Thursday, July 30, 2009

How to get Started in FlightGear

Here's a tutorial I did mainly for a friend who's completely new to FlightGear on how to get started off the ground.

1. Press "H" to see the HUD. This gives you a virtual display of the plane's informations such as rudder and aileron position, throttle position, altitude, speed and heading. This would be very useful later on.

2. Assuming you're starting out on the default runway, and the engine has started (use Help > Autostart feature), the first thing you should do is to get power to the engines (we will leave all the preflight check etc for purposes of QuickStart guide). Do this by press PageUp key repeatedly until the throttle reaches about 80%. You can go up to 100%, but this is not necessary because 80% is enough to get you airborne, and most real planes don't go 100% to save on tear and wear and also prevent failures.

3. Once you have the throttle powered up, you will realize that you are now moving along the runway and gaining speed. You might need to correct a bit to the left or right due to wind conditions. The 0 and Enter key on the number pad of the keyboard is the planes rudder. Tap 0 once to correct left a little, and Enter to return the rudder to position. Enter to go right. Remember to return it to center position. Try to stay on the runway, as excursions will destroy the landing gear on some aircraft. Don't worry too much about this part, as the plane will more or less stay quite straight.

4. Usually the take off run is quite short, and you would have gained enough speed to take off. Tap the "Down" cursor key about 3-4 times. This will pull back on the yoke, and your jet will start to liftoff. At first, the front wheel will lift off the ground, but the rear wheels will still be on the ground. Eventually as the plane gains enough lift, the whole plane will be off the ground. Remember to center all ailerons and rudder!

5. Now you're airborne. To slow things down a little, throttle down (PageDown key) to about 60%. Tap the "Up" cursor key one or two times and watch how the plane is. At this point you might need to make a lot of corrections until the plane heads the right way. Now you're airborne! Press "G" to stow the landing gear, climb to a safe altitude (6000 feet would be nice) and get a feel of the aircraft in the air!


Things to remember:

PgUp = Throttle up
PgDwn = Throttle down
Up key = Nose down
Down key = Nose up
Left = aileron turn left
Right = aileron turn right
0 = Rudder turn left
Enter = Rudder turn right

To view your own plane, press the "V" key.

Tap the left/right keys to turn left or right sparingly. Tapping it once or twice to the left, watch the plane make a bank, and centering it, rather than turning it left all the way in a hurry and you don't have enough time to center it until you're tumbling out of control.

Watch the HUD for information regarding your aircraft. It gives you quick information on altitude, speed and various other information that you can't quickly grasp by looking at the instruments.

This tutorial also more or less the same for propeller planes, but be warned, the prop planes may be slower, but they have torque effect that really turns the aircraft into a bank (in midair) or yaw left on the runway! You will need to counter with some skillful rudder action (on ground) or aileron (in air).

Check out this page for more tutorials

X-Plane 9 Simulator



Here's a nice video of X-Plane, one of the best simulators available for the home computer!

Practice on Approaches

I got to work more on my approaches. It seems that my trouble with most jets is that I tended to stall the aircraft on final approach because I came in too slow, dip a wing and poke a hole in the ground just yards away from the runway. -_-

Recovery with the keyboard to apply throttle is far too slow to react to the stall.

Just as bad, I overshoot the runway more than once too. Again, slow throttling with the keyboard means that I land in someone's backyard instead of the airport runway instead of going around.

I have most fun with the propeller Cessna 172p on FlightGear though, I can land it from any position in the air onto a runway nicely without any sort of problem at all, even in crosswinds.

Monday, July 27, 2009

FlightGear Video

For those who don't know what FlightGear is, here is 2 nice videos:



Funny exchanges between pilots and control towers

Tower: "Delta 351, you have traffic at 10 o'clock, 6 miles!"
Delta 351: "Give us another hint! We have digital watches!"

___
Tower: "TWA 2341, for noise abatement turn right 45 Degrees."
TWA 2341: "Center, we are at 35,000 feet.
How much noise can we make up here?"
Tower: "Sir, have you ever heard the noise a
747 makes when it hits a 727?"
___

>From an unknown aircraft waiting in a very long takeoff queue:
"I'm f...ing bored!"
Ground Traffic Control:
"Last aircraft transmitting, identify yourself immediately!"
Unknown aircraft: "I said I was f...ing bored, not f...ing stupid!"
___
O'Hare Approach Control to a 747: "United 329 heavy, your traffic is a Fokker, one o'clock, three miles, Eastbound."
United 329: "Approach, I've always wanted to say this..
I've got the little Fokker in sight."
___

A student became lost during a solo cross-country flight. While attempting to locate the aircraft on radar, ATC asked, "What was your last known position?"
Student: "When I was number one for takeoff."

___

A DC-10 had come in a little hot and thus had an exceedingly long roll out after touching down.
San Jose Tower Noted: "American 751, make a hard right turn at the end of the runway, if you are able.
If you are not able, take the Guadeloupe exit off Highway 101, make a right at the lights and return to the airport."

___

A Pan Am 727 flight, waiting for start clearance in Munich , overheard the following:
Lufthansa (in German):
" Ground, what is our start clearance time?"
Ground (in English):
"If you want an answer you must speak in English."
Lufthansa (in English):
"I am a German, flying a German airplane, in Germany .
Why must I speak English?"
Unknown voice from another plane (in a beautiful British accent):
"Because you lost the bloody war!"

___

Tower: "Eastern 702, cleared for takeoff,
contact Departure on frequency 124.7"
Eastern 702: "Tower, Eastern 702 switching to Departure.
By the way,after we lifted off we saw some kind
of dead animal on the far end of the runway."
Tower: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff behind Eastern 702, contact Departure on frequency 124.7.
Did you copy that report from Eastern 702?"
BR Continental 635: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff, roger;
and yes, we copied Eastern...
we've already notified our caterers."

___

One day the pilot of a Cherokee 180 was told by the tower to hold short of the active runway while a DC-8 landed. The DC-8 landed, rolled out, turned around, and taxied back past the
Cherokee.
Some quick-witted comedian in the DC-8 crew got on the radio and said,
"What a cute little plane. Did you make it all by yourself?"
The Cherokee pilot, not about to let the insult go by, came back with a real zinger:
"I made it out of DC-8 parts. Another landing like yours
and I'll have enough parts for another one."

___

The German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot. They not only expect one to know one's gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that we (a Pan Am 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways 747,
call sign Speedbird 206.

Speedbird 206: " Frankfurt , Speedbird 206! clear of active runway."
Ground: "Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven."
The BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop.

Ground: "Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?"
Speedbird 206: "Stand by, Ground, I'm looking up our gate location now."
Ground (with quite arrogant impatience):
"Speedbird 206, have you not been to Frankfurt before?"
Speedbird 206 (coolly): "Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark, --
And I didn't land."

___

While taxiing at London 's Gatwick Airport , the crew of a US Air flight departing for Ft. Lauderdale made a wrong turn and came nose to nose with a United 727. An irate female ground controller lashed out at the US Air crew, screaming:
"US Air 2771, where the hell are you going? I told you to turn right onto Charlie taxiway! You turned right on Delta! Stop right there. I know it's difficult for you to tell the difference between C and D, but get it right!"

Continuing her rage to the embarrassed crew, she was now shouting hysterically: "God! Now you've screwed everything up! It'll take forever to sort this out! You stay right there and don't move till I tell you to! You can expect progressive taxi instructions in about half an hour, and I want you to go exactly where I tell you, when I tell you, and how I tell you! You got that, US Air 2771?"

"Yes, ma'am," the humbled crew responded.

Naturally, the ground control communications frequency fell terribly silent after the verbal bashing of US Air 2771. Nobody wanted to chance engaging the irate ground controller in her current state of mind. Tension in every cockpit out around Gatwick was definitely running high. Just then an unknown pilot broke the silence and keyed his microphone, asking:
"Wasn't I married to you once?"

Sunday, July 26, 2009

FlightGear Logo



These are two logos I design as part of my contribution to FlightGear (since I can't contribute in terms of coding or stuff like that). However, it's not the real logo, it's just a proposal.

Personally I think it looks too much like the Boeing /McDonnell Douglas / NASA logo to be original. Perhaps it needs to be more imaginative. What do you think?

The HondaJet


The HondaJet is a beautiful aircraft - most jet planes are considered very pretty, but nothing is as spectacular as a HondaJet, it looks so futuristic, and is indeed technologically advanced compared to its rivals in the small business jet class. The engines are unconventionally mounted on the specially made wings, and this configuration gives it 30% more fuel efficiency than other jets of the same class.


To think that such a design came from a car/motorbike/motor manufacturer with previously no aerospace product experience is even more impressive.

The HondaJet in FlightGear.

The HondaJet is modelled quite accurately to the prototype HondaJet in the real world. However, there are some key differences, one is that the cockpit panels in FlightGear are quite sparse and quite different from the real HondaJet, as can be found on pictures over a simple Google search. The yoke is missing and so is the throttle. However, cckpit information is basic enough, but I find that I have to use the HUD from FlightGear for more information such as throttle and yoke input.

The engine noise outside and in the plane is the same. Perhaps there needs to be some improvements there.

When flying, the HondaJet is a very stable aircraft and some of the performance numbers are quite accurate to Honda's figures, but I think I can find some inconsistencies but this is nitpicking. The only gripe I have is that on approach, I tended to overshoot, because with the flaps and gear down it seemingly does not induce enough drag. Then again, no one else has flown the HondaJet before so I cannot verify that this is accurate or not.

FlightGear's autopilot works very well with the HondaJet, it responds in a very stable manner and keeps the plane at the correct altitude, pitch, heading, ascend/descend rate very well. However, changing autopilot inputs (such as ascend rate to altitude hold) causes the autpilot to overreact and oscillate the plane up & down. So changing the AP inputs should be done in small increments(eg changing ascend ratefrom 2000 ft per minute to 1000, then 500, then switching over to Alt hold will suffice) . Overspeeding will oscillate the autopilot as well, and at high altitudes, I have seen the plane tumble wildly out of control due to overspeeding and the fact that I left the simulation for a cup of coffee on more than one occasion.

Otherwise, the plane flies very well and is one of my favorites to fly with.

According to the downloads section, the model is made by Emmanuel Baranger and Tatsuhiro Nishioka. Unfortunately I do not have more information on this, and I cannot find the respective authors' web site on the plane. Hopefully there will be some updates to the plane for the cockpit, yoke and moving map like in the real HondaJet.


UPDATE 5th June 2014: The HondaJet has been taken down by Honda! Honda
has sent a takedown request to FlightGear developers, as it "infringes on Honda's trademarks". The FlightGear team is saddened by the request but saw no other option than to take down the aircraft. Initially, the idea of challenging the request might have crossed his mind, but in the end the safest option was take the aircraft down.***
Bad move, Honda! I wonder if the lead designer for HondaJet knows about this, or the lawyers did things that he did not know about?

You can no longer download the jet from FlightGear's web site here or here.

Some nice read on the HondaJet here.

Honda's official web site on the HondaJet here.