This is my local keyboard.xml file.
There are some definitions in there that I would like to see
in the official keyboard.xml file. I suggested some of them
already almost exactly one year ago, but the suggestion was
dismissed with the argument, that the keyboard settings
should/would be redone very soon, anyway ... :->
* shift escape ... reset FDM
(Note: this doesn't work on IRIX)
* ctrl w ... turn on wing leveler
* g ... gear up
* shift g ... gear down
* control b ... toggle speedbrake (emh)
1. The p51d cries for a "Reset" key. Yeah, I admit that I've
crashed some dozens of these beauties already, and yes, I
am ashamed. Having to turn the menu on every time was too
bothersome. Shift-ESC is still free and resetting is closely
related to quitting. So this seems natural. (And don't ask
why the command is called "old-reinit-dialog".)
2. Finally add a shortcut for the wing-leveler. Natural
choice: Ctrl-W, which is still free and fits well with the
other autopilot shortcuts Ctrl-[ANH].
3. Separate gear up and down into two different shortcuts.
It really doesn't make sense as a toggle property. I'd
even say, that this is the most important prerequisite
for becoming a serious flight simulator. ... Never
land on your belly again, because you were actually
retracting the landing gear on approach, having forgotten
to retract it on lift-off.
Erik Hofman:
I've added Ctrl+B as the default binding for speedbrake support but this binding is overrruled by the p51d model to switch engine boost level.
here's the promised patch:
- make throttle work for 8 engines (b52)
- resolve multiple property bindings (simply stating
more than one property per binding doesn't do anything;
this has to be written as two bindings; didn't touch
"Reset View" button in X45, though)
- add $Id$ lines
- adjust step size in "my" joystick file (X8-30) to
work best on a 2.4GHz computer :->
I didn't add entries for propeller related properties, such as mixture, prop-pitch, and I didn't change the boost property. These are still for at most two engines.
These patches add a clock instrument, which allows to model failure ("serviceable") and to adjust the time independently of the system time (defaults to GMT). The main incentive is to make the p51d clock work and adjustable via the knob.
o Offers a time string ("12:03:15") for the LCD or for LED
clocks, or an empty string in case of failure/power off. The
instrument assumes that digital clocks are battery buffered,
so they will be updated even if there's nothing on the display.
o Offers the number of seconds since midnight for analog
clocks, like in the p51d. This number is not increased
if !serviceable. So the clock will stand still and continue
where it stopped when it's serviceable again.
I did not consider voltage yet, because the Mustang's clock will need a lot more current than the LCD clock. The instrument is updated 4 times per second but returns immediately if neither time nor offset changed. The function getGMTString() in fg_props.cxx could be removed after applying these patches.
I have updated the entries based on the FAA data. Many GS transmitters have
no elevation in the FAA data either. For these, I have set the GS elevation
to be the field elevation.
I'm not sure if I connected adf and dme to the correct bus, but it's time that c310s have them working. There was a temporary workaround in c310-ifr-set.xml, but not for the c310-3d (= c310u3a-3d), the plain c310 and eventually others.
Here's an update to the yf23. I've added a couple of small details to the
model and played with the textures a bit:) Still no response from the chap
at NASA about sticking their logos on it yet.
I've also been fiddling with the fdm. It had been bugging me that I couldn't
find any sign of air/speed brakes but just recently I found that braking is
done by moving the ailerons up and the flaps down, in opposition to each
other, which I thought was pretty neat really.
This was actually pretty easy to mimic - although there are no spoiler
surfaces defined in the YASim wing entry I was still able to map the spoiler
control input to the ailerons and flaps, and once I'd got the directions
right it seems to work - hit the spoilers and the ailerons move up, the flaps
drop and the energy worm shows that I'm losing speed.
The downside is that the flaps and the ailerons have to have similar lift and
drag characteristics, to balance each each other, and this means that it ends
up with the flaps not giving much lift and the brakes not having much affect
at low speeds. If I could change the deflection rates then I could balance
them that way (and improve the rudder control too) - as it is, the deflection
for the flaps and ailerons is the same, just in opposite directions. This
sounds like a job for interpolation tables but I haven't tried them yet and I
don't know if I can use them in this way in YASim.
The opposing flap/aileron techique is also used for manuevering e.g. by using
it on just one side but I haven't tried to incorporate that yet;)
Landing it is proving to be tricky - it gets down smoothly to about 20ft then
what I presume is ground effect kicks in and upsets the trim. The only
answer appears to be to force the nose down at this point. What's more, it
needs to be held down untill you trim the elevator out otherwise it'll
happily roll along on it's main gear, with it's nose in the air:) There's
definitely not enough drag either.
For the base package I have some more files for the JSBSim airplanes. All of the main configuration files now have a rudder aerosurface scale component, so that rudders can be animated. This was not on my earlier models. I also put fuel in the tanks, even though this seems not to work yet.
Also attached are the -set files for all the airplanes. They now all specify a fuel load.
I've been messing with the yf23 some more. I think it flies a bit better now
and has more reasonable auto-pilot take-off characteristics - just apply full
power and go, and it doesn't go into such a steep climb.
Out of curiosity, I've also taken the rudder control input and linked it to
the stabilators/elevators and ailerons. Now, with some slick joystick
manipulation it's possible to fly it at about 30 deg off-axis in more or less
level flight (actually, with full 'rudder' input, it looks nearer to 40 deg
to me and you end up tracing a very long curve).
If no rudder input is used it flies 'normally'.
I'd like to be able to 'tune' it so that it's more stable while transitioning
but I'm not sure if that's going to be possible. It's also high-lighted some
problems I'm having with my Sidewinder joystick - when I use the rudder
control, the engine No.2 throttle jumps to 50% unless auto-throttle is
engaged (this also happens with the b52 too), and there seems to be some
interaction between the different axis if all three (roll, pitch and rudder)
are changed at the same time - difficult to be sure on that one though.
I'll probably un-map the throttle control from the joystick as I tend to use
the keyboard for engine control anyway, especially for landing.
The original textures are nice, but probably should be updated at some point.
When we do update them though, we should shoot for generic/variety in order
to give different parts of the flightgear world different looks (as best as
we can with our course land cover/land use data set.)
