Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

[de profundis]

This is the link to download the latest version:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lkaqy3kiwu9mr ... 0.pdf?dl=0


An extract from the introduction will give you an idea of what the new tutorial for FlightGear enthusiasts is all about:

This is a cross-country tutorial that aims to take the FlightGear Flight Simulator pilot a step closer to realism in all aspects of a VFR flight. It’s designed for pilots who generally know how to operate aircraft in the FG environment, therefore having read the FlightGear Manual and the excellent tutorials it contains.

What is more in this tutorial is that it focuses a great deal in basic aviation knowledge, the necessary preflight preparations and provides useful information about airport operations, airspace and ATC communications.

Your comments and suggestions are very welcome. You could post them here if you want..

Happy Flying!!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2020 EDIT: I did some basic adjustments to make it look good in the latest MS Word edition.
Six years after the final (3.0) version was created, most of the links are broken. I don't have time to correct them. It should be easy if you try to google any of those and get there...
Also, FG has gone a long way since then, most of which I have missed. I believe that most of the aspects discussed in this document are still relevant.

[radi]

Thanks for you're work, but you'Ve posted a private dropbox link. People can't access this. Post a public dropbox link instead. Check out the dropbox FAQ on how to do this.

[de profundis]

I think I got it right this time (but not with the image as it seems...)
Can you try again?

[Johan G]

..but not with the image as it seems...

You have to link to the image itself, not the page with the image.

EDIT: Wow! That is pretty comprehensive.

[Hooray]

You may want to get in touch with the maintainers of the official FG manual (i.e. Stuart), so that your work can be added to the manual - which will also ensure that your tutorial will be updated, even if you should not be around.

[de profundis]

v 1.01 available from the link in the original post.

just added the 50th page !!
also includes minor corrections here and there but no different content than v 1.00

[Thorsten]

Just had a glance through it - this seems a pretty good resource!

(although FG can look quite a bit better in the area )

[de profundis]

(although FG can look quite a bit better in the area )

This could only mean three things:
a)it goes for the low detail FG screenshots I used -
that is because my low-end laptop cannot keep up with the very nice work the developers are doing with the FG graphics.

b)it expresses there is a lack in similar instructive documentation for FG -
is there?

c)it could be reffering to the tutorial itself and it's quality -
I guess not (since you say "...it seems good...")

so I would go for B...
is there

[Hooray]

no no, don't worry - Thorsten was definitely referring to your screen shots (i.e. A), because he's the "Dr. Eye Candy" around here and doing tons of shader development

[Thorsten]

It's a) as Hooray guessed.

From a broader perspective, it would be desirable if a nice resource like this also showcases FGs capabilities. Say someone googles "VFR guide" because he wants to know something about flight, comes across this and glances through - we'd want to impress here so that user gets curious and tries FG. Back when there were still manuals, all my simulations (Falcon 4.0 for instance) had the highest detail level for all the internal screenshots, not the lowest.

It's something to keep in mind since otherwise the layout is very appealing. We could well have a high-quality simulated scene on the cover for instance.

One thing you may consider is that even if your laptop can render high-quality graphics with 1-2 fps, you can still fly up, switch good graphics on, take a screenshot and switch back. Or use the 'magic' FDM for photo-shooting. As long as it doesn't crash the system...

Well, it's obviously just my suggestion.

[stuart]

Hi de profundis,

That's a very comprehensive and impressive piece of work - congratulations!

I'd be very interested in including this as part of our suite of manuals. I suspect that it's too large to include in the main manual, but I've been thinking of splitting off the tutorials for some time, and this would fit in well with that.

Would you be interested in contributing it to the FG repository? You'd need to ensure that all the text and images are GPL-compatible.

What's the source data written in?

-Stuart

[de profundis]

v 1.21 is out with improved graphs (but not graphics...) and some minor text corrections.
(link in first post)

Your kind words are deeply appreciated, thank you!
------------------------------------------------------------
I used "word" for composing it.
-------------------------------------------
I got the point of illustrating FlightGear graphic capabilities.
The quality of screenshots you see in the document is close to the limits of my system and graphic card. I tried for better but failed...
That may be a silly question but what is "magic FDM" ?
--------------------------
GPL issues need also to be solved. Making it available through the FG package would be wonderful !!
--------

Anyone that would like to help improving this work can message me so we can arrange things.
Michalis

PS Seeing the spectacular job made lately in the scenery and overall graphics of FG, I'm both happy (for this job) and sad (for not being able to buy a better computer - bloody troika !! )

[Thorsten]

The quality of screenshots you see in the document is close to the limits of my system and graphic card. I tried for better but failed...
That may be a silly question but what is "magic FDM" ?

The magic FDM is an unrealistic FDM based on the behaviour a magic carpet might have - essentially you have something like direct control over velocity, vertical speed and the yaw axis. The point being, you can't crash no matter the framerate.

Okay, since I fly in the area your tutorial takes place fairly regularly, I can in principle supply screenshots for the situations in the manual (it might not be immediately, as I have plenty of things to do). Let me know if that is an option.

[Hooray]

I've been thinking of splitting off the tutorials for some time, and this would fit in well with that.

jharri1993 also mentioned being interested in helping with that:
Subject: Fork manual into user guide and installation guides

Ref: http://www.flightgear.org/forums/viewto ... 15#p171105

In this particular article, I broached the idea of forking the manual into two major sections:

• The "User Guide" manual. That is, all of the information about successfully using FlightGear that is not installation related.
• "Installation Guide" manuals - there would be specific and individual manuals for each major operating system supported by FG,
  (i.e. the various 'nix flavors, Mac, Windows, et. al.)

My reason for wanting to do this - at least with respect to the older version of the FG manual I read - is that the installation instructions are a mish-mash of different instructions for differing platforms, with the lion''s share being 'nix-centric.

IMHO, this makes the installation of FlightGear a non-trivial exercise, especially for the non-linux user.

Ideally the installation guides should be expressed simply enough that someone at the "noob" level who wants to give FG a try would have an absolute minimum of difficulty getting FG running, configured, and a plane in the air.

I believe that bifurcating the manual into separate, independent, installation manuals will go far and do much to help overcome this barrier to entry.

Another valuable side-effect of forking out the installation instructions is that it places the various parts of a particular instal in much higher relief; allowing us to spot - and correct - systemic installation gaffe's that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Okay, since I fly in the area your tutorial takes place fairly regularly, I can in principle supply screenshots for the situations in the manual (it might not be immediately, as I have plenty of things to do). Let me know if that is an option.

@de profundis: Thorsten mentions a good idea there, and you could probably use the new "flight recorder" system to exchange scenarios via eMail/download, so that Thorsten would merely need to replay those while cranking up his local rendering settings - that would mean less work for him to recreate situations:


For details, please see: http://www.mail-archive.com/flightgear- ... 38697.html

Another good idea would be committing the replay buffers to git, too - so that future updates can easily reproduce all situations, just by replaying the flights.

It should only take 60 secons to extend the replay dialog such that screenshots can be directly taken, or even automatically created.

[de profundis]

IMPROVING THE FLIGHTGEAR SCREENSHOTS
(THE ONES INCLUDED IN THIS TUTORIAL)

Hello,

In the coming days, I will fly the route -once more- in FG 2.10 to record the flight and post the file here, in this topic.
There is no "flight recorder" option in 2.8.0.5, right?

I will use the same weather conditions and the same aircraft (Piper Comanche), as described in the tutorial.
Are these parameters restrictive to the ones that will replay the recording? For example can someone replay that recording using different weather?
If you can use different weather conditions, it would be nice to have a setup of clouds that illustrates the new "Advanced Weather" features. But it has to be VMC... Then I could also change the tutorials basic weather scenario to match the one used for the screenshots

Directions and instructions for the exact points those screenshots are taken, have been included in the tutorial itself.
There is some text next to the images in the "Flying !" chapter and specific related information in the "Flight Planning" chapter.
Nevertheless, I could provide additional info to pin-point screenshot locations, in case someone has trouble recognizing them (is there a way to do it through the flight recording system?).

Of course, since this flight has been analised in that much detail, all the info is there for anyone to go ahead and make a flight recording or take these screenshots and provide them here so they be included in the document.

Michalis