A380

[Aeroboy]

Does anyone know how ot start it up?

[Vladimir Akimov]

Just follow the same things as on the other aircrafts

[IAHM-COL]

This tutorial: http://wiki.flightgear.org/A380_Tutorial
Gets you going

[Flying toaster]

I was wondering what the indicator next to the flaps-indicator was on the PFD, so I can add that to the PFD in FlightGear.

The indicator is the pitch trim only displayed for take off and touch and goes.
The black and white stripes are meant to indicate the sense of motion of the trim since the scale moves against a fixed pointer and it can be counter intuitive.
Yes there are no trim wheels on the A380, and most of the time you won't need them since the trim will be set according to the CG entered in the FMS as soon as the hydraulics are powered.
If you happen to change that information after engine start, then you need to adjust the trim manually with the switches.
You also need to wait for the trim to reach the green band if you make a touch and go before declaring a go (btw the target is not displayed after landing, only the green band).
If the trim is out of the green band a red label appears if you advance the throttle in that condition you get a warning (continuous repetitive chime etc ...)
if the trim is inside the green band but not on target, you get an amber indication of the trim position (in CG units). If you advance the throttle in that condition you get a caution (single chime).
Once airborne, the trim indicator is removed, and replaced by any limitations that may appear due to a failure...
Hope it helps

[joster m]

so were can you download this new a380

[massima]

From here https://github.com/FGMEMBERS/A380, then click on download zip.

[IAHM-COL]

that's not "Omega's" (The new)
This is Omega's
https://github.com/FGMEMBERS/A380-omega

I've heard Omega version is very incomplete yet and many things not as functional.
The classic A380 is a good aircraft, thou it is the same as in other downloads (mostly). FGMEMBERS contains some small fixes and all liveries pre-installed.

[massima]

Sorry

[IAHM-COL]

not a prob.
Just trying to correct the exact download.
In any case, searching in FGMEMBERs for A380 shows both, so its pretty straighforward

[Lydiot]

Does anyone know how ot start it up?

This tutorial: http://wiki.flightgear.org/A380_Tutorial
Gets you going

Does it really though?

I have to say that I'm getting more and more frustrated with FG and aircraft development and documentation as a whole. Before I get into it let me just reiterate that I hugely appreciate everyone's contribution. Here are a couple of issues though:

If I click on the above link and go to "startup" from the menu, the first thing it talks about is closing cargo doors. But if I just started the simulator they're not open, right? So it's really not the right order of things. Ok, so I skip that and move on to "Before Start Checklist". "Take-off data"? Ok. What if I just want to start up the plane, give it some roll on the runway to see how it behaves? I don't even know what "Take-off data" is. So I skip that as well.

Next up is the guide talking about selecting "TO" on the "MCDU". I don't know what that is so I do a "find on page" and see that it stands for "Multifunction Control Display Unit", but the sentence reads "The MFD and KCCD combination would be one unit in previous Airbus aircraft (ie: A320, A330, A340) and called a Multifunction Control Display Unit (MCDU) ", meaning it isn't in this aircraft. So now I'm confused.

I think I understand enough about aircraft however to understand that the MCDU, or the MFD+KCCD would be devices running on power. So really I need to be started up to access these. So now I gather that this whole "before startup" section is really at least partially "before takeoff but after startup". And quick browse down some other items shows that more stuff, like lights, are supposed to be selected, though I'm guessing they can't until the aircraft is started up.

Ok, so I just skip this whole section then and go to the headline "Automatic Startup Procedure". Sounds like exactly what I want.

"1. click with left-mouse-button ENGINE START to IGN START on the overhead panel"

I do. FG crashes. So now I'm at a loss.

It struck me that I have no idea if this is because I'm running the wrong version relative to the instructions on the wiki page, because the wiki page doesn't say. I'm running the Omega version. And it just leads me to the other thing which is that it doesn't seem that there is any place that indicates where one can find what versions, and which versions which wiki pages refer to etc. What's in the git? What's on the official website? Do I have to actually download every version I come across and cross-reference file names to verify that the ATR 500 I'm using is version X by author Y instead of version Z by author Y&P?

At times I find all of this a bit frustrating, not to mention that so many aircraft maintainers/builders/designers/whatever seemingly just do things on their own as opposed to integrating functionality by others..... but that's a broader topic I suppose.

So, anyone have an idea of why I'm crashing?

And does anyone know if there's a place where I can find out not only what versions of the a380 exist but what the difference is between them? Not sure I got that much out of this thread, but perhaps I missed something (?).

[IAHM-COL]

No idea.
But I can tell you: these are the available A380

In FGMEMBERS:
https://github.com/FGMEMBERS/A380
https://github.com/FGMEMBERS/A380-omega

In official download page
ftp://mirrors.ibiblio.org/pub/mirrors/flightgear/ftp/Aircraft-3.4/A380_1.2.zip

In FGAddon:
http://sourceforge.net/p/flightgear/fgaddon/HEAD/tree/trunk/Aircraft/A380/

There is no "easy" way to know the differences, but if you have linux consider using diff
http://linux.die.net/man/1/diff

Finally, since I really use to like this aircraft I am going to be giving the A380 in FGMEMBERS (not omega) an spin to test if it works and I can Still get it going

Best,
IH-COL

[legoboyvdlp]

Ok so start at the top of the qfa231 section.

It will run through all.
And use the FGMEMBERS A380, not a380 omega for it.
The omega is broken afaik.

Dont say the tutorial is rubbish, if you didnt read it all...

[Lydiot]

So in your opinion if I jump to the "startup" section via the link at the top of the wiki and follow instructions it should work? Or are you saying that there is something before that point which I should have done but didn't do?

And as I said, how would I know that the wiki article doesn't refer to Omega's version?

[legoboyvdlp]

I am saying, you should jump to not startup, but the qfa one.

Read the whole page would be better.
The apu, and all that is above the startup section

[omega95]

Hey, it's been a while! But I just decided to check the forum out, stay up to date etc.

I'm sorry that I'm not able to continue working on my aircraft due to time constraints, but I might be able to help out every now and then. Anyway, I started a documentation file for my A380 version earlier (very incomplete - you could help though!). See: https://github.com/FGMEMBERS/A380-omega/blob/master/A380-documentation.odt It only has a quick start-up procedure at this time, but you can add on to it, or move it to the wiki for everyone to edit.

By the way, I haven't completely implemented (most of the code's there though, just not called) a custom autopilot system or mCDU interface, but you can still use the route manager. Or even better, finish the mCDU interface and the custom autopilot!

Cheers!