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FlightGear Newsletter January 2018: Difference between revisions
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FlightGear Newsletter January 2018 (view source)
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Learn more at [[FG1000]] ... | Learn more at [[FG1000]] ... | ||
=== Airbus GPWS === | |||
FlightGear now provides better [[GPWS]] support for Airbus aircraft - the unit which triggers voice alerts like "''Pull up!''" and altitude callouts ''...50-40-30-20-10''. The original FlightGear GPWS implementation was made to exactly match all details of a specific real-world hardware unit. The specific unit was never intended to be installed on Airbus aircraft, hence, so far lacked the Airbus-specific warnings and callouts. | |||
Starting with FG2018.1, the FlightGear GPWS unit was extended with optional support for Airbus callouts. The short description of how to enable the Airbus mode is: set the "category-4" configuation value in the "mk-viii" section of the aircraft's "...-set.xml" file to "1000". The long and detailed description is: read the [[GPWS#Altitude_Callouts|Wiki page]]. :-) You can also improve the realism of the unit by providing more realistic Airbus-style voice samples (.wav files). | |||
'''So, what's different with an Airbus GPWS then?''' | |||
While some callouts may depend on an airline's company policy, there's usually several voice alerts specific to Airbus, which are not to be heard on a Boeing aircraft. | |||
* '''2500'''!: When landing with an Airbus, you'll hear the first GPWS altitude announcement earlier - starting with an early "''2500''" callout when descending below 2500ft. | |||
* '''Hundred above!''': An additional "''Hundred above!''" callout is issued at 100ft above the ''selected decision height''. The decision height is the altitude where the crew needs to make their final decision whether to continue with the approach or whether they need to abort due to bad visibility. The "''Hundred above!''" callout gives an Airbus crew some extra time to make up their minds. Seconds later, the actual decision height is then announced by the "Minimums!" callout - which is also common with Boeing and many other aircraft. | |||
* '''Retard! Retard! Retard!''': Retard? Well, yes. This is the infamous Airbus-specific callout which has caused thousands of teenagers to leave more or less funny comments and questions on YouTube Airbus cockpit videos. The "''Retard!''" callout is triggered, when an Airbus decends below 20-30ft above the runway and the thrust-levers are not yet set to idle. The callouts reminds the crew to "''Retard the thrust-levers '''now'''!''". So, why did Airbus decide to use the word "retard"? Well, since the engineers certainly didn't care about teenage YouTube comments. Instead, they needed to find a word which is short and also uniquely connected to a thrust-lever. Something like "''Pull the thrust-levers all the way back to idle now!''" would have been far to long - and also "''pull''" is already associated with the yoke/stick (remember the "''Pull up! Pull up!''" alert). "Retard" is nice and short - and certainly not connected with any other control input. So, on an Airbus, you simply "''retard the thrust-levers to idle''" just before landing the aircraft... | |||
== New software tools and projects == | == New software tools and projects == | ||