FLIGHT-CRITICAL NOTE:
 
I nornally don't post every tiny detail here but if there is a pretty  
big flight model bug I like to point it out since many of you are using  
X-Plane for actual design prediction... so here is a pretty major error  
in 8.30 beta-6 that I want everyone to know about:
 
I have new code that predicts the lift, drag, moment, and  
angle-of-attack increase from the deflection of flight controls.. this  
code is NOT yet tuned in 8.30 Beta-6 and as it turns out it is making  
the airfoils stall TOO SOON with large flap and control-surface  
deflections.
 
So, do NOT count on control and flap deflections to provide good lift  
results in 8.30 beta-6!
 
I have fixed this tonight to a much better approximation of the  
lift/drag/moment/angle-of-attack of control surface deflectsions, so of  
course this will be reflected in beta-7.
 
 
austin

X-Plane 8.30 Beta-7 is here
www.X-Plane.com/beta.hml
 
NEW STUFF FOR BETA-7 SINCE BETA-6:
 
joystick nosehweel steering toggle is now operative
autopilot disconnect annunciator now operative
cockpit obejcts visible in other planes at the right times
g430 more speed-optimized... it does not slow the sim down in any mode
a few other bug-fixes and speed-optimizations and clean-ups
 
 
have at it and let me know how it goes!
 
 
austin

Hi Y'all,
 
This only applies to users who are testing the newest X-Plane betas.
 
If you cannot get the updater to do an incremental download (for  
example, it insists on putting /X-plane/ after the folder you pick):
 
Check to see if you have a custom scenery folder.  If your custom  
scenery folder was emptied (by the installer removing the year-old  
legacy KSBD demo area) then the installer may have also deleted the  
custom scenery folder.
 
Simply make a new "Custom Scenery" folder in your x-system folder and  
then re-run the updater; it should work incrementally.
 
*Cheers*
Ben

BUNCHES-O-STUFF!
 
1: X-Plane 8.30 Beta-9 is here. www.X-Plane.com/beta.html
we are cleaning up the remaining bugs now.. and making it run just a  
hair faster yet!
see the full report of new stuff at www.X-Plane.com/beta.html
 
2: we dont know if X-Plane will run ion the intel macs yet (it is  
SUPPOSED to, but we will soon see what REALLY happens)
OBVIOUSLY, however, if it does not run now, we will get it running  
really soon, as should go without saying.
we will also, of course, do intel native versions of x-plane very soon  
as well.. obviosuly, if you get a new intel mac, we will support it  
soon.
we will have specific info on performance on or about january 27, when  
we will have done some testing and plan to have intel-native builds  
ready.
 
3: ok this is a cool little nugget i found.. .it's called "FROM THE  
EARTH TO THE MOON", an HBO miniseries than ran recently... it is 9  
1-hour episides
documenting the space flight program of the 60's and 70's. MOST of the  
episodes are really NOT very inspired, but there is one absolute GEM in  
there: the FINAL episode (#9)
which on disc THREE of the series, and chronicles alan shephards  
experiences in the program... it is simply AMAZING. you HAVE to have a  
GREAT sound and video system to
really appreciate it, but even on your normal TV it will be an  
incredible watch.. it is really just an amazing little piece of history  
that shows what actually happened on Apollo 14 with AMAZING TECHNICAL  
DETAIL AND ACCURACY.. after all the idiocy from hollywood on the way  
planes and spaceships can go wrong, this recounting of the 2 near-fatal  
failures on the Apollo 14 mission are absolutey amazingly accurately  
recounted, with incredible music and photography to boot, outlining  
alan's quest to get into space against all odds. While Apollo 13 gets  
all the press, Apollo 14 also had some incredible close calls, and the  
mission is is just wonderfully replayed here with a soundtrack that  
left me just speechless and watching the launch sequence over and over  
and over again. It is just superb.
 
get it at amazon.com or NETFLIX (you only need to put disc 3 in your  
queue), and you will thank me!
 
(are you on netflix? if not, and you like seeing movies at home at all,  
then for gods sake get on it! never waste time and fuel driving a 3,200  
pound car thru traffic to rent or see a movie again! netflix takes a  
logical step to the information age by shipping dvd's to your door with  
ZERO hassle, saving the silly, ridiculous waste of time and energy  
incurred by driving a car around to get you to a theatre or a  
blockbuster, though the NEXT level will be skipping the silly waste of  
non-biodegradeable plastic incurred by storing the information on a  
dvd, and all content will be provided in an itunes-like format...  
though that day is not here yet: the net is just too slow. the itunes  
tv shows and movies are far too lo-res to look good... FOR NOW )
 
austin

F-A-Q:
 
A NUMBER OF PEOPLE have been asking me how to use the FMS in X-Plane  
recently...
so i decided to do a simple write-up and publish it so... uhh... now  
you know:
 
 
So how do you USE these systems to fly an FMS PLAN?
 
A few things must happen: You must enter all your flight plan into the  
FMS, AND you have to have the HSI set to GPS, NOT nav 1 or nav 2  
(because remember, the autopilot will fly whatever it sees on the HSI,  
so you must get the HSI to show you what is being generated by the GPS,  
so you have to set the HSI to GPS) AND you must have the LOC and VNAV  
buttons selected ON, AND the FLIGHT DIR button must be set to AUTO, so  
the flight director is NOT OFF, NOT just ON, but actualy DRIVIGN THER  
AUTOPILOT. Do all these things, and the plane will follow any FMS plan,  
assuming, of course, the plane you are flying HAS all this equipment,  
which of course most do not.
Now, the next question a lot of people ask is: HOW DO I USE THE  
FMS????????
Well, it's pretty darn easy!
Here's how:
Open of the Boeing 777 for this one... hit the INIT button on the FMS:  
this gets the FMS inited to receive a flight plan.
Now hit the AIRP button: this tells the FMS that you are about to go to  
an AIRPORT.
Now enter the ID of whatever airport you want to by hitting the keypad  
keys with the mouse.
Now, if you like, hit the line-select button on the left side of the  
FMS next to the text "FLY AT ______ FT"... and enter the altitude you  
want to fly at with the keypad again.
Now, if you want to do more than just fly to an airport, hit the NEXT  
button on the FMS and repeat the steps above for the next waypoint.
There is a back-arrow to erase mistakes, VOR, NDB, FIX, and LAT/LON  
buttons to enter those types of destinations, and PREV/NEXT buttons to  
cycle thru the various waypoints in your plan, as well as a LD and SA  
button load and save flight plans if you want to use them again.
Now, once you have entered the plan into the FMS, take off and set the  
"SOURCE" button for the HSI to "GPS" so the HSI is getting data from  
the GPS (not the nav-1 or nav-2 radios) and move the "FLIGHT DIR"  
button to "AUTO" so the autopilot servos are actually running, and hit  
the "LOC" autopilot button to follow the HSI lateral guidance.... which  
you just set to get data from the GPS, with the servos on to actively  
command the plane. (And, if you bothered to enter an altitude into the  
FMS, which is totally optional, then hit the VNAV autopilot button to  
track the entered altitude" ).
So, it is pretty easy once you just get the basics.
 
 
 
 
 
austin

X-Plane 830 Beta-10 is here
 
www.x-plane.com/beta.html
 
load time is SPED UP BY ANOTHER 25% IN THE HI-ROAD HI-OBJECT CASE
 
AND X-PLANE 830 BETA-10 DOES RUN ON MAC INTEL HARDWARE NOW... we will  
get you specific speed comparisons once i have enough data to compare  
"apple to apples" (multiple puns intented)
 
 
 
austin

a few things i am hearing over and over...
 
1: a number of people have ATIS frequencies tuned into their com  
radios... and are asking me why they are hearing atis.
oops.
here is how it works in the REAL PLANE: ATIS is broadcast on the ATIS  
frequency.
over and over again.
forever.
the tower makes a recording of the weather once per hour, and a machine  
in the tower plays that weather repeatedly, forever
as long as you are tuned into that frequenecy, you will hear the  
weather repoeated
once you have gotten the weatehr copied, you simply chnage the radio  
frequency.
that is how it is in reality, and exactly how it is in x-plane, so once  
you hear atis, just change the radio freq if you dont want to keep  
listening to it.
 
2: a number of people are flying with the flight realism sliders at  
MINIMUM at LOW FRAME-RATES, then asking me why their plane is "rocking"
oops.
this is not realistic, and NOT LIKE FLYING THE REAL PLANE.
you need a good frame-rate to fly realistically, and you need the  
sliders set to realistic.
(the "flight realism" sliders actually move the controls to  
artificially stabilize the plane, and they need a decent frame-rate to  
do this properly... i am working on a mod for beta-10 to make this  
system work at all frame-rates, but for now you should not be flying  
around at low framerates with minimu flight realism wondering why the  
plane is rocking: the flight model needs a decent framerate to run with  
the realism sliders set to "unrealistic" )
 
 
so, as in the real plane:
 
-set sliders to max realism
-dont drop your sliders to minimum realism and then turn on so many  
rendering option that your framerate tanks, and then wonder why the  
flight model isn't running smoothly.
-dont set to (or leave) your radios on the atis freq unless you want to  
get atis
 
 
austin

./X-Plane-athlon-xp
Erreur de segmentation

X-PLANE 8.30 RC-1 IS HERE MAC, WINDOWS, AND LINUX!
 
www.X-Plane.com
 
NEW STUFF FOR RC-1 SINCE BETA-10:
No more controls-flutter when you drop the flight realism in the  
joystick window to a low setting while flying with low frame-rate.
 
Autopilot should hopefully be more tolerant of low framerate (much like  
the low-flight realism, which is essentially an autopilot
that tries to keep you level, this was causing oscillations before at  
low frame-rate).
 
Non-standard FMS size will not make the text in the flight-plan  
open/save page non-standard as well!
 
Standard-6 panel instruments functional on the IOS screen.
 
World-Maker now saves facades.
 
Plugins can control the ground bumpiness now.
 
Threading can be turned off... might be useful if you do not have 2  
processors or a dual-core CPU.
 
Railroads and powerlines appear in lower road rendering settings.
 
The 'Nearest VOR' function on the Garmin 430 should give the nearest  
VOR now.
 
The overlay images for fuselages work in Plane-Maker, even if their  
size is NOT power-of-2.
 
The glideslope indicator should be accurate even in hilly airports and  
stuff where it would sometimes be off by a bit before.
This involves X-Plane resolving any discrepancies between the various  
terrain and NAVAID databases to make sure that the radio, actual, PAPI,  
and VASI glideslope all agree! This issue was most clearly found and  
pointed out by Alex Unruh, who noticed that the radio glideslope was  
not always taking you down right to the runway touch-down zone. What is  
interesting about this problem is that the USGS says that the elevation  
of the touch-down zone is one thing, but DAFIF says the elevation of  
the glideslope transmitter is something DIFFERENT than that! Oops! They  
can't BOTH be right! So now, X-Plane uses the USGS data to "break the  
tie", since that is where X-Plane puts the actual physical runway and  
the VASI and PAPI lights. This way, even if some government database or  
another is a bit in error, X-Plane "auto-locks" these critical  
elevation points together by setting the glideslope elevation to the  
runway touch-down zone elevation (whether you have sloped runways  
allowed or not) so that you always get a glideslope that takes you  
right down to the touch-down zone in the simulator... with the VASIs  
and PAPIs in agreement about how you should fly as well.
 
Further flap and control-surface lift refinement... they should be very  
accurate now!
 
Night lighting is now darkened a bit... it was so bright before that  
the landing lights did not always come on if the moon was full!
 
Engine instruments are now auto-labelled on both left and right sides  
for the multi-engine all-in-one gages, even if the plane has "mirrored"  
instruments as specified in the "Limits" screen in Plane-Maker.
 
No more water-runway flags floating over the runways at KLGA.
 
The EFIS airspeed indicator for jets is now more realistic... the stall  
speed bug moves depending on your flap settings, and the Vne bug comes  
down as needed to never indicate higher than your max allowable Mach  
number. Real jets do this... flying the (real) 777 or 777 type-rating  
simulator involves always keeping your eyes on the airspeed tape, which  
has little bugs that creep up and down depending on your flaps, Mach  
number, altitude, etc.
 
 
 
austin