Friday, May 30, 2014

Cessna 182RG Dusk Flight off of KOAK

Cessna 182RG Low Light Flight off of KOAK
  The Cessna 182RG in Flightgear is an old model, (as in, from the older versions) and it shows, if only in the cockpit. The interior & cockpit is a bit on the sparse side, but most of the instruments are there, it's flyable and very usable. Be warned that the 182 fixed-gear version has some problems in its FDM. In short, the RG is a better, and actually for me, a joy to fly with.

  To download the RG, you will also need to download the fixed gear version so they would work. It took me quite a while to figure this out...

Some fun buzzing the Golden Gate bridge

High altitude (about 12,000ft) over the Carribeans.

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Random FlightGear Screenshots

Cessna 182RG Skimming the waters under the Golden Gate Bridge 
Cessna 182RG - Somewhere over the Carribeans 
Saab JA-37 Viggen - Finally able to fly it. Turns out with keyboard, return to centre doesn't work. Once I use the mouse, problem solved.

A great landing with the F-16
Approaching Bonny Doon Village. I was actually too low for the approach.

Approaching Bonny Doon Village. Very low. Illusions with horizon, bent and lopsided runway.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Saab JA-37 Viggen (Flightgear Jet Testing)



I've been a test pilot for the Saaba JA-37 Viggen lately. The plane is made by Anders Lejczak (3D model & textures) and Nikolai V. Chr. (Aerodynamics, animations, sound, effects, HUD, coding), and can be downloaded here

Now have to bear in mind this plane is under development, and I probably don't make a good test pilot.

Because:



...I kept crashing it.

Testing is done at KOAK, and embarrassingly, I never really left the airport compound and poked three holes in the area.

So, a little about the plane, for the brave souls who would like to try it out. First off, I wasn't able to control it with a keyboard, I'm sure others have better luck doing so, but the developer did recommend it would be better with a joystick. It requires a long runway, and afterburner takeoffs are recommended.

Being in development there are some minor issues with it, such as afterburner sound stuttering and all, hoping that it would eventually be fixed.

UPDATE : 30th May 2014 - I found the reason why I can't fly it. With a keyboard, the "5" key to reset all controls to center is not there, and because there is also no standard HUD I am not aware the plane controls doesn't reset when I hit "5" on the numeric pad. This explains why the plane is unflyable, as I kept thinking I had reset the controls. (It didn't help that the jet gave impressions that the center key was pressed when I do so mid-turn). Once I found out, and flew with a mouse, the plane was actually completely flyable. I contacted the author of the FDM about this and he said it's been fixed in a new version. I will try it out and blog about it. 


Model :

While the FDM is being sorted out (I'm confident it will be), I will talk about the model. It's a nice model, with nice livery, you have two sets of livery with it, one is the standard gray (I can not remember the names of the liveries!) and the other has a nice camouflage scheme that I quite like. The HUD is standard, showing altitude, attitude indicator and angle of attack, but I can not say how accurate this is to the real jet though, because I hardly know about Saab JA-37 Viggens. The cockpit is a bit sparse at the moment, but all the necessary items for flying are there to use, and with the radar screen(?) in the middle like all jet fighters should have.

Crashing :

I feel I should write about crashing it because I am already an expert. I don't know how others fly it with a keyboard, but I can't, and the jet seemingly won't respond to my key commands. So I just lose control and crash into the ground. The crash not only have an explosion sound effect, it also has the pilot gasping his last breaths. Hmm. Becaue I am an expert at crashing the plane, I came to dread hearing it .  My last few flights, when losing control and about to crash, I just pause and quickly reset it. Didn't want to hear another pilot getting killed :) .

Friday, May 16, 2014

Tired, Confused and a Citation Bravo


So what a night, yesterday.

I was tired from work. And had about 2 hours before sleep to tinker around with some of the planes I downloaded for Flightgear.  One of them is the Cessna Citation Bravo.

At first I tried the Saab JA-37 Viggen. It is a fighter jet that is in development, and honestly, no matter how hard I tried, I could not get it to fly properly (with the keyboard). I will download an update and see if that fixes the problem.

Once that is out of the way, I tried the Cessna Citation Bravo. I think the jet flew rather nicely, very nicely modeled on the outside, and nice cockpit on the inside. Perhaps a combination of fatigue and distractions from reading more about the airplane in the FG wiki, but I wasn't able to land it properly at KSFO, had 2 go arounds. Also, having to chat with the ATC while all this is going on, makes it quite busy.

It wasn't today actually I realized that I should have used the spoilers. And again, the importance of checklists, I suppose..

On the second go around I noticed an F-14 coming up behind me so I aborted the landing and spent the rest of the time just watching what it was trying to do. Sure enough it looks like it was trying to get a shot of me, and at that point I was really tired and just went straight to bed.

Don't fly fatigued :)

What about the Citation Bravo? It's excellent. I feel that it's as good as the Citation X that came with Flightgear, and that it's FDM is slightly on the simpler side (but then again, I've never flown at Citation Bravo). Nicely done, would recommend.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Swapping Out Generic Glider Model for Multiplayer

The default Blue/Yellow glider, used in multiplayer for unavailable aircraft.


 In Flightgear multiplayer, users whose plane models that you don't have will show up in the world as a generic blue & yellow glider to indicate that other players are there, with a plane model that you do not have. These gliders will represent the direction, and pose of the multiplayer planes in real time.

 There are several problems I have with that.. for one thing, it detracts ever-so-slightly from t he multiplayer experience - imagine if ATC asks for you to look out for traffic nearby, and you see this blue-yellow low polygon thing zipping, or hovering through the air. Certainly not visual candy.

  You can actually change the model from the generic blue and yellow glider to whatever model you like.

In the preferences file "preferences.xml
< default-model type="string">Models/Geometry/glider.ac

You can search in the Models folder for an .ac file that you may fancy, for example, replace it with Models/Aircraft/rafale.ac, and all the mp aircraft will show Rafales, improving the experience.

 Personally, there's still something that bugs me and that is, helicopters. If you change the model to a Rafale for example, and one takes off vertically, it also makes it off somewhat. Also, if there is an ATC in the area, they are also represented by these models on top of the tower, then you have a Rafale, or whatever fixed wing aircraft hovering on top of the tower, which looks odd.

 My personal preference is to use the UH-60 helicopter;

change the code from

< default-model type="string">Models/Geometry/glider.ac

to

< default-model type="string">Models/H-60.xml

and you get a UH-60 model, complete with running engines and spinning rotor, and this bumps up the realism a little bit more. In multiplayer, you will have these UH-60s zipping around in the air, hovering or just making those slow movements for those users who use helos, and they will look (almost) totally authentic. The only difference is that some of them take off like a plane down the runway but otherwise, you have a UH-60 hovering over a tower (ATC), it looks totally fine and believable!

Don't remember what aircraft this was supposed to be.

This is supposed to be an Airbus 330-300, an aircraft I haven't downloaded.

A "Clipper". Over MP, it's a UH-60.





Old 1960s Boeing 707 Promo Video


Old 1960s B707 promo video. Seems so relaxed and carefree, those days.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Flightgear Plane Download : 787-8


  I downloaded the 787-8 manually from work and after some difficulty, installed it on my computer at home with a USB drive. Loaded up for a test flight, in its Boeing Dreamliner livery, what a beauty.

  First "test" is to pushback, taxi out into an empty spot, and look through all the cockpit systems, test out the flaps, spoilers, thrust reverse, engine, aileron and rudder. Looks great. Position it on the runway, check flaps, brakes on, throttle up, release brakes, roll down the runway. Awesome. The animations are very nice, the nosewheels turn, on rotation the rear wheels angle upwards.

  Unlike the FG 777, the FG 787 is doesn't jump off the runway with ease, and seems to require a little bit longer runway than the Triple Seven. However, it does get off into the air nicely, and once in the air flies smooth and easy.

  A short round trip in the air and got back in for a landing. I set the autobrakes setting to "2", and lined up nicely with the runway with surprising ease, checked the speed and it's about 140knots. Seemed like my best approache so far, every is right. HOWEVER, upon touch down (a little long, thanks to my flare that kept it in the air for a little bit longer) about a few feet from the runway numbers I activated the thrust reverse, spoilers, added some power, waited for a bit and......

  Wait.... it's not stopping. OK, add more thrust. Brakes. Slowing, but still not stopping.. brake, brake, end of runway is fast approaching... in that panic I activated the parking brakes... but the plane went off the end of the runway.

  So imagine, the 787-8, with the nose poking into scenery just off the runway, and the tail still within airport boundary, slightly nose down position (runway elevation is slightly higher). How embarrassing.

  To save from the situation I thrust reversed out back onto the runway, which must've looked real funny to any bystanders.

  It seems to fly very although obviously I have never flown a 787 IRL (or any aircraft in real life, for that matter), but I'm may have screwed up the approach. Perhaps I let the speed increase during the approach, resulting in my overshoot.

 Comparisons: From what I could see, the 787 has the advanced stuff (such as Electronic Flightbags, Fly-by-Wire, etc.), and a great failure management system but then again I have to get familiar with the plane more to provided a better summary.

Download it here