Summer work on version 7.1.0

Hi everyone!

At TFM we have been very busy creating new features and working on new aircraft support. So, what exactly have we been working on? Well, first, I ended up getting a new flight stick. It is portable, has less buttons/controls on it, and fits what I need more than the one I used to use. Anyways, down to what we have been doing.

New Aircraft support on the way

We have been working hard on new aircraft support. One is almost finished, and the other is in early development stages. Here is the list below.

• Fenix 3xx series – should be done by end of summer.
• C172 – In early development, so we don’t have any release date.

Aircraft redesigns

We have also been working on performance improvements on our PMDG series of aircraft. At this point, we have removed FSUIPC support for the PMDG777 series of aircraft. It now uses pure simconnect to access everything it needs in the sim. This should work for 2024 and 2020. From our testing and flying around, it is much faster and stable. Besides, it is one less dependency you have to use just to fly it. Since the PMDG777 on pure simconnect is so beautiful, we are going to convert the PMDG737 series into pure simconnect as well. The Fenix 3xx support will also be in pure simconnect when it lands in public release.

A new first officer

We have created a friendly first officer who is still training. So, he will still be in priority boarding until his training finishes. He is accommodating to new BVI pilots as well as advanced ones. He is able to complete full flights and makes them more enjoyable by guiding you on what to do next. He has so many features that we can’t list them all here, but we will say again, he is ready for full flights. He comes with an advanced checklist editor, a dedicated TFM chorded key set for most features, and will even program your FMC completely. Yes, this even includes SIDs, STARs, transitions, and runways. He hopes to meet all of you soon.

Taxi guidance

In the next release, you will have access to taxi guidance. It is available for any airport, but the best success will be with 3^rd party or pay ware scenery. Milage will vary with default scenery quality. Taxi guidance will help you know when to turn, when you fall off route, and help you stay on the taxiway centerline. As an added bonus, first officer will help you taxi when doing so yourself proves difficult or impossible for some reason. Look for it in priority boarding in the next release.

Traffic radar

A new feature in TFM’s next release is a complete redesign of its existing traffic radar or TCAS. TCAS is a system found on most aircraft that allows a pilot to see what traffic is around him/her. You can set a range of distance, turn it on/off, and decide how much traffic to see. The new traffic radar is in real time, so if an aircraft enters your given range, TFM might tell you something like ‘5NM, 500 feet above at 9 o’ clock Delta 1515’. You can sweep the radar or target specific aircraft on the board. When you found an aircraft of interest, lock on to it and follow its movements. Expect traffic radar to be in the next release under priority boarding.

New aircraft chooser

We took care to make choosing an aircraft a better and more accessible experience. So, we created an aircraft chooser dialog that features groupings, favorites, recently used, and an indicator on how long you have used the aircraft. This new chooser will replace the old menu based chooser, and will be implemented as a permanent replacement for the old chooser system. This means it won’t be in priority boarding.

We hope you will enjoy these new features when they come out. Not all features are listed here because the release notes are so large, we couldn’t sensibly put them all here. The release notes will come out here on the blog when the update comes out. So, keep an eye or ear out for the blog post with the new release notes. Have fun flying, and we will see you when the next release lands!