Beta Client 2.6

[joefremont]

I have just uploaded the new Beta client to the site, with this first 'Beta 1" I will not post news yet to allow the 'select' who view the Forum to get the first tests, here are the new features:

Client Beta 2.6 Features

Beta 1:

* Support for Prepare3D v6
* Record as a crash any landing with a VS > 3000 FPM even if the sim does not record a crash (this year that would have effected 48 flights).
* Three new penalties
- Very Hard Landing (15%): This is a hard landing with a VS between 1500 fpm and 3000 fpm
- Ground Accident (5%): This is when a crash is recorded by the sim while the aircraft is on the ground and travelling at a speed less than 35 knots.
- Serious Ground Accident (15%): This is a the same as a Ground accident but when the taxi speed is between 35 knots and 55 knots.
Note the Ground Accidents were being recorded as crashes before so this is actually helping rather than penalizing.
* Do not record "exhausted fuel supply" penalties before takeoff, these have been happening occasionaly because of some simulator weirdnesses and this should put a stop to those.
* If you forget to submit the flight report at end of the flight, the client will do so automatically after five minutes if you forget.
* Preload more airport information and other improvements to reduce 'wrong airport penalties'
* Log files in the Documents/airlines folder are now by day and are purged after 30 days.

Beta 2:

- If client can not set fuel levels accurately force pilot to use set client to read only.
- Fix setting of fuel with SimConnect.
- Allow use of email for login.
- Fix calculation of distance to destination in private flights.

Beta 3:

- Limited release to help debug SSL problems.

Beta 4:

New Penalties:
- Gear up landing
- Water landing for non float planes.
Landing fee calculations.
Fixed bugs when fueling aircraft.

Beta 5:

Fixed bugs with gear up landing penalty.

Beta 6

disabled water landing penalty.

Beta 7

Fixed water landing penalty for SimConnect and re-enabled penalty.
Fixed calculation of Simulator ZFW when using SimConnect.
Fixed loading of airport locations from server, may have been causing wrong airport penalties but not sure. Added additional logging to figure out why if not.

[cajunjosh]

The thing to consider with ground crashes are the wonky taxiway situations in MSFS. If you go to an airport like Knoxville or Pittsburgh and for a while one of our pilots reported problems in Greensville and Denver there have been wild taxi elevation changes and "cliffs" that can cause problems. I guess this won't be an issue if we just disable crashes in MSFS which our guys have had to do out of necessity with some of the scenery glitches present.

[AdySmith]

All the years it has been around in one guise or another and mocrosloth still haven't fixed that bug!

[AAL88]

Is the BETA version available for download yet to the general public? I don't see it on the Download page - and I'm just going based on "I just uploaded the new Beta client to the site" so just wondering - where is it?

EDIT: NEVER MIND - I found it.

[ADAM-007]

Beta running well for me - A huge one is the log file cleanup I'd often go in there and find 2-3GB files which are useless anyway as notepad can't even open them if needed.

[joefremont]

Beta running well for me - A huge one is the log file cleanup I'd often go in there and find 2-3GB files which are useless anyway as notepad can't even open them if needed.

That is great to hear. I have been toying with the idea of an automatic upload system where I can request from the server that a client upload the log files for specific days, so I can debug what is going better in the clients, there would of course be a confirm button that would have to be pressed on the client so nobody would be getting spied on without there knowledge. Not sure how the members would react to that though.

[ADAM-007]

That'd be cool as it could go along with a flight report? or perhaps could be attached to a ticket?

[joefremont]

Automatic uploading the logs Could be initiated through either, someone has a report with something odd or someone complains in a ticket were they had aborts or for what ever reason could not be uploaded. I would request the last few days of logs for that pilot and see what was going on, I would not keep them for long. All those logs would fill up the server much quicker than your disks. But would be easier for everyone than me asking someone to zip up there logs and email them to me. Since the log files will now be date stamped it will be easier to select the time range needed.

[joefremont]

There is a problem refueling with SimConnect using 2.6-b1 and I would recommend not using that. The FSUIPC interface works correctly. This will be fixed in B2 but I am still working on it.

[joefremont]

I just uploaded Beta 2 with some fixes, especially to the setting of fuel for SimConnect and ability to log in using your email.

With Beta 3 hopefully will include the landing fee logic.

[joefremont]

One idea I had been thinking about, suggested by Sam recently which is inline with our detecting very hard landings as crashes is gear up landing. If an aircraft lands with its gear up, it probably should get a penalty along the lines of a hard landing. Only complication is of course water landings, but using both SimConnect and FSUIPC I can detect that the surface your on is water. how ever XPPUIPC does not

We would have to add to the database a flag for each aircraft type as to if it can float or not.

We would also be able to classify water landings by not floating aircraft as crashes, at least in non X-Plane sims. So X-Plane users flying amphibians would avoid this but other sims we would be able to detect the surface type and act accordingly.

Thoughts?

[Cat]

I had not thought of float plane ops - good catch. I should have, we used to fly them all the time and have built a whole network of custom "airport scenery files" from Vancouver to Anchorage just for float planes in FSX.

[joefremont]

I have added 'Float Plane' as a column on the aircraft type database and set the following aircraft as 'float planes'

Boeing 314 Clipper
Cessna 172N Floats
Cessna 206G Stationair 6 II Float
Cessna 208B Caravan Amphibian EX
Consolidated PBY 6A Catalina
Daher Kodiak Series II Floats
De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver (Float)
De Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter (Float)
De Havilland Canada DHC-3T Turbo Otter Amphibian
De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 (floats)
Grumman G-21A Goose
Grumman G-44 Widgeon
Grumman G-73 Mallard
Grumman HU-16 Albatross
Hughes H-4 Hercules
Quest Kodiak Floats
Republic RC-3 Seabee
Short S.17 Kent
Short S.23 Empire
Short S.30 Empire
Short S45 Solent
Viking Turbo Beaver Amphibian

I am sure there are many that have missed. In this case 'float plane' means any aircraft that can land on water be it helicopter, float plane, amphibian or sea plane.

[joefremont]

I am working on a page where as an admin I can quickly add a float plane conversion for any aircraft, did a couple checks on how much to costs, best example I could find is for the Avant Husky, base price for the AC is about 400k and floats add another 90k so I am thinking to convert a plane to float would normally be about 20% of its base value, to convert back would be 10% and to purchase as a floater would be 15% more than the standard. Thoughts?

[joefremont]

Question: If a pilot does a gear up landing or a water landing, how much damage additional would we expect to hull of the AC to receive?