Ideal Flight Accessibility phase 2

[Steve Waite]

There's a problem changing the kneeboard speak-again hot-key.
The warp to location feature has issues with close together parking and altitude of placement in some situations.

The system of forward and back hotkeys will be used to change other features than the pre-configured Voice Checkbox Sets. A cycle hotkey will cycle around the use of the forward and back hotkeys, and other uses will choose the use when necessary. For example, using the Auto-Throttle will cycle their use to increase and decrease speed settings and speed presets.

Enhanced engine parameters will be added to the kneeboard speaker, and will alter depending on engine types.

[Orinks]

Will we have an option to input specific speeds in with a key?

It would also be great to have the ability to abide by waypoint crossing restrictions. So IF can have a way to input a waypoint for crossing restrictions, the altitude for the crossing and perhaps even a speed, and IF will direct the AP to fly it.

I know IF is not an FMC, but I hate having to disconnect from Vatsim because I can't do that kind of thing with Tramp quick enough on approach or tune an ILS quickly etc.

However, will speed presets take mach speed into account above transition altitude? Also must we have instruments set to true instead of indicated?

I am hoping that the auto selection can also be improved. it works great up until the departure phase. I have a habit of not using the back and forward keys and I hope I can change that.

[Steve Waite]

The problem with auto selection of speeds and voice sets or anything else is that it is hard to work out when a certain part of a flight is met. The Auto selection will be improved slightly, but not by much. So it is the pilot's job to decide on the main mechanics of the flight and choose from the selection when appropriate.

The general speeds and altitudes are calculated during the flight build based on the values in the Aircraft Flight Parameters page, per aircraft.

Obtaining waypoint crossing restrictions comes from an AIRAC, we can have IF refer to the AIRAC without integrating. Integrating means only the AIRAC is used, when NON-integrated only the SID/STAR information is pulled from the AIRAC. At the moment the FMS or GPS is used to select an approach and that would follow the STAR. IF doesn't step in there at the moment, as you say is not an FMS. However it's not a big deal to incorporate the approximation of a STAR and guide you that way.

Eventually the selection of navs and waypoints from the Assist window will make things quick and easy. First things first, getting some control of the throttle will be a great help.

[Steve Waite]

...when the AIRAC is incorporated IF uses the SIDs and STARs to determine the runway and routing, only the approach waypoints are excluded. That's the same behaviour as many FMS systems desire since they include the approach from their own selection. So in effect IF does SIDs and STARs. The IDF and FAF can be included, and these are computed if waypoints are unavailable.

Remember to Include Approach waypoints in the Plan Type, and on the Mission page choose from the Approach and Departure selection. We only see SID and STAR when an AIRAC is incorporated. For planes with regular navigation and GPS we need not "Integrate". When we use an aircraft with advanced navigation driven from the add in data set (AIRAC) we Integrate and do a re-index to obtain the subset of navigation true to both simulator and aircraft.

When we use normal planners they all use a set of data from the AIRAC set. The Ideal Flight planner uses the core simulator data (and fsAerodata) unless the AIRAC is integrated. To maintain best compatibility the fsAerodata SID STAR information is augmented by the aircraft navdata to obtain reliable plans.

[Orinks]

Well, the whole approach type is further complicated by the fact that if IF generates approach waypoints for a specific runway and a vatsim controller gives you a different runway on approach...

Also complicated by the fact that if using weather downloaders, and you put the wind direction and speed in the weather page for both departure and destination, they might change during flight causing the active to be changed.

Just thinking of situations that might pop up on Vatsim and flying online and ways to be ready for them. People using an advanced FMS can just go to a page and click the new runway.

Also, with approach waypoints included, can you land using ILS, or is that designed for rnav?

[Steve Waite]

The case for setting off with any plan is that the outcome might change and a new plan must be submitted to the simulator. What you are asking is can IF be made to redo the plan midway? That's been on the cards for a long time but rarely asked for. You can make a number of plans for any outcome with IF before making the flight and choosing the most likely one. But would be nice to redo mid flight and that is planned with the accessible upgrades. With no FMS and just a regular GPS you require a GPS waypoints down to the runway.

Flight generator page, Plan Type "Approach Waypoints included". Use this setting before going to the Mission page. In the Mission page Departure and Approach lists look for options there. More options show up with an AIRAC allocated.

Computed Approach and Initial Departure Fix will put you on course without navs available. I might look at virtualising the HSI into the AP so that an imaginary ILS is available.

The ILS/LOC airports are sorted out with the default filter setting. So mostly you get an ILS approach dialed into the navs. Look in Cold and Dark settings for those options which frequencies are set already and so on.

[Steve Waite]

The next update will make old saved flights unusable, so will need to finish off flights before updating.

I've fixed the problems around using and selecting hot keys.
I've improved and fixed problems warping around other parking and runways, and incorporated helicopters and helipads.

I've incorporated some hotkeys and a throttle manager, early stages.

A hotkey cycles the meaning of the forward and backward selections Selecting voice sets, and selecting throttle management speeds.

Throttle management is from a hot key engages throttle manager for adjusting at the current speed, and a second press engages speed presets worked from the settings in the Aircraft Flight Parameters, parked, parking, taxi, climb cruise, descent, approach, final, parking taxi, and back to parked at zero knots. Speed presets are cycled with the forward and backward hotkeys.

[Steve Waite]

20/March/2020:

Latest IF versions include screen reader support and in-sim voice callouts by codelegend.com

Preview 11:

Ideal Flight Professional P3D v4
Ideal Flight 10 Professional P3D v3
Ideal Flight 10 Special Edition
Ideal Flight 10 Original


Hotkeys have changed, set defaults by clearing the hotkey value.

Use the autothrottle hotkey to activate the autothrottle and presets, use the cycle hotkey to change the meaning of the forward and back hot keys. View hotkeys in the keyboard keys document on the popup menu.

The throttle manager is rudimentary, just to get things going, but control will suffer from hysteresis.

[Orinks]

So does the IF auto-throttle management use the auto-throttle in the sim? Should we arm the sim auto-throttle before messing with the auto-throttle presets?

My first test with it... did not go well. I had my climb preset on which was 370, but I had mach hold on. When I got to cruise I changed it, mach hold still being on and it could not hold mach 0.82. It actually does what FSX Pilot does, and goes past the specified speed to 0.82 and beyond, and then slows down back to the 0.60's before going back up again.

Perhaps this is because I had the aircraft auto-throttle on. You may eventually want to do what Tramp does and create IF's own auto-throttle/auto-pilot for when the aircraft either doesn't use the sim one, or it has a custom one. If the aircraft does have an auto-throttle/auto-pilot that can be accessed via the sim, there can be an option to toggle between the two. This all assuming that IF currently manages the throttle without the AP auto-throttle, I'm not sure.

Also note to self: Disable IF auto-throttle when enabling TOGA for takeoff.

[ke7zum]

Letting you know that the latest preview crashes with an error that says something to the effect of "cannot save profile, try reindexing from the start page, ideal flight will now close." It could not even record the flight i just did. Is anyone else having this issue? It has something to do with the score board, the app will then just close. I can now no longer staart the app as it will just crash upon start up. again, using prefiew 11. I might downgrade to preview 10 until this is looked into.

Thanks.

Take care