FlightGear wiki - User contributions [en]

FlightGear IRC channel

2011-05-04T11:15:37Z

Xconspirisist: /* Official host */

The '''FlightGear IRC''' (Internet Relay Chat) '''channel''' is a chat room related to everything about [[FlightGear]]. It's mostly used by developers, but it is also a good place to ask for help if you are having a question.

To enter the IRC, you need an IRC client installed on your computer. For users of Mozilla browsers (like Firefox), the plugin [https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/16 ChatZilla] is surely a good option. You can also use [http://www.xchat.org/ XChat] (Linux and Windows), [http://www.pidgin.im/ Pidgin], [http://colloquy.info/ Colloquy] (for Mac), [http://www.mirc.com/ mIRC] or any other client.

== Official host ==
{|
! style="background:#efefef; text-align: center" width="200px" | Host
! style="background:#efefef; text-align: center" | Comments
|-
| nl.irc.flightgear.org
| in the Netherlands
|-
| uk.irc.flightgear.org
| in the UK
|-
| us.irc.flightgear.org
| in the United States
|-
| de.irc.flightgear.org
| in Germany
|-
| irc.flightgear.org
| currently an alias for de.irc.flightgear.org
|}

The IRC chat has several channels, some of which are listed below. To obtain a real list, use the IRC command "/list".

{|
! style="background:#efefef; text-align: center" width="200px" |
! style="background:#efefef; text-align: center" | channel
|-
| Main channel
| #flightgear
|-
| [[Blender]]
| #flightgear-blender
|-
| [[FlightGear Flight Academy|Flight School]]
| #fg_school
|-
| [[fgms]] related stuff
| #fgms
|-
| IFR Navigation Squawk
| #airliners
|-
| Off topic chat
| #fg_cantene
|-
| Russian Flightgear Community
| #fg-ru
|-
| Wiki
| #wiki
|-
| Forum
| #flightgear-forum
|-
| general help on IRC
| #help
|-
| Server Admins
| #staffers
|}

== Other hosts ==
{|
! style="background:#efefef; text-align: center" width="200px" |
! style="background:#efefef; text-align: center" | Host
! style="background:#efefef; text-align: center" | Channels
|-
| [[Flight Gear Flying Club]]
| uk1.connectedserver.com
| #FlyingClub
|-
| irc.freenode.net #flightgear
| Only for emergencies.
|}

== How to get in there with ChatZilla ==
[[File:IRC-ChatZilla.jpg|thumb|ChatZilla Client area]]
When using ChatZilla, go to your Mozilla/Firefox browser and enter [irc://mpserver12.flightgear.org irc://mpserver12.flightgear.org]. When ChatZilla has connected to the host, click "IRC" and "Join channel...". Pick the preferred channel.

To get directly to the main channel with ChatZilla, you can also enter [irc://mpserver12.flightgear.org/flightgear irc://mpserver12.flightgear.org/flightgear] in your browser.
== External links ==
* [http://toxin.jottit.com/irc_commands General IRC commands]

[[Category:FlightGear]]
[[Category:Community]]

Route manager

2011-05-04T11:02:35Z

Xconspirisist:

A real route-manager page!

[[File:Routemanager.jpg|right|The route manager from FG v2.0.0]]

== Introduction ==

(in the following sections, familiarity with basic IFR concepts, [[Autopilot]] usage and radio navigation is assumed)

The route-manager models part of the functionality found in real-world [[GPS]] and FMS devices, but is usable in any aircraft. Some panel instruments may provide access to the route manager via their own UI, but the route-manager is always available through a generic dialog box. The route-manager is also how a flight plan is made available to FlightGear - in the future this will hopefully permit better [[ATC]] and multi-player interactions, since [[ATC]] logic or controllers will be able to observe the filed plan associated with a pilot.

It's important to realize that the route-manager (and [[GPS]]) are pieces that a panel instrument might present as a single real world device - the mapping between C++ modules, generic user interface and in-panel instruments is very fluid, by design. In general core features exist in whichever place seems the most natural, and it's up to instruments to aggregate the core modules as they require.

== Concepts ==
The route-manager maintains a flight-plan, consisting of departure, destination, alternate airport and cruise information, as well as a list of waypoints. All information is currently optional, which is highly unrealistic, but convenient.

Route manager waypoints are entered as a navaid ident, an explicit latitude/longitude pair, or as an offset (bearing and distance) from another navaid. Each waypoint may also have an altitude associated with it, for vertical navigation modes (VNAV). In the future, other data, especially speed restrictions, may also be associated with waypoints.

The route-manager maintains a ''current waypoint'', which is shown in route-manager dialog, the GPS dialog (in LEG mode), on the default HUD, and potentially in cockpit displays in the aircraft. Normally, the route-manager moves automatically to the next waypoint after passing the current point (this is known as 'sequencing'), but if necessary the active waypoint can be manually adjusted.

An important piece of terminology is a ''leg'', which is a section of route between two waypoints. Many real-world devices deal in legs primarily, since each leg corresponds to a desired track, a distance and possibly an altitude to climb / descend. In the FlightGear route manager, the ''active leg'' is from the previous waypoint to the current waypoint - i.e the current waypoint is where you're heading to at the moment.

== Defining a Route ==
The simplest way to define a route is to add waypoints one at a time by identifier. Since navaid identifiers are not unique, the route-manager uses your departure airport or the previously defined waypoint to locate the identifier search. In practice, navaids with conflicting names are located far enough apart that this works automatically in practice.

Until departure and arrival procedures are supported, you can often define them yourself, by creating offset waypoints, as shown in the examples below.

Routes can be loaded (and soon, saved) to a simple XML format, so you may prefer to create the routes in a text editor, and load them instead of entering them by hand. Support for flight-planning tools is also planned, contact the developer list if you are interested on working on such a feature.

In the future, auto-routing using airways or VOR-VOR routing will also be added.

Example waypoint definitions:

;KJFK
: airport identifier
;UW
: navaid identifier (NDB, VOR or a fix/interaction)
;TLA/210/35
: offset from a navaid - in this example, the 210-degree magnetic radial from TLA VOR, 35 nautical miles out
;WOBAD@18000
: WOBAD fix, at eighteen thousand feet altitude
;SPL/050/12.3@2000
: 12.3 nautical miles from SPL VOR on the 050 magnetic radial, at two thousand feet

See also [[#Useful Software]]

== Activating a Route ==
Activating a route performs certain checks, and creates start and end waypoints based on the selected departure and arrival info. For the moment, that consists of adding the departure runway as waypoint zero, but in the future (when departure procedures are supported) this will create the appropriate procedure waypoints.

This will also be the hook point for calculating cruise information, such as top-of-climb and top-of-descent points in the future.

Other devices (especially a GPS/FMS) may trigger other changes based on activating a route, such as sequencing the first leg of the route, resetting internal counters / timers, and so on.

== Flying a Route ==

When a route is activated, the GPS system enters 'leg' mode, and will automatically sequence waypoints as they are overflown. Note that all aircraft can use the default route-manager and GPS functions, even aircraft that would never (historically) has such systems. This is a convenience to casual users, testing, and so on.

In particular, the GPS drives some properties of the generic autopilot, so 'true heading hold' mode can be used to fly the route manager route (or any other GPS course).

The default [[HUD]] (activated by pressing 'h') shows information about the active waypoint and leg, in the top-left corner. Notably, it includes the identifier, time and distance to the current waypoint, the magnetic bearing to the waypoint, and the current ground track, and finally the deviation (in nautical miles) from the leg course.

In aircraft with realistic navigation systems, or customised autopilots, the default behaviours above may not work; hopefully the aircraft author has provided alternative methods, such as panel instruments, to control the interaction with that aircraft's autopilot and panel.

=== Lining up with Runways ===
The route-manager only provides guidance to a particular location - to arrive on a particular heading, such as lined up with a runway or ILS localizer, it is necessary to use multiple waypoints. Virtually all ILS approaches define multiple fixes that can be used for this purpose, usually including altitude restrictions. For example, for the [http://flightaware.com/resources/airport/KPHX/IAP/ILS+OR+LOC+RWY+08 KPHX 08 approach], waypoints ALLIS, SARTE, HIKID, ILIKE, JAMIL and WAZUP are defined, extending 20nm from the threshold. Typically you enter the initial approach fix (IAF), ALLIS in this example, and as many of the intermediate waypoints as necessary, depending on required descent profile. It is helpful to include the glidepath capture waypoint (WAZUP), to provide an easy altitude reference and cross-check that your ILS receiver is working.

== Properties ==
When a route is active, the route-manage provides various pieces of information based upon current aircraft position / speed, and the route progress. These values would be calculated by the navigation computer in a real system, but are handled by route-manage in FG for convenience. Values logged include the takeoff time, estimated time enroute (ETE), distance remaining enroute, and so on - browse the property tree to see what's available.

= Useful Software =
To easily create entries for route manager the application;

- [http://rubyforge.org/projects/fgmap Flightgear Mapping] is useful. With just a few clicks you can add navaids displayed on the map and aswell a route you have defined there via waypoints. Navaids can be inserted into the list at any point, not just at the end.

- [http://sourceforge.net/projects/fgflightplanner/| Kelpie Flight Planner] appears to be a very thorough route planning tool that works on Windows, Linux and other operating systems.

= Further Reading =
For additional details please see [[Route manager internals]].

[[Howto: Create a flightplan]]

Route manager

2011-05-04T11:02:17Z

Xconspirisist:

Route manager

2011-05-04T10:54:29Z

Xconspirisist:

Route planner

2011-05-04T10:52:21Z

Xconspirisist: Redirected page to Route manager

#REDIRECT [[Route manager]]

File:Routemanager.jpg

2011-05-04T10:51:06Z

Xconspirisist: The route manager from flightgear v2.0.0

The route manager from flightgear v2.0.0

Route manager

2011-05-04T10:49:35Z

Xconspirisist: /* Useful Software */

A real route-manager page!

== Introduction ==

(in the following sections, familiarity with basic IFR concepts, [[Autopilot]] usage and radio navigation is assumed)

The route-manager models part of the functionality found in real-world [[GPS]] and FMS devices, but is usable in any aircraft. Some panel instruments may provide access to the route manager via their own UI, but the route-manager is always available through a generic dialog box. The route-manager is also how a flight plan is made available to FlightGear - in the future this will hopefully permit better [[ATC]] and multi-player interactions, since [[ATC]] logic or controllers will be able to observe the filed plan associated with a pilot.

It's important to realize that the route-manager (and [[GPS]]) are pieces that a panel instrument might present as a single real world device - the mapping between C++ modules, generic user interface and in-panel instruments is very fluid, by design. In general core features exist in whichever place seems the most natural, and it's up to instruments to aggregate the core modules as they require.

== Concepts ==
The route-manager maintains a flight-plan, consisting of departure, destination, alternate airport and cruise information, as well as a list of waypoints. All information is currently optional, which is highly unrealistic, but convenient.

Route manager waypoints are entered as a navaid ident, an explicit latitude/longitude pair, or as an offset (bearing and distance) from another navaid. Each waypoint may also have an altitude associated with it, for vertical navigation modes (VNAV). In the future, other data, especially speed restrictions, may also be associated with waypoints.

The route-manager maintains a ''current waypoint'', which is shown in route-manager dialog, the GPS dialog (in LEG mode), on the default HUD, and potentially in cockpit displays in the aircraft. Normally, the route-manager moves automatically to the next waypoint after passing the current point (this is known as 'sequencing'), but if necessary the active waypoint can be manually adjusted.

An important piece of terminology is a ''leg'', which is a section of route between two waypoints. Many real-world devices deal in legs primarily, since each leg corresponds to a desired track, a distance and possibly an altitude to climb / descend. In the FlightGear route manager, the ''active leg'' is from the previous waypoint to the current waypoint - i.e the current waypoint is where you're heading to at the moment.

== Defining a Route ==
The simplest way to define a route is to add waypoints one at a time by identifier. Since navaid identifiers are not unique, the route-manager uses your departure airport or the previously defined waypoint to locate the identifier search. In practice, navaids with conflicting names are located far enough apart that this works automatically in practice.

Until departure and arrival procedures are supported, you can often define them yourself, by creating offset waypoints, as shown in the examples below.

Routes can be loaded (and soon, saved) to a simple XML format, so you may prefer to create the routes in a text editor, and load them instead of entering them by hand. Support for flight-planning tools is also planned, contact the developer list if you are interested on working on such a feature.

In the future, auto-routing using airways or VOR-VOR routing will also be added.

Example waypoint definitions:

;KJFK
: airport identifier
;UW
: navaid identifier (NDB, VOR or a fix/interaction)
;TLA/210/35
: offset from a navaid - in this example, the 210-degree magnetic radial from TLA VOR, 35 nautical miles out
;WOBAD@18000
: WOBAD fix, at eighteen thousand feet altitude
;SPL/050/12.3@2000
: 12.3 nautical miles from SPL VOR on the 050 magnetic radial, at two thousand feet

See also [[#Useful Software]]

== Activating a Route ==
Activating a route performs certain checks, and creates start and end waypoints based on the selected departure and arrival info. For the moment, that consists of adding the departure runway as waypoint zero, but in the future (when departure procedures are supported) this will create the appropriate procedure waypoints.

This will also be the hook point for calculating cruise information, such as top-of-climb and top-of-descent points in the future.

Other devices (especially a GPS/FMS) may trigger other changes based on activating a route, such as sequencing the first leg of the route, resetting internal counters / timers, and so on.

== Flying a Route ==

When a route is activated, the GPS system enters 'leg' mode, and will automatically sequence waypoints as they are overflown. Note that all aircraft can use the default route-manager and GPS functions, even aircraft that would never (historically) has such systems. This is a convenience to casual users, testing, and so on.

In particular, the GPS drives some properties of the generic autopilot, so 'true heading hold' mode can be used to fly the route manager route (or any other GPS course).

The default [[HUD]] (activated by pressing 'h') shows information about the active waypoint and leg, in the top-left corner. Notably, it includes the identifier, time and distance to the current waypoint, the magnetic bearing to the waypoint, and the current ground track, and finally the deviation (in nautical miles) from the leg course.

In aircraft with realistic navigation systems, or customised autopilots, the default behaviours above may not work; hopefully the aircraft author has provided alternative methods, such as panel instruments, to control the interaction with that aircraft's autopilot and panel.

=== Lining up with Runways ===
The route-manager only provides guidance to a particular location - to arrive on a particular heading, such as lined up with a runway or ILS localizer, it is necessary to use multiple waypoints. Virtually all ILS approaches define multiple fixes that can be used for this purpose, usually including altitude restrictions. For example, for the [http://flightaware.com/resources/airport/KPHX/IAP/ILS+OR+LOC+RWY+08 KPHX 08 approach], waypoints ALLIS, SARTE, HIKID, ILIKE, JAMIL and WAZUP are defined, extending 20nm from the threshold. Typically you enter the initial approach fix (IAF), ALLIS in this example, and as many of the intermediate waypoints as necessary, depending on required descent profile. It is helpful to include the glidepath capture waypoint (WAZUP), to provide an easy altitude reference and cross-check that your ILS receiver is working.

== Properties ==
When a route is active, the route-manage provides various pieces of information based upon current aircraft position / speed, and the route progress. These values would be calculated by the navigation computer in a real system, but are handled by route-manage in FG for convenience. Values logged include the takeoff time, estimated time enroute (ETE), distance remaining enroute, and so on - browse the property tree to see what's available.

= Useful Software =
To easily create entries for route manager the application;

- [http://rubyforge.org/projects/fgmap Flightgear Mapping] is useful. With just a few clicks you can add navaids displayed on the map and aswell a route you have defined there via waypoints. Navaids can be inserted into the list at any point, not just at the end.

- [http://sourceforge.net/projects/fgflightplanner/| Kelpie Flight Planner] appears to be a very thorough route planning tool that works on Windows, Linux and other operating systems.

= Further Reading =
For additional details please see [[Route manager internals]].

Route manager

2011-05-04T10:48:49Z

Xconspirisist: /* Useful Software */

A real route-manager page!

== Introduction ==

(in the following sections, familiarity with basic IFR concepts, [[Autopilot]] usage and radio navigation is assumed)

The route-manager models part of the functionality found in real-world [[GPS]] and FMS devices, but is usable in any aircraft. Some panel instruments may provide access to the route manager via their own UI, but the route-manager is always available through a generic dialog box. The route-manager is also how a flight plan is made available to FlightGear - in the future this will hopefully permit better [[ATC]] and multi-player interactions, since [[ATC]] logic or controllers will be able to observe the filed plan associated with a pilot.

It's important to realize that the route-manager (and [[GPS]]) are pieces that a panel instrument might present as a single real world device - the mapping between C++ modules, generic user interface and in-panel instruments is very fluid, by design. In general core features exist in whichever place seems the most natural, and it's up to instruments to aggregate the core modules as they require.

== Concepts ==
The route-manager maintains a flight-plan, consisting of departure, destination, alternate airport and cruise information, as well as a list of waypoints. All information is currently optional, which is highly unrealistic, but convenient.

Route manager waypoints are entered as a navaid ident, an explicit latitude/longitude pair, or as an offset (bearing and distance) from another navaid. Each waypoint may also have an altitude associated with it, for vertical navigation modes (VNAV). In the future, other data, especially speed restrictions, may also be associated with waypoints.

The route-manager maintains a ''current waypoint'', which is shown in route-manager dialog, the GPS dialog (in LEG mode), on the default HUD, and potentially in cockpit displays in the aircraft. Normally, the route-manager moves automatically to the next waypoint after passing the current point (this is known as 'sequencing'), but if necessary the active waypoint can be manually adjusted.

An important piece of terminology is a ''leg'', which is a section of route between two waypoints. Many real-world devices deal in legs primarily, since each leg corresponds to a desired track, a distance and possibly an altitude to climb / descend. In the FlightGear route manager, the ''active leg'' is from the previous waypoint to the current waypoint - i.e the current waypoint is where you're heading to at the moment.

== Defining a Route ==
The simplest way to define a route is to add waypoints one at a time by identifier. Since navaid identifiers are not unique, the route-manager uses your departure airport or the previously defined waypoint to locate the identifier search. In practice, navaids with conflicting names are located far enough apart that this works automatically in practice.

Until departure and arrival procedures are supported, you can often define them yourself, by creating offset waypoints, as shown in the examples below.

Routes can be loaded (and soon, saved) to a simple XML format, so you may prefer to create the routes in a text editor, and load them instead of entering them by hand. Support for flight-planning tools is also planned, contact the developer list if you are interested on working on such a feature.

In the future, auto-routing using airways or VOR-VOR routing will also be added.

Example waypoint definitions:

;KJFK
: airport identifier
;UW
: navaid identifier (NDB, VOR or a fix/interaction)
;TLA/210/35
: offset from a navaid - in this example, the 210-degree magnetic radial from TLA VOR, 35 nautical miles out
;WOBAD@18000
: WOBAD fix, at eighteen thousand feet altitude
;SPL/050/12.3@2000
: 12.3 nautical miles from SPL VOR on the 050 magnetic radial, at two thousand feet

See also [[#Useful Software]]

== Activating a Route ==
Activating a route performs certain checks, and creates start and end waypoints based on the selected departure and arrival info. For the moment, that consists of adding the departure runway as waypoint zero, but in the future (when departure procedures are supported) this will create the appropriate procedure waypoints.

This will also be the hook point for calculating cruise information, such as top-of-climb and top-of-descent points in the future.

Other devices (especially a GPS/FMS) may trigger other changes based on activating a route, such as sequencing the first leg of the route, resetting internal counters / timers, and so on.

== Flying a Route ==

When a route is activated, the GPS system enters 'leg' mode, and will automatically sequence waypoints as they are overflown. Note that all aircraft can use the default route-manager and GPS functions, even aircraft that would never (historically) has such systems. This is a convenience to casual users, testing, and so on.

In particular, the GPS drives some properties of the generic autopilot, so 'true heading hold' mode can be used to fly the route manager route (or any other GPS course).

The default [[HUD]] (activated by pressing 'h') shows information about the active waypoint and leg, in the top-left corner. Notably, it includes the identifier, time and distance to the current waypoint, the magnetic bearing to the waypoint, and the current ground track, and finally the deviation (in nautical miles) from the leg course.

In aircraft with realistic navigation systems, or customised autopilots, the default behaviours above may not work; hopefully the aircraft author has provided alternative methods, such as panel instruments, to control the interaction with that aircraft's autopilot and panel.

=== Lining up with Runways ===
The route-manager only provides guidance to a particular location - to arrive on a particular heading, such as lined up with a runway or ILS localizer, it is necessary to use multiple waypoints. Virtually all ILS approaches define multiple fixes that can be used for this purpose, usually including altitude restrictions. For example, for the [http://flightaware.com/resources/airport/KPHX/IAP/ILS+OR+LOC+RWY+08 KPHX 08 approach], waypoints ALLIS, SARTE, HIKID, ILIKE, JAMIL and WAZUP are defined, extending 20nm from the threshold. Typically you enter the initial approach fix (IAF), ALLIS in this example, and as many of the intermediate waypoints as necessary, depending on required descent profile. It is helpful to include the glidepath capture waypoint (WAZUP), to provide an easy altitude reference and cross-check that your ILS receiver is working.

== Properties ==
When a route is active, the route-manage provides various pieces of information based upon current aircraft position / speed, and the route progress. These values would be calculated by the navigation computer in a real system, but are handled by route-manage in FG for convenience. Values logged include the takeoff time, estimated time enroute (ETE), distance remaining enroute, and so on - browse the property tree to see what's available.

= Useful Software =
To easily create entries for route manager the application;

- [http://rubyforge.org/projects/fgmap Flightgear Mapping] is useful. With just a few clicks you can add navaids displayed on the map and aswell a route you have defined there via waypoints. Navaids can be inserted into the list at any point, not just at the end.

- [http://sourceforge.net/projects/fgflightplanner/|Kelpie Flight Planner] appears to be a very thorough route planning tool that works on Windows, Linux and other operating systems.

= Further Reading =
For additional details please see [[Route manager internals]].