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Showing posts with label business jets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business jets. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Going Supersonic CitationX
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
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
Sunday, July 26, 2009
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?
Some nice read on the HondaJet here.
Honda's official web site on the HondaJet here.
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