2022-05-13

New Features & Fixes:

• Separate altimeters. The primary altimeters on the captain and first officer sides, and the standby instrument, are all separate now, and must be set individually.
• Linked PFD's. To facilitate single-pilot ops, the aircraft can be configured such that the controls for the primary altimeter (altimeter setting, inHg/hPa) and minimums (RADIO/BARO, and minimums value) are linked, and both controlled from one side.
• PFD: altitude bug.
• PFD: selected FPA & V/S indicators.
• PFD: outer / middle / inner markers.
• PFD: EICAS warning. Any active master warning or caution is reflected on the PFD.
• PFD: Flight Director (FD). FD button now actually turns the flight director on and off; flight director displayed as bars in T/O and G/A mode, mini-aircraft symbol otherwise.
• Takeoff pitch: takeoff target pitch (for Flight Director T/O & G/A modes) configurable & default automatically calculated.
• PFD: Improved horizon colors for better readability.
• Improved Fuel & Payload Dialog. Including better control over payload distribution, passenger counts, CG calculation as a percentage of mean aerodynamic chord (%MAC), and accurate calculation and display of CG limits.
• Weights & balances retuned.

2022-05-09

Various fixes and improvements:

• When detecting pilot brake input for autobrake deactivation, a little bit of slack was added to allow for some error in analog input devices.
• ACARS system now sends OOOI ("Out/Off/On/In") messages when connected to the Hoppie network and configured on the MCDU.
• ACARS system now supports ADS-C Periodic contracts over Hoppie ACARS. When connected to the Hoppie network, the aircraft will accept "REQUEST PERIODIC" messages, and send periodic position reports.
• Fixed HUD shaders; the HUD should now display correctly on both FG 2020.3.x and 2020.4
• Added an FPV indicator to the PFD
• Added indicators for selected FPA and selected VS to the PDF; these are activated in the respective AP/FD modes.
• Aerodynamics: increased alpha-dependent drag, and reduced parasitic drag, to allow for more realistic descent rates.
• APU burns realistic, load-dependent amounts of fuel.
• Nosewheel steering (NWS) uses correct steering angles, control mapping, and speed schedules.

2022-05-02

Improvements:

• Fix ghost text appearing on MCDU after using CPDLC LOGON page.
• This fix also unearthed a long-standing performance problem, which is also fixed now. Performance deterioration during longer sessions should no longer occur.
• When NAV radios are put in FMS AUTO mode, the FMS will now also align the NAV course with the selected arrival runway. NAV course isn't strictly required, but a wrong selection may lead to a "backcourse" situation, which prevents the glideslope from capturing.
• Upgraded IT-AUTOFLIGHT

2022-04-24: CPDLC is here!

ACARS & CPDLC

• Fully working CPDLC implementation
• Supported CPDLC backends:
  • FGMP (via IRC, on supported FG versions)
  • Hoppie (requires Hoppie ACARS plugin)
• Supported ACARS backends:
  • noaa.gov (METAR, TAF, SHORTTAF; same source FG pulls from)
  • Hoppie (ATIS, METAR, TAF, SHORTTAF; requires Hoppie ACARS plugin; ATIS requires active ATIS station on the VATSIM network)
  • D-ATIS (ATIS; supported US airports only)
• Flightdeck printer; print ACARS and CPDLC messages and pin them to the dashboard

Other Improvements:

• Takeoff speed callouts ("80 knots", "V1", "rotate", "V2", "positive climb, gear up")
• Autopilot bugfixes
• Blue indicators on EICAS to show physical thrust lever position (these do not exist IRL, but given the way flightsims work, this is useful to align physical thrust lever positions with autothrottle command before disconnecting autothrottle)
• MFD performance improvement: only track MP/AI traffic when TCAS layer is active
• Reworked EICAS flap and speedbrake annunciators, fixing some graphical glitches
• Slip/skid indicator now moves in the correct direction, and turns white at 1 bar deflection
• HUD now works correctly again on next when ALS is on
• Ground spoiler logic fixed: ground spoilers no longer retract when enabling reversers on the ground

2022-03-14

Pi Day Release

New features:

• APU temperature simulation.
• Improvements to startup and shutdown APU logic.
• ITT simulation.
• Control inputs now trip the autopilot.
• Touch Control Steering (TCS): push TCS button (W key in cockpit views) while autopilot is active to take control without tripping autopilot, release TCS button to re-sync FD with current attitude and resume automatic flight.
• Separate key bindings for autopilot enable (Ctrl-Z) and disconnect (z)

Fixes:

• AP and AT disconnect warning sounds
• AP ROLL mode works like in the real aircraft (wings level if bank angle was <6°, bank angle hold otherwise)
• Corrected autopilot mode lights on glareshield panel
• Fixed transitions between autopilot lateral modes
• Upgraded ITAF, autopilot operation should be smoother overall now
• Cosmetic improvements to EICAS display

2022-02-28

It's been a while since the last release, and there have been a bunch of small improvements:

• Fixed a small transparency issue that would cause the fuselage to become transparent behind light cones sometimes
• Rewrote the thrust reverser logic; reverser deployment is now properly inhibited while airborne
• Change the thrust lever mapping an autothrottle logic to more closely resemble how it works in the real aircraft; TOGA and CLIMB thrust are now always commanded in the same lever positions, which should work more nicely with Airbus-type thrust levers.
• The "separate tiller steering" checkbox now also appears in the aircraft configuration dialog
• Brake temperatures are now initialized to match environment temperature on startup
• Brake heat capacity increased, so you should no longer get a "BRK OVERHEAT" warning even at MLW
• FMA on the PFD flashes on Autopilot / Autothrottle disconnect

2021-11-23

Spoiler Alert!

• Spoiler system overhaul. The inboard and outboard spoilers now deploy independently, and according to the correct functions (speedbrake, ground spoilers, roll control). This includes a new FDM for spoilers and ailerons, a new FBW law for the spoilers, and spoiler panel indications on the MFD.
• Steep Approach mode. Steep approach mode can be used for approaches into airports like London City (5.5° glidepath). Pushing the Steep Approach button in flight will partially extend spoilers when flaps 2 or higher is selected, and the spoilers will also move to supplement elevator input. This makes the aircraft more stable and more controllable on a steep approach, and keeps the engines spooled up for a go-around.
• Unrelated: The FMS now also looks at cycle_info.txt (ships with e.g. Navigraph data) to render nav database information on the NAV IDENT page.

2021-11-15

This is exciting... the E-Jet FMS can now load airways data from an awy.dat file, so you can enter actual airways-based routes into the MCDU.

In other news, changes:

• Overhauled RTE page in MCDU
• Can now enter airways in RTE page
• NAV IDENT page now contains (largely) meaningful data
• Enable scroll wheel view distance control in most exterior views (not just helicopter view)

2021-11-02

• Added web-based external MCDU (may or may not work)
• Aerodynamics tweaked some more
• When separate tiller steering is disabled, rudder-to-tiller mapping now makes a smooth transition from +/- 70° up to 20 knots, to +/-7° at 40 knots and up. This removes the need for turning tiller steering on and off on setups that don't have a separate tiller steering axis configured.
• EFIS screens can now be turned on and off individually in the aircraft configuration dialog. This can be useful to improve performance by turning off screens that you don't use (e.g., the FO-side MFD and PFD when flying from the captain's seat).
• Fixed a resource leak that caused performance to cumulatively degrade in longer sessions.
• Improved TCAS layer performance on MFD.
• Check for FG version and installation directory on startup. The aircraft will now tell you when it's installed in the wrong directory, instead of showing you the yellow glider, and it will warn you when running on an FG version older than 2020.3.
• Bugfix: PFD's no longer freeze after being power-cycled.

2021-10-17

Oh My!

Lots of stuff in this release.

FDM Improvements

• Tweaked aerodynamic drag to get slightly more realistic climbs and fuel burn.
• Reduced landing gear rolling friction, making the aircraft easier to taxi, and producing more realistic taxi fuel burn.

New Livery: D-ANNI

D-ANNI is a Lineage 1000 operated by Air Hamburg Executive Jets (ICAO: AHO), as of 2021.

Performance Improvements

• Finally pinpointed some massive performance drains in the PFD and HUD, and fixed them. The improvement is dramatic.
• Fixed some resource leaks on repositioning / resetting the sim.
• Added some hidden property switches to change EFIS update rates, and disable individual EFIS screens. GUI may or may not follow.

SimBrief Importer Removed

"Oh no!", I hear you say - but fear not, the original E-Jet SimBrief importer code has just been moved to a separate FG add-on, which can be found here: https://github.com/tdammers/fg-simbrief-addon. It has the same features as the old one, plus a ton of bugfixes.