being affordable, valuable and should SAVE you money on your flight training, if used correctly. That aside, I understand the desire to have the fly-ins on a free server. PE isn't the place for that. I also think mass fly-ins don't mix well with ATC if the participants aren't already comfortable with ATC procedures from hours of practice under less crowded conditions. In other words, if you're just getting started, a fly-in is a sure fire way to ensure that you have a terrible experience with ATC. If it's just a casual "no ATC" group flight on a multiplayer server, that works fine, but if you add in ATC, it falls apart fairly quickly. VATSIM with no ATC and TeamSpeak for voice would probably be your best bet.

I apologize, that video is too long, really. The really fun stuff starts at around 39:30 out in the desert.

We're going to start promoting the Friday fly-ins on PilotEdge on the home page in the near future, but feel free to start doing your own. PilotEdge supports voice CTAF, so you can choose between towered or non-towered airports, or a combination of both. Pick a time that works, publish it, fly it....see who joins in. It only takes a few people for it to be fun, but it's also helpful to work out the level of realism you plan on using, how much flight planning will be involved, etc. The DTP guys actually meet on their TS3 on Wed to plan a route for the Friday flight. I don't attend due to time constraints, but I try to show up on most of the Friday flights and join in, putting together a flight plan about 45 seconds before the wheels up time. So far, so good

This one moves along a little quicker and shows some basic VOR navigation along airways with a few doglegs using both radios and DME to back it up. Finishes up with vectors for the ILS RWY 8 approach.

This one even has hold music during the IRS align Hot start on right engine during start. Left engine fails during arrival at Vegas (around 29:30)

Javier, the upcoming failure mode is great, but is it normal to have to back the power off so much in cruise to avoid hitting the prop governor limit? If an engine is rated for xxxx hp, is that at sea level and on a standard day? I notice a critical altitude has been set of 15k...meaning it can produce xxxx hp all the way up to 15k, then THEN it starts to degrade. Unless the engine is supercharged/turbocharged, I'm not sure why a critical alt of > 0 has been set.

Ok, finished flight test. At FL250, by around 260KTAS, the prop pitches hit 37.40 and 37.90 respectively and don't move after that. As the speed increases slowly to 280KTAS, the prop RPM slowly increases from 1600 to around 1680'ish and the RPM indicator shows > 100%. So, as suspected, the prop governor is hitting its stop. Either the aircraft is overpowered, the governor needs more travel on the blades, or this is a plane which requires the power to be pulled back significantly once it's in cruise, even at its service ceiling (which seems odd).

With XP 10.11, leveling off at FL250, with EGT and torque below redline, I ran into a case where the RPM would start creeping above 100%. I was first alerted to it when I the audible pitch of the ambient noise started to increase. I zoomed in on the RPM gauge and saw it heading above redline. I had to back the power off considerably, back down to around 180kias to keep it from creeping back up above redline. I verified that it wasn't a governor failure (at least not within X-Plane's core system). Also verified both engines were showing the same behavior. My suspicion is that the min/max prop pitch setting isn't quite right. I'm going to do a test flight now, outputting those values on screen to see if perhaps we're running up against the limit of the governor and it's not able to coarsen the blades any more...effectively becoming a fixed pitch prop. Or, am I missing something obvious? You can see this happen on my existing video: At 43:15 I make the comment about having to pull the power back, with the working theory about the blade pitch issue. If you rewind to the 40:30 mark and watch it for 2mins 45secs, you'll hear the pitch slowly increasing between the shots. You can even see the RPM's winding up very slowly in some of the shots. I'm off to go flight test this more carefully in the mean time.

Thanks. Raw filesize is around 9GB/minute of video (1920x1080p 25fps). I use DXTORY to do my capture. It will capture multiple sound devices (ie, speakers and mic) on different channels, which can be great in post production. I edit with Sony Vegas Studio Platinum 12.0 and output to a 1920x1080 10mbps mp4 file using a 2 pass render process. I then upload that to YT. My intention is to keep the high quality renders to burn to bluray (hence the 10mbps render).

BUR-LAS via VNY9.DAG.CRESO3 (this is the I-5 flight in the PilotEdge Training Program (also available on VATSIM). The video serves as a tutorial for the I-5 flight, but also a demo of the JS32. The JS32 is a lovely airplane, well worth the purchase!

Loved it. Read the manual end to end then flew it and had a wonderful experience. Posting video in the forum now, in fact.

Thanks, I will post more detail on the data refs and save you some time.