gospadin

Not planned at this time, per AlexanderT: https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2629387&postcount=542

This. Fundamentally each M-2000C skin author simply needs to update their skins to work with the new texture and number layout.

Those letters are the morse code identifiers of beacons. When tuning them in, you need to listen to the morse code to ensure you've tuned the correct beacon. Two letter codes are for "outer" beacons (somewhere 3-5km from the end of the runway) and single-letter codes are for inner beacons (around 1km from the end of the runway). For Anapa, only the active runway NDBs will be transmitting, based on the wind. So if RWY 04 at Anapa is active (e.g. Wind calm or from the Northeast) then you can tune in AN/N. If RWY 22 is active (wind from the Southwest in excess of 5 m/s) then you'll only be able to hear "AP" and "P." Since they're on the same frequencies, you can actually use the morse code identifier to determine the active runway. Obviously for a helicopter, there's little use for outer beacons unless you're trying to fly a fixed-wing-sized pattern. --gos

The radar tutorial video linked from our October update shows a daytime flight with the radar enabled. There are two parts. https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2938093&postcount=102

Yea, I'd made them internally during early testing, but never got around to linking them here. I made them public a few days ago. Thanks! --gos

Not sure what you mean by sluggish, but I don't fly the MiG-29/Su-33 normally. Pitch response/sensitivity is tunable. Max AoA is tunable as a function of altitude. Maybe post a video showing your control inputs?

I'd love to see the ME tweaked so that: If you choose a plane first, a checkmark appears next to the plane, and only that plane's roles show up or are highlighted. If you choose a role first, a checkmark appears next to the role, and only planes that can fill that role are highlighted. Just something so I don't accidentally click an invalid role on a plane I'm already setting up, thus causing the ME to pick a new plane instead. --gos

VSI isn't just used for hovering, though I agree 10m/s is about the normal limit I'd expect in a helicopter for a descent. Roughly 2000'/minute. IMO, you can see him compensating with cyclic, collective and pedal input. I believe the amount of correction needed is a function of how heavily loaded the helicopter is. You also need to consider that they may over-model the shudder so we can tell it's occurring, since we don't all have shaker seats.

I suggest my beacon mod for NTTR. I have some work on a Caucasus one in the background, but not quite ready yet.

Believe me, we're looking forward to that day too! --gos

Oh, and a "bloopers reel" of sorts I thought I'd share... This video was taken with an early version of the APC PID controller. If you watch closely, you can see the airspeed varying by as much as 15 knots on the approach as the control system cannot handle the lag in throttle response and engine thrust. e8mSudtBA2Y With a bit of tuning of the control system's parameters and addition of an input linearizer, we almost completely eliminated the PID lag, which resulted in the video in the prior post. --gos

Community A-4E Update, January 2017 Hi everyone, and welcome to our January 2017 Community A-4E update. This month’s theme is "You’re in Control of the System." Before mentioning any of our content however, we just want to toot our own horn and say Happy Birthday to Us! As of the first week of January, we’ve now been working on the A-4 for a year. We’ve had a few bumpy moments along the way, but every time we think something isn’t possible, one of us pulls a rabbit out of a hat and here we are… Tempus fugit, just like our A-4E. And now to our new content... Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS) The first new feature for this month’s update is our implementation of the realistic Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS), otherwise known as the autopilot. We didn’t use any of the built-in SFM functionality for this, instead implementing our own custom PID controllers from scratch (had to brush up a bit on control systems theory, and aircraft control systems in particular). The autopilot has 3 primary modes of operation while engaged: Attitude hold mode: if absolute bank is between 5 and 70 degrees, and pitch less than 60 degrees nose up/down, it keeps pitch and bank angle constant. Above these limits, AFCS will disengage or refuse to engage. Heading hold mode: Similar to attitude hold, but levels out the plane if bank angle is less than 5 degrees. Control Stick Steering mode: when force is applied to the stick, AFCS temporarily stops controlling until the stick is released. When the stick is released, control reverts back to attitude or heading hold modes above (depending on final bank angle when stick is released). This effectively means you can point the aircraft to a new pitch and bank angle while AFCS is engaged, and it will remain in that attitude when you release the stick. If you exceed certain limits while controlling the plane manually, AFCS disengages completely. In addition to the above primary modes, the following can be enabled while in attitude or heading hold modes: Altitude hold: instead of controlling pitch angle, the aircraft now controls the elevators to maintain the barometric altitude captured at the moment when this switch is flicked on (climb/dive rate must be less than 4000ft/min when activating this mode). This switch disables automatically when entering Control Stick Steering mode (i.e. moving the stick). Pre-select Heading control: A heading (0 to 359 degrees) can be selected with a knob, and enabling this switch causes the aircraft to fly the selected heading (choosing the shortest direction around the compass) at a maximum bank angle of 27 degrees, and roll out smoothly at the target heading. The heading knob can also be adjusted while in this mode, causing the aircraft to again turn appropriately. This switch disables automatically when entering Control Stick Steering mode (i.e. moving the stick). The AFCS also disables automatically when certain G-limits or control surface deflections or attitudes are exceeded (e.g. if moving stick beyond a certain amount in control stick steering mode). All of the switches are moved to disabled positions (with audible clicks) when this occurs. There is also an AFCS emergency override button on the stick, which immediately disengages all AFCS functions when pressed. In addition to all the above, there is a stability augmentation control which provides yaw dampening. This can be activated manually when the AFCS system is in standby (no other AFCS control taking place) or is implicitly enabled when AFCS is engaged. (Note that this yaw dampening has not been implemented yet.) AFCS Demonstration: gb98vEcUaOA Approach Power Compensator (APC) The second new feature is the Approach Power Compensator (APC), sometimes referred to as an autothrottle. The purpose of the APC is to hold the proper angle of attack during the landing approach, which in turn results in the proper approach speed. By using AoA as the input instead of airspeed, the APC automatically adjusts to differences in the weight of the airplane when it returns from a mission, stabilizing on faster approaches when the plane is heavier. In fact, the control system we implemented is able to hold AoA within a degree, and thus airspeed to within about 1 knot of the optimal approach speeds at all weights listed in the manual, from 12,000 lb to 16,000 lb, which is pretty exciting. Note that this does NOT guarantee you’re on the correct glide slope (glide slope and AoA aren’t the same thing) so you still need to fly the approach. You simply don’t have to worry about your airspeed on the way down, and the system automatically shuts off when the main landing gear is compressed. A-4E "First" APC Demo: 8RB0ThUuccU A-4E Carrier Circuit with APC: y5Fx0j4GuDI SFM Improvements Of course, trying to stabilize on an AoA wouldn’t make sense without a large improvement in the accuracy of our flight model. We had mentioned in the past that there were a number of errors in our SFM table, with 10-15% excess lift at all AoA, that at this point we believe are corrected. This was possible based on uncovering some aerodynamic measurement data of similar wing geometries, and we’ve even been able to implement the increased AoA capability and increased lift produced by deployed slats. With the aerodynamic updates, suddenly all our AoA numbers matched the manual at all airspeeds and gross weights, so we’re pretty confident we have those elements correct. What remains in the SFM aerodynamics is two things: First, we need a little bit more tuning of the horizontal drag component as we become transonic (we haven’t yet found supersonic data on the A-4’s wing), and second, some tuning of the stall AoA at low speed. Right now our max AoA is slightly low at low speeds, and that’s something we do have some data on. While it’ll damage the airframe, aerodynamically it should be possible, versus the elevator stall that occurs today resulting in a significant max-G limitation below 300 KIAS. Engine Modeling and Instrumentation To go along with the aerodynamic improvements, we’ve added more accurate engine modeling. It’s still an SFM engine, but the reporting of current pressure ratio and temperature seems pretty accurate, and we’ve even started to track damage caused by too much time spent at MIL power. We still have to reverse engineer the thrust being produced as that’s not available from the SFM, but now things like fuel flow rates relative to engine RPM relative to throttle position are very close to the real numbers. We did some long-range test missions using known mission altitude and thrust profiles and payloads, and the missions were all finished with 1000-1200 lb of fuel remaining (on a mission that started with 10,500 lbs to a target 450nm away), so this would indicate we’re within 5% of expected fuel consumption across the entire flight envelope. Custom Brake Controller Another thing people may notice is that the wheel brakes in the SFM are like carbon fiber brakes in a formula one car. They’ll stop a 20,000 lb plane from 150 knots in under 1000 feet. This is nothing like how the real brakes on the A-4 worked, which from all accounts were terrible and prone to locking up, so we implemented a variable PWM on the brake indicator. This limits the brake force applied to the SFM and converts the normal 12,500 lb landing distance from the SFM’s normal 1000’ to about 4000’ at sea level, and the 18,000 pound landing distance at altitude or when hot is closer to 7000’. If you have a tailwind, you should really consider landing in the opposite direction, or picking a long runway like Minvody or Nellis. Good luck landing an A-4 at Echo Bay. And for the final control system... AIM-9 integration ... we now support seek and lock tones for the AIM-9B sidewinder! Just like all other aircraft in DCS, you’ll hear the familiar warble when the missile is seeking, and when the missile’s seeker identifies a target and locks on, the tone will change to the higher pitched tone. If it loses lock, the tone reverts to seek tone. Like some gun camera footage we found online, the tone is slightly higher when within optimal launch parameters, so make sure you wait for the proper sound if you want the missile to hit. (The AIM-9B is not all-aspect, so you really need to maneuver to get a kill). The lock quality tone pitch variation algorithm needs some work, but as a proof of concept it works well. A-4E Sidewinder Demo: f2qqm7KfGT0 And finally, we've got a few other minor things to mention: We've added spatially-oriented sounds when moving cockpit switches. We fixed the gunsight circuit to match a more realistic brightness behavior. The comms menu (backslash) now works with dummy intercom and radio devices, which allows the A-4E to interact with custom tasking via the F10 menu. (Note you still cannot talk to anything requiring a radio) This also means that refuel and rearm via ground crew are functional now as well. We got the kneeboard working on the A-4E, which supports dynamically added kneeboard contents and map marking. We implemented the clock/stopwatch realistically, which required us to discard the built-in clock device code. Thanks again everyone for your encouragement! The Community A-4E team

Awesome Maverick, thanks for looking into it! --gos

The default pedal axis is inverted for some models of rudder pedals. This means you're applying full brakes without touching them, and when you apply pedals it turns off the brakes. Fixed by checking the "invert" box in axis setup.

:music_whistling: :music_whistling: :music_whistling: :music_whistling: :music_whistling:

what layout would you like?

Best part is, you won't have to pay for it. =P

Other than a brief 1-sentence statement from VEAO, we (Community A-4E team) have no idea what the actual sticking points were. Obviously if we tried to get a license we would have our own issues to deal with that may or may not be the same ones. JazAero's model was nice (especially the engine detail), but since we already had our own work in-progress, none of us contacted him to consider reviving it. When we first started the A-4 project, we had heard VEAO had stopped work, but didn't really dig very far into why, or how far the old project had come. At this point JazAero's pictures are still on Facebook I believe (linked from his thread) but the images on this forum appear to no longer work. All of that, though, would probably be better served by discussion in a different thread. --gos

Modules attempting to use QFE in NTTR is another problem. They should all be using QNH, because QFE is beyond most altimeter's adjustability. (Typically 28.xx to 31.00 or so)

It's a bug with starting on the runway, I believe. It also affects Caucasus, but there the error is only a few dozen feet. The getBarometricAltitude() function returns 0 when you're at runway altitude, and the scaling at altitude is wrong if you start in this mode. If BST is using something like this internally, it may suffer from that as the root cause. A cold start or parking hot start works correctly, I believe. It only affects runway starts.

Okay, found the texture you're talking about. Will fix it in the next day or two, along with integrating some base layer updates from RAZBAM. --gos

My home field is 5665'. Good luck using QFE. :music_whistling:

I believe it's marked correctly. The HAF M-2000C use ON for "powered but not transmitting" and TX for "radar is emitting/transmitting" so I copied their English abbreviations. If you can find pictures with other abbreviations shown, I'll consider changing it. --gos

v0.91 is the most recent FYI. Versions prior to 0.90 don't work when cockpit lighting is enabled. I'll double check the HSI tonight. --gos

the one in post #209 doesn't work for me, the rest do