Your helpful tips.

[Steve Waite]

A mini walk through starting out with Ideal Flight:


1. Start Ideal Flight from the desktop icon. A notify window shows IF is starting, a thunderclap from the simulator is played so you can tell IF is starting.

2. The Start page appears and after a few seconds moves to the main page - home. From the home page we can go back to the start page with the escape menu Icon Shelf. On the start page we configure things like indexing and navigation data.

3. At the home page, using the Escape key navigate to Profiles. Use the Add profile button makes Joe Pilot ID1. Rename to user name preferred. On that page the starting location can be chosen. Choose flight length times and number of flights a year, zero per year makes each next flight, in time, soon after the last.

4. From the Home page go to Aircraft selection page - select an aircraft and variation. In that page go to the Flight Parameters page and make the changes to preferred cruise speed altitudes climbs and descents and speeds. Final is determined by the full flap speed and other values described in the aircraft files. Runway length width, Jet or Victor routes. These values are used to determine the plan and the possible destinations.

5. on the Flight Generator page choose the plan type IFR with Approaches, plan builder Any Airways. Choose a length of flight time from shortest to longest. So we might put one hour to three hours. On the mission page choose IDF departure and Computed approach.

6. Back at the start page, Escape menu, icon shelf, choose New Destination. A flight is built to a compatible airport, compatible with your settings. So that destination airport chosen will be approximately 1 to 3 hours away at your cruise speed.

7. The menu Fly! or Tower choices start the simulator at the cockpit or inside the tower control room.

With this arrangement we need not make any changes or very few between flights. We let IF do the work.

[Steve Waite]

Fuel Calculations in Ideal Flight

Ideal Flight fuel works on measuring the fuel used by the aircraft. Before we know what fuel would be required for a flight we need to know the approximate Range of the aircraft. Putting a plane at cruise we can get a fuel report that assesses the fuel used and we can put the range value into the IF Aircraft Flight Parameters page.

Example in normal cruise conditions we might see a Range of 1000 NM. So for that altitude and that speed the maximum flight time can be determined by the available fuel. If we change the speed the Range will change. Also we can change the payload and the cruise altitude, each will alter the range slightly.

With a real aircraft the process of different cruise conditions produces a set of tables that can be used to approximate the fuel prediction for a flight. Since Ideal Flight is prepared for any plane past present or future, we do not have these tables. We can produce them for the simulated aircraft with Ideal Flight reporting if we want. Generally changing cruise speed produces the biggest change to Range.

If the aircraft comes with a fuel planner, for example Quality Wings, we can use that to predict the fuel and compare what we really used in flight by observing the Fuel Report in the de-brief or the flight assessment records after flying.

In short Ideal Flight predicts the fuel requirement for a specific set of conditions in which we generally fly the aircraft.

Therefore a low altitude, full payload and highest cruise speed will use the most fuel and produce the shortest Range value. We can experiment in Ideal Flight and obtain that value for our Range parameter. After that we will always have enough fuel whatever the flight planned.

[Steve Waite]

Why does ideal Flight appear to index the aircraft folders twice?

Indexing aircraft occurs when the available aircraft in the simulator has changed.

We start Ideal Flight and at first there is an all users aircraft information file created from the indexing process. this is a default reference.

Next the personal aircraft information for the current profile is updated from another indexing process. This looks like a second indexing procedure.

After that, whenever we change the selected profile and the aircraft information does not contain the current available aircraft, we see another index procedure to keep the profile up to date.

[Steve Waite]

Runway Predictions

The way the simulator chooses runways depends on what is landing. Since ideal Flight does not know beforehand what is landing, it makes predicting the Active runway impossible.

The runways predicted by IF take into account the wind direction, that's all it can do. That might not be the active runway when the simulation starts due to an already landing aircraft which may land on an ILS primary direction even though the headwind component is in the wrong direction.

If no aircraft are landing, eg no AI traffic is active, or the airport has no parking, then the runway chosen is dictated by the direction component of the wind even if the headwind component is zero knots.

[Steve Waite]

Prepar3D users might notice a file ObjectLoadErrors.txt in the docs folder:

C:\Users\you\Documents\Prepar3D v5 Files\ObjectLoadErrors.txt

This file will contain some information entries which are not errors:

Code: Select all

RealismOverridesIdealFlight Information: Using default UserTips (Enabled)
RealismOverridesIdealFlight Information: Using default CrashBehavior (AutoRecover)
RealismOverridesIdealFlight Information: Using default UnlimitedFuel (Limited)
RealismOverridesIdealFlight Information: Using default AvatarNoCollision (Enabled)
RealismOverridesIdealFlight Information: Using default AircraftLabels (Enabled)


These only represent information about some changes Ideal Flight makes to the settings for the normal flight operations and are no cause for concern.

[Steve Waite]

Accessibility
Screen readers basically attempt to read the labels nearby controls. This is not always successful and sometimes confused by labels corresponding to groups of controls. Normally sighted users can see at a glance what the controls are for and how the labels match.


Screen Reader Support
Accessibility has been enhanced for screen readers Narrator and NVDA. Narrator and NVDA were chosen because of the way they work. When Ideal Flight detects these screen reader programs operating, the Ideal Flight controls are adjusted to suit either. Narrator and NVDA work slightly differently in the way they assume labels correspond to controls. So for this reason Ideal Flight detects the reader in operation and adjusts the controls for best results.

With Ideal Flight these readers are generally sent the same text as the control labels, except where label text would not convey enough information about the control. In those instances enhanced descriptions are given to the screen reader.

Also in Ideal Flight there are added-in descriptions for Narrator and NVDA that correspond to a header and footer of each page, these are inserted for describing the page in more detail to the readers and the location on the page.

Other readers are detected but Ideal Flight remains the same as regular programs so that other readers continue to operate as they do with other programs. Some of these might work better when Ideal Flight uses enhanced controls for Narrator or NVDA. In the Other Settings page, More Settings checkbox window, we find checkboxes that force Narrator or NVDA operations in Ideal Flight.


Voice and Assist
Ideal Flight also incorporates the Voice and the Assist. These work in real multi-tasking modes so as to not cause performance issues in the simulator. Ideal Flight already places its processes onto CPU cores away from the main rendering task of the simulator for best possible performance.

Several pages of in-flight information and other items can be chosen through the use of hot keys.

Hot keys allow choice of modes, information, voice sets, and throttle settings. Pages and settings are chosen by cycling backwards and forwards with direction hot keys.


Voice
The Voice settings include a multiplied set of options which are stored for up to twelve stages of the flight, or whatever the user desires. The settings correspond to speaking about items in the simulation, for example, altitude, airspeed and switches set. An additional set is reserved for temporarily altering the current set chosen. The current settings can be saved into the already chosen set with a button. The sets are chosen in the simulator with hot keys. The sets can be automatically chosen by Ideal Flight as certain stages of the flight are encountered, for example going from climb to cruise.

The voice for flight attitudes can be exchanged with tones and the heading exchanged for plucked notes. With these sounds, volume increases as the aircraft flys further away from the desired directions.

The Ideal Flight voice uses the Microsoft voices, such as Hazel Desktop and any others that are installed on the system. The voices can be chosen along with speaking speed and volume and the output channel for the sound.


Assist
The Assist settings allow direct keyboard input to the autopilot functions, such as heading bug compass direction, Navigation radio frequencies, flight level and vertical speed. Autopilot switches are mirrored in an accessible checkbox list.

More options include the ability to move the aircraft directly onto a desired parking location or to the desired runway starting point.

An aircraft throttle manager enables the control of speeds throughout the flight with hot key accessible selection of pre set speeds or arbitrary speeds. The taxi and parking speeds are enhanced with automatic control of the Parking brakes and braking when slowing down on the taxiway.

Other options include automatic disabling of the Autopilot on touchdown, and cutting the throttles during touchdown.


Conclusion
Ideal Flight accessibility is designed to enhance Ideal Flight versions for blind and visually impaired pilots with three main functions: Accessible controls for screen readers, specifically Narrator and NVDA. The Voice speaks out information corresponding to aircraft attitude and in-flight information. The Assist provides functions to enable directly setting autopilot functions during the flight from a regular accessible window.

Ideal Flight accessibility is addressed with a completely new set of controls that are referred to as TAccessible. This is named according to programmers parlance for basic classes whereby other controls inherit the behaviour.

These accessibility upgrades to Ideal Flight represent a very large amount of work and dedication from members of the Blind Pilots community.

The accessibility upgrades are free to licenced users of Ideal Flight.

The Accessibility upgrades Voice and Assist are only available in the ideal Flight 10 Special Edition >augmented upgrade (for FSX simulators) and the Ideal Flight professional version (for Prepar3D versions 4 and 5 simulators).

[Steve Waite]

Take Off and Landing - Flight Parameters page

Using the Mooney Bravo as an example.

Take off with flaps at 1 notch extended. Accelerate to around 60 Knots and start to pull back the stick to raise the nose around 10 degrees. Climb out at around 85 KIAS (knots indicated airspeed). With positive climb, retract the gear and flaps, accelerate to around 105 KIAS.

On the Ideal Flight "Flight Parameters" page we see ascent airspeed as % of cruise. Cruise speed is determined by the altitude, winds and so on, so let's take 150 KIAS for example. If our cruise speed will be 150 KIAS then 105 KIAS will be around 70% of cruise. We put 150 and 70 in the cruise and ascent percent boxes. Note: In later versions the Ascent Speed is in Knots rather than % of cruise.

Final approach with flaps fully extended is at around 75 KIAS. During approach extend the gear at around 110 KIAS to help slow down the aircraft for final. We can put 110 and 75 in the Approach and Landing speed boxes of the Flight Parameters page.

Inputting these items into the Flight Parameters page enable a reasonable calculation of time over distance for the fuel prediction. Remembering that the fuel prediction is based on the Range parameter at the top of the page. Range is determined by flying the aircraft and studying the Assessment de-brief.

[Steve Waite]

Help System

Press the keyboard key F1 to get help.


Help information is presented as HTML pages for the system browser. It may be necessary to choose the preferred browser application, for example, when you change system browser. In this case with Explorer, locate the folder. Depending on version:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Ideal Flight Professional\help
C:\Program Files (x86)\Ideal Flight 10\help

Choose one of the files (.htm), right-click and select "Open with", and then select "Choose another app", then choose your preferred browser, e.g. Microsoft Edge.


Generally the help page shown when pressing F1 will be context sensitive. To find other help items choose the Index page. Look through the Index page for specific help information.

[Steve Waite]

Installing and Removing Ideal Flight

Flight simulators that accept any kind of scenery or aircraft like FSX and Prepar3D, these simulators might exhibit problems after installing add-ons because these kind of add-ons install files into the simulator and or make changes to the simulator files.

Traditionally, with these kind of errors, the user attempts to rectify by removing the add-on either by Control Panel which should usually work OK, or by manually deleting files and folders whereby anything might go wrong. With some addons, since they install files into the simulator and or make changes to the simulator files, certain problems might continue unless the simulator is returned to stock setup.

Some add-ons claim to require the simulator must be installed into user owned folders other than stock Program Files so that permissions are available to write to the simulator folders, this is entirely unnecessary since these add-ons only require permission to write to the simulator folders. In these cases it is better to install to the stock location and simply give the permission. Installing to stock location keeps the simulator within the bounds of application security and keeps it safe from malware and additionally, makes it easy for many other add-ons to work properly since add-ons are tested in stock simulator installations. By installing into a user owned folder we can make problems for other programs. Although Ideal Flight is happy with any way chosen, I always recommend adding the Modify Allow permission to the Users group which is provided by Microsoft for the purpose of keeping your system secure.

To give the write permission required by some add-ons, we simply add the "Modify Allow" permission to the "Users" group on the simulator "Program Files" folder, which is one tick in a box - using Explorer locate the simulator "Program Files" folder, in the menu choose "Properties", choose the "Security" tab, choose to "Edit", in the group window choose "Users", tick the box "Modify Allow", then to save that choose OK and OK. From there we now safely install add-ons that claim to require the simulator installed elsewhere.

Ideal Flight installs as a completely stand-alone product. Ideal Flight does nothing to the simulator other than add a probe object to the "Misc" folder and rename the thermals file. The probe is placed in the simulation when the simulation is running to ascertain values from the simulator like temperature and elevation, these values are sent to Ideal Flight. The thermals file puts random thermals into the simulation, instead Ideal Flight renames that to save it away, then Ideal Flight places thermals carefully depending on temperatures and winds in the simulation and the terrain types. By installing Ideal Flight, this makes no changes to the simulator files or folders or makes changes to any features, nothing is disrupted.

However, the simulator (and the operating system) must be working properly for Ideal Flight to operate correctly since Ideal Flight works with the full gamut of simulation features. Partially removed files and folders, or odd simulator behavior might cause any kind of problem for Ideal Flight installation so the system must be set correctly before attempting to install Ideal Flight.

To remove Ideal Flight:

First backup the profile folders with the Start Page popup menu, "Data recovery", "Backup", this makes a folder copy that is easy to manipulate. The profiles can be restored later by opening the backup in Ideal Flight, or dropping the backup folder onto Ideal Flight.

Next using Windows Control Panel, locate Ideal Flight and choose to remove it, the program asks if you want to make a backup first. When done, the files and folders are removed except for any new items, then folders containing new items will remain.

To completely remove any folders left behind we can delete those as well:

With Explorer, locate and remove the folder:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Ideal Flight 10"
- removing that folder will remove the Ideal Flight program files.

With Explorer, locate and remove the folder:
"C:\ProgramData\Ideal Flight 10"
you need to see hidden folders in Explorer to see that folder, in the Explorer toolbar choose "View", check "Hidden Items"
- removing that folder will remove the Ideal Flight profiles and settings.

Other versions of Ideal Flight will be similarly named, such as "Ideal Flight Professional", otherwise all instructions are the same.

Do not use a cleaning tool unless you require registry items removed from the system, this is not recommended because the unlocking keys will be lost and the product will have to be registered again.

[Steve Waite]

A few tips for when starting out with Ideal Flight:

On the profiles page

- Flights per year. If you say 12 you get each next flight in every month so you get to fly all the seasons in 12 flights. With zero you get the next flight a short time after your last flight when you parked, approximates to refueling and maintenance time. The clock icon on the main page rebuilds the flight for the same time with zero per year set.

- Flying times and grounded times, so you can set it to only make flights for night-time or daytime etc.


On the Flight Generator page (runway icon):

- Export files. Set up exports for FMS etc. The file is sent when you build a flight and also when you start a flight the same files are sent then as well.

- choose the Plan Type and the Plan Builder options - have a look at those and experiment. To use the Mission page departure and arrival you need Plan Types with Approach Waypoints Included.

- choose Duration Hours to find compatible airports between say 30 minutes and 2 hours from you at cruse speed as the crow flies. So the search will only find airports in that doughnut shapes patch around your present location.


On the Mission page (from Flight Generator page or Aircraft Selection page):

- choose options that affect the flights and use of the aircraft, AI traffic (injects aircraft around your flight time), AI Shadow (AI Buddy does your route at your flying time - nice if you want to follow it during taxi. Approach and departure settings.


On the Flight Parameters page (from Flight Generator page or Aircraft Selection page):

- set up the Range, do a normal flight and in the de-brief you get the calculated range, enter that and you get accurate fuel so long as your next flight is similar in speed weight ascent and descent, distance does not matter.

- set up the ascent and descent values so the time and fuel predictions are accurate, you see all that in the briefing to refer to.

- set up the runway length so as to filter out those airports with runways too short for you.