So close yet so far: A call for help - BVI pilot community in need of programmers!

[Tyler Wood]

Hello, everyone.

As always, I'd like to start off by saying how accommodating, considerate, and respectful the vatsim community has been to pilots with visual impairments, as well as other disabilities. It has been an amazing journey with a community that, while perhaps diverse and far reaching, has managed to come together and truly changed the way I look at aviation, flying and life in general. A year and a half ago I would never have dreamed that I'd be in the virtual sky with amazing control everywhere I go, a community that, given the current status of things, has allowed me to occupy the too often times empty hours of an evening, sometimes full day. Clearly I have no life - my over 2000 hours on vatsim can attest to this, but it's certainly been a learning experience along the way, and an enjoyable one at that.

For the last year or more, we BVI pilots (blind and visually impaired) have evolved in our ability to fly aircraft - and at this time, we're about as good as it is possible to be - given our circumstances. We use special software to fly our aircraft - FS Tramp - and while it's okay at what it does, I'd like to try and bring the realism up to 11, as well as attempt to finally make a dream a reality for most of us.

 

We currently use yet another application which provides us with crutial details - the various instruments of our aircraft. This includes airspeeds, heading, altitude, vertical speed, fuel, as well as various other information. It also alerts us, when applicable, to the glideslope and localizer capture.

 

What none of these pieces of software do, however, is allow us to use the really high quality payware aircraft. We have, for the most part, been stuck using freeware aircraft - and while this is acceptable, for the most part (project airbus comes to mind) there are aircraft which are simply on the verge of unflyable (TDS 787). Similarly, there are times we're having to fight unnecessarily hard with tramp, especially as it relates to altitude. Basically - the idea of getting as far away from tramp as possible is very, very tempting.

 

Recently, I aquired the Quality wings Boeing 787 dreamliner. The sounds alone are simply incredible - as is the realism of the power, and everything else to go along with it - hearing all of this on youtube had me hooked. Usually, with most aircraft, I enable the sim's default autopilot. FS tramp does have its own version of it, but it definitely is not optimal and I wouldn't trust it in a million years to fly online. unfortunately, it is impossible to do this using the QW787 - given how realistic it is - enabling the autopilot does not allow me to interface with the aircraft and change our heading, speed, or altitude, with either tramp or talking flight monitor. More importantly - while using Tramp's autopilot is certainly doable, it isn't optimal by any means, and it is impossible from that point forward to program the ils frequency, as the FMC is not configured. More on this later, and other aircraft aren't even that lucky.

 

Due to the QW 787 being such a complex and realistic aircraft, I also went ahead and purchased Multi crew experience. Running through the various flows and checklists was an incredibly liborating experience. Hearing ground power get connected followed by the APU, various switches and buttons being pressed, learning (and still learning) how all of the aircraft systems interact with each other was incredibly enjoyable, and is something that I have never gotten to experience due to the aircraft we are able to realistically fly. All of this was great until it came time to take off and, more importantly, land, as stated above.

Currently, we're not able to interface with the FMC of any aircraft. There was talk of incorporating this into Talking flight monitor - at least as far as the PMDG 737 and 777, but I have no idea what the status is currently. For the programmers out there, the source for talking flight monitor can be located here

 

So - we are able to go through all of the procedures for the aircraft, and even some in the air, but when it comes time to actually interface with the FMC, we are in the dark (pun not intended). So close yet so far!

This is where the call for help comes in.

I, and many others in our community, are more than willing to provide financial compensation to someone (or someones) with the technical know how to allow us to have the ability to at the very least set up a flightplan using the FMC, as well as configure the options needed to at the very least fly the plan, enter a waypoint to navigate to, cross a waypoint at a specific altitude. Maybe even throw it in autoland (on the 787, at any rate) but even simply being able to fully configure it for landing would be incredible. I can't really explain the joy of being able to interface with at least some of the FMC's on a few payware aircraft (Aerosoft CRJ/Airbus, Quality wings 757/787, PMDG 737, 747, and 777). Of course, all of this would take time and effort, but I feel that this would be something that would bennifit everyone. I, and many others, would be more than happy to do anything (and I do mean *anything*) required in order to help make this a reality. This is something that we've been looking forward to for a very long time and I decided it was finally time to reach out to see if anything could be done.

 

My understanding is that Multi crew experience allows one to create scripts (flows, as well). I do know that it can work with just about any FMC or CDU imagineable (and panels, too)? I, and several others, are more than willing to do whatever is necessary to make this become a reality. I'm not sure if the various CDU prompts (pages, settings, configuration options) can be self voiced by Multi crew experience. There are also a few other options, but I do not believe they have the customization available that MCE provides. Given how complex the various FMC's are, I am not sure if this would be viable, but it may certainly be a start, especially if the results could be sent back to sim connect via tfm. I do fly primarily with FSX, but do have P3d - and if P3d version 5 opens up even more doors for us, I am all in, and would purchase it in an instant, and know of a lot of others that would as well.

In terms of other applications that might do what I am asking, This is one,, and this is another

 

Multi crew experience can be located over here

I know people have lives. I am also aware this is more than likely a monumental task the likes of which I have no idea, in programming and coding terms. I am also well aware this is an incredibly unique situation I have provided. And while we are a small community, we are also an ever growing one. We are passionate about what we do and enjoy every second - this would tripple that and then some if even the smallest bit of what I have just described started to become accessible for us. This is all a very large process, and baby steps are expected.

 

However, if you have ever wanted to push the boundaries of what is possible, or have the slightest clue on doing so, please, please reach out. You have the opportunity to truly make this amazing hobby we are all a part of change people's lives in unspeakably positive ways, and all for the better.

 

Any help is more than gratefully appreciated and received. Even if just hints and tips. I am more than happy to discuss this on alternate platforms if interest is strong enough. I also hope I have posted this in the correct part of the forum.

 

thank you for reading!

Tyler

[David McClanahan]

I am writing a Flight Simulator Assistant  ( FSA )which is a program that performs like a co-pilot for me. I wrote it originally to allow me to quickly and easily handle instructions from ATC and to off load some part of the flying by my choice.  For example: It has a display where I can set the altitude, speed, heading, vertical speed with a single click of a button (buttons are labeled with a range of choices for each parameter).    I never thought about it , but the buttons and data could be modified to any size font . They are color coded now by function and state.   There are windows that create scripts for ATC control conversations (like request for clearance, taxi, takeoff etc.)

Currently works with the A320 C172, G1000, C152, B787 (and a few others) its for Windows  MSFS 2020.

- The FSA can do a "Go Around" by itself with a single key press , 

- it can do 99% of the landing (within a few feet of the touchdown.

- it can go to target altitude at waypoints

- it can circle while holding an altitude or circle descending with a target altitude to reach 

- it holds a list of Com and Nav Frequencies and can set them easily and keeps a history of the frequencies used for each flight

- it can change speeds a different altitudes  .... 

- It can be a governor to control the taxi speed of the plane 

 

I'll update this with more details later

Edited June 18, 2021 at 06:45 PM by David McClanahan

[Tyler Wood]

2 hours ago, David McClanahan said:

I am writing a Flight Simulator Assistant  ( FSA )which is a program that performs like a co-pilot for me. I wrote it originally to allow me to quickly and easily handle instructions from ATC and to off load some part of the flying by my choice.  For example: It has a display where I can set the altitude, speed, heading, vertical speed with a single click of a button (buttons are labeled with a range of choices for each parameter).    I never thought about it , but the buttons and data could be modified to any size font . They are color coded now by function and state.   There are windows that create scripts for ATC control conversations (like request for clearance, taxi, takeoff etc.)

Currently works with the A320 C172, G1000, C152, B787 (and a few others) its for Windows  MSFS 2020.

- The FSA can do a "Go Around" by itself with a single key press , 

- it can do 99% of the landing (within a few feet of the touchdown.

- it can go to target altitude at waypoints

- it can circle while holding an altitude or circle descending with a target altitude to reach 

- it holds a list of Com and Nav Frequencies and can set them easily and keeps a history of the frequencies used for each flight

- it can change speeds a different altitudes  .... 

 

I'll update this with more details later

Hello,

Unfortunately I and many others still using P3d over here - is it much of a process to port it over?

I do know someone in the BVI community who owns FS2020, however, so this may work.

Thank you very much for posting - looking forward to seeing what the future has in store.

 

Recently we have been able to access the PMDG aircraft - so this is a very positive step.