[Flightgear-devel] A couple of random oddities

[<tho...@jy...>]

A bunch of issues I've seen - maybe some folks want to fix them before the
release (all in a GIT pull of 5 days ago):

* The B29 (JSBSim) doesn't run, but rather prints out an error message


YOU HAVE AN INCOMPATIBLE CFG FILE FOR THIS AIRCRAFT. RESULTS WILL BE
UNPREDICTABLE !!
Current version needed is: 2.0
         You have version:


True, but if it is incompatible with 2.4, then it should either be updated
or removed.

* English Electric Lightning: I believe the plane should be able to reach
Mach 2 around 36.000 ft in level flight - even in a descending pattern, I
was never able to reach above Mach 1.7 - is there a problem with the FDM?
In addition, the ambient/diffuse setting of the instruments on the main
panel appears a bit odd - see my pics in the forum

http://www.flightgear.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11930&start=15

* Precipitation: A really exotic one (not really relevant in practice, but
might point to an underlying issue): I sometimes log on from my main user
account to my fgfs development account on my laptop via su. This works
fine, except that sound and a lot of hardware 3d acceleration is absent,
but for quick checks and these things is just fine. Except if there's
precipitation of any kind - that causes an immediate segmentation fault
whereas all other 'fancy' effects simply don't run.

* F-16: My sidewinders are a deep blue in external view (looks very odd) -
the AMRAAM coming with the USAF livery are fine though...

* A380: After reading all the documentation and trying for 3 hours to
figure out the AP, I conclude that either I don't understand a thing, or
the AP is plain buggy. I can fly the plane just fine with the AP in
'selected' mode, but when I select a VOR radial, bring the plane roughly
on it and press 'loc' it doesn't follow the radial but gues 'loco', i.e.
starts a high bank angle turn somewhere (I couldn't figure out where),
loses altitude rapidly and so on. Also, switching the AP off doesn't
return the plane in any stable mode such that it would rougly continue
what it did before, but my usual experience is that throttle gets set very
low and the plane starts a dive, from which I then have to recover. Also,
when I set the AP to acquire a given altitude, and then change heading
during climb, the set altitude is frequently lost and needs to be reset.

It's a bit of a pity, because I can see there has been so much work going
into this plane. May I suggest here to at least

- disable any menu options of the AP which are not supposed to be used
- expand the documentation of the system somewhat


* X15 - I seem unable to start the engine.

* Twin Otter (dhc6): Does the propeller pitch lever do anything? Somehow,
I don't notice any effect...

* Piper Comanche 250: If I set the engine mixture to 'full rich' at
~17.000 ft altitude - shouldn't the engine die? See my report here
http://www.flightgear.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11930



I hope some of that info will be useful!

Cheers,

* Thorsten