FlightGear Newsletter September 2011

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Welcome to the FlightGear Newsletter!
Please help us write the next edition!
Enjoy reading the latest edition!


We would like to emphasize that the monthly newsletter can not live without the contributions of FlightGear users and developers. Everyone with a wiki account (free to register) can edit the newsletter and every contribution is welcome. So if you know about any FlightGear related projects such as for example updated scenery or aircraft, please do feel invited to add such news to the newsletter.

Development news

The Jenkins Server has been updated to build FlightGear using Cmake and the last version of Visual Studio. This is probably the way future versions of FlightGear will be built. Installable "nightly" builds are available here.

AI Traffic updates

As part of a new initiative to make the FlightGear skies more lively, we are currently in the process of adding 344963 new individual flights, from about 65 airlines to FlightGear's AI system. At the moment of writing, The schedules for the major american carriers (American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and United Airlines), as well as that of one of the Leading European Airlines (British Airways) have been added and more traffic will follow soon.

Snapshot releases

Nasal for newbies

New software tools and projects

FlightGear addons and mods

In the hangar

All the way back in May, we addopted a new status-rating system for aircraft. So far, only a few have actually been rated, as can be seen in the list 'hockenberry' set up at Google Docs. If you're an aircraft developer and your aircraft is/are not on the list, please consider rating their status. All you'll need to know/do is described at Formalizing Aircraft Status.

New aircraft

Updated aircraft

Liveries

Scenery corner

New York City

Manhattan visualised by a handmade shapefile and OSM (rail)road data.

You might remember the New York City project we mentioned in the January edition of the newsletter. Several forum members started a collaborated effort to model the NY skyline. Altough the first results were promising, the number of contributions decreased over the past months.

From this month on, new efforts are made, including handmade terrain for Manhattan. Please see if you can contribute a model or two. They don't have to be state of the art models; for a skyline mass is what counts most. See the forum for more details.

X-Plane's 8.50 data format trials

Some of you may know that we are using an "old" data format for airports in FG, which results in a poor visual rendering of taxiways at airports. It is currently impossible to make a round/curved taxiway, you have to use plenty of rectangular polygons to make it look curved.

Well, maybe one day it will be over. Psadro gm is working hard to experiment with 8.50 support in FG. Have a look at the first results in the forum topic.

Airports

Aircraft of the month

Airport of the month

RJTT Tokyo Haneda intl.jpg

Grain silos? The Arc of Saint Louis in red? In the distance it appears we see the Eiffel Tower? Where are we?

Carefully recreated in FlightGear, Tokyo Haneda International Airport that I stumbled upon during my trip around the world. The layout is as real as it can get. The only thing missing, work out in Tokyo Bay creating a new runway.

Visit RJTT in real or in FlightGear. Step into your c172p and fly over Tokyo, I promise amazing buildings and bridges. If you have time, take a course WSW and try to fly over Mount Fuji.

Low in polygons, any windbag causes more lag as a complete airport.

Screenshot of the month

Fgfs-screen-005.png

Suggested flights

Traffic lights turn red, gates are closed. The only busy main road to the peninsula is closed and all the cars and trucks are waiting patiently. Waiting for a train to pass? No. Waiting for a plane to pass since the main road crosses a busy runway.

On both sides water and being crossed by a busy main road can only be one runway: Gibraltar airport!

One would expect an ILS installed on such a tricky runway but no, you will have to guess where it is and how far away it is. Not even an ADF points to it.

Take off from LEMG (Malaga). Go South-West and find the runway of LXGB somewhere to the right of the rock. Happy guessing!

Aircraft reviews

Wiki updates

New articles

New aircraft articles

Most popular newsletters

Community news

Reminder: FSweekend

With little than two months to go, the largest flight simulator event in the world (the FSweekend at Lelystad Airport, the Netherlands) is coming close. Make sure to mark the weekend of 5&6 November in your agenda as "occupied". A team of FlightGear developers will be present in Lelystad to promote FlightGear to the public. They highly appreciate it if you are able to stop over at the airport!

Last year we organised a multiplayer event in cooperation with TransGear, in which FlightGear users from all over the world could virtually visit Lelystad and surrounding airports. We currently have no plans for something similar for this year's event, but we do invite everyone to pay a (virtual) visit and be part of our show.

More information can be found at the event's wiki page: FSweekend 2011.

FlightGear on YouTube

  • This nice aerobatic flight video (Zlin at LFLG) was uploaded by a member of the P.A.F.
  • CatchatyouFG uploaded a video landing the Bombardier CRJ-200LR in US Airways Express livery at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in submission to Oscjag's monthly FlightGear community challenge.

New tutorials and screencasts

Forum news

Multiplayer

Virtual airlines

FlightGear events

Useful links

Francesco (brisa) found an useful video on how to model an airliner (or any aircraft) in Blender. It covers the entire process, from setting up the 3-view diagram as background image to modeling the wings. In addition with Emmanuels must-have tutorial, everyone should be able to model an aircraft!

And finally ...

Contributing

One of the regular thoughts expressed on the FlightGear forums is "I'd like to contribute but I don't know how to program, and I don't have the time". Unfortunately, there is a common mis-conception that contributing requires programming and lots of free time. In fact, there are a huge range of ways to contribute to the project without needing to write code or spending days working on something.

For ideas on starting to contribute to FlightGear, you may want to check out: Volunteer.

Call for volunteers

  • The OpenRadar project is looking for a new maintainer.
  • The FGFSPM (FlightGear Package Manager) is looking for a new maintainer.

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