Before I get carried away and re-invent the wheel, has any Little Navmap user created an Aircraft Performance file for the ICON A5? If, not, I’m gonna give it a try, start with an existing lmnperf file like for the X-Cub, maybe… So very little info on the A5, ICON is not really forthcoming and I can’t seem to find all the details on the aircraft in Google… TIA…
I think you can just start recording the performance data from the Icon and not have to start with another airplane’s metrics.
I may be wrong as I’ve only been using LNM for about 1-1/2 months.
Agreed, just not sure how many hours, altitude, speeds, etc., are required to build a reasonable perf. file
Hello,
Discussion of third-party utilities goes in the Third Party Addons category. I have moved your post there.
THX, was uncertain where to start…
No worries!
I believe it’s only one complete flight. If you fly at different speeds/altitudes on subsequent flights and “merge” the stats they just seem to overwrite existing values. There does not appear to be any averaging of the values going on so performance files are only accurate if you are always flying at the same speeds and altitudes. I guess you would have to create a bunch of different ones for the same aircraft for different cruise altitudes and speeds.
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Agreed. Alexander Barthel (Little Namap author) provided 10 aircraft performance files, which I use in flight planning, ascent and speeds and times, Block fuel, etc. I never modify or merge any of those files, I believe they are straight from published specs. I started a ‘New Aircraft Performance’ file and am in the process of editing to get a reasonable product. It seems to work pretty well so far, I need to tweak GPH, climb and descend, etc. The ICON A5 that I’m learning is the recent 3rd party mod with the 150 HP Rotax, so all the ICON data is not completely accurate (except for airframe).
I ran three flights per aircraft for Performance files I sent to Alex Barthel. High Medium Low altitudes based upon operating limits and at least 30NM or more so we get a good idea of burn rates.I merged those into a single Performance File that theoretically gives you an average performance rating.
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Kind of what I’m doing now with the ICON A5. I’ve done a 45 NM trip at 6000 ft, and a 110 NM trip at 9000 ft. I overlooked the part about Aircraft Performance Merge, I thought the data was automatically averaged. Back to the Flight planning and start again, LOL. I guess I have the mid altitude data still, I’ll fly a 13,000 ft., merge the data, then follow up with a 6000 ft flight and merge that data. The guestimates I started with were pretty close, based on the aircraft’s fuel capacity and published range. The performance mod has included a Garmin G3X avionics package that, for the most part, works great. If I could just figure out how to set a Reference Altitude and Make the ALT and VS functions work, I wouldn’t have to hand fly the altitude part (I’m doing that with throttle settings for the time being. Thanks for your comments!
Actually wouldn’t it be a fantastic idea to ask the developer to introduce a new feature and average flight data? From a technical perspective I imagine that wouldn’t be very hard. The data is already there. You’d just have to average it depending on the phase of flight and duration.
I haven’t tried it yet, but I think that functionality is already built into the Merge Aircraft Performance. If there are two sets of flight data, you can select ‘Copy’ which changes flight data to the new data, ‘Ignore’, which leaves previous data unchanged, and finally, ‘Merge’, which averages the two sets of data. I think (LOL), haven’t tried it yet, CasualClick posted a reply that clears up what has to happen to get a well rounded flight performance model. If Alexander had time to do the auto averaging, I’m sure he could, but I doubt if its high on his priority list. Little Navmap is still FanTastic!!
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As mentioned by post above, there is the AVERAGE function which continuously averages the performance value of the current flight with whatever value that has been saved over previous flights. This way the performance figures get very close to the averages of various oddities encountered during all recorded flights.
It’s gives a pretty accurate figures for all my flights. Just remember to MERGE and also to IGNORE any values that are more of an exception than the norm.
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Indeed! I’m still in the process of developing that Performance file for the new ICON A5 enhanced performance mod. Trying to resolve some issues with the aircraft’s ALT and VS functions, but farther ahead now than I was. Lots of great, supportive comments.
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Ah, that’s absolutely fantastic to know. Any idea if averaging happens automatically and the perf file is getting updated after each flight without us doing anything? Or do we have to explicitly Merge when the flight ends?
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You would need to select the MERGE option at the end of flight to average the latest figures with whatever that has been saved as the aircraft profile.
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In the LNM Guide, look at Index item 42 (Aircraft Performance Merge). There you’ll find more info about averaging the past flights. The window will show two columns, new data vs old data. When you select MERGE option, the new and old values are averaged into the Performance file. Leave the window by pressing OK, When you exit Little Navmap, you’ll be asked if you want to save the Performance file, which, of course, you probably do. So short answer, yes. You have to do the Merge operation, it is not behind the scenes automatic…
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Thanks both. I’ve done lots of merges but I never really took the time to test and see if averaging works as expected or if data is getting more accurate over time. Guess from now on I’ll be merging after every flight and only leave out the odd values that are off the scale.
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