[Flightgear-devel] AirwaveXtreme150 Hang glider converted to JSBSim
Hello, after bringing back airwaveXtreme150 in February I noticed that a hang glider without environment interaction is unacceptable. Therefore a conversion from UIUC to JSBSim was due. The aim of my February release was the restoration of the original state, where I tried to change as less as possible. In contrast to this the JSBSim-Version is an extensive further development: - more realistic appearance (e.g. twisted wing) - added legs and shoes - running animation - view animation - highly configurable - FDM is more or less a 1:1 conversion from UIUC to JSBSim (No weight shift - this is planned for another hang glider in the future) Note the difference in reference system on ground and in air: On ground the glider rotates around the pilot and in air the pilot rotates in the glider system (animation and FDM). If something is going wrong in flight, don't hesitate to press } and a rescue chute will open. AirwaveXtreme is now a 3 in 1 hang glider: You could configure it as a novice (single surface, kingpost), intermediate (double surface, kingpost) or high performance (double surface, without kingpost) hang glider. Also individual colors and wheels could be chosen. Since real life hang gliders are built in different sizes to match different pilot weights a Performance Settings menu allows you to configure pilot weight, sail area and glide ratio. All appearance and performance settings could be chosen independently. In order to prevent inexperienced users to configure weird unrealistic settings a few pre-configured versions are also available. Flying this hang glider is great fun. I found that flying in ridge lift conditions close to the terrain is (and looks) quite realistic. With appropriate wind settings a astonishing good agreement compared to real life is achievable. I really think this hang glider simulator could assist hang gliding instructions (e.g. flying and landing in strong wind conditions; demonstrating the considerable increased sink rate in the lee of mountains) and if you once tried the cold front weather scenario in FlightGear you will never ever try this in real life! Recommended flying sites: A very beautiful site is the real life hang gliding launch Hafelekar which is located near LOWI (--lon=11.377417 --lat=47.30525 –heading=180 --on-ground). Choose 15kt wind from 180deg for all altitudes and soar up to the summits. A more challenging flight is Fort Funston near KSFO. It's a famous hang gliding site located at the coast with an altitude difference of only (250ft). Unfortunately directly at Fort Funston the FlightGear terrain is too smeared to produce sufficient ridge lift but a little bit further south (--lon=-122.4942234 --lat=37.6980674 –heading=270 –on-ground) ridge lift works perfectly. Choose wind with 20kt from 270deg. Be careful with the angle of attack on ground. Turn left after launch and fly very close to the cliff. Play with the performance settings to explore their influence on sink rate and wind-penetration. My original plan was to release this hang glider after I finished everything without any bugs. But I have to learn that modeling an aircraft in FlightGear is a NON-convergent process. Every time I implement one feature I get ideas of two new ones. However I think that the actual state is worth to be released. Known issues are - kingpost contact point is not working - FDM on ground not complete (only pitch input is taken into account) - multiplayer: generic variables (e.g. for running animation) don't work For the latter issue help from the experts is highly appreciated (and needed). The versions settings are transmitted correctly but customized colors, the various toggles and the variables for running animation (all defined in sim/multiplay/generic) do not work. I am at a loss. Still missing features are winch and aero-towing. It's a shame that aero towing is not yet implemented since we have towing planes (Dragonfly / Flash2A) in FlightGear since years. This isn't realistic at all. In real life hang glider pilots are always looking for tow planes and not vice versa. :-) The files are already waiting for a merge. This is my first merge request. Hopefully everything is fine. See you in the air. My dream is seeing a bunch of hang gliders at the same time and at the same site in multiplayer. All with different colors and performance settings like in real life! Best regards D-NXKT -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/___ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
Re: [Flightgear-devel] AirwaveXtreme150 Hang glider converted to JSBSim
Thank you once more for your efforts. The merge is done, just that everyone knows. Chris Hugo Meier wrote: Hello, after bringing back airwaveXtreme150 in February I noticed that a hang glider without environment interaction is unacceptable. Therefore a conversion from UIUC to JSBSim was due. The aim of my February release was the restoration of the original state, where I tried to change as less as possible. In contrast to this the JSBSim-Version is an extensive further development: - more realistic appearance (e.g. twisted wing) - added legs and shoes - running animation - view animation - highly configurable - FDM is more or less a 1:1 conversion from UIUC to JSBSim (No weight shift - this is planned for another hang glider in the future) Note the difference in reference system on ground and in air: On ground the glider rotates around the pilot and in air the pilot rotates in the glider system (animation and FDM). If something is going wrong in flight, don't hesitate to press } and a rescue chute will open. AirwaveXtreme is now a 3 in 1 hang glider: You could configure it as a novice (single surface, kingpost), intermediate (double surface, kingpost) or high performance (double surface, without kingpost) hang glider. Also individual colors and wheels could be chosen. Since real life hang gliders are built in different sizes to match different pilot weights a Performance Settings menu allows you to configure pilot weight, sail area and glide ratio. All appearance and performance settings could be chosen independently. In order to prevent inexperienced users to configure weird unrealistic settings a few pre-configured versions are also available. Flying this hang glider is great fun. I found that flying in ridge lift conditions close to the terrain is (and looks) quite realistic. With appropriate wind settings a astonishing good agreement compared to real life is achievable. I really think this hang glider simulator could assist hang gliding instructions (e.g. flying and landing in strong wind conditions; demonstrating the considerable increased sink rate in the lee of mountains) and if you once tried the cold front weather scenario in FlightGear you will never ever try this in real life! Recommended flying sites: A very beautiful site is the real life hang gliding launch Hafelekar which is located near LOWI (--lon=11.377417 --lat=47.30525 –heading=180 --on-ground). Choose 15kt wind from 180deg for all altitudes and soar up to the summits. A more challenging flight is Fort Funston near KSFO. It's a famous hang gliding site located at the coast with an altitude difference of only (250ft). Unfortunately directly at Fort Funston the FlightGear terrain is too smeared to produce sufficient ridge lift but a little bit further south (--lon=-122.4942234 --lat=37.6980674 –heading=270 –on-ground) ridge lift works perfectly. Choose wind with 20kt from 270deg. Be careful with the angle of attack on ground. Turn left after launch and fly very close to the cliff. Play with the performance settings to explore their influence on sink rate and wind-penetration. My original plan was to release this hang glider after I finished everything without any bugs. But I have to learn that modeling an aircraft in FlightGear is a NON-convergent process. Every time I implement one feature I get ideas of two new ones. However I think that the actual state is worth to be released. Known issues are - kingpost contact point is not working - FDM on ground not complete (only pitch input is taken into account) - multiplayer: generic variables (e.g. for running animation) don't work For the latter issue help from the experts is highly appreciated (and needed). The versions settings are transmitted correctly but customized colors, the various toggles and the variables for running animation (all defined in sim/multiplay/generic) do not work. I am at a loss. Still missing features are winch and aero-towing. It's a shame that aero towing is not yet implemented since we have towing planes (Dragonfly / Flash2A) in FlightGear since years. This isn't realistic at all. In real life hang glider pilots are always looking for tow planes and not vice versa. :-) The files are already waiting for a merge. This is my first merge request. Hopefully everything is fine. See you in the air. My dream is seeing a bunch of hang gliders at the same time and at the same site in multiplayer. All with different colors and performance settings like in real life! Best regards D-NXKT -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats.
