Board index FlightGear Development Aircraft

New Aircraft: the Extra500

Questions and discussion about creating aircraft. Flight dynamics, 3d models, cockpits, systems, animation, textures.

Re: New Aircraft: the Extra500

Postby D-Leon » Sat Aug 01, 2015 8:19 am

wkitty42 wrote in Mon Jul 27, 2015 4:28 pm:i just reported an issue for this craft in the gitlab issue tracker...


Thanks for the hind!
Long time not used :-). I wanted to recommend to use the Checklist-Dialog with the "impatient" checkbox enable and the "play" button Functionality, but its although affected there.

Atm there is no damage calculated so this is only a message, if you feel annoyed you can disable the messages via menu Extra 500->Configuration.

Or take your time to follow the real Checklists ;-)

Dirk
D-Leon
 
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2012 9:44 am
Callsign: D-Leon
OS: Linux

If you turn on the shadow ...

Postby abassign » Sat Aug 01, 2015 1:53 pm

Premise that I am very happy the beautiful model, but the latest version test I noticed a problem with the plane's shadow on the ground...

I try switch on the shadow ground, i look this defect:
If you turn on the shadow, it is observed that the shadow is on the level of the runway a few centimeters (10-20), by partially cutting the wheel landing gear. I did some tests (LIME, LOWI, KSFO) and noted that the problem with changing the angle of the sun relative to the ground. I do not know if these shadows using the same algorithm of the shadows inside the aircraft (which works very well), however, the problem appears to be related to a problem of calculation or reference points. I have included some photos changing the color of the shadow from black to red using GIMP.

I tried with the C172P, the problem occurs only with the dark shadow, but in the latest versions shadow has become more clear (I think it is derived from the system to get the shadows inside) and in this case the problem does not occur .

I think it might be useful to change the generation of the shadow with the new method used for C172P.

This is the Extra 500 over LIME airport concrete:
Image

This is the Extra 500 over LIME airport grass, in the event of an accident or an abnormal position of the aircraft, the behavior is abnormal shadow:
Image

I noticed that the effect is very evident by observing the shadow intersected with the wheels of the landing gear, seen from the underground, in this case the tests I did on the runway at San Francisco Int (KSFO)
Image
Developer of the program https://wiki.flightgear.org/Julia_photoscenery_generator
FDM developer of the G91R1B aircraft https://wiki.flightgear.org/FIAT_G91R1B
JSBSim collaborator
abassign
 
Posts: 947
Joined: Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:09 pm
Location: Italy (living 5 Km from airport LIME)
Callsign: I-BASSY
Version: 2020.4
OS: Ubuntu 20.10

Re: New Aircraft: the Extra500

Postby D-EKEW » Fri Feb 19, 2016 6:33 pm

Since a new flightgear release is near (or already there), it is again time to release the accompanying extra500 version!

As always there are a lot of small improvements and bug fixes, but I wish to concentrate on the 2 big new features:
  • A failure manager and user interface
  • A new and special pitch control using force

To download

The first will allow you (to try) and make landings on 2 legs, let one aileron hang loose or make a big hole in a fuel tank.
Image

There is a nice dialog which you can activate clicking 'Extra 500 - Failure Dialog', see also here


The second feature is primarily meant for joystick/yoke users. Some of you might have noticed that the extra500 is a bit jumpy in pitch control. This is not a modelling problem, but of your yokes and joysticks. The real extra500 yoke has a travel of more than half a meter, so if you try and map that on your control stick with much less travel it is going to be very sensitive.
What you might not have noticed is that the extra500 model has a pilot pitch force model running in the background. It is used for autopilot autotrim for instance. This model is slightly modified to receive force input from the pilot (you). This means when your joystick is centered, the aircraft interprets this as no force on the aircraft yoke. The yoke (and thus elevator) position is calculated depending on things like center of gravity position, airspeed and g-forces. Pushing is pushing and pulling is pulling. You can activate this alternative pitch control with ctrl-f.
In this mode you will need to trim the aircraft like in real life to be able to let go of your controls and you can get a feel on pilot forces at low and high speeds or just making a turn.

See also here

Enjoy!
Eric
D-EKEW
 
Posts: 174
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2011 9:22 pm
Callsign: D-EKEW, ELLX-TWR
Version: git
OS: Linux

Re: New Aircraft: the Extra500

Postby Hooray » Fri Feb 19, 2016 6:37 pm

this is certainly among those aircraft that should be considered for inclusion in one of the future airport/aircraft-based FlightGear releases - what is performance like on a typical computer, do the Canvas MFDs still have much of a noticeable performance impact these days ?
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: New Aircraft: the Extra500

Postby Thorsten » Fri Feb 19, 2016 6:51 pm

this is certainly among those aircraft that should be considered for inclusion in one of the future airport/aircraft-based FlightGear releases


Sorry - airport-based, not aircraft based...
Thorsten
 
Posts: 12490
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 9:33 am

Re: New Aircraft: the Extra500

Postby Hooray » Fri Feb 19, 2016 6:57 pm

don't have time to search the archives - but if you're right, my reading skills are failing me recently ... anyway, apology accepted :D
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: New Aircraft: the Extra500

Postby Thorsten » Fri Feb 19, 2016 7:00 pm

It was a cool idea, but The Manual (TM) is too much tied to the C-172p for this to really work.
Thorsten
 
Posts: 12490
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 9:33 am

Re: New Aircraft: the Extra500

Postby Hooray » Fri Feb 19, 2016 7:13 pm

Thorsten wrote in Fri Feb 19, 2016 7:00 pm:It was a cool idea, but The Manual (TM) is too much tied to the C-172p for this to really work.


It's not my idea, it's been suggested/discussed previously - but you're right about the manual (and tutorials) - however, we did start having some discussions behind the scenes on making this possible by parameterizing the LaTex sources, e.g. in the form of looking for "hard-coded" assumptions (KSFO/c172p) and moving this to separate LaTex files that are merely included for starters.

The next step would then be re-writing those paragraphs to treat locations/aircraft as variables that can be parameterized - which would obviously also affect other assumptions (e.g. a 777 final approach speed is very different from a c172p) - however, Stuart already implemend generic XML-based checklists, so that $FG_ROOT/Aircraft/c172p/checklists.xml does contain the proper speeds, and even flap settings.

In other words, we can execute a shell command to retrieve the proper speeds/configuration for the corresponding aircraft from $FG_AIRCRAFT...

Background at: viewtopic.php?f=72&t=28762&p=276455#p276455
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: New Aircraft: the Extra500

Postby D-EKEW » Sun Mar 20, 2016 10:29 am

Dear fellow pilots and developers,

Only a month since our last release, but one new major feature that was in the pipeline then, is now ready.
The Extra500 model now includes icing! So you now not only have watch your airspeed, altitude, attitude, other aircraft, obstacles, engine parameters, flightplan, do what your ATC tells you, make sure your passengers don't get sick and basically adhere to all the limitations of the aircraft. You also have to watch out for icing. Before you know it you engine is out or your horizontal stabilizer stalls. Things that might seriously influence the well being of your passengers.

download version 4.1.0 for FG 2016.1
FGaddon is also updated and for those flying on FG 3.6, use this version.

I made a wiki page on icing (for the extra500): http://wiki.flightgear.org/Extra_EA-500/Icing for you to read up.

In addition, the smooth weather system is a bit more lenient on your computer. It now has a variable METAR scan range, keeping the used METAR for calculating the local environment parameters between 6 and 10.

Enjoy!

Eric
D-EKEW
 
Posts: 174
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2011 9:22 pm
Callsign: D-EKEW, ELLX-TWR
Version: git
OS: Linux

Re: New Aircraft: the Extra500

Postby Thorsten » Mon Mar 21, 2016 10:07 am

We've had a discussion on a similar issue a while ago on the mailing list, and there was some consensus that it's not desirable that aircraft bring their own weather (nor that they do things like override user-selected rendering settings).

The potential for unintended cross-interactions is huge, bugfixing of features everyone thinks are globally implemented suddenly requires knowledge of particular aircraft,...

If there's features missing which the existing weather /rendering implementation can't deliver but should, these should be implemented globally instead.
Thorsten
 
Posts: 12490
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 9:33 am

Re: New Aircraft: the Extra500

Postby D-EKEW » Mon Aug 15, 2016 3:25 pm

Yes time for a new release!

For this release we have been working on the "side-systems". So not on improving the aircraft directly, but the simulator experience.

First of all, the already existing failure dialog got an update. The fuel system now has more failures implemented and since the de-ice system is fully operational, we made a special tab for you to break it.

Secondly we implemented a very much improved performance calculation system. It is used in the fuel-payload dialog so you can plan your trip in detail. You can quickly import your flight-plan from the Flightgear Route Manager and calculate your fuel requirements.

Download here or use the Flightgear internal download and install dialog once 2016.3 gets out there.

Have fun!

Eric
D-EKEW
 
Posts: 174
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2011 9:22 pm
Callsign: D-EKEW, ELLX-TWR
Version: git
OS: Linux

Re: New Aircraft: the Extra500

Postby D-EKEW » Sat Feb 11, 2017 1:10 pm

FG 2017.1 is getting quite close and therefore we release a new stable version for the extra500!

What is new?
The complete integration of the improved range and fuel calculations in the IFD-s. It is the same system used for the Flight Planning Tool. If you are using the FMS (route manager), the IFD will accurately indicate when you arrive and how much fuel you will have left (give or take a few liter).

A bit nicer models of the panel vent fans and their switches.

The trim force indicator is now shown in both 'Direct' and 'Force' modes.

Some work on the IFD-s:
* Make it possible to experience the real boot time of the IFD-s
* miscompares are added. Both IFD-s are independent units with their own airspeed indicator, NAV unit etc. And they are connected and cross checking each other. If a value is too much apart, the IFD will give a miscompare.

This was necessary because of the ever expanding possibility to Break Things in the failure dialog. You can make the static of pitot systems leak (also to the pressure cabin, very interesting), make an autopilot servo runaway or make the mechanical indicators 'hang' (the 2 inch airdata instruments are especially prone to that in real life).
BTW if you have any suggestions for failure cases let us know...

Keep flying safe, gravity always wins!
D-EKEW
 
Posts: 174
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2011 9:22 pm
Callsign: D-EKEW, ELLX-TWR
Version: git
OS: Linux

Re: New Aircraft: the Extra500

Postby zacarias » Thu Mar 02, 2017 5:06 pm

Hi. The central console system (where we choose heading and altitude, among other things) stopped having light. It's like if it was not working, but it is (if I turn the altitude button it will change the selected altitude). Just I can't see nothing. Before I could. How can I turn the light (and numbers) on? https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5cGyNBd4Sy2M2h1elgwa0wySDg/view?usp=sharing
FG 2017.3.1
LinuxMint 18 Cinnamon 64-bit
Processor AMD A8-6600K
Graphics Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti
zacarias
 
Posts: 180
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2016 2:06 am

Re: New Aircraft: the Extra500

Postby D-EKEW » Thu Mar 02, 2017 5:28 pm

mmm, looks like it has no power.
Press shift-v 5 times. Now you have a good view of the circuit breaker panel. See if the 'KEYPAD' CB (lower row, 7th from the right) is out. If yes, click on it to push it in.
Let me know if that worked,

cheers,

Eric
D-EKEW
 
Posts: 174
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2011 9:22 pm
Callsign: D-EKEW, ELLX-TWR
Version: git
OS: Linux

Re: New Aircraft: the Extra500

Postby zacarias » Thu Mar 02, 2017 6:23 pm

Yes, that solved the problem. :wink: Thanks!
Last edited by bugman on Thu Mar 02, 2017 8:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Please do not quote the entire previous post.
FG 2017.3.1
LinuxMint 18 Cinnamon 64-bit
Processor AMD A8-6600K
Graphics Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti
zacarias
 
Posts: 180
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2016 2:06 am

PreviousNext

Return to Aircraft

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 19 guests