Suggested Prerecorded Flights

Prerecorded flights provide for a great view of the capabilities of FlightGear without needing to know how to fly.

The command to playback flight data is

--generic=file,in,25,flight.out,playback,repeat --fdm=external

To record flight data use

--generic=file,out,25,flight.out,playback

Note that these are "extra" commands; you still need the basics (--fg-root, --aircraft etc.). In FGRun, you can find these options under the Advanced button, on the last page.

Since the data is in text file, with a bit of trial and error you can effectively trim the flight down to parts that you like. In theory you can splice them together as well.

Feel free to included transcoded data from real-world telemetry as well. (RC UAVs, GPS flight logs, etc).

Some recommendations

Wow! demos

In general, people *love* fast flights - so a nice jet or turboprop doing visually interesting things make great short demos. For a list of airports with challenging real-life procedures and surroundings, you may want to check out Challenging Airports. For a list of well-populated scenery areas, check out Suggested Airports - there's also a list for Suggested Aircraft.

Demonstrating something in particular

Longer, more visually uninteresting flights are also very useful to demonstrate something unusual or unique - like landing on an aircraft carrier. Keep in mind that only the aircraft is recorded, so the AI is not repeatable.

Trim the flight

It's no fun watching an aircraft sitting on the runway for two or three minutes before take off. Open up the file in your favourite editor and delete the extra flight data at the start and end.

If you don't have a convenient airport nearby to what you want to demonstrate, then be open to dropping some of the take off and approach.

Sample precorded flights

Name	Contributor	Link	Description	Time	Aircraft	Extras
KSFO loop	Jentron	http://www.jentronics.com/fgfs/flight2.out.gz	Take off from KSFO, fly over Bay Bridge, Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge, go vertical just after the Golden Gate, fly over San Francisco, past Oakland, land back at KSFO.	10 minutes	F4-E (or F18)
Storch	Jentron	http://www.jentronics.com/fgfs/fi-156-flight.out.gz		20 Minutes	Fi-156, Fi-156-de (new), or perhaps the dhc2W	w120n40.tgz scenery set
Acrobatics above SFO buildings in Zlin 50 LX	Unknown	http://seb.marque.free.fr/fichiers/flightgear/z50lx.out.gz	Take off from KSFO, straight to SFO, acrobatics, then play with Golden Gate, back to KSFO. Should be dead several times in this flight ;) Magical of simulation!. Use "S" for smoke, "u" to stop smoke. Better to use with --prop:/engines/engine/rpm=2500.	15 minutes	Zlin 50 LX (z50lx)