17 Wellington Business Park Crowthorne Berkshire RG45 6LS England. Tel: +44 (0)

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1 17 Wellington Business Park Crowthorne Berkshire RG45 6LS England Tel: +44 (0) Information Sheet Commercial in Confidence

2 Hosted Flight Data Monitoring CONTENTS Contact Details... 3 Introduction... 3 Using Reflight 3D... 4 The Toolbar... 5 Buttons within the 3D View... 6 Path Manipulation... 6 Camera Control... 7 Recording a Video... 7 Correcting the flightpath... 8 Annotations... 9 Scripting Data Editor Settings and Configuration Parameter Requirements Essential Parameters include: Recommended Parameters: Additional parameters Software Requirements: Hardware Requirements: Data Requirements: Commercial in Confidence

3 CONTACT DETAILS Eddie Rogan, Sales and Marketing Director Tel: +44 (0) INTRODUCTION Reflight 3D is the flight animation FDM360 module that uses and extends the well know X-Plane (developed by Laminar Research) to visualise your flight data in 3D. You can provide data for visualisation as a CSV file, such as those exported from views within other FDM360 modules. Flight Path Reflight 3D can calculate and draw a smoothed flight path or use an accurate latitude/longitude source (such as GPS) to provide flight path coordinates. Data Manipulation Reflight 3D provides you with a simple means to adjust the flight paths and correct data inaccuracies, as well as a full data editor, which updates the animation in real time, allowing you to visualise any changes you make to the data. Annotations Reflight 3D allows you to add annotations to the flight path. Annotations can be generated automatically (for flap and gear positions as well as take-off or touchdown points) or added manually. Scripting Reflight 3D has animation scripting, allowing you to change camera views and positions automatically as the animation is played. This allows you to setup a presentation which you can run at a later date. Video Capture Reflight 3D has a built-in video recorder to capture the animation and distribute it as a video. Commercial in Confidence 3

4 USING REFLIGHT 3D This is not the Reflight 3D User Guide which is available on request and training can also be provided if required. The following information is only intended to give non-users of the modules and introduction into how it can be used. Upon opening, the Reflight 3D window opens and will either launch or connect to X-Plane. If you opened a Reflight 3D animation project directly, it will be loaded and the flight path will be calculated while X-Plane is starting up. Once X-Plane is ready and the animation project has been created or loaded, the X-Plane 3D view will be enabled and you will see the flight path visualised in the 3D view window. Annotations can be added to the flight path. Annotations for configuration (gear and flap) and take-off and touchdown points are automatically added when creating a new animation project. These can be adjusted using the Annotations window. Note: A red mark is displayed on the runway to give an indication the touchdown point, based on the sample rate of the parameter(s) used to determine the touchdown position. Commercial in Confidence 4

5 THE TOOLBAR Create a new Reflight 3D animation project (by loading CSV flight data) Open an existing Reflight 3D animation project (.FDPX file) Save changes made to the current animation project (.FPDX file) Toggle Flight path display Toggle Extend flightpath to ground Toggle ILS view on/off Cycle between flight time, fixed daytime or fixed night time Move directly to the take-off subframe Note: If there is no take-off detected, the location will be set to the first subframe in the data. Move to touchdown subframe Note: If there is no touchdown detected, the location will be set to the last subframe in the data. Zoom out Zoom in Change camera to the circle view Change camera to the chase view (locked to the aircraft) Change camera to the spot view Change camera to the runway threshold view. Note: The closest runway is selected by X-Plane which, depending on the current aircraft location, may not be the runway the aircraft lands on. Reset (reload) aircraft model. Slow down or speed up the playback Toggle the playback/animation of the data Start recording a video Toggle the display of the data and adjustment tabs Toggle the onscreen flight path adjustment controls Toggle the display of the flight path corrections window Toggle the display of the data editor window Toggle the display of the annotation editor window Toggle the display of the animation scripting editor window Toggle the display of the general settings window Show this About Reflight 3D window Note: A visual cue is displayed in the top left of the animation window when manipulating X-Plane using the Reflight 3D toolbar buttons, such as changing the camera view, playing and adjusting the playback speed. Commercial in Confidence 5

6 BUTTONS W ITHIN THE 3D VIEW PATH MANIPULATION The path manipulation buttons are only visible when adjustment tab or the flight path corrections window is displayed. The buttons allow you to manipulate the flight path. All movement is relative to take-off or touchdown. Heading and groundspeed adjustments are relative to the current position. When adjusting the path using these buttons, the new path will be displayed in white, allowing you to immediately visualise your changes before re-generating the flight path. Adjust the heading used in path generation anticlockwise. Adjust the heading used in path generation clockwise. Decrease the ground speed used in path generation. Increase the ground speed used in path generation. Click and drag to move the aircraft position. /\ Move aircraft forward (relative to aircraft heading). \/ Move aircraft forward (relative to aircraft heading). < Move aircraft left (relative to aircraft heading). > Move aircraft right (relative to aircraft heading). Undo the current path adjustment. Regenerate the full flight path. Apply the current path adjustment. Notes: If you hold the SHIFT key while using the adjustment buttons, the reaction will be greater (faster). If you hold the CTRL key while using the adjustment buttons, the reaction will be less (slower) Commercial in Confidence 6

7 CAMERA CONTROL The camera control buttons allow you to pan and zoom the 3D view. Zoom out Zoom in /\ Pan camera up. \/ Pan camera down. < Pan camera left. > Pan camera right. RECORDING A VIDEO Reflight 3D has a built-in video capture, allowing you to easily capture your animation project as a video. Press the record toolbar button to start the video capture. A 3 second countdown will then begin (as indicated in the top left of the Reflight 3D window) prior to the video capture starting. During video capture, the record button and the recording status bar text will flash red to indicate that capture is in progress. The Reflight 3D window will also be forced into the foreground so other applications to not interfere with the capture process. NOTE: During video capture, the onscreen buttons are not displayed. You can still manipulate the X-Plane camera position by clicking the right mouse button or using the buttons in the Reflight 3D toolbar. To stop recording, simply press the record toolbar button again. When doing so, the captured video will be transcoded (compressed). You can then save your video or cancel to delete the recording. Note: By default, Reflight 3D will use hardware acceleration provided by your graphics card to encode the video. This speeds up processing but if your video card does not support this, or if it fails, you can turn it off the Use hardware acceleration checkbox and use the compress button to use software encoding. Commercial in Confidence 7

8 CORRECTING THE FLIGHTPATH Due to the inaccuracies of INS Latitude and Longitude, and the sparse use of accurate GPS recording, Reflight 3D generates a smoothed flightpath from the flight data provided. However, this path often needs some adjusting to correct for heading variations and to line up correctly with the runway and taxiways. Reflight 3D provides two mechanisms to adjust the take-off and touchdown reference points, a simple, onscreen adjustment tool and a more advanced flight path correction window. The onscreen adjustments can be displayed using the toolbar button. To open the flight path correction window (which also shows the onscreen adjustments), click the toolbar button. Note: As well as using the correction buttons in the 3D view you can enter the corrections manually. The take-off and touchdown offsets allow you to control the position of the aircraft at take-off and touchdown. The values entered here are applied to the whole path and as such, are a course adjustment that should be made first. You can either type the values in manually or move to the take-off or touchdown point and then press and hold the button while moving the mouse until the aircraft is in the correct location (you can also use the up, down, left and right buttons from more precise control). Once you are happy with the take-off and or touchdown positions, you can apply flight path corrections at any point in the path by adjusting heading, altitude, groundspeed, pitch and roll. Move to the point at which you wish to adjust the path and use the heading and speed adjustment buttons, or create a new flight path correction by clicking the * row in the flight path corrections table. Commercial in Confidence 8

9 This allows you to fine tune the calculated flight path from a particular point forward (or backwards*) to ensure the displayed path is as close to accurate as possible, including correcting the path to ensure it aligns with the X-Plane scenery, runways and taxiways. Once in the correct position, you can use the heading and speed adjustment buttons to align the path with the runway. (*)Note: When adjusting the heading and speed, the path is adjusted backwards and forwards relative to the closest ground point. So, pre-take off, the heading adjustments work backwards from the take off point and post touchdown, forwards from the touchdown point. When you make any changes to the flight path, the new path is projected in the 3D view as a white line, allowing you to visualise your adjustments makes before you apply and save them. ANNOTATIONS Reflight 3D allows you to place annotations on the display, either along the flight path (in 3D space) or in a window. By default, annotations are generated on the flight path for configuration changes (FLAP and GEAR) as well as for take-off and touchdown. You can edit the automatically generated annotations and add you own in the window. annotation editor To add an annotation, click the new line (*) entry in the annotation table. A new entry will be added at the current position (time) and you can choose the position of the annotation in the Display Position column and type the text to be displayed in the Text column. Annotations on the flight path are always displayed. 2D annotations are displayed for the time specified by Display Time. NOTE: In the 2-dimensional window annotations, you can use \n as a new line character to produce multi-line text. Commercial in Confidence 9

10 SCRIPTING The scripting system allows you to configure your animation to automatically set the camera view, position and zoom so that while you play the data, the view automatically changes. This can be useful when preparing to record a video. You can open the scripting window by clicking on the toolbar button. Then you can add a scripted action at the current data position (time) by clicking on the new row (*) entry. You can choose from a selection of actions to perform and for actions such as PAN and ZOOM, you can also choose how many times that action should be repeated in order to position the camera at the desired location. NOTE: Different actions can be entered at the same time position by creating multiple lines. DATA EDITOR The data editor allows you to manipulate the data for animation purposes, when there is the need to manually adjust the data; for example, you may want to correct the recorded pitch attitude on the ground to ensure the nose wheel is correctly displayed in contact with the terrain, or when animating a fault such as the flap or landing gear sticking. Notes: The data editor shows all data used to drive the animation, which has been interpolated using hermite interpolation) to produce a smooth animation. All data is sent to X-Plane as floating point or integer values. You can t enter textual values, only their numeric representation. Open the data editor by clicking on the toolbar button. Commercial in Confidence 10

11 As you make changes to the values, the animation display is updated, allowing you to visualise any changes before you save them. Note: The animation is only updated once the changed value is committed to the cell (by pressing return or tab or by selecting another cell). Several tools are available to simplify the editing of data: You can select a value and copy it forward or backward for a specified number of seconds or until the beginning or end of the data. You can select a range of cells (within one column) and set all the values to a specific value, set the values to a range (interpolated over the selected time period between the specified start and end value) or increase/decrease all of the selected values by a chosen amount. SETTINGS AND CONFIGURATION The settings window can be opened by clicking on the toolbar buttons. It allows you to configure elements that are independent of any one animation file, such as the colours used in Reflight 3D. Note: These settings are stored in your user profile so each user can have their own settings. Commercial in Confidence 11

12 PARAMETER REQUIREMENTS Reflight 3D accepts CSV flight data as exported from views within FDM360 to create an animation project. The parameters required to drive the animation are as follows: Essential parameters are needed to derive the flight path and location on the planet as well as the basics of animation. ESSENTIAL PARAMETERS INCLUDE: Groundspeed, Altitude, Radio Altitude, Heading, Drift angle/slip Pitch, Roll, Weight on Wheels/Squat switch/airground switch. Latitude & Longitude (for initial positioning prior to flight path generation) RECOMMENDED PARAMETERS: The following parameters are used to drive more advanced animation of the aircraft model, such as surface positions and engines. Adding them will improve the quality and accuracy of the animation. Gear(s) Down Gear handle Flap degrees Slat degrees Flap handle Aileron Elevator Rudder Spoiler Speed brake Throttle Position(s) N1/EPR N2 Torque Reverser Deployed Vertical Acceleration/Normal Acceleration Vertical velocity/rate of descent Outside air temperature Localizer DOTS Glideslope DOTS Barometric altitude setting ADDITIONAL PARAMETERS The following parameters can be used, if available, to drive various X-Plane elements, annunciators and instruments (which are not displayed in Reflight 3D). Airspeed (computed/true) MACH number Fuel Flow Commercial in Confidence 12

13 EGT Oil Pressure Prop Set Prop Pitch Wind Direction Wind Speed NAV1 Frequency NAV2 Frequency Angle of attack Stall Warning / Stick Shaker Flight Director Auto Pilot Auto Throttle Localizer Mode Glideslope Mode Autopilot altitude Selected Autopilot heading Selected Autopilot vertical speed selected Master Warning Master Caution GPWS SOFTW ARE REQUIREMENTS: X-Plane 10 or 11 Suitable X-Plane aircraft models and scenery HARDW ARE REQUIREMENTS: Desktop PC or gaming laptop with a discrete graphics card with at least 1Gb VRAM and as much CPU power as possible (for X-Plane performance). Microsoft Windows 7 or later with.net Framework v4.5 DATA REQUIREMENTS: Reflight 3D animation projects are created by importing CSV flight data such as that exported from your views in FDM360. For details on the required and optional parameters, please see the advanced topics section at the end of this document. Copyright 2017 flightdatapeople.com All rights reserved This document is the property of flightdatapeople.com and the information contained within may not be disclosed to any third party or copied without consent. Commercial in Confidence 13