Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: FlightGear and the changing state of air navigation

[Stuart B. <stu...@gm...>]

Hi All,

On Mon, Jul 3, 2017 at 1:44 AM, David Megginson wrote:
> I don't have an easy solution — even with our amazing team of volunteer
> developers, I doubt we have the capacity to pull this off — but then I
> wonder whether that means that the usefulness of FlightGear will also
> gradually taper off. Maybe we'll be able to connect to external simulators
> for these units, and just accept not seeing them in the 3D cockpit.

I think there has been some development in this area for some time, but it's not
clear how complete it is in terms of going beyond a PFD displaying basic flight
information digitally.

For example zakh on the forum has been developing a Garmin G1000 clone called
the zkv1000:

https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=32056

The DA-42 model uses some form of G1000 as well - which may be an older
version of the zkv1000.

I agree with John that this is something we need to address, as our GA
aircraft will otherwise become more and more old-fashioned.

I'm more optimistic than David - I think we _do_ have the capability to
write this - for example just look at the complexity of the Shuttle model.

I'd really love it if the c172p/c182 team were to develop a G1000-equipped
variant of their aircraft.  I suspect they are a tight enough team to
achieve it,
with perhaps some help from the Shuttle team who now have a huge amount
of experience developing canvas displays.  This is well outside my area of
expertise, but I'd be happy to provide assistance if I can.

-Stuart