Ideal Flight Accessibility phase 3

[Orinks]

When exiting the runway after landing, do you have IF driving the plane or warping for now?

[Steve Waite]

I've not done that yet, still testing and adjusting the other functions. It would be a temporary measure to warp to just nearby the runway or drive off, both more or less as easy.

[Steve Waite]

After a lot of testing, on descent of 1500 fpm or more, most big aircraft are going to continue to increase speed above 250 Knots at altitudes of 5000 feet or more even though the engine is throttled back. The spoilers can be used to slow down but it is better to descend at a less steep rate to maintain speed in a restricted area. The necessary descent rate to maintain speed is easy to find and set up with Ideal Flight, it is parameters like this that it is designed to help with.

[Steve Waite]

I've been delayed a bit today, but I've found a few minor bugs in I F versions other than I F Pro regarding the Flight Generator page which I fixed today. More about those in the report page on the site I'll do later.

I've completed the Assisted take-off and landing phases which are working well, and I've improved the auto-throttle control to adhere to acceleration rate and speed restriction.

I've also been improving the priority of some speech items with a couple more items to do. So you'll hear some call-outs that otherwise get quashed with other less important speech.

After those I'll finally be able to put in the temporary warp to nearby runways to satisfy ATC which should be quick. So it is possible I could complete this build tomorrow.

I'm not rushing it though and may hold it till next week because I need to be sure things are right with this build. After this next build I shall be adding taxi control which could be a relatively small update but is still in the experimental phase.

Thanks for all the support.

[Orinks]

I wish IF just had one version to update. Would make things a lot easier. Anyways...

The way I see it, there will probably be some minor bugs to iron out whether you release it tomorrow or hold off until next week. This build has been two to three months in the making...

Curious what speech callouts have been prioritized?

[Steve Waite]

I wish IF just had one version to update. Would make things a lot easier. Anyways...

The project to combine the 32bit and 64bit versions was a big problem and was scrapped which ultimately wasted a lot of time.

The way I see it, there will probably be some minor bugs to iron out whether you release it tomorrow or hold off until next week.

There will be minor bugs but holes in the functionality will be a waste of time uploading.

This build has been two to three months in the making...

It takes as long as it takes, it is a big upgrade.

Curious what speech callouts have been prioritized?

Callouts that would otherwise be quashed by callouts like speeds and altitudes, such as "Off ground", and assist enables.

[Steve Waite]

There are always delays this time of year anyway, as there are other things that must be completed first, such as accounts filing. The new build needs to be as complete as possible before the next build which I hope will get the aircraft to and from the runway under AI control. A lot of work has been incorporated to enable that assist functionality. Anyway, don't worry, it won't be long to wait now...

[Steve Waite]

Combining the versions turned out to be very awkward; even though In all the versions there are units that serve them all such as maths, navigation, compression, SQL transaction engine, export files and so on. However there are also units that serve only any good for the 32 bit or 64 bit functions, installing and uninstalling, SimConnect. Then the different versions of simulator Prepar3D v2,3,4 are similar in the scenery but v5 is different, and then there are the FSX and FSX:Steam Edition and so on. It is a very big project.

[Steve Waite]

A big drag on time has been testing the auto-flight functions. Even though for example, Ideal Flight can save a flight on final, and i can repeat the landing or take off quickly the wait for the climb and descent is time consuming. I'm typing now as a test is being run. I could do with another sat right next to me running the flights as the methods are programmed, but that's not possible.

One thing with the new build is that we cannot load old saved flights due to many more items are now saved in the flights such as the assisted situation parameters. That's just the saved flights mid-flight.

[Steve Waite]

When setting up for the speed restriction below 10,000 feet and 250 knots it is better to set 240 knots. Since I'm testing wIth Ideal Flight weather, which has seamless moving air up currents, with the up and down currents in severe weather the aircraft can gain or lose speed by a few knots when entering and leaving strong up and downdraughts. Other weather programs might not do that and the aircraft will remain more stable.

To decrease testing time I'm using 240knot limit up to 6000 feet and cruise at 13,000 feet and all seems good at the moment. I found some problems in the Throttle Assist speeds which are KTAS, true airspeeds. The problems were encountered because the KIAS, Indicated speed, values were mixed in by mistake.

I will be adding in the temporary locations for off runway shortly...