Welcome to the second installment of the Working Title CJ4 (v0.3.0). This is still very much a beta. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release. This update focuses on a number of fixes to the prior version, but also includes quite a number of new features.
Scroll all the way down to the bottom to see the latest releases
Here is the changelog:
Working Title CJ4 v0.3.0 Changes
Key Features
Complete rebuild of templating system to accommodate FMS3000 specific formatting ‘quirks’ including inconsistent page numbering, inconsistent indenting, proper color formatting, etc
Enhanced EXEC, ACT/MOD and Message handling and resolved several EXEC related bugs
Added AoA ON/OFF/AUTO PFD Menu Line and adjusted AoA Show/Hide logic
Updated LEGS page Layout
Built new FPLN pages
Further enhanced PERF pages, added temporary landing weight calculation (to be further refined with actual performance prediction)
Added additional IDX pages, including DATABASE pages allowing lookup of any navaid in the database
Improved autopilot handling with special attention to FLC mode (works much better for managing climb and descent speed, but still is flaky if enabled shortly after takeoff)
Added functionality to several in-cockpit knobs and switches
Added aircon/fan sounds as well as seatbelt announcement
Improved cockpit lighting
Added externally visible cabin lighting
Added DSPL MENU & MFD ADV pages and functionality, including the ability to turn on/off supported map features and step through flight plan waypoints on PLAN view
Improved TUN page handling of frequencies, including parsing 8.33/25khz spacing properly
Direct To Page
Improved formatting
LEGS Page
Improved formatting
IDX / INIT REF Index Page
Updated all templates, indents, titles and fonts throughout the pages and menus
PROG Page 1 - updated PROG page to protect against errors
PROG Page 2 - shows current wind, headwind component, tailwind component, ISA DEV, flight plan cross track deviation and TAS
Database Pages now work for all waypoint types (Airport, VOR, NDB, RNAV Waypoints)
PERF / PERF INIT
Updated all templates, indents, titles and fonts throughout the pages and menus
Updated takeoff and landing calculations
Added further error protection on all PERF pages
Updated landing weight to a calculated field (to be enhanced further)
Takeoff and landing weights will turn yellow when they have exceeded the maximum values
Fuel used page updated with reset button working
TUN Page
Updated layout and fields
Added shorthand inputs and all valid frequencies should be enterable
FPLN Page
Updated all templates, indents, titles and fonts throughout the pages and menus
Improved EXEC, ACT/MOD and Message logic
DEP/ARR Page
Updated all templates, indents, titles
DSPL MENU Page
DSPL MENU on FMC now allows you to toggle intersections, navaids, airports, and flight plan altitude restrictions onto the PFD and MFD displays
MFD ADV Page
MFD ADV on FMC now allows you to cycle through flight plan waypoints on the MFD PLAN page
PFD
Updated NAV BAR at bottom of PFD to display UTC with HH:MM:SS
Adjusted PFD menu to remove inaccurate ‘units’ submenu and add AOA menu item allowing AoA to be on AUTO, ON or OFF. Auto keeps Flaps 35 logic, ON turns AoA on for all phases of flight and OFF removes the AoA for all phases of flight.
Enabled viewing of intersections, navaids, airports, and flight plan altitude restrictions on the MFD and PFD
MFD
Enabled stepping through waypoints in PLAN mode via MFD ADV page on FMS
Enabled viewing of intersections, navaids, airports, and flight plan altitude restrictions on the MFD and PFD
Misc
Improved Autopilot handling, specifically for FLC mode (credit: wizzlebippi)
Pilot fan knob works with accompanying sound (credit: J-Hoskin)
CLIMATE CONTROL knob works (credit: J-Hoskin)
COCKPIT TEMP knob works (credit: J-Hoskin)
SOURCE knob works (credit: J-Hoskin)
Seatbelt button works with accompanying sound (credit: J-Hoskin)
Improved cockpit and cabin lighting (including externally visible cabin lights at night)
Known Issues
*FLIGHT PLAN BUG: Entering in waypoints on the flight plan route page does not correctly update the page. (6:38 on demo video).
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 various enhancements applied.
TUN page doesn’t update automatically when radios are updated externally - reopening the TUN page will reflect these changes.
Performance pages don’t currently have input error handling for wind, temp or QNH. These values must be entered correctly and completly in the proper format for the page to work. Note that valid wind directions are 001 through 360 as of now.
People like you are making this community great! thank you, sir.
May I ask from where a normal guy takes the seat belt sound and voice Fx? Just curious. Did it come with the default plane? is it from another plane?
Those were pulled from a youtube video. However, I will be recording all of the passenger announcements from the real aircraft so the quality is much higher.
Fantastic work. Now can get vspeed calculation etc. working correctly. FLC sometimes can’t be turned on at random, but might be AP problems. Looking forward to video that shows how to do final approach (AP tends to go haywire with too many turns near final, hopefully the mod can help work around this a bit).
Amazing! You have access to a real CJ4. Wish you the best! You know how to write code, you know about avionics and specifically about the CJ4 and you have access to a real plane AND you have an interest in doing the improvements.
I keep thinking all the knowledge that is needed in order to fix and improve a plane.Planets are aligned for you sir, and for the guys improving the other planes. Thanks for that work
ap is a big improvement in this version. Last time it was holding alt ± 600’ and center wouldn’t shut up the whole time, with this it was holding ± 50’ with one dip from weather that brought it down a few hundred. I still don’t know everything I need to fly it perfectly but it’s coming along pretty well.
looking forward to more updates and videos! Thanks for the great work.
Great to see this sort of work being done to improve default aircraft. Thanks.
I guess you are just working with what MSFS has produced, but is there any way to improve the airspeed, altitude and heading readouts on the PFD. The brightness controls just below the FMS allow you to dim and brighten the PFD but the figures aren’t any clearer. The fonts are thin and dim and impossible to read unless you zoom all the way in. Based on pictures of the real thing I think they need to be more like the font thickness and brightness on the FMS displays.
I notice there is a reference to this problem in the known issues and hope this is something you are able to update in the future “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.”
Great work, highly appreciated. Can someone tell me if it is possible to use the extra liveries with the mod? When I have the mod installed the liveries from the livery pack do not show up. Thanks.
I have liveries working with this mod, at first I had to enable dev mode to see them. Although that was even before installing this mod so I think that is either a bug or intentional by msfs.
There are many restrictions with the current Asobo flight plan manager code running in the background. You can’t add your own waypoints, intercept a course, flyover vs fly-by, track offset, Point/Bearing/Point/Bearing fixes, Point/Bearing/Distance fixes, etc… We are currently investigating on how to proceed with this from waiting on Asobo to make fixes to creating our own separate flight plan manager, map drawing system, and autopilot system. There are a few problems with this approach though, it would completely break the ATC system because unless we feed our new system back into the Asobo system, it wouldn’t know what the aircraft is doing. So do we want to break the default ATC for those who use it versus having a much better navigation system? Not sure yet.
Currently, you can’t change the passenger weights. That is part of the defaults system (You can find DEFAULTS on Page 2 of the IDX page). We are going to implement this system where you can change these values and they will save to a local file which gets read every time you boot the airplane up. It is on our list and relatively easy to implement, but it’s not high on our priority list.
In our internal branch: Here is a little preview of the work being done to the font sizing/format on the PFD/MFD for better readability. The FMS1 block is what we have changed and you can see the wind readout next to it (The arrow and the 3) are default. We are also in the process of changing the colors so they are correct. (Magenta for FMS data, green for ground navaid data)
