The Walker

 The Walker is sort of an add-on for FlightGear that allows a "person" to get in and out of the aircraft and walk about. Hence the "Walker" name. The latest version of Walker has some options, mainly to add accessories such as a flight helmet and shades, or change gender or theme (mechanic, pilot, flightsuit etc.).

Standing on the runway of KSFO watching a B777 takeoff, and fly around like a fighter jet.

  To install the Walker, download it from here and simply unzip the Archive to your fgdata/Aircraft/Generic Folder.

  To add the Walker to your Aircraft (you must do this),  replace the Entry at the top of your -set file with this line:

< propertylist include="Aircraft/Human/Include/walker-include.xml" >

The Keys "a", "A" and "s" have their normal Binding when not in Walk View or Walker Orbit View.


Walker Movement
The Walker gets out by clicking on the "Walker" Menu option "Get Walker out". The direction of movement is controlled with the mouse. He runs forward with the "w" key , backwards with the "s" key. Lateral movement is carried out with the "a" key to the left and the "d " button to the right. Run with "A" . In the Walker Menu you can change Gender and Outfit, and create custom Animations and Poses.

 When I edited it into the C172p, pressing "s" just turns the engine once. As in, it goes "hek" and then stops dead instead of "hekhekhekhekhek". But if I toggle the Walker outside, then pressing s does start the engine, and you get the hilarious view of the plane starting up and then running away from you.

Apparently this is an issue with the C172P only, other planes did not have this problem. The only way to start the plane is to toggle the Walker outside, ie. start from the outside of the plane, like one of those biplanes. Be sure parking brakes are on!!

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.

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.

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 :) .

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.

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.

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

A lone puffy cloud in the empty cloudless sky...

Lonely

Weight, load and distribution experimentaion (Flightgear Cessna 172)

After the eventful flight

 I experimented with the Cessna 172 KOAK to KHAF empty, then load it up with passengers and cargo, and then back to KOAK. The flight to KHAF was fine, but at KHAF I think I loaded up too much passengers and cargo and on takeoff it was barely flying. Using autopilot when loaded is disastrous, as it flew fine.... until it turned into the wind, then all it wants to do is just stall the aircraft, and I spent something like nearly 2 minutes just hovering in the air at less than 60knots with the stall warning siren blaring mucking with the AP until I finally decided to just get rid of AP and flew it manually. And it didn't fly well with that weight until but I committed to get back to KOAK, taxi back to the apron and shut down and offload the cargo and (green faced) passengers. After that, just watching other flights for a while before I quit FG.

First serious flight I've been experimenting with weight, cargo and load. Now I really the kinds of effect it has on everything.

Going Supersonic CitationX

Supersonic! Mach 1

Simulation freezes when I open Route Manager. Resizing the window fixed it, but this happened.

Ghostplane!

Random images of recent flights around San Francisco in Flightgear

Just some screenshots of random flights past few days. I gotten the hang of the CitationX, but the Seneca seemingly trying to fight me all the time, especially during take off and landing. Interestingly, several times one of the engine didn't startup as expected, I have to choke it or something to get it to startup. So naturally I didn't notice that one failed to start the first time (right engine) and took off with a single engine, resulting in yawing, stalling and going into the drink. Subsequent flights I actually checked to see that both engines start up.

Didn't help there was some wind and turbulance on that day too.

Shiny Cupholders! Important equipment in the Citation X

Approaching KSFO - Speedbrake on

Missed approach - go around, pilot sucks

  

Citation X cockpit, at KSFO

A failed takeoff ended in the drink (Piper PA34-200T Seneca II)

Seems all's well at cruise

...and a failed landing

Citation X WBGR > WBGB

I forgot to take screenshots. Here's a beauty shot of a Citation X from FlightGear wiki site.

What's up, internet!

 I have been neglecting this blog lately and for a good reason, I haven't touched FlightGear in a while. Busy with Kerbal Space Program... oh my that was so fun.

 So I learnt yesterday that FlightGear 3 was out and of course I downloaded it immediately.

 First flight I did was with the Citation X, taking off in the early morning (sim time) from WBGR (Miri) and, due to time restraint (it was night and getting late, real time) flew a short distance and landed at WBGB.

 I thought I did pretty well, landing was smooth although I did have to make a few steep turns and the roll & sink rate warning sounded a bit (oops), and did have to make use of the spoilers while in mid-air to slow the plane.

 Random thoughts : The FG3 is far smoother than FG2. And either my skills have improved, or it seems easier to land a Citation X (or it has to do with the smoother simulation).

 Terrain data for WBGR and WBGB is basic. I wished I could make the terrain and contribute scenery data here but I have tried and simply stumped by just how to go about it. Plus, I hardly have time nowadays, but I will figure it out one day.

Don't get conned! Don't buy Flight Pro Sim!

Flight Pro Sim is a copy/pirate of Flightgear. So don't buy this but rather donate/help the FG community. Consider flightprosim.com as a scammer but feel free to discuss such in the forum.

- Why pay $47 for a downgraded copy of a high quality, free, and open-source program?

- FlightProSim does not work on Linux, Mac OS X etc.

- It's not up-to-date like the original. The sources they provide on their "Disclaimer / Terms & Conditions" page: it's just a joke. Where are the sources of all the things they have on their screenshots?



Have also a look here:

http://wiki.flightgear.org/index.php/FlightProSim

A Scenic Flight Ends with Overrun

I was practicing my flying in FlightGear last night and just circling the airport and it was getting late - so, instead of exiting the flightsim I do what any hardcore simhead would do; turn back to the airport, and land.

Land I did. In my hurry to land and go back to sleep, I made multiple mistakes - approaching the airport too high, and as a result I had to basically dive the plane into approach; this came in way too fast to the airport, and made a series of careless turns to align with the runway.

The end result? I went onto the runway with idle engines, but the airspeed still going at 170-180 kias, floated above the runway for a while while the speed bled off, hit the runway unevenly past the midway point, and realizing the brakes were not doing the job I used the parking brakes - and I still went off the runway for quite a distance before I stopped.

Needless to say the CitationX I was flying got stuck in the ground. That was when I exited FlightGear.

If this were real life I would've not only gone off the runway, but hit various obstacles like trees people and buildings. Not good.

Lesson? Don't rush the landings. It would be OK in sims but certainly not OK in real life.

Bombable scripts!

New scripts in FlightGear to enable dogfighting, damage, smokes and effects!

Requires some technical know-how but if that's your thing, you can get it here.

FlightGear Headtracking System

FlightGear with a head tracking system. Awesome stuff!

Changi Airport Oddity

Here's an oddity I found out in FlightGear, Changi Airport (WSSS) of Singapore. Note the floating island runway... if a plane lands there, the passengers have no where to go but to take off again. :D

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.