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FlightGear and VATSIM

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FlightGear and VATSIM

Postby Koploper9 » Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:13 pm

Hello everyone

To quickly introduce myself, I'm Simon and I'm a VATSIM controller and FlightGear pilot. I like flying FlightGear online on VATSIM with the SquawkGear software etc. I'm just informing the FlightGear and/or SquawkGear developers of something I read on the VATSIM forums. A new Pilot client is about to be released: it is called Swift.

http://swift-project.org/category/about/

Swift is an open-source pilot client that aims to work for most simulators (FSX, P3D, FS9 and XP for the moment). Since it is open-source, just as FlightGear, I thought it might be interesting to inform you. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that anyone should make Swift work with FlightGear, I'm just letting the community know for those interested in improving the way we currently connect to VATSIM.

Kind Regards

Simon
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Re: FlightGear and VATSIM

Postby stuart » Tue Apr 25, 2017 8:47 pm

Hi Simon,

That is very interesting indeed.

I had a look, but it doesn't seem they are quite ready to release their source code yet. I'm sure once it's available we'd be able to integrate it into FlightGear.

-Stuart
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Re: FlightGear and VATSIM

Postby CaptB » Tue Apr 25, 2017 8:59 pm

I hope I will be wrong, but SWIFT was in the works for a long time(2014) already so I would not hold my breath. Also remember that not all of this project is open as I am certain the parts covered by the VATSIM NDA are not.
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Re: FlightGear and VATSIM

Postby Koploper9 » Wed Apr 26, 2017 6:52 pm

They've made a post recently that they're starting the Alpha testing, so fingers crossed. I'll keep my ears open and let you know when I hear news.
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Re: FlightGear and VATSIM

Postby Octal450 » Wed Apr 26, 2017 7:04 pm

Interesting.

My goal is to get my aircraft to work on VATSIM Realistically. Good to keep in mind.
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Re: FlightGear and VATSIM

Postby Johan G » Sun Jul 26, 2020 11:46 pm

Some posts were split off to the new topic Need help installing SquawkBox or SquawkGear.
Low-level flying — It's all fun and games till someone looses an engine. (Paraphrased from a YouTube video)
Improving the Dassault Mirage F1 (Wiki, Forum, GitLab. Work in slow progress)
Some YouTube videos
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Re: FlightGear and VATSIM

Postby AAL545 » Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:20 pm

I have posted this in another forum, same topic but no response.



I have installed the Swift client on my Linux Mint 18.3 which is based on Ubuntu 16.4.
My issue is when I have completed the install wizard the Swift screen does not display or the bootstrap screen if that’s the correct term.
What can be wrong here?


It works on my laptop with MX-Linux and desktop Linux-Mint 19 but not on 18.3!

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Re: FlightGear and VATSIM

Postby AAL545 » Mon Oct 12, 2020 6:25 pm

Never mind above post, upgraded to Linux Mint 20 and it's working now! (There are system requirements and I guess Linux Mint 18.3 is missing some)

Hi GEC1701,
Thanks for the info and help yesterday considering taxi and takeoff.
Regarding my PTT, seems that Swift has no access to my keyboard so I plugged in my yoke and hit the PTT button and works perfect.
The reason I didn't see traffic visually is because I missed a step in the mapping set up, that youtube video helped, thanks again, just visited EDDF as observer and I saw the traffic although the aircraft beside me was off the ground.

Now for my problem, I did a test flight from LEBB to LEBL 6:00 am local time with no ATC active, only 1 traffic 80 nm away, after 15 to 20 minutes or so I received the message "Heartbeat failed 2 times, retrying in 30 seconds"
and after a while a got totally disconnected from the Vatsim network. Any idea what causes that? Is it a Heatbeat failure between the SIM and swift, or Swift to Vatsim?
Also, I used the Germany server instead of local.


Thanks
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Re: FlightGear and VATSIM

Postby tdammers » Tue Oct 13, 2020 8:17 am

Probably an issue between Swift and the Vatsim network. Best course of action when you get disconnected is to just keep FG running, and Swift connected to FG, and reconnect using a different server. Vatsim servers are usually reliable, but sometimes, one of them throws a fit or gets overloaded and can't keep up, and when that happens, you'll get kicked off, sometimes repeatedly. If you do this fast, others on the network might not even noticed you were disconnected, because clients use a timeout to determine who is still there, so it takes a while before you actually disappear from a controller's scope or a fellow pilot's sim.
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Re: FlightGear and VATSIM

Postby AAL545 » Tue Oct 13, 2020 3:31 pm

Vatsim servers are usually reliable, but sometimes, one of them throws a fit or gets overloaded and can't keep up, and when that happens, you'll get kicked off, sometimes repeatedly.


Strange that this has happened two nights in a row when traffic was low world wide. It happened at approximately the same time being online, at about 1 hour or so. I tried reconnecting but no go, I'll try other server like you mentioned.



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Re: FlightGear and VATSIM

Postby AAL545 » Tue Oct 13, 2020 4:06 pm

Other topic.

My latest and first flight on Vatsim with ATC was interesting. I created my route on Simbrief, (KATL TO KMEM) then I clicked on open in Skyvector to convert the route to .gpx. I did everything correctly, copied and pasted the route in Vatsim, clicked on Skyvector to convert the route to .gpx, placed it in .fgfs /Export, loaded it in route manager. Departing on 26L using NASSA TWO (RNAV), ATC advised after takeoff to proceed to snufy, now I'm ready to enter the runway and my route did not go to snufy. What happened correctly was KATL tower had the correct route, rnw 26L/ Snufy and so on. What didn't happen correctly was Simbrief or Skyvector didn't convert the route to .gpx. Snufy was not in the .gpx file but it was in the pdf file. Weird and I don't want this to happen again, sure the heck not on Vatsim even though the ATC was very patient. Note; Snufy was an available fix so I entered manually.
HELP



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Re: FlightGear and VATSIM

Postby LH-1701 » Thu Oct 15, 2020 9:33 pm

Hi Mr. 4955 ;)

Nice to meet u on VATSIM that evening!

For route planning i am using mostly http://onlineflightplanner.org/
It can generate direct .fgfp files, which can be read by flightgear and also .fpl files for some Airbus in FG and the 777 in X-Plane without conversion.

Mostly the routes are usable.

One ATC gave me also a link to this tool: http://grd.aero-nav.com/
The routing is more accurate, but you have enter the routes manually in the FMC or route manager.

tobi
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Re: FlightGear and VATSIM

Postby AAL545 » Fri Oct 16, 2020 6:24 am

Hi GEC1701,

Okay I'll check out those links for the routes.
I'm currently using Simbrief and it works pretty good but like I said you have to double check the .gpx route compared to the pdf. My other question is and I haven't read it anywhere, are there routes that Vatsim ATC will not accept?

My other problem seems to be resolved, I received a Heartbeat error and then got disconnected from the network. I uninstalled Swift and reinstalled, just did a flight from LEBB to LEBL and stayed online. Cross my fingers!!!



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Re: FlightGear and VATSIM

Postby tdammers » Fri Oct 16, 2020 10:43 am

AAL545 wrote in Fri Oct 16, 2020 6:24 am:Hi GEC1701,
I'm currently using Simbrief and it works pretty good but like I said you have to double check the .gpx route compared to the pdf. My other question is and I haven't read it anywhere, are there routes that Vatsim ATC will not accept?


Simbrief is pretty good. What I usually do wrt simbrief routes is open in Skyvector, check if it's OK, strip off the SID and STAR portions, if any, and then export from there.

ATC will generally accept your routing as is, with a few caveats:

- They may assign you a different SID (at clearance delivery) and STAR (upon arrival) - e.g. because the departure runway has changed, or because they are using different arrival routes for operational reasons, or because you selected a procedure that is inappropriate for your aircraft type.
- They will ask you to re-file if your flight plan doesn't make sense (incorrect format, SID not connecting to first enroute fix, etc.).
- They will ask you to change your flight level if you filed wrong (some routes have flight level restrictions, e.g. flights from EHAM into the London metropolitan area cannot file higher than FL240 off the top of my head; and in general, flight levels are assigned by overall direction, so if you file FL320 for an eastbound flight, clearance delivery will probably offer FL310 or FL330 instead).
- Some SIDs, STARs and approaches have aircraft-specific limitations to them: if you file an RNAV approach for a non-RNAV-equipped cessna, the controller will probably tell you nay.
- You can be given DIRECT routings at any time. Usually this is a good thing for everyone involved: you get to your destination faster, and ATC can resolve conflicts without delaying anyone.
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Re: FlightGear and VATSIM

Postby AAL545 » Sat Oct 17, 2020 6:09 pm

I'm still having issues with Heartbeat error and getting disconnected. My flight last night from KMEM to KATL went fine (online for two hours or so) and just pulled up to my gate and got disconnected, I tried everything, tried different server but it seems once I'm at this point I totally have to reset/restart. Did I miss a DBus setup because I didn't do anything regarding that. One thing I noticed is when I go through the config tool, the XSwiftBus setting is set at DBus P2P,
I read this should be at DBus session server, but this is for Xplane isn't it? Nothing in the FG logs that help!!!!


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