YOU WILL NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE NEW AUTOPILOT IN X-PLANE 8.60!!!!
 
READ THIS WELL!!!
 
 
 
AUTOPILOTS
How to use the Autopilot
One of the most-often asked questions in X-Plane is the same as one  
of the most often-asked questions in real planes: HOW DO I WORK THE  
AUTOPILOT? This is no surprise, as pilots don't know how to work  
their autopilots all the time. I have even been on AIRLINER where the  
plane was jerking abruptly left and light for 5 minutes or so as the  
flight crew was clearly trying to figure out how to properly program  
and engage their autopilot.
 
Well, for X-Plane, here are the autopilot functions available: (all  
of these can be chosen for your panel in the Panel-Editor in Plane-  
Maker... they are all in the "autopilot" instrument folder). Each of  
these is a mode you can put your plane in simply by hitting that  
button on the panel with the mouse.
 
WLV: WING-LEVELER: This will simply hold the wings level while you  
figure out what to do next.
HDG: HEADING HOLD. This will simply follow the heading bug on the HSI  
or Direction Gyro.
LOC: Localizer. This will fly a VOR or ILS radial, or to a GPS  
destination... AND THE GPS CAN GET DATA FROM THE FMS IF THE GPS IS  
SET TO LISTEN TO THE FMS (explained soon).
HOLD: This will hold the current or pre-selected ALTITUDE by pitching  
the nose up or down.
V/S: This will hold a constant VERTICAL SPEED by pitching the  
aircraft nose up or down.
SPD: This will hold the pre-selected AIRSPEED by pitching the nose up  
or down. (leaving throttle alone)
FLCH: (Flight-Level Change)This will hold the pre-selected AIRSPEED  
by pitching the nose up or down. (leaving throttle alone) This is  
commonly used to change altitude in Airliners by simply letting the  
pilot add or take away power, while the airplane pitches the nose to  
hold the most efficient speed. If the pilot adds power, the plane  
climbs. If he takes it away, the plane descends. SPD and FLCH are  
currently identical functions in X-Plane: They both pitch the nose up  
or down to maintain a desired aircraft speed, so adding or taking  
away power results in climbs or descents.
PTCH: Pitch-Sync: Use this to cause the plane to hold it's nose at a  
constant pitch attitude. Commonly used in King-Airs to just hold the  
nose somewhere until the pilot decides what to do next.
G/S: Glideslope: This will fly the glideslope portion of the ILS.
VNAV: Vertical Navigation: This will fly automatically load altitudes  
from the FMS (Flight Management System) into the autopilot for you,  
to follow route altitudes. (explained soon).
BC: Every ILS on the planet has a LITTLE-KNOWN SECOND LOCALIZER THAT  
GOES IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION AS THE INBOUND LOCALIZER. THIS IS USED  
FOR THE MISSED APPROACH, ALLOWING YOU TO CONTINUE FLYING ALONG THE  
EXTENDED CENTERLINE OF THE RUNWAY, EVEN AFTER PASSING OVER AND BEYOND  
THE RUNWAY. To save money, some airports will NOT bother to install a  
new ILS at the airport to land on the same runway going the other  
direction, but instead let you fly this second localizer BACKWARDS to  
come into the runway from the opposite direction of the regular ILS!  
This is called a BACK COURSE ILS. Using the SAME ILS in BOTH  
directions has it's advantage (it's cheaper) but a drawback: The  
needle deflection on your instruments is BACKWARDS when going the  
WRONG WAY ON THE ILS! Hit the BC (back course) autopilot button if  
you are doing this. It causes the autopilot to realize that the  
needle deflection is BACKWARDS, and still fly the approach.
(Note: HSI's do NOT reverse the visible needle deflection in the back-  
course because you turn the housing that the deflection needle is  
mounted on around 180 degrees to fly the opposite direction... thus  
reversing the reversal!) (NOTE: The glide-slope is NOT available on  
the back-course, so you have to use the localizer part of the  
procedure only)
 
OK, now you know what the various options are... how do you use them?
 
Well, first of all, you need to turn the autopilot ON!
The autopilot power is disguised as a 'Flight Director Mode' switch,  
which has modes OFF, FDIR, AUTO.
What this means is:
If the Flight director is OFF, then NOTHING will happen when you try  
to use the autopilot.
If the Flight director is ON, then the autopilot will not physically  
move the airplane controls, but it will move little target wings on  
your artificial horizon that you can try to mimic as you fly. If you  
do this, then you will be following the guidance that the autopilot  
is giving you, even though you are the one actually flying. The  
flight director is, at that point, following whatever autopilot modes  
you have selected, and you are following the flight director as you  
fly the plane.
If the flight director is set to AUTO, then the autopilot servos will  
actually fly the airplane according to the autopilot mode you have  
selected.
 
In other words, if you have a flight director switch, then make sure  
it is in the right mode for the type of autopilot guidance you want!  
(None, flight-director only, or actual servos driving the controls).
 
Now that you have set the flight director to the right mode, let's  
look at the various modes you can use to command that flight director  
and possibly autopilot servos!
 
WING-LEVELER AND PITCH SYNC:
Just hit them and they hold wings level and pitch-attitude at the  
current pitch.
 
HEADING, ALTITUDE , VERTICAL SPEED, SPEED-HOLD, FLIGHT-LEVEL-CHANGE,  
AUTO-THROTTLE:
Just hit them and they will hold whatever values are entered into the  
selectors, with most values auto-set to your current speed or  
altitude at the moment they are hit for smooth transitions. Now, this  
makes perfect sense at first: Simply hit the VVI button and the  
autopilot will grab and hold your current VVI. Same with airspeed.  
Same with altitude. BUT WHAT IF YOU WANT THE PLANE TO CLIMB TO A NEW  
ALTITUDE YOU HAVE NOT REACHED YET? Well, at that point, you have to  
ask yourself: Do you want the airplane to hold a constant VERTICAL  
speed to that new altitude, or a constant AIRSPEED to that new  
altitude? Since airplanes are most efficient at some constant  
indicate AIRSPEED, climbing by holding a constant airspeed is usually  
most efficient.
Let's start with the vertical speed case though.
Let's say you are flying along at 5,000 feet and you hit ALT. That  
grabs your CURRENT altitude of 5,000 feet.
Now let's say you want to climb to 9,000 feet.
First, dial 9,000 into the altitude window. Note that the plane does  
NOT go there yet!
The NEXT step is to decide HOW you want to get to 9,000 feet!
Hit the VVI button and the plane will capture your current VVI (maybe  
0) and simply dial the VVI up or down to get to 9,000 feet more or  
less quickly.
When you get to 9,000 feet, the autopilot will automatically DIS-  
ENGAGE the vertical speed mode and drop right back into altitude mode  
at your new altitude.
Now let's do this the way airliners do:
You are at 5,000 feet in altitude-hold, flying at a constant speed.
You dial in 9,000 feet because you want to climb.
You hit FLCH or SPD!
This make the plane pitch the nose up or down to maintain your  
current indicated SPEED!
Now, simply add a dose of power and the nose of the plane will raise  
up to keep the speed from increasing, and up you go!
When you get to 9,000 feet, the pane autopilot will LEAVE speed-hold  
mode and go into altitude-hold mode, holding 9,000 feet until further  
notice.
 
So, as you see, the speed and vertical speed modes will be held just  
fine...         UNTIL THEY GET TO THE ALTITUDE YOU HAVE DIALED IN, A WHICH  
POIT THEY WILL ABANDON THAT MODE AND GRAB ALTITUDE HOLD MODE. The  
same thing will happen with GLIDESLOPE! If the glideslope is armed  
(lit up because you pushed the button!) then the autopilot will  
abandon your vertical mode when the glideslope engages. The same  
thing will happen with the LOCALIZER! If the Localizer is armed (lit  
up because you pushed the button!) then the autopilot will abandon  
your heading mode when the localizer engages!
This is called 'CAPTURING' the localizer or glideslope.
 
PITCH SYNC WITH PITCH-SYNC JOYSTICK BUTTON: You can assign a joystick  
button to be 'Pitch Sync', in which case the autopilot will match the  
autopilot settings to whatever you are doing as you fly the plane...  
then, when you RELEASE the pitch-sync joystick button, the autopilot  
will GRAB HOLD of the yoke (engage servos) and maintain the vertical  
speed, altitude, airspeed, or pitch that you were just flying! How  
does this work? Here is an example:
Let's say you are at 3,000 feet, and you are in ALTITUDE mode, the  
autopilot holding 3,000 feet for you. You hit the PITCH SYNC joystick  
button. When you do this, the autopilot servos turn the yoke loose  
and let you fly... you fly to 3,500 ft (autopilot still in altitude  
mode!) and let go of the PITCH SYNC joystick button. At that point,  
the autopilot will try to hold 3,500 ft, since you were in altitude  
mode at 3,500 feet at the moment you let go of the pitch-sync button.
Now let's say you are in VVI mode.. then the autopilot will try to  
maintain the vertical speed that you had at the moment you released  
the pitch-sync button.
Now let's say you are in SPEED or LEVEL-CHANGE mode.. then the  
autopilot will try to maintain the airspeed (by pitching nose up or  
down!) the airspeed that you had at the moment you released the pitch-  
sync button.
So, when you HIT the pitch-sync joystick button, the autopilot turns  
OFF the servos and lets you fly, but when you RELEASE the button, the  
servos take hold and try to maintain the speed, altitude, or vertical  
speed that you had at the moment you released the pitch-sync joystick  
button. The same applies to bank angle: If if you are in wing-level  
or heading mode when you hit pitch-sync, then the plane will try to  
maintain the bank-angle you had at the moment you released the button  
one you release it. (Note: if the bank angle is less than 6 degrees,  
then the plane will just level the wings, assuming that you want nose-  
level).
 
LOC and G/S:
These are the ones nobody can figure out, partially because the right  
frequencies and HSI mode must be selected to use them, and partially  
because they WILL NOT DO A THING until they CAPTURE the approach path  
they are looking for... and some OTHER MODE (any of the ones  
discussed above) must be engaged to do that.
 
So, here is how these modes work:
These modes capture an ILS or VOR or GPS course, so they must  
obviously be able to fly either NAV-1, NAV-2, or GPS.
But how do these know which of those 3 signals to use?
The answer is the button labelled "NAV-1 NAV-2 FMC/CDU", (with  
filename "but_HSI_12GPS" in the HSI folder), which is the HSI source  
selector.
Here is why: The AUTOPILOT will fly whatever is THE HSI IS SHOWING  
(if you have one), so you need to decide what you want the HSI to  
show: Nav-1, Nav-2, or GPS (labeled FMC/CDU, for Flight Management  
Computer, which gets it's signal from the GPS). Once you decide what  
you want the HSI to display with this button, that is what the  
autopilot will fly.
 
If you put this button to Nav-1, then the the HSI will show  
deflections from the Nav-1 radio, and the autopilot
will fly VOR or ILS signals from the Nav-1 radio if you hit the LOC  
or G/S buttons.
 
If you put this button to Nav-2, then the the HSI will show  
deflections from the Nav-2 radio, and the autopilot
will fly VOR or ILS signals from the Nav-2 radio if you hit the LOC  
or G/S buttons.
 
If you put this button to FMC/CDU, then the the HSI will show  
deflections from the GPS, which can be set manually or by the FMS,  
and the autopilot
will fly to the GPS destination if you hit the LOC button. Rememebr  
that if you enter destinations into the FMS,
they will automatically feed into the GPS, so the autopilot will  
follow them if you select LOC.
 
So now that you know how to send the right signal (Nav-1, Nav-2, or  
GPS) to the autopilot for LOC and G/S
(lateral and vertical navigation), how do you USE those modes?
 
Here is the answer:
 
LOC: Lateral navigation will immediately start going to a GPS  
destination once engaged.
But, it will only track a VOR radial or ILS localizer AFTER THE  
NEEDLE HAS COME OFF OF FULL-SCALE DEFLECTION! This means that if you  
have a full-scale ILS needle deflection (simply because you have not  
yet gotten to the localizer) the LOC mode will simply go into ARMED  
(yellow) mode, and NOT DO ANYTHING AT ALL WITH THE PLANE! Your  
current HEADING or WING-LEVEL mode (if engaged) will remain in force  
(or you can hand-fly) UNTIL THE LOCALIZER NEEDLE STARTS TO MOVE IN TO  
THE CENTER. Once that happens, the LOC will suddenly go from ARMED  
(yellow) to ACTIVE, and start actually flying the plane for you, dis-  
engaging any previous modes. Why is this? Because you will typically  
fly HEADING mode until you GET TO THE LOCALIZER, and as soon as the  
localizer needle comes in, you want the autopilot to forget about  
heading and start flying the localizer down to the runway. Or you  
simply hand-fly the plane to the localizer, with no autopilot mode on  
at all, and you want the autopilot to take over once the ILS needle  
starts to come in, indicating you are entering the localizer.  
Interestingly, this is much the same as the altitude modes! Just as  
the localizer is ARMED by hitting the LOC button, and you can do  
anything until the localizer arms and then takes over lateral  
control, the altitude is also ARMED (always, and automatically) and  
you can fly any vertical speed or airspeed or pitch (manually or on  
autopilot) until the altitude is reached, at which point the  
autopilot will go into altitude-hold mode.
 
G/S: Just like the lateral nav, the vertical nav WILL NOT DO ANYTHING  
UNTIL THE GLIDELSOP NEEDLE starts to move... though unlike with the  
localizer, the G/S mode won't do anything until the glidelsope needle  
goes ALL THE WAY THRU THE CENTER POSITION. Why? Because you typically  
have the airplane on ALTITUDE HOLD until you intercept the  
glideslope, at which point the plane should stop holding altitude  
altitude and start flying down to the runway. In other words, the G/S  
mode will automatically go from ARMED to ACTIVE once the plane hits  
the CENTER of the glideslope.
 
So how do you USE these systems to fly an ILS?
 
While still far away from the ILS, and BELOW glideslope:
 
->Hit the altitude ALTITUDE button to hold current ALTITUDE.
 
->Enter an HEADING in the HEADING window to follow until you  
intercept the ILS.
->Hit the HEADING button to hold it.
 
->Hit the LOC button. It will ARM (yellow)
->Hit the G/S button. It will ARM (yellow)
 
Now, as soon as you intercept the localizer:
->the LOC will go from yellow to green, abandoning the HEADING mode  
and fliying the localizer.
 
Now, as soon as you intercept the CENTER of the glideslope:
->the G/S will go from yellow to green, abandoning the ALTITUDE HOLD  
mode and fliying the glidelsope.
 
The autopilot will then track you right down to the runway, and even  
flare at the end, cutting power if autothrottle is engaged.
 
Just as in a real airplane, these things only work well if you  
intercept the loclalizer far away (OUTSIDE the Outer Marker) and  
BELOW the glideslope, intercepting the localizer at less than a 30-  
degree angle, and holding altitude when you intercept the glideslope.  
If you are above the glideslope, or crossing the localizer at a wide  
angle, or intercept the localizer too close in to the airport, the  
autopilot will not be able to manuever the airplane for landing, as I  
have found out many times in X-Plane, and several times in my Cirrus.
 
OK, you should know how to fly with the autopilot now.
Now let's see how you can fly an FMS PLAN.
A few things must happen:
-You must enter all your flight plan into the FMS
-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!)
-you must have the LOC button selected ON since that button makes the  
autopilot follow the localizer (or whatever is on the HSI)
-the FLIGHT DIR button must be set to AUTO, so the servos are running.
-the VNAV button should be hit IF you want the FMS to also load  
ALTITUDES into the altitude window
 
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 some 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.
 
Now, using the autopilot is only one basic step... the next level is  
to use the FMS! (flight management system). To do this, 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" ).
 
Do that and the plane will fly you anywhere.
 
So, it is pretty easy once you just get the basics.

X-Plane 8.60 Beta-1 is Mac, Windows, and Linux!
 
Grab it now at:
 
http://www.x-plane.com/beta.html
 
So what's new?
 
 

New Autopilot and FMS:
 

Well, the autopilot is pretty completely over-hauled to be more  
realistic... hitting an autopilot mode that is already engaged will  
NOT dis-engage it any more! You need to engage some NEW, DIFFERENT  
autopilot mode to discontinue the current mode, or turn the autopilot  
off altogether by turning the flight director switch (if equipped) to  
OFF, or assigning a joystick button to disconnect the autopilot, done  
in the joystick button-assignment page.
 
As well, the FMS autopilot navigation is now more accurate, with the  
FMS being smart enough to do turn-ins to new plan-legs in ADVANCE of  
the waypoints to follow flight plans correctly.
 
As in reality, you must enter a VVI in the right direction to climb  
or descend to your target altitude and hit the VVI or some other  
altitude-change button to go to a new altitude. Autopilot constants  
are also tuned a hair as wel to fly more accurately
 
Tapping the brakes will DIS-engage the autobraking system if it is  
running, as in reality.
 
 

Improved Systems-Modelling:
 

New option in Plane-Maker engine screen: Henerator voltage. This can  
be HIGHER than the battery voltage to get a higher voltage when  
charging the battery, as in reality.
 
AHRS, electric gyros, and vacuum gyros all have different attitude  
indications, with each instrument displaying an AHRS, electric gyro,  
or vaccuum gyro, for either pilot or copilot, depending on the type  
of instrument and instrument settings as set in the panel-editor of  
Plane-Maker... this really lets you get your instruments to have  
proper failure modes at the proper times. (So, in Plane-Maker, now  
you choose whether the autopilot tracks the AHRS, electric gyro, or  
vaccuum gyro system!
 
Full-scale VOR dflection occurrs at 10 degrees off of target radial,  
not 5 as used previously.
 
 

Flight-Model Refinements:
 

Rotor wash in low-altitude hover in helos and VTOLs kicks back into  
the rotor, as in reality, to bounce and kick the helo or VTOL around  
a bit as it hovers in it's own ground-resonance pressure-waves.
 
 

Small Graphics Refinements:
 

Wake from ships is placed a hair better.
 
Scenery should be in sync across all monitors, unlike in previous  
versions where the scenery objects may have been different between  
one monitor and another.
 
World-Maker and Plane-Maker and X-Plane can all now run at different  
resolutions... set the resolutions in the rendering options screen in  
each of those apps.
 
Propeller normals are correct in all cases now... they were backwards  
in some cases earlier, causing some props to appear as dark in the sim.
 
 

Joystick Functionality:
 

Prop-control for individual engines inthe Joystick axis-selection  
screen should work for all engines, and per-engine, for all types of  
props.
 
PFC option for analog slider cowl flaps... kind of nice.
 
Analog joy axis for gear to move handle like real plane.
 
 

General Refinements:
 

When you control the other airplane's speed, alt, or heading in the  
Map screen, they will hold those values for a solid 10 minutes before  
wandering off and doing their own thing. (they will always try to  
avoid crashing into mountains though)
 
Flaps reset to 0 when you reset your flight by loading a new plane or  
other things like that.
 
Rejected take-off is only armed above 60 knots now, as in reality.
 
Control-; to toggle in and out of free-terrain-viewing mode tracks  
the viewing location more gracefully and accurately.
 
Plane-Maker can output the acf into 1 object file or many (one per  
part).
 
Plane-Maker now loads faster. Much.
 
Jet-airplane EFIS max-speed indicator now shows your maximum  
allowable speed for your given slat and flap deflections even when  
the first flap deflection is 0.
 
Pitot heat annunciator is now lit when the pitot heat is OFF, not  
when it is on!
 
Connections between different copies of X-Plane on a network maintain  
their conection even when paused, various windows brought up, etc. As  
well, X-Plane now lets you enter the IP address of your own computer  
to send data from x-plane to another app on your own computer, as  
long as you use a different PORT than 49000.
 
There is now a VOR on carrier and the frigate... zoom in on them in  
the map to get the freqs.
 
Shift-t and Control-t do ground track aceleration and real-time  
acceleration.. nice if you like to do stuff at 2x or 4x speed.  
Joystick buttons for both are also available.
 
Slightly better METAR file interpretation.
 
In the Map from the output menu, click in the map AWAY from any  
airplane or airports or navaids and DRAG the mouse.. you can drag the  
map that way now! Kind of nice!
 
Little ARGUS moving map thingy instrument fixed.
 
The menus properly reflect the keys for each view or special  
operation, even if you modify the keys away from default (done in the  
Instructions folder, by the way)
 
If you fly into an area with no scenery installed, then X-Plane will  
warn you that you have not installed scenery for that area... turn  
this warning off in the Operations and Warnings screen if you want.
 
 

Bug Fixes:
 

The labeled flap indicators are labled correctly.
 
Yaw-axis power-curve selector is back in joystick screen.
 
HUD scales the velocity vector correctly at non-standard resolutions.
 
No more avionics fan heard when OUTSIDE the cockpit. Umm.. I think it  
is safe to say this a hair more realistic.

With X-Plane 8.60 we reworked the way keyboard keys and joystick buttons  
are bound to commands in X-Plane.  In the long term this will give you  
better flexibility to configure the sim the way you want, and less  
changes to the preferences files.  But in the short term of 860 there  
are some disruptions.
 
- You will need to reconfigure your joystick buttons in 860!  The  
preferences for joystick buttons from 850 will not carry forward.
 
- The format of the keys files have changed completely - see  
Instructions/keys/x-plane.txt for more info.  So if you've built your  
own key bindings, you will need to redo them.  (The silver lining is,  
the new file format lets you remap everything including control keys,  
and even use the alt key.)
 
- We are still fixing bugs with keyboard bindings and joystick buttons -  
thanks for reporting them.  Beta 2 should fix a bunch of broken stuff,  
like ATC menus and brakes.
 
*cheers*
Ben

X-Plane 860 also makes some changes in how we use video and audio drivers.
 
X-Plane 860 uses a different kind of pixel shader (GLSL) from 850.  With  
both 850 and 860 I recommend that Windows users update to the latest  
drivers provided by ATI or nVidia directly on their website.
 
MACINTOSH OS X 10.3 users: you will need to download "OpenAL" from  
creative labs; you can get it here:
 
http://developer.creative.com/arti [...] er_OSX.dmg
 
MACINTOSH OS X 10.3 users: the video drivers that ship with 10.3 do not  
support GLSL shaders.  If you have a modern card (nVidia 6000 or newer,  
or a Radeon 9600, x800, x850, x1600, x1900, etc.) I strongly recommend  
updating to OS X 10.4 to get video drivers that do support pixel shaders.
 
*cheers*
Ben

- You will need to reconfigure your joystick buttons in 860!  The  
preferences for joystick buttons from 850 will not carry forward.

- We are still fixing bugs with keyboard bindings and joystick buttons -  
thanks for reporting them.  Beta 2 should fix a bunch of broken stuff,  
like ATC menus and brakes.

X-Plane 8.60 Beta-2 is here, Mac, Windows, and Linux!
 
get it at:
 
http://www.x-plane.com/beta.html
 
 
just a number of little bug-fixes, plus:
 
Props should not turn when paused. In fact, pausing should really  
freeze absolutely everything...
tell me if you can find anything that does NOT pause when you hit pause!
 
Radio chatter does not overlap itself by playing too many calls at once.
 
Forest fires do not plot on the map if you have no forest fires, and  
vice-versa.
 
Mechanical instruments should not disappear just because electrical  
power is out. Oops!
 
Joystick axis Prop control should work normally.
 
Flight-level change adjusts the throttle, as it should, for you.
 
EFIS moving-maps filled properly.
Auto-brake rejected take-off automatically disengages any possible  
brake application when airborne.
 
Switching aircraft should switch to new aircraft sounds as well...  
let me know if it does not.
 
Numeric keypad can be used for flight control: 4/5/6 ailerons, 8/2  
elevator, 1/0/3 rudder.
As well, the rudder is auto-coordinated to the mouse movement if you  
are mouse-flying, unless you hit the numeric keypad 1/0/3 keys! In  
that event, you take rudder control with the numeric keypad.
 
austin

Dear pilots,
 
we are very proud to release this new version of XPushBack. After almost 18 months of silence, here it is. A huge thank you to all for your patience.
 
What is new in this version?
 
- XPushBack runs on Windows, Mac and Linux systems!
- We have refined the truck and plane movement to increase realism.
- Even if this is not apparent, tons of code have been internally rewritten for a more rational usage & maintenance.
- Tons of bug have been eradicated (no more truck flying above the ground...)
 
To get XPushBack, go to http://www.xpgoodwayteam.org/site_xpushback/
 
Alexis (XPushBack creator)