Not AAU1: Cessna Citation Longitude Flight Dynamics Modification Project

And this is a pity because I have the P3D version of the CRJ and its HUD is much better than this one.

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I didn’t even mention the 787 HUD because well… it sucks. But, I do enjoy the CRJ HUD on approach/landing. I haven’t found it deceptive, though. It’s more for the ā€œcoolā€ factor than anything else :sweat_smile:

I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that the actual production model only has around 30 aircraft in use, and that none have yet been shipped with a working HUD?

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That’s what I heard too. Possibly why Asobo decided to ship it as INOP and not copy the 787 HUD to it.

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That’s true.

Well, deceptive was me trying to be funny. I was just exaggerating. But the HUD is not well modeled. The image is supposed to be at infinity, and about 300 feet wide. But it’s just a few inches behind the glass. It’s also supposed to be stuck at the horizon and aligned with it no matter how you move your head.

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Agreed. The whole horizon line thing is the one issue i have with the CRJ HUD. I also did not know that the Longitude shipped w/o working HUD. That would make some sense then as to why it doesn’t work in the Sim.

I also didn’t know that only 30 or so were produced. I wish there were more private jets to fly than just these two from Cessna… so many good ones to choose from.. hopefully someday soon.

I would personally like to see a VLJ for the sim - Cirrus SF50 type, for example. It would be a nice step up into an ā€œentry levelā€ turbine aircraft from the various pistons and single engine turboprop that come with the game and more realistic for a typical simmer to aspire to than a full fledged business jet or airliner.

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Agreed. I can’t lie, a Vision Jet looks like it would be a blast to fly.

Totally agree. The SF50 is one of my favorite VLJs. Correction, it’s my favorite VLJ.

The CRJ series was originally based on the Challenger business jet, so I’d love to see Aerosoft do an expansion pack that includes that (and the 200, the only CRJ I’ve been on in real life so far).

Also I loved and miss the Citation X that Eaglesoft did for FS2004. The X may no longer be in production but to me it will always be king.

I rather like the HUD on the CRJ, at least when I can see it. Which in VR during daylight hours in clear weather is pretty much never. I have no idea if that’s realistic or not, though. But it does exactly what it’s name suggests. It keeps my head up and not buried in the cockpit the entire time I’m flying this amazing, but finicky, airframe.

But if the real one is different/better, then by all means Aerosoft, change it to reflect what the real airplane has. And the sooner the better, please!

Yeah the thing with HUDs is this: it’s not just the information on the HUD that matters, but equally important is where the image is placed relative to the world (I mean the entire picture, not the individual info like airspeed, etc). With the PFD, it doesn’t matter where it’s placed, so long as the different gauges are where they’re supposed to be within the PFD.

The image displayed in front of your eyes is set several hundreds of feet in infinity, and is so big, about 300 feet by 200 feet, but is far in front of you that you can see the whole picture. You think the image is the same size with the HUD glass, but no, it’s way bigger. Because of this, the displayed image is ā€œgluedā€ in place, and remains where it is regardless of your eye position. The horizon line, for instance, is stuck on the horizon regardless of what angle you’re looking at the HUD from. So you have to sit in the correct position in order to see the whole image. You have to sit in the ā€œeye boxā€.

This is an imaginary box within which your eye has to be in order to see the whole picture. You adjust your seat up/down, forward/aft to place you in this eye box. That’s why when you’re about to land, the outline of the runway is superimposed on the runway when you’re landing.

The pic on the HUD is upright regardless of how tilted the glass is (e.g: 787)

Check this video out:

In the first segment, notice how the runway outline is perfectly superimposed on the hud, and will remain that way no matter if you translate your head left right forward or backward. If you continue moving left, you’ll lose the image and the glass would be blank because the image is stuck to the world, not the glass (as it would be on a TV or monitor).

Notice on the next segment, how the image is not centered on the glass. This is because of how the gopro camera was placed. It’s a little below and to the left of where the pilot is actually looking, and although the camera is within the eyebox, it’s not centered within it. The glass is just a window through which this display is seen, and the display is way beyond the glass. Imagine looking at a huge mountain, thousands of feet away, from a tiny window. You’d have to position yourself squarely in front of the is window, and move forwards or backwards in order to see the whole mountain through this small window.

Here’s another vid, specifically the 787. Pay attention to the subtitles. He explains that there are no lateral adjustments to the HUD image, forcing the pilots to sit in the right spot at all times (adjust their seats to sit in the eyebox).

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Thank you for sharing these. So cool to watch and seeing the HUD in real practice gives context to your earlier replies. I would assume that integrating HUDs on par w/ the ones in these videos would be somewhat difficult (and probably would kill sim performance even more), but I would love to see the existing HUD in the sim brought up to this level (or close to it). As the pilot in the first video mentions, flying w/ a HUD makes flying that much more fun and immersive, for me at least.

While the real life Longitude never shipped w/ a working HUD, it would still be cool if there were a way to mod the Longitude HUD in the sim to work.

Side note - What do we need to do to get the Falcon in the sim. That jet just looks incredible. I’ll take anything when it comes to bringing more business jets to the sim, but the Falcon and the Gulfstream family are definitely at the top of my wishlist. Thanks again for the awesome write-up!

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Easy. Find a developer willing to do the work. Pay them a living wage for the entire development. Which could be 1 to 3 years. Then load the plane into the sim and enjoy!

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I’d happily pay for the finished product lol. I’ve never used Xplane, but I know how much variety it has in terms of Airliners and business jets.. It’s prob wishful thinking, but I hope some of those developers are planning to bring some of those planes to MSFS.

Well, all the HUDs in DCS function 100% like the real thing. Also, PMDG already got the HUD perfect on their 737NGX (2011 if I remember correctly) on FSX, P3D and even the NGXu, so I’m convinced that if they were able to achieve this in 2011 with FSX, they’ll bring it on in their 737 NG3 for the MSFS. Plus in one of their recent videos, Robert Randazzo (PMDG CEO) said that a lot of limitations they had in previous sims are a thing of the past in this sim.

I can’t wait.

How is the mod working with the new update? A

I just did a short hop with the mod and all seems fine…The only issue I’ve run into is actually with WT G3000 mod, I think… When AP transitions from the flight plan waypoints to approach waypoints, it’s ignoring them and just keeps flying straight ahead and ignores the approach waypoints…I’m going to remove this mod and the G3000 mod and try again with the vanilla Longitude to see if it happens again…

Given the number of changes made to G3000 functions and the complexity of the update, I’d expect to see some issues with WT mods. The aircraft may also handle / fly a little differently as well. Asobo made a wide array of changes to avionics and flight physics. It will take me some time to get my arms around these and I expect WT will need some time as well.

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