Ideal Flight Accessibility phase 2

[Orinks]

The minimum things that we use Tramp for is skipping to and from the runway and it provides a... doable, not necessarily 100 percent accessible, way to enter values into the otherwise inaccessible simulator autopilot panels.

So allow us to skip to runways and from runways to parking if possible, at least until can figure out a way to implement that autotaxi feature we've discussed before.

There's something Tramp does on takeoff that is just hard to do manually, and that is adjusting the throttles for climb power once airborne.

There's a whole bunch of other stuff it does automatically including managing airspeed throughout the flight. However, for now I'd be happy if I can enter speeds, headings, altitudes, enter nav1 for ILS approaches... and we'll just have to avoid airstrips and such for now with no ILS because I'm not sure how Tramp manages those.

HTH. Minimum is getting to and from runways and entering AP values, and setting AP switches. Alt hold, heading hold, approach mode etc.

[Steve Waite]

OK - thanks for the info.

At the moment IF now speaks for a lot of switches and systems, still expanding that. A hot key accesses pages of information as well. I'll get that uploaded before Christmas, then will continue with developments from there.

[thomas]

That is awesome that developments are going as planned. Can't wait to see it uploaded so I can try. Another suggestion I would have for you is to minimise ideal to system tray or have an option that will do it. Because it tends to obscure certain windows in the sim that I need to perform startups with the a2a aircraft. Other than that. Nice going. Hope to see it soon.

Thomas

[Steve Waite]

There is an option already to minimise IF when the sim starts. About a quarter way down the checkbox list more settings on the setting page. Just after VAS logging.

[Steve Waite]

With all airstrips, IF makes a funnel down to the runway to ascertain the final slope for the assessment. So more or less, anything tramp can do is already in IF, and more besides.

[Steve Waite]

I'm not sure what you mean by obscuring certain windows in the sim. When any sim window is in the foreground, IF will be by definition, in the background, and behind the sim window in appearance and also priority. The window size can be selected smaller in the settings page, choose small or minimum size in the dropdown list near the bottom of the page.

[Orinks]

Hi all,

Mainly just thinking out loud here regarding various scenarios, especially those I've encountered on Vatsim, to brainstorm ideas as to how IF might be able to tackle them.

The biggest concern I have, say, if Ideal Flight gets the ability to interface with the autopilot, it doesn't have the capability of an FMC. Tramp is just functional for us to use it and not nearly as accessible as it can be. It does fly sid/star/approach procedures though without an aircraft FMC, a requirement for Vatsim.

Last Saturday, I attempted to do a flight on Vatsim. This was the first time where a controller was handling clearance operations at my home airport. I used the vPilot IFP plan file that Ideal Flight generated, but the controller refused to give me clearance with the IF route because I didn't have a sid/departure in it. He never actually said what the issue was, but when I look at the IF route VS. what he wanted, he wanted a SID.

I would add an airac cycle to IF, E.G. PMDG etc, but none of us blind people actually use those high end planes for the simple fact that the FMCs are inaccessible to access in all of them. Right now I have IF just going off FSAerodata.

My hope is that, for the meantime, since SimBrief adds the departure/arrival waypoints to the flightplan, that we can fly the departure/arrival that way. We don't know if there's any speed/altitude restrictions though without looking at charts, all of which for the most part appear to be inaccessible.

Perhaps there might be a way for IF to be supported by Navigraph one day? Most sim addons I know are supported by it.

Just writing my thoughts down here for future as I didn't think controllers would reject the IF plan as is.

[Steve Waite]

Remember that you can use any of five AIRACs with IF from Navigraph or NavDataPro - doesn't matter:

AXE, PMDG, iFly, Level-D, from NavDataPro or Navigraph makes no difference.

Also the IF AIRAC on NavDataPro is the same as an AXE from Navigraoph - not an issue.

The difference is in the way some IDs and navs are named. I think this aspect of flight sim is little understood and a lot of what I read is incorrect about the subject. So we can choose a PMDG AIRAC when we fly a PMDG, and an iFly AIRAC when we fly an iFly, even so each can use any - as you would get with any other planner you get the planners own AIRAC only. IF is way ahead in the navdata stakes.

You need one installed for the VATSIM routes to include the SID and the STAR.

The SID STAR routes are selected in the IF Mission Page so you get a plan with the SID and the STAR where available.

Use the vPilot and the IF export to automatically hook you up to VATSIM with your account details and plan to save you the work.

Unfortunately it is still a matter of discovering just what IF already does and how to get it. Out of the box IF is set to deliver simple plans like the FSX/P3D planner. When configured correctly you get the right plans.

[Orinks]

Thanks for the help, managed to get IF to load the AXE airac dataset.

Went ahead and selected IF to create sid for departure and star for approach.

I'm a bit confused, however. The following is the Deezz5 04L departure procedure as described by Tramp:

•• SID: DEEZZ5 04L
Fly heading 44 and climb to 520 ft or above.
Fly with heading 99 to manual termination.
Direct to DEEZZ.
Cross DEEZZ.
Direct to HEERO.


IF added Deezz into the flightplan okay, but did not add HEERO. I suppose this is normal for the options I have selected? Either that or the airac data is slightly different I'm not sure between what Tramp has and what AXE has. I didn't see a sid or star text file in the AXE navigraph folder.

Also wondering whether I should integrate the airac or not. Just using it to get sid/star routes and whatnot.

[Steve Waite]

The sidstar info is in the AXE data. And as I mentioned is different between the four types. The PMDG SidStar info is in text files for example. You might always hit DEEZZ from that RW then head out to another WP name on a route. So that depends on the route you are ultimately taking from DEEZZ, HEERO might be included or not in the other direction. It may be superfluous to that route, it may be in one AIRAC and not another. I can't tell from here I don't know what route you are on. The Tramp will be using only AIRAC data and when IF is in non integrated mode it is simply pulling SID STAR from the data and applying it as best it can to the fsAerodata. Instead, if you want a closer comparison between IF and Tramp routes, then you integrate. That forces IF to use all AIRAC data. Still it will not be valid to compare routes to another planner since IF takes into consideration the weather. This is all learning stuff about navdata outside of IFs remit.