CJ4 Community Mod by Working Title Released

Discussion Hub Aircraft
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Discord Link (Easiest way to stay current with changes and see feature progress): Working Title Simulations

To get the current version: GitHub - Working-Title-MSFS-Mods/fspackages: Working Title FS Packages
Scroll all the down to the bottom.

I am happy to finally announce that we have released a BETA version of the Working Title CJ4 mod (v0.2.0). We want to emphasize BETA! You will find release notes with a changelog, as well as an overview document, included in the release on Github. Thanks to everyone for your patience.

Let me say a huge thanks to everyone that has joined the Working Title team, and also to everyone that has generously contributed content that we’ve included. Our hope is for this to be THE CJ4 mod and we hope that others working on the CJ4 will help out by contributing to our Github repository. And don’t forget to check out the other projects – the G1000 is coming along really well with exciting new features coming soon!

We’ve done a lot of work on the CJ4, but there’s still so much more to do, so please keep that in mind as you explore the new features and capabilities. The change log includes a list of known issues – we’re sure there are more, so please log any issues you encounter in Github under “Issues” and please make sure to tag them as CJ4 so we can filter them separate from our other mods.

This update focuses on the FMC, as well as fixing a few of the more obvious issues with the PFD and MFD. There are also a few quality of life enhancements – you can see the full list below.

I have prepared a video for demoing the features of this release:

In addition, you will find a few pictures of features included below the change log. Here is a full photo gallery: Working Title CJ4 Mod for MSFS - FMS Pages - Album on Imgur

The install instructions are simple: download the zip file and drag the workingtitle-aircraft-cj4 folder into your community folder. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE REMOVED ALL PRIOR CJ4 MODS FIRST.

Without further ado, you can download the mod here: Release CJ4 v0.2.0 ¡ Working-Title-MSFS-Mods/fspackages ¡ GitHub

Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the Assets, which include a zip titled ‘workingtitle-aircraft-cj4-v0.2.0.zip’ - that’s the mod.

Here is the changelog:

Working Title CJ4 v0.2.0 Changes

Installation

Installation is easy, simply copy the workingtitle-aircraft-cj4 folder inside the zip file to your MSFS Community folder.

Key Features

  • Fixed Direct To routing when attempting to go direct to IAF or enroute waypoints
  • Enabled proper EXEC/CANCEL MOD function and removed the ‘Activate’ logic
  • Created Custom Font and implemented across FMC, PFD and FMS
  • Updated FMC Layout, Coloring, Keyboard Lighting; added message line and EXEC notification to FMC layout
  • Fixed LEGS page listing to include all flight plan and approach waypoints
  • Added PERF pages and functions, including takeoff, landing and fuel management
  • Added IDX pages and functions, including progress pages, approach details
  • Fixed PFD and MFD NAV BAR details
  • Adjusted engine performance and fuel flow to more closely reflect reality (much more work to be done)
  • Removed reverse thrust
  • Eliminated erroneous cabin pressure alarms (will need to be remodeled later)

Direct To Page

  • Adjusted waypoint listing to show origin, departure, enroute, arrival and first approach fix
  • Added proper handling for activating a direct to the IAF in an approach without causing the plane to fly back to a prior fix and auto activating the approach from present position.
  • Added EXEC/CANCEL MOD logic to replace ‘Activate’ logic

LEGS Page

  • Fixed errors in display of flight plan waypoints
  • Added approach waypoints to legs listing

IDX / INIT REF Index Page

  • Status Page - shows database, time, date
  • GNSS Pos Page - shows current GPS Lat/Lon, date, time
  • PROG Page 1 - shows last, current, next and destination waypoints, distance in flight plan from current location and ETE
  • PROG Page 2 - shows current wind, headwind component, tailwind component, ISA DEV, flight plan cross track deviation and TAS
  • Database Initial Page now allows selecting waypoint from database
  • Database Airport Page now displays base data for any selected airport
  • Arrival Data Page now displays the selected approach airport, runway, runway elevation, approach type, approach name, frequency and approach course.

PERF / PERF INIT

  • Added Main Menu
  • Added Perf Init Page to set/read weight, fuel and cruise altitude
  • Added Takeoff Ref page 1 with working calculator for takeoff data for the selected departure runway, including wind, pressure altitude, runway condition, runway length
  • Added Takeoff Ref page 2 with calculated V speeds and calculated takeoff distance, including selectors for Flaps and Anti Ice state. Vspeeds can be sent to PFD and appear in magenta color when set by FMC.
  • Added Fuel Management page 1 calculating fuel remaining, displaying fuel flow, allowing setting of reserve fuel, showing endurance, range and endurance to reserve fuel and specific range.
  • Added Fuel Management page 2 showing fuel flow in each engine and fuel burned, with added ‘reset initial fuel’ button
  • Added Approach Ref page 1 with destination details, runway details and landing performance calculator, including headwind/crosswind components, runway condition, pressure altitude and temperature variables.
  • Added Approach Ref page 2 with calculated Vref and Vapp speeds and calculated landing field requirements and landing field available length. Vspeeds can be sent to PFD and appear in magenta color when set by FMC.

TUN Page

  • Updated layout and fields

FPLN Page

  • Updated layout and fields
  • Enabled first waypoint line management on page 1
  • Added EXEC/CANCEL MOD logic to replace ‘Activate’ logic

DEP/ARR Page

  • Added EXEC/CANCEL MOD logic to replace ‘Activate’ logic

DSPL MENU Page

  • Updated layout and established template (to do)

MFD ADV Page

  • Updated layout and established template (to do)

PFD

  • Removed erroneous display of GS/TAS from PFD Map
  • Fixed NAV BAR at bottom of PDF to display current accurate COM1 COM2 ATC1 RAT and UTC
  • Set AoA to only appear with Flaps 35
  • Added VRef(VRF) and Vapp(VAP) to the speed tape
  • Setup PFD coloring so that VSpeeds set by FMC are magenta and when manually set or edited they are set to cyan
  • Updated fonts to custom font

MFD

  • Removed erroneous display of GS/TAS from MFD Map
  • Fixed NAV BAR at bottom of MFD to display current accurate GS TAS RAT SAT and ISA DEV
  • Updated fonts to custom font
  • Removed bad CAS messages for PITOT and INERT SEP (more to do here…)

Misc

  • Added YD functionality (credit: musurca)
  • Added/fixed many gear-related warnings (credit: musurca)
  • Improved exterior lighting (Landing/taxi light visibility) (credit: Uwajimaya)

Known Issues

  • You cannot currently select Direct-To of a fix on your approach that is not the initial approach fix. This is a limitation of the sim flightplan system at present. We are investigating solutions to this issue.
  • After using Direct-To, the navigation will not always automatically sequence to the next fix and may enter ROL mode. You can re-activate NAV to navigate to the next fix if you encounter this issue.
  • There are cosmetic issues regarding the PFD and MFD (shapes, text, alignments). The PFD and MFD have not gotten a full layout overhaul as of this time.
  • The aircraft is still using the built-in MSFS autopilot (for now). All the existing limitations of that still apply. It does behave a bit better with the engine performance changes.

A few pics, more at the gallery (Working Title CJ4 Mod for MSFS - FMS Pages - Album on Imgur)

Many thanks to @MattNischan, @kaosfere, @dga711, @cwburnett and many others!

73 Likes
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Incredible work!

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A big thank you to all involved :clap:t2:

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Is there a Discord server for this project?

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Yes, are you interested in joining the team?

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Hi,

I am. I have a CJ4 addon I’d like to merge with your add-on. Could I have a link to the discord please? @K20017

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yeah a discord link would be great just like the other mods of aircrafts have.
makes it easier for me to follow the development and when new releases are up :slight_smile:

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I understand the involvement, however, we also don’t want to become inundated with new people and project management would get out of hand.

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@K20017, This is night and day, a world of difference better than the base version. Thank you for all the efforts that have gone into it. The layout and look is nearly identical to the real FMS. Implementing proper EXEC/CANCEL MOD was crucial, as was the improvements to the legs page. Glad to see you fixed that.

Just tried it out for the first time and figured I would write down some initial thoughts. These aren’t complaints, because this is an incredible improvement. But since it is a work in progress, here is what came to mind the first time I used it:

Scratchpad: Should be able to copy a waypoint down into the scratchpad. Currently only works 1 way (moving it up)

Status page: Looked odd to just see “WORLD” for the database. Maybe J8-WORLD or J42-WORLD to match a plane with a Jepp Nav database (guessing that is 99% of the CJ4 aircraft out there)

POS INIT page 2/2 could stand to be updated, but this is also not that important.

FPLN page 1, regarding the <COPY ACTIVE line select key, are you sure that is present? Could be dependent on FMS software, but I was thinking this was removed.

PERF INIT: No way to manually input fuel. If you enter a value, it should take that number and change from “SENSED FUEL” to “CALC FUEL” (I believe CALC FUEL is the wording)

PERF INIT: Changing values should prompt an EXEC / CANCEL MOD option.
Was unable to send the V-speeds. The speeds on the PFD all remained at -1 (in magenta)

MFD ADV: Page is modeled, but doesn’t appear to be working. (MFD does advance however when scrolling through legs pages, which is incorrect) I see this is noted as work in progress

Tuning page looks a million times better. Was not able to load swap active / standby frequencies however.
Also, would be nice if it would accept frequencies without the decimal point, like the real plane. (i.e. 1219 and 121.9)

VNAV altitudes and speeds in the legs page will be nice (I know VNAV is incomplete in the sim).

Panel lighting for lower MFD Cursor Control Panel is inop.

Any way to make it so the right FMS doesn’t mirror the left one, page for page? Guessing this is outside the scope of this project.

Again, those are all very minor and just some initial observations. Am very impressed with the improvements you all have made. Thanks for the work put into this!

2 Likes
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Can’t wait to try this out. I’m trying to learn the FMC. I understand you need to put the speeds in there per leg? How do you get the aircraft to auto fly a specific speed?

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No Autothrottle on the CJ. Any speeds in the FMS are only for reference.

In the real airplane you can sync FLC to the climb or descent speed profiles in the FMS using VNAV (depicted as VFLC). But even then it doesn’t adjust throttle. Only changes pitch to try to maintain a speed.

There is a guide to programming the FMS linked below. (But it was written prior to all these improvements)

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/how-to-citation-cj4-fms-programming-guide/124457/2

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  1. Scratchpad is WIP (probably ongoing due to route/legs complexity)
  2. Thought about adding J7-World but this gets complicated with real world stuff. World works fine now.
  3. POS Init Pg2 is on the list, just low priority since those inputs aren’t sim crucial
  4. Copy Active is correct for a CJ4 but non-functional as its not a priority or a sim “centric” thing
  5. Yes, there should be an option to DEL the fuel and it’ll recheck the quantity again but it’s on the todo list
  6. Perhaps a bug but I don’t think changing values in the perf page issues an EXEC prompt. Bug certainly with -1, did you have a runway loaded in for departures?
  7. MFD ADV is there but non-functional. On the list but not priority.
  8. Haven’t looked at input logic yet (The entire FMS is lacking input logic checks but its on the list)
  9. The legs page will be WIP until we can figure out Asobo logic with the flight plan management system
  10. Panel is INOP from our first glance but certainly on our list.
  11. Dual FMS is on our list. We have had ideas about doing it but Asobo code is still changing.
    :+1:
6 Likes
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Woo Hoo thanks

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Thanks so much for the kind words! We definitely put a lot of work into it. I personally put some time into the design of the font, so I love hearing that the look and feel is close. A couple things layout-wise we’re fighting against the Asobo code but we will be improving all those aspects over time.

That’s a great list of suggestions, much appreciated. @K20017 addressed them already, but just wanted to thank you for taking the time to point them out.

As he alluded to, a big struggle is working with the in sim flightplan management system, which at this time is extraordinarily brittle and breaks in goofy ways with even simple flight plan changes. One of the goals is for us to reduce or remove our dependence on it entirely, and only sync as little as is required to maintain coherence with the sim ATC.

The -1 v speeds definitely appears to be an issue with what actually is implemented so far. If you can, please file an issue for that on our GitHub, which is linked in the original post.

Thanks again and we’ll see you in the air!

6 Likes
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Thanks @Bishop398! Will see if I can duplicate it tomorrow and file a report on Github.

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Very good work

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Not at all, I have no skills to offer. I was interested in a Discord to be able to follow progress. :slight_smile:

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For now your best bet would be to Star/Watch the GitHub repo. The team will figure out “public relations” later, I guess ^^

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Just for clarification here. I applied some of the available tweaks to the CJ4 in the original asobo-aircraft-cj4 folder (less fuel consumption) and in the asobo-vcockpits-instruments-cj4 folder. Do I need to get rid of these and, if yes, how? The game doesn´t seem to simply reinstall the original data if you delete the folders.

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In this case, any files included in our mod will overwrite those in the official folder. Any that we don’t include will remain as you modified them.

1 Like