Litjan

It seems to work that way, sometimes. The whole "bird scaring" thing is a bit of a mystery - some people believe that they can sense the radioenergy of the weather radar, and one Italian airport even asked pilots officially (LIPE, iirc) to use the wxr radar even in good weather to test the theory. Jan

Hehe, guys, I hope everyone realizes that this thread is ment to be just a fun diversion - no need to give Vantskruv bad rep! Anyway, I am intrigued by the early use of astronomical data for navigation, and I recommend the book "Longitude" by Dava Sobel - a great read about the problems that early navigators faced. Of course you would have to be a very adept user of a sextant to navigate your way through a typical Italian SID, plus have clear skies . I think the 707´s and some military planes used to have that skyport necessary for that? Jan

It´s a replica of the paint-stripe on the spinner. We figured we should put it on the vertical stabilizer as well, so we have less bird strikes from severly myopic birds that hit the tailfin when the plane is parked somewhere!

We can do that, but first we have to build a model of all visible stars, sun and moon, so you can use the correct almanac data. This would take....about 2 years.

FO seat? Me?

You think right

It´s starting to wear on me that we only have 5 or 6 737s left at Lufthansa. Last flight is planned for something like October, and I really hope they will throw a farewell party, but for some reason I doubt it. I start taping and taking pictures of all the 737´s I see, my Copilots think I am crazy . Just yesterday I saw our newest model, D-ABEF! (Only a little over 20, still a youngster!). And what do we get to replace them? NEO´s... what a nightmare. Jan

See guys, this shows you how hard Tom is working on this and not browsing the forums all the time . We did indeed say that we want to release the tutorial videos prior to release, and I think that is still the plan. I am not going to stick to the time-frame of "4 weeks", though, we might show them in a faster succession. But we are not going to start the video run until we are satisfied that we have a gold candidate, and as Tom said we are not quite there, yet. Cheers, Jan

This is symbology we have in there for now to help with debugging. Later on there will be only one T/D. DCL means "decelerate" and denotes points where a speed-change is scheduled. Jan

Technically, thats not quite correct . Just like the real weather radar we depict radar-energy returns. Radar energy will be reflected by liquid water (rain) and by the solid ground (in varying strength, depending on the reflectivity). There will be a tutorial video that shows how to use the weather radar (overscanning, underscanning, ground returns, shadowing, etc.) Jan

Hi Jonas, I would love so, too. But unfortunately in V1.0 all you will hear is "traffic, traffic" (we replaced the default "TCAS alert!" sound from X-Plane). There is no symbols, resolution commands, etc. Jan

Unfortunately we won´t be able to feature the "database" holds for the many enroute holdings published, though.The holds that we have are part of procedures, for example at the end of most missed approaches. But we don´t do (YET!) the enroute holdings where you click on HOLD, enter the relevant fix, and then the database "suggests" the correct holding with inbound course, turn direction, etc. We definitely want that - if the database supports it - but for now you would just have to hold "manually", using the EHSI map. Of course you can use the FIX page already to draw the fix to hold at and the inbound radial, that helps a lot with situational awareness. The holding function is on the very top of the list for stuff post 1.0, so I expect us to tackle that right after the worst glitches you guys will certainly find are fixed. Jan

That is noted. Thanks for the feedback! Jan

I am working on that... just about 800 guys ahead of me. Give me a few years... Jan

Oh, NOW you are telling us... We actually came up with a solution quite similiar - we will allow entry at all enroute waypoints, but based on total distance along the route we will assume they are "climb" or "descent" restrictions. There is the chance that you ment a restriction to be a "climb" one, and we interpret it as a "descent" one (based on proximity to T/D), but then there is only so much mind-reading that the FMS is able to do. Some pilot sanity is required ;-) Jan

Well, I think the most important asset is that you have to be exceptionally good-looking! Jan

I think Tom meant that he won over me - speedy answer. You are right - usually ATC wouldn´t add a restriction that far out of their jurisdiction. But what if the pilot thought "oh, I know these guys, they always want me to be at FL240 at KERAX already (this is a real-world situation!), I will just put that in right now, so the FMS gives me some warning on when to descend AND an accurate fuel prediction for EDDF...

Yes, but what if you entered "At or Below 6000" really close to the end of your 2000NM route (last waypoint before the STAR starts)? While you are still sitting at the departure airport? Would you want the plane to fly at 6000 feet for 4 hours (its not very fast at 6000´) for the whole route? Edit: Tom beat me to it!

I have never flown to Innsbruck - sadly - but usually visual approaches or "circling with prescribed tracks" are also allowed at night - unless the AIP says otherwise. Then you´d find something on the chart like "daylight only". You need to have the airport in sight and be familiar with the terrain. And you also need to display some common sense and good airmanship if you want to live long enough to reap in your pension one day, so a visual approach on a moonless night in a tight-quarters valley is something that I wouldn´t do (outside X-Plane ;-) ). The landings lights only shine ahead far enough that you will be able to see if you crash into trees or barren rock... Jan

Hehe, that is our problem - we don´t know! I have never done that in 10 years of flying it - as there would be no reason to have a restriction at an enroute waypoint. But I know some of you guys will do so, so we need to cover it. Jan

The sad part is that she is absolutely right... Jan

This doesn´t even happen in real life all too often, so don´t get your hopes up . Jan

Yep, thats how my instructors tried to justify it as well ... some people said that Airbus picked design choices opposite to Boeing´s to both establish themselves as "nouvelle", and also to avoid lawsuits. No idea if that is true. Jan

Yes, this is the way for the TCAS to show the correct vertical speed to fly in a RA situation. More modern aircraft depict a "keep out zone" like a trapezoid in the EADI, or a "green and red" zone in the vertical speed indicator on the EADI (Airbus). Jan