The extremely busy period continues here at Just Flight, and we are excited to share with you a new update on our upcoming F70 Professional and F100 Professional.
Winding the clock back to March, members of our team travelled to FS Weekend in Lelystad, where it was an honour to be able to show off our renditions of two icons of the Dutch aviation industry. Being surrounded by so many like-minded enthusiasts – many of whom have personal connections to these aircraft that were built in their home country – made the event especially memorable. We do hope that everyone who stopped by our booth for a hands-on experience with the F70 and F100 left feeling very positive about what was to come!
Whilst in the Netherlands, we also couldn’t resist the opportunity to visit several real world examples of the aircraft that are accessible to the public (there is no such thing as too much reference material!).
Since FS Weekend, we’ve been relatively quiet on the public-facing front, with all hands now on deck to focus on bringing both versions to conclusion in a timely manner, and most importantly of course to the high standards you’ve come to expect from Just Flight at release. As we move closer to release (yes, we have a tentative release window set internally – no, we’re not quite ready to share that yet…), parts of our development team are beginning to make the shift from extensive testing and development, to completing the remaining work on the Operations and EFB manuals, support page FAQs, and a selection of pre-release videos that show off the product’s vast feature set in detail. All of this content will indeed be available ahead of release. With the level of dedication and passion we have invested in these products, we are extremely confident that they will represent our very best work to date.
On the systems coding side, a new beta build was supplied to our testing team within the last week. This beta build marks the start of the final testing phase and is the first build to include our fully re-coded AFCAS Profile logic. The aircraft can be flown in Profile mode from 35ft after takeoff, all the way down to approach minimums, while correctly respecting any altitude and speed constraints, and maintaining minimal deviation from the computed vertical profile. If a descent path is too steep, or if a discontinuity exists in the flight plan, alerts will also be generated on the PFD and CDU.
Our testers are currently busy flying the aircraft on a wide range of routes, and in the nicest possible way, trying to break it in as many ways as possible. At the same time, our development team continues to work through feedback received from this latest build. While the vast majority of the feedback has been incredibly positive, it's fair to say that there is also further bug fixing and extra polishing still required ahead of release, hence why we’re not quite at the point of being in a position to announce a specific release date.
To give an example of the type of work that is currently ongoing, we’ve just completed a mini-overhaul of the braking system. Braking effectiveness for both manual braking and the autobrake systems has been fine tuned based on figures quoted in the real aircraft’s documentation, along with the figures provided by the Performance Calculator located on the EFB. These changes also necessitated some changes to the brake temperature logic, which has now also been improved to more accurately simulate the heat generated during braking. In addition, we have also recently completed work on the systems tests, which, when you're in a position to do so, we encourage you to try when running through the aircraft’s pre-flight checklists.
As you may have noticed in previous screenshots, the cockpit artwork has also received significant attention in recent months. Alongside a full ambient occlusion re-bake, colour corrections have been applied across the entire cockpit - most noticeably on the FMP knobs, which have taken on a slightly yellowed appearance over time due to UV exposure. Additional dirt has been added to buttons based on newly sourced reference imagery, and a light amount of dust is also now present on selected panels.
Those familiar with Just Flight products will know that clean, fresh out of the factory aircraft just aren’t our thing, and we much prefer to depict an aircraft that has been a workhorse for the airlines it served.
Continuing on the artwork front, our livery artist has also been hard at work producing custom cabin textures for each F70 and F100 livery that will be available to download at the time of release (more news on that soon…).
In total, over 25 unique cabins have been created, offering a good variety of classic and modern cabin designs. Combined with the advanced galley simulation, fully interactable doors, Auto Cabin Crew logic, and Digital Music Player with announcements and music modes, these bespoke cabin texture help make the cabin a very immersive place to be.
Hopefully this update has offered an insightful look behind the scenes into what is a relatively small segment of the ongoing work on the F70 Professional and F100 Professional. Do keep an eye on our social platforms for more content as we get closer to the big day!
https://www.justflight.com/in-development/f70-100-professional
I'm SO excited about the Fokkers! 👏