LMF5000

Thanks - I was trying to convey the same message in my previous post. The legal/regulatory side is our responsibility - we're just posting here to reach a wider audience of developers who could help with the actual implementation.

Indeed. Our existing B1/T1 and B2/T2 courses are already EASA and GCAA approved with the paper-based notes. Synthetic training devices like this are covered under Part 147.A.115(a).

Thank you. So it's not just me that's noticing an unwarranted level of hostility. Indeed, MVs response was the most positive thing to come out of this thread (thus far). I won't disclose the contents of his PM, but it certainly does his company credit. I was hoping to encounter more people like that on this thread.

Thanks for the lead on Peters software. Will follow that up if our Plan A fails. Nice website in the signature by the way!

Not exactly - this is just a training aid to supplement the existing system of paper-based classroom theory. Provided it is used for training purposes only (standard disclaimer), as far as I know it doesn't need specific validation like the course notes themselves do (obviously, other than quality testing to make sure it is consistent with the manufacturer's AMM). Paying until our ears bleed is par for the course in this industry Maybe not FSX since it's abandonware, but I'm sure an FSX-compatible deriviative (P3D, Dovetail's new offering, etc.) would be willing to supply the right license for the right price. But that'll be our responsibility. We can even do away with the FS environment altogether and make a dedicated program just for the job, but it's going to use the same custom-developed 3D models regardless, so posting here is a good starting point for finding developers with experience in modelling aircraft.

Greetings. I work at an EASA part-147 maintenance training organisation that offers training on business jets. Many of our courses have a theoretical component where we train the students how the aircraft systems operate. We use training aids like scale posters of panels and EICAS displays, instructional videos, etc. in a classroom, then move on to practical training - disassembling and operating systems on a real aeroplane in the hangar, up to and including engine ground runs on the apron. We'd like to step the classroom training up a notch, by having highly realistic FSX models of the jets in our repertoire. These include: Bombardier Global 5000 & 6000 series (with the old Express AND the new Vision Avionics) Challenger 300/350 series Challenger 604/605 series Gulfstream G450/G550/G650 Since this will be used to train maintenance personnel, not pilots, here's what we need: Fully modelled 3D virtual cockpit with all switches functional Accurate operation of all aircraft subsystems (electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, fuel, fire supression, oxygen, etc.). That means their operation, indications, failure warnings and so on are modelled Faithful reproduction of avionics systems (EICAS displays, menus, cursor controls and so on) External 3D model that includes all probes, antennas, drains, exhaust and intake ports, flight controls that behave like the real aircraft (eg different movement in case of partial hydraulic failure...) Ideally, detailed models also of internal components, like the equipment racks, avionics bay, piping under engine nacelles... Accurate engine performance simulation (indications, mostly) up to a full-power ground run. And what we don't need: Any sort of realistic flight dynamics. The aircraft will be used for ground-based training onlySo, if you're a developer (or you know a developer), particularly of payware aircraft, and you're up to the task, we'd like to discuss the possibilities. Feel free to reply here or in a private message. P.S. Before anybody mentiones it - yes, PMDG were the first developer we approached. 8 months ago, in fact. Still waiting on their response. So we've taken the search public. I'm sure there are plenty of talented developers in this community eager to take on the challenge.

Hi Kyle, It's been 8 months and still no response to the ticket. Could you look into it please? Or better yet, forward an email address or phone number by private message? Regards, Luke

OK - submitted under Billing/Sales/Accounts -> Other. Thanks and have a nice weekend.

Hi Kyle, Thanks for the reply. Account created (under same username as here but using company email address). Should I file a ticket or will you contact me automatically?

Dear PMDG, Do you have a means of contacting you privately for a business enquiry? If yes, can you kindly provide info here or via PM? I am posting here using my personal forum account since the "contact us" page on your site doesn't include any email addresses and points to here.

LMF5000, on 16 Mar 2013 - 11:38, said: Sure you have. Go to youtube and look at some Russian dashcam videos, or videos of driving in Libya. The people you see in the videos are presumably sober (alcohol is illegal in Libya), but they make errors of judgement that are sometimes hard to comprehend. Now compare some of those drivers, sober, with a 30-year old man who has 10 years of clean driving experience (i.e. what one might consider a "good driver"), but is currently driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.81% (which is just above the legal threshhold in my country - 0.80%). Who do you think is statistically more likely to cause an accident? Scrutinise those videos carefully!

It nearly happened already - my grandma's sister's husband was hit by a car while he was walking on the pavement. The driver of the car was 17 or 18. Apparently after he lost conrol of the car he hit a signpost, then a concrete shop front, and finally ran over my relative. The most significant injury was a broken pelvic bone, which left him bedridden. He died a few months later of natural causes. The driver was never punished for reckless driving. I'm not sure if alcohol was involved, or if the driver was sober but simply being very careless, or distracted in some other way. I've also had a friend who crashed into a wall and ended up in hospital when he tried driving home after a night of drinking and mistook a roundabout, and another friend who totaled his car and got stitches on his eye when he fell asleep at the wheel. Anyway, my original point was that someone wanted to destroy the livelihood of the poster who got the DUI, but my argument is that the punishment should be proportional to the crime. His only crime was exceeding the legal blood alcohol limit (he never said by how much, so maybe it was just slightly over). So I think a fine and some points on the license are reasonable. Now, if he'd been caught demonstrating poor driving (or worse), then that deserves its own penalty which should increase proportionally. He doesn't say he was booked for reckless driving too, so presumably he was driving properly at the time. If I was on that road at the time, I'd be more afraid of someone engaged in an argument with her passenger, or shouting with the kids, or checking her make-up or talking on the phone, because in each of the latter cases the driver has almost certainly diverted her attention away from the road.

Sober drivers hit people too. And not all drunk drivers end up hitting people. I'm not defending drunk driving (in fact I personally hate the taste of alcohol and never drink) - I'm just saying that your post is unreasonably harsh because drunk driving does NOT automatically guarantee an accident. It only makes it more likely - same as driving after an argument, being distracted, being sleepy, or having a bumblebee enter the car... There's also the fact that because of the wide range of skill levels on the road, some people are safer drivers drunk than some other people are when sober. Lastly, in my country we ensure road safety through different means. For instance, we use roundabouts instead of intersections. That way all traffic is going in one direction, not at right angles to one another. No need for traffic lights. And anyone going too fast and ignoring the "give way" sign will quickly find himself planted in the roundabout instead of ploughing through four lanes of traffic. There's also the fact that it's a very small country and the national speed limit is 80km/h. And the potholes slow us down even further...

I can second that. After I got my engineering degree I interned for a few months at a part-145 CAMO facility that did maintenance on Bombardiers (mainly Learjets, Challengers and the odd Global Express). Whenever you park a learjet outside the hangar and the wind is over ~10kts, the blades start windmilling and make a terrific racket. Every blade is loosely attached to the blade hub by the firtree root, so it goes "clink" once on its way up, and once on its way down - and there are 22 of them on a Garrett TFE731 (geared turbofan powering the Learjet 55. Coincidentally the GE90 also has 22 main fan blades...). I think a good description of the noise is somewhere between an extremely loud bicycle freewheel, and someone shaking a can full of bolts :lol:. What would be really impressive is if you could tie the noise to the windspeed on the field - higher windspeed gives higher N1 windmilling RPM, so it makes the clinks louder and more frequent. You could just tie the noise to N1 and have it play at low RPMs when starting up, just like in the real thing. As I usually stayed on the outside when the engines were started, I can also tell you that as RPM increases the centrifugal force pulls on the blades radially and thus the clinking noise gradually decreases and stops (because centrifugal force becomes significantly greater than the force of gravity on the blades - so it stops them from wiggling around tangentially when the pull of gravity on the blade changes direction [twice per rev]).

Hehe. Believe me, I am! But I was hoping there might be someone out there (besides PMDG) who currently make a decent B777. Or at least the airbus equivalent (would that be the A330?). Or maybe a Bombardier Global, or a Gulfstream G550... From what I can gather it's not bad, systems-wise. But the VC and model look a little flat and untextured -