Hi All,
Over on the -dev list there has been renewed discussion of an aircraft rating system, following on from a proposal I put together in December. This proposal now has some momentum behind it - i.e. aircraft authors are actually using it to rate their aircraft!
There is a wiki page describing the rating system here: http://wiki.flightgear.org/Formalizing_Aircraft_Status
As it says in the article, the aim is to provide a quick, objective (as possible) way for aircraft authors to rate their aircraft. This will help users find the "hidden gems", future FG download pages to filter on different criteria, and also help aircraft developers identify particular areas for improvement. I myself have found it very useful as it has highlighted that the c172p FDM is not as accurate as it could be!
I would like to encourage aircraft owners to rate their aircraft following the criteria in the appropriate -set.xml files. If enough aircraft are rated, we may be able to use this for the upcoming 2.4.0 release in August.
If you have any feedback on the rating system itself, please reply here (or even better on the -dev list). Please don't just edit the wiki page, as a number of aircraft have already been rated, and changing the criteria may impact their ratings!
Thanks,
-Stuart