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As LINDA users will be aware I have let the real world get in the way of LINDA development and support. This busy period should come to an end towards the end of Oct 15. Please use this thread to lodge any suggestions for improvements and to raise any issues users are experiencing with LINDA 2.6.3. Even you have been in touch with me please post a detailed description of the problem and how to reproduce it. I cannot promise that everything will be included but it will allow me to assess the workload. Note: LINDA 2.6.4 has been issued to fix a problem with odd characters on the VRI Combo 2 (Boeing) panel and may fix some Range Check error reports.

As some of you may know, I have developed an aircraft for X-Plane called Chase's MD-80. Well, I should say "am developing." I have decided to use this blog to help me communicate to the community my progress and my experiences. I don't have much free time, so I am not sure how this will go, but I will certainly try it out. Here goes. Everyday I seem to wake up and get my MD-80 Project on my mind. I think to myself, "Okay, I'll just go finish ____, and then I'll be done for the day; I can just go fly after that." Well, that hasn't really been happening recently. My routine has been more like: get up, drag myself to the shower, throw on some clothes, shuffle up the stairs, turn on my computer, launch blender, edit ONE thing in the 3D cockpit, launch X-Plane to see if it worked, go back to blender and repeat these steps. Each day I seem more inspired to follow this patter as I start to see the light at the end of the tunnel more and more clearly. Of course I then take a look around and see all that's miss from the plane that I still have to research, model, and texture. But that too is rather inspiring. I want to finish it so badly that I am making a real effort to do as much as I can everyday. I think I have made some serious leaps forward from my last release. That brings me to my next dilemma. I don't know how I should proceed to release this in the future. I mean, in the past I pretty much thought that as I fixed things or added things, I would pack it up and call it a 0.x release. I started off this way too. But as I got into some serious modeling, I reconsidered. I am leaning towards holding off the next release until it is "finished." By that I mean completely modeled and mostly functional. A 1.0 release if you will. It just doesn't seem to make sense to pack up an incomplete aircraft anymore. I am glad I did it originally though. I got lots of positive and helpful feedback from the community that way and also established myself as an MD-80 developer. Now I am stuck though. I have a 0.2 plane sitting in the downloads section of the X-Plane forums with something like 1600 downloads that is well out of date. The flight dynamics are primitive and certainly not characteristic of an MD-80. The fuselage is see-through. And the 3D cockpit is barely textured and almost completely unusable. It is nothing more than a preview. I could pack up what I have now for a release, but how do I clean it up without robbing these good people? I don't want to drop the 3D cockpit as it is the most improved area, yet still unfinished. Plus it would be one LESS thing than what the previous release had. That's no good. I really am struggling. I want to let them have a plane with the correct flight dynamics and such, but I don't think I am ready for that. Right now it looks like I am going to have to wait. I really think I am done with releasing things early as a preview. It makes a mess for me from a developmental standpoint. Now I understand the long wait times at PMDG Until next time, Chase PS: I'll try the picture posting thing now B)

Hello dev team, you did an awesome job so far, but not with latest build 5921... I have stable 51 fps before updating to 5921. I have 25 fps lost with thunderstorm, rain, fog and some clouds, never had fps drops before build 5921! On ground 51 fps with heavy weather, when looking at clouds in wingview or vc 25 fps loss, that can't be, seriously. No fps hit before update in same weather, scenery, addons whatever, I tested it. Some guys in fb groups also have the same fps drops aswell. So, I am NOT the only one having this Performance problem. So please check it and patch this issue. Thx a lot guys for your incredible work so far, but this issue has to be resolved. Kind regards, Tom Weigandt

Those who watch the flight sim world carefully will have noticed a growing trend in our world where products are concerned, namely the dispensing with any level of testing of products before they are released. I'm not going to debate whether this is good or bad for our community, just point out that is likely has become the norm for paying customers to perform work traditionally done by the developer, which means the customer are paying to become testers of the products themselves. As an experienced tester of flight sim products, I note today that a product was released that has so many discrepancies that it would have never been released by the developers I normally work with - problems that were so easy to find (they literally jump out at you) and correct that I could have resolved the 20 or so issues myself in less than an hour effort, which begs the question why did the develop not even check his own product before release? I would have been embarrassed to release a product with the number of easy to spot and resolve problems as this product has, and I'd have been embarrassed to say I was on the testing team (though I seriously doubt there was one). Now the flip side of this means that we'll get products faster, and if the developers act quickly to correct issues identified by customers will get error free software faster. Again, I'm not weighing in on whether this practice is good or bad for the community, it's really up to individuals to say for themselves. But what I will way is that given the number of products I'm seeing that had little or no testing (and I promise that the number of products is likely larger than most of our community knows), I do believe that developers should tell customers if the product has or has not been tested when it's released. I believe that's the fair, honest, and honorable thing to do. NOTE: Late last year FSFX released an Alpha version of Chase Plane to the community. They were upfront about the product being in Alpha, yet the product was so highly functional that most all users thoroughly loved it. I had the opportunity to become familiar with this product for a few months before it was released, and I personally voted for the release. The way FSFX released it was terrific, and I believe that FSFX established a model for how and when an Alpha or Beta should be released to paying customers. Now, I have to be honest (and I always will), Chase Plane was at the level that most tested payware is when it's released - the guys at FSFX are just so open and honest that in their eyes it was a Alpha. I've been in the flight sim community for well over 30 years, and I'm very happy to see our community growing like it's presently doing - everyone should be! But growth means changes, and not all of them will be good. We also have developers who are younger and younger, and while talented they lack a little experience and are quick to jump to decisions with their products. Without the presence of standards or a body to weigh in on important matters (which will likely never happen), it's up to the paying customers to decide what is, or isn't' acceptable. Okay, post now officially far too long. Thank you for listening.