Morten XPFW

Just a note on the VNAV, predictions etc. Any airline pilot will tell you that the REAL predictions for e.g. TOC/TOD aren't very reliable. The reasons are; 1. Wind, which will always vary locally - often a lot - in both direction and speed. 2. Engine performance which thrust will vary depending on how worn it is up to maybe 2-3%. 3. Weight, the estimated weight in real is never accurate to the real TO weight. So missing TOC with a couple/few miles is completely normal. The discussion of which method is more accurate is therefore somewhat academic. Offcourse in XP we can have 0/steady wind from TO up to cruise, brand new engines all the time, exactly know the TOW etc, but this never happens in real. As for "certified by Boeing" and similar marketing gimmicks, that offcourse doesn't mean anything. The FMC software it is strongly sensitive stuff proprietary to Honneywell or whoever did it. Boeing does NOT give out any information that is classified to 3rd party, nor do their engineers if they wish to keep their job. So if one needs good performance information Boeing is the LAST place to go. We offcourse have the information we need, and we can prove our aircraft is dead on in the ENTIRE envelope. (we use plugins to get the performance we want) As for the IXEG FMC, predictions, VNAV etc, don't worry about it, we have "top men" on the job, and it's almost done ;D

Nothing spectacular hardware, iMac i5 dualcore. With regard to FSX/PMDG vs XP there is nothing stopping us from making a better 737 aircraft, on the contrary, we already have in a couple of areas

Right Tom, the IXEG latest shots are IN SIM ;D Like thisone (click for high res)

Reverse engineering is the only way, like you say, tune-fly-tune-fly. Tailoring the airfoils. With regard to drag, XP has issues so without a plugin you will not get it right.

This is taken in X-Plane. Click for high res!

Thanks - yes everything will be new! M

Recommended setting for this video is HD and high volume &feature=player_embedded

Feel free to post factual information on your products at xplanefreeware.net as well. M

Ground handling is improved by "conventional" methods in PlaneMaker only. This is actually one of the most important aspects of an aircraft design, otherwise your aircraft will be useless in a tiny bit of crosswind. Company logo on coffee cup is offcourse in a separate layer for easy repaint

More fine-tuning of the ground handling and controls. Below is a 30kt Xwind from 90 deg, 5 deg shear, 3 kt gust landing. (Which is the B737 certification limit) 30kt Xwind handling As you can see, not too eventful. Try this in another XP heavy.. M

X-Planes jet engine model will not fit very well on many aircraft. In general, it gives too little thrust at low N1's. Also it has some problems with ram pressure recovery at different altitudes/speeds. As you appear to have noticed, the thrust you should set in planemaker is NOT the published thrust you find on the engine. The published thrust of an engine is usually gaven as MAX TO THRUST at ISA (sealevel, 15C etc) So you need to look into you charts and see at what N1 this is at. The value you enter in XP is at 100 % N1, so it is always higher or lower than published thrust. As for fixing the low end N1, the simple solution is manipulating the N1 instrument to show a lower N1 number. (shifting the thrust/N1 curve) This can be done easy with a generic instrument. If you want extreme accuracy in the entire flight envelope, you need to code a plugin. M

Turns out I will need to run Terminal commands each time I want to use it. Thats too complicated for someone with code-fobia like me

Thanks, The IXEG site will be here; http://ixeg.net/

Trip Report: The search for the perfect XP flightmodel Last weekend I went to Frankfurt to meet up with Jan, our Lufthansa B737CL Captain. Him and I are in charge of the IXEG B737 flightmodel. The main objective for the trip was a session in the real 737 flightsimulator. For me personally this was something I always wanted to do, and for the project, this was a great opportunity to do tests that for obvious reasons can not be done in the real aircraft. Those are edge of the envelope stuff like Roll-rates, pitchrates, engine out performance, beta angles in crab etc. In addition, the general "FEEL" which always has been the big issues of any sim. After having taken many PPL training hours in the Piper Archer III, I found it a lot easier to get the feel right when I later decided to make my Piper Archer in XP. Jan offcourse could tell me how the 737 "feels" but "feel" is not a very scientific term. XP - as most designers know - will not give you the right "feel" if you just put in "real" numbers. So, the only way to get this right is by reverse engineering. This is was our mission this day, get as much data on the controls we old + offcourse have a lot of fun doing it As mentioned earlier in this topic, the current flightmodel of the IXEG 737 is pretty much DEAD ON with regard to the aerodynamics. Lift, drag, thrust, inertia, engine etc etc in ALL phases of flight is so close it's scary. We are hitting all engineering data we have. The only thing missing was the controls related stuff mentioned above. So, before I left for Frankfurt, I took the IXEG 737 through many patterns, landings and takeoff's to be prepared for the real sim. I took it for dozens of circuits, takeoff-landing hands on. Things I knew we were gonna do in the real sim. So, a few hours before the session, we planned the session so that we would be most time-efficient in the sim. Made a list of all the performance related tests we wanted to do first. Then move over to the fun part of flying and "feel". So, after dinner at Jan's house we left for FRA and the Lufthansa Training Center. A HUGE facility! I counted 19 full motion simulators. About 3 for each aircraft type they have. Below we are the in the B737 section which also had 3 sims. Ours was the one in the middle. Delivered by some Canadian company. With a pricetag of around 8-10 mill Euro each thats a bit of hardware.. Jan was to take a FO for LOFT training first and the FO had kindly agreed for me to watch. This session was planned to last about 4 hours. In a briefing room we met the instructor pilot and the fresh FO. For about 30 min they talked about the mission of the evening. The instructor spoke some german dialect real fast so I couldn't follow the details, but I pretty much got the essence of what was going to happen. Tonights events were to happen in and around Nice and Zurich. We then walked into the sim area, Jan and the FO entered their seats with me and the instructor right behind with a good view of what they did. I also had a great view of the instructor panel, so I could see all the tricks that the instructor was planning for the two up in front hehe.. The problems just kept coming and the instructor seemed to love his job and grinned at me every time he pushed a button that added problems for the two up front. - Flap indicator malfunction - Cabin pressure loss - Several engine problems - Lost ILS signal - Windshear on final - Icy runways After watching these guy's deal with all these problems I must really say my respect for pilots has grown. The "flying" part is one thing, but analyzing and making the right decisions under huge pressure in abnormal situations without loosing it was impressive too look at! Jan can probably fill you in with more more about what went on there. After 2 hours of events around Nice, the FO and the instructor needed a break. Jan asked if we could use the sim in the break without motion (hydraulics) and that was ok :dribble: So I jumped into the left seat with Jan on the right and the instructor placed us at Nice for takeoff. Pretty much the same way X-Plane starts, with engines and everything running. Only thing different from XP is that you need to reset all the "hardware" which is still in the same position as one left the previous session. Like flap for landing, spoilers up, parkingbrake on etc. So Jan prepared a few things and started the TO roll. Jan did the speed calls, I rotated and lifted off. So.. I climbed out and almost immediately found the right pitch angle and trim. It all felt pretty un eventful. I guess having hours in the Piper was a good investment! Jan guided me around the right pattern and I landed safely after 5-10 min on 04L. My biggest problems was actually the ground handling after landing. It was extremely sensitive on the steering tiller, but Jan told me the real thing was a lot more stable and easier to handle on the ground - so I didn't take it too personal To save time, I then took off again from the parallel taxiway towards south accompanied by the ###### of the computer stating it was a taxiway. A couple of minutes later, the two other guy's came back from their break while Jan was at the controls and the instructor put on the motion and killed one engine to prank Jan. Bak to LOFT training and an eventful day over the sky's around snowy Zurich. While watching the "pro's" I especially tried to note their handling of the aircraft and get a head start later. Also tried to remember a bit on the workflow. Since my main objective on this trip was focus on the controls, not button-pushing, I didn't really pay too much attention to systems. It was a bit hard to follow anyway since 2 guy's were working simultaneously without telling what they really did, although I mostly had an idea. After they had done the Zurich event, another 2 hrs later we were a bit ahead of time and the instructor asked Jan if they wanted to practice anything in particular. This lead to a series of takeoff and landings with engine out scenarios. GREAT entertaining hehe... (little did I know that I was to try it later). I can tell you, they have about 100 different ways to fail the engine. Anything from a tiny instrument error to the INSANE BANG followed by some shaking and noise that will scare the ###### out of you if you didn't know what was going on.. VERY realistic. Especially the takeoff failures they did, birdstrike etc. "uncomfortable" would be an huge understatement. So the Pro session finally came to an end. The fresh FO did pretty well and the instructor only had a few comments. We did a quick debrief in the briefingroom. Had a few homemade sandwiches and headed back for the highlight of the evening - atleast for me.. . So, we go back to the sims and meet our instructor of the evening who happened to be an A320 pilot. Really nice guy. Since Jan would take care of me with regard to the flying from the right seat, the instructors job will be to run the sim software and put us in the situations we request. In our seats and ready ( Jan right, me left). The first takeoff was really an experience. It feels exactly like the real deal. The sense of speed and motion is incredible. I kind of got out of the count, but during the time I did about - 8 Landings > Calm about 3x > 25 kt xwind > 35 kt xwind > CAT1 (200 fet ceiling) > Engine failure, single engine landing > Night landing - 5 Takeoffs - We did a bunch of planned maneuvers for performance testing. I'll not go into detail on all we did, but the videos will give you a good idea. They are uncompressed for quality, so pretty big files. To save sim time, all went on at Frankfurt Main Airport RWY 25R. All approaches are flown hands on. I'm in the left seat flying, Jan in the right filming and commenting. My first landing (with full motion) : First Landing 25 kits from 90 deg left, coming in with a crab. 25 kt Xwind landing Handflying the ILS down. CAT1 means ceilling at 200 feet (60m) CAT 1 Landing I'll let you judge my landings, but here are Jan's (737 captain) expert comments "All your landings were not only survivable - in fact the airplane would not have taken any damage from them at all. As a matter of fact, I did a lot of landings in real life that were harder than your hardest one, good job. It does really show that you have real-life flying experience, and also have the "numbers" for the 737 at hand. Not many people will do a 35kt x-wind landing like that " :thumbsup: My subjective impressions from the sim session with regard to flightmodel. What surprised me the most was; 1. How heavy the real controls are. Especially in roll! Looking at the roll test video we did, it also appears to be a bit of roll intertia/gyration since when I turn the wheel back/oposite (you can see it) it takes a moment before the acft reacts. and rolls bak. 2. Pitch was also real heavy but I had expected that. I was a bit surprised of the high pitchrate we got on the test on final with flap tho. 3. Rudder was about the same as my Piper, also pretty heavy. According to documentation I have, rudder pedal force needed is about 40kg at Vref on the 737. 4. Throttle travel felt really looong and took a while getting used to. It took a long time for the engine to stabilize after adjusting thrust, several seconds, so you had to look back and forth to check if you had the right N1 after an adjustment. Guess the pilots have this in their "hands" how much to move the lever to get the thrust they want. 5. Extending the speedbrakes didn't really feel much. No attitude change or anything, just a little shake. 6. Pitch trim did pretty much what you wanted it to. 1 click usually took care of it if I was a bit off. 7. Flap extension was pretty much as I had expected from Jan's description. The 30-40 position you really felt on your body increased drag and having to counter pitching on the controls. So all in all, the plane felt a bit more "docile" than I had expected. It was really precise on the controls and was a joy to fly hands on Having just been a passenger on the real 737 to FRA, I got the same exact feeling being a passenger when Jan and the FO were flying. Even the bumps in the concrete felt exactly like real! Flap deployment, rotate etc all felt as in real. Turbulence and sounds etc etc, very realistic. Really thought I was in the real thing after a few minutes. Only part that felt a bit weird was taxi in turns. I got a bit dizzy actually, not sure exactly why, but I think it was something with the visuals. Ground handling seemed over sensitive with the tiller and I had problems making it go straight. About the scenery, it was very nice. The airports were very detailed. The colors seemed a bit desaturated though. Don't remember seeing any trees. It had photoscenery around the airports and major buildings/obstacles/stadiums were modeled. We flew towards a high building and we actually got aural warning of terrain. There were cars moving on the highway. There was AI traffic that the instructor could control. The detail on those was not that good though. A bit out of shape as well it seemed to me. I especially liked the cloud layers and fog, much better than XP. (see CAT movie) Also the wind shear was much better. Unlike XP you could hardly feel it. I think I can guarantee, this is not the last time I did something like this. I strongly recommend it to all simmers if you can afford it. A memory for life (Pluss you can brag you can land a real airliner afterwards ) So when you read this, we already have done the adjustments needed to the controls and the aircraft flightmodel is 99% done. And I can guarantee you, if you do well in the IXEG 737 you WILL do well in the real sim and real aircraft. Happy flying to all.

Ok, think I found a solution in the FAQ page. Assume it's in Terminal one should enter the command..? M

I use the Mac as the base for WiFi. Have other macs + the ipad running wifi through it. No problem. iPad restart didn't help. Have little snitch... Wil try disabling it.

Yes Martin, have the plugin installed. There is no IP address below the "device location services"... R/c button? M

Bought it but cant make it connect to my mac. Probably me missing out on something.

Sorry, wount happen again. With the latest CRJ development in mind, the IXEG team is the largest and most capable group of designers, engineers programmers and pilots on a XP airliner project ever. So loosing one designer would not be fatal. These huge projects take alot of time, years, and alot can happen to those involved. Having few designers like the CRJ will increase development time further which again increases the chance of unforseen things to happen. This is also why we at IXEG develop some of the most critical parts of the project first. Systems, FMC, flightmodel, AP, VC etc. 3D is not as critical, but thats usually what most projects start with... So lets hope the IXEG strategy works

..and acft model length. Example a B737-800 will have a higher Vr/V2 than a B737-700 for the same weight to avoid tailstrike...

My best VATSIM tip; first thing you do after engine start, switch on ANTI-ICE.. . Kind of embarrassing disappearing from radar 30 sec after takeoff. (talking from experience ) M

EHSI sample shots. These shots are taken in the sim! The EHSI will include all modes and pages. As you can see, it might be an idea to start reading the 737 AOM already..

Ok, a few more preview shots. All panel and gauge moving parts will be represented by modelled and animated object geometry and, naturally, be manipulated to match all functionality of the gauges found in the real 737-300. Example; One should not only be able to take basic actions like setting barometric pressure but also, for instance, move the white airspeed bugs on the ASI and switch the target airspeed bug (amber one) between manual and auto mode. Since X-Plane 10 will most likely offer new and more potent ways of lighting geometry in the sim, it's too early to show exactly what panel lighting in the IXEG 737 Classic will look like. This pic is a prototype showing one possible approach to night lighting. The light effects in this pic are "baked" into the object texture and no rendering tricks have been used." We'll upload more previews soon - so stay tuned M

Hi all, I'm VERY happy to get the honor of announcing this project which I know many have been waiting for (In-sim shot, not a render) A new team called IXEG - International X-Plane Engineering Group has been formed to make this wonderful classic aircraft. The team is handpicked for the job, and, as the name indicates consists of mainly engineers which also have very long experience with X-Plane. In addition we have an in-type captain as consultant. I'm sure the Boeing 737 Classic needs no further introductions since most of you probably have been in one. To be a bit more precise, it will be the B737-300. It will have it all, FMC, full plugin driven systems, and the most accurate flightmodel ever made for any heavy in X-Plane. Visually it will be state of the art, so will also the 3D panel with manipulators and whatever v10 might contain of new features. The answer to the question most of you probably are thinking of right now ... ETA is Christmas 2011 M

nrhh, The "wonderful" news is there is a B737 in the works and it will be of "PMDG Quality", I told you a couple of days ago. If you need more details, have a look in a B737 AOM, most of it will be there. About release dates, no serious designers give any. If you find this information pointless, please disregard it. M