Board index FlightGear Development Documentation

Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

Discussion of the FlightGear documentation, how it can be improved and coordination of people working on it.

Re: Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

Postby jharris1993 » Fri May 31, 2013 3:57 pm

de profundis wrote in Fri May 31, 2013 10:30 am:Attention all Airmen:

the FlightGear Cross-Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

has reached 2.0 status

(snip)

the link for 2.0 is in the opening post of this thread

dp



I dug those two seconds outta my pocket, downloaded the new manual, and it is so righteous and excellent that my jaw hit the floor.

The superlative detail, and the depth of De-Profundis' explanations of what could be very confusing aeronautical concepts is excellently done, and I feel more like I'm taking a well prepared class rather than just reading some obscure flight-simmers document somewhere.

The typical, run-of-the-mill aeronautical document of this kind, is usually written for someone with several thousand hours in the air, has been around the block a few times, and is well steeped in all of the usual aeronautical "air-speak" gobbledygook, leaving the rest of us wondering what the &*#^! just happened.

By comparison, De-Profundis' tutorial is written in simple enough language that someone who is interested in flying, (and knows the difference between the rudder and the propeller), can pick up his tutorial, begin reading, and feel right at home. The illustrations and notes are both simple and complete. He gives you enough knowledge to understand the complex concepts involved, without overwhelming you in details.

At the same time he carefully avoids the pitfall of talking down to his audience. By comparison, the tone of the tutorial is that of an old flying buddy passing along tips and techniques the way fliers have done for generations. Instead of being made to feel stupid, you feel that your flying buddy has given you a pat on the shoulder, complemented you on your flying skills, and invited you into that inner-circle of experienced flyers everywhere. He's invited you into the cockpit, and is carefully showing you how to get from here to there with a minimum of trouble and a maximum of airmanship and skill.

As something of a writer myself, I realize the skill required - not just to write the tutorial itself, but to write it in such a way that the reader feels included and complemented - is a rare skill indeed, and one that is sorely lacking in the writing community at large. (And this is a skill that I, myself, as a writer still struggle with.)

In short, this tutorial has earned an honored place in my collection of Flight Sim documents, and if you have not yet read it, I encourage you to do so.

Jim (JR)
Last edited by jharris1993 on Sun Jun 02, 2013 10:41 pm, edited 4 times in total.
What say ye?

Jim (JR)

Some see things as they are, and ask "Why?"
I dream things that never were, and ask "Why Not".

Robert F. Kennedy

“Impossible” is only found in the dictionary of a fool.
Old Chinese Proverb
jharris1993
 
Posts: 154
Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2012 10:20 pm
Location: Worcester, MA. / Moscow, Russia
Callsign: $%^&ing Idiot!
Version: Whatever..
OS: Win-10/ Linux MInt

Re: Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

Postby de profundis » Sun Jun 02, 2013 9:34 pm

there is not much to say after such kind words that I could never imagine!

Ever since I met FlightGear, last summer, I wanted to contribute somehow, but I'm no programmer and my computer knowledge is limited to the basics.
I hope people will enjoy reading and practicing with this guide as much as I had enjoyed completing the official manual's tutorials.

By the way, is there someone who has completed this tutorial and would like to share his/her experience ?? (aircraft used / weather etc)

Michalis
Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide all that's VFR and more...!
de profundis
 
Posts: 68
Joined: Fri Jun 08, 2012 3:18 pm
Location: Greece
Callsign: SX-ATM M-J4MC
Version: 3.4
OS: 8

Re: Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

Postby jharris1993 » Sun Jun 02, 2013 10:30 pm

BTW, if you - or anyone else on this site for that matter - wants to put up a blurb about the manual somewhere else, feel free to use my comments as a review with this one caveat: They should be included verbatim and should be properly attributed including a link back to this topic. (However, if you choose to skip the first like about my jaw hitting the floor, that's OK. . .)

Fair enough?

Jim (JR)
What say ye?

Jim (JR)

Some see things as they are, and ask "Why?"
I dream things that never were, and ask "Why Not".

Robert F. Kennedy

“Impossible” is only found in the dictionary of a fool.
Old Chinese Proverb
jharris1993
 
Posts: 154
Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2012 10:20 pm
Location: Worcester, MA. / Moscow, Russia
Callsign: $%^&ing Idiot!
Version: Whatever..
OS: Win-10/ Linux MInt

Re: Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

Postby openflight » Tue Dec 10, 2013 3:41 am

I went through your manual, three comments:

-Very good graphics
-Try to make the language a little more formal
-Cross check all info with a real Flight Instructor if possible

Hope you don't mind the criticsim.

That said, the manual is one of the nicest I have seen, good work.
openflight
 
Posts: 487
Joined: Fri Sep 16, 2011 12:14 pm
Version: 1 2 2018
OS: Linux Mint 19.3

Re: Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

Postby de profundis » Thu Dec 12, 2013 4:18 pm

openflight wrote in Tue Dec 10, 2013 3:41 am:I went through your manual, three comments:

-Very good graphics
-Try to make the language a little more formal
-Cross check all info with a real Flight Instructor if possible

Hope you don't mind the criticsim.

That said, the manual is one of the nicest I have seen, good work.

hi there,

your comments are welcome and that's a major purpose of this thread: to comment and suggest improvements on the document.
that tutorial has not been updated since the summer but I want to find time and do some refreshment at some point...

english is not my native language (greek is) and eventhough I can say I am proficient in english, I don't know if I can do much better than what you saw in those pages.
are there any specific parts, paragraphs, lines or words that you think I could express better?

I am no pilot. just an enthousiast that has spent much time getting educated in aviation. opinion and advise coming from CFIs, licenced pilots or controllers is always valuable and makes one better. but keep in mind these two things:
--this document is compiled mostly from handbooks and other data provided by the FAA in their website
--the usual cliche "...not for real aviation..." is there for a reason. I made it having in mind only the flight-simmers (despite that, aviators from my hometown's club of Chania Crete, decided to post the link for the tutorial in the club's webpage and have asked me to do similar work for a cross-country in the region). the data it contains is valid and sufficient for the simmers, but there is only my word for it. as I said, I would appreciate any corrections or suggestions and this thread is just the right place for anyone who would like to do so.

michalis
Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide all that's VFR and more...!
de profundis
 
Posts: 68
Joined: Fri Jun 08, 2012 3:18 pm
Location: Greece
Callsign: SX-ATM M-J4MC
Version: 3.4
OS: 8

Re: Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

Postby Hooray » Thu Dec 12, 2013 5:10 pm

it would be great if you could make the "source code" for this available to the project, so that it can be committed to the base package - the PDF file is obviously great, but more difficult to maintain over time - we've had quite a few contributed PDFs that ended up being really difficult to maintain - in the long run, it's always better for such contributions (and the project!) if they're directly contributed back to the project, so that others can help maintain things over time - you may have noticed that there's something called "The Manual" - this is also largely gathered from other resources, including the wiki, but also other tutorials - and if possible, I would suggest to get in touch with the maintainers of the manual, to see if/how your work can be incorporated - while the manual is being maintained in LaTex, and you seem to have used MS Word, it's still possible to merge things - and it would ensure that your great work is going to be maintained by others in the future, in case you shouldn't be around.

Stuart has previously indicated willingness to merge anything, as long as it's "machine-readable", including plain-text - so a MS Word document would seem just fine :-)

Doing this will also ensure that your PFD will not suffer from lack of updates, as can be seen in many other FG tutorials that are floating around, where often even screen shots from 1.9 are used.
Please don't send support requests by PM, instead post your questions on the forum so that all users can contribute and benefit
Thanks & all the best,
Hooray
Help write next month's newsletter !
pui2canvas | MapStructure | Canvas Development | Programming resources
Hooray
 
Posts: 12707
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:40 am
Pronouns: THOU

Re: Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

Postby de profundis » Fri Feb 07, 2014 8:53 pm

version three point zero available
in the opening post of this thread

although it may seem identical to the previous version,
this one contains many updates, reflecting recent improvements in FlightGear and improvements or corrections in the text
I've included "sticky notes" to help those already familiar with the tutorial, spot them differences.
have a look at the changelog (also in the opening post)

many happy landings
dp
Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide all that's VFR and more...!
de profundis
 
Posts: 68
Joined: Fri Jun 08, 2012 3:18 pm
Location: Greece
Callsign: SX-ATM M-J4MC
Version: 3.4
OS: 8

Re: Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

Postby gsagostinho » Sat Apr 25, 2015 1:33 pm

This is a really nice guide, thank you so much for sharing it with the community!
User avatar
gsagostinho
 
Posts: 1806
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2015 7:27 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

Postby Catalanoic » Sat Apr 25, 2015 2:05 pm

I have a question, there're a tutorial part 1, or why II in the title? Nice guide, i will take a look, thankyou!!
User avatar
Catalanoic
 
Posts: 1099
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:33 am
Location: Barcelona (LEBL)
Callsign: Catalanoic
Version: 2017.3
OS: Lubuntu/Windows 7

Re: Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

Postby de profundis » Sat Apr 25, 2015 3:37 pm

the number one / first VFR cross-country tutorial is in the FG manual
so I think of this one as a continuation
and I wanted the title to reflect that
Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide all that's VFR and more...!
de profundis
 
Posts: 68
Joined: Fri Jun 08, 2012 3:18 pm
Location: Greece
Callsign: SX-ATM M-J4MC
Version: 3.4
OS: 8

Re: Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

Postby legoboyvdlp » Sat Apr 25, 2015 4:29 pm

Maybe a non Dropbox link? I really have to sign up for dropbox
User avatar
legoboyvdlp
 
Posts: 7981
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:28 am
Location: Northern Ireland
Callsign: G-LEGO
Version: next
OS: Windows 10 HP

Re: Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

Postby de profundis » Sat Apr 25, 2015 4:39 pm

just closing that pop-up window asking you to sign in to dropbox, will do
(otherwise tell me)
Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide all that's VFR and more...!
de profundis
 
Posts: 68
Joined: Fri Jun 08, 2012 3:18 pm
Location: Greece
Callsign: SX-ATM M-J4MC
Version: 3.4
OS: 8

Re: Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

Postby legoboyvdlp » Sat Apr 25, 2015 6:39 pm

Thank you a million!
User avatar
legoboyvdlp
 
Posts: 7981
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:28 am
Location: Northern Ireland
Callsign: G-LEGO
Version: next
OS: Windows 10 HP

Re: Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

Postby sanhozay » Sat Apr 25, 2015 8:28 pm

8) Great resource and really professionally put together.

Note the C337 has a working transponder these days so you might want to look for another example for p16.
sanhozay
 
Posts: 1207
Joined: Thu Dec 26, 2013 12:57 pm
Location: EGNM
Callsign: G-SHOZ
Version: Git
OS: Ubuntu 16.04

Re: Cross Country Tutorial II - a VFR guide

Postby wkitty42 » Sat Apr 25, 2015 11:42 pm

i just pulled this again thinking that it was another update/version... seems that i already had 3.0 from February 2015... hard to tell from the filename... i thought i had 1.0 and 2.0 but... oh well...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
User avatar
wkitty42
 
Posts: 9123
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:46 pm
Location: central NC, USA
Callsign: wk42
Version: git next
OS: Kubuntu 20.04

PreviousNext

Return to Documentation

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests