General

A New Chapter for Talking Flight Monitor

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Welcome to a vital update from Talking Flight Monitor (TFM), brought to you by Declan, your new Communications Manager. This week marks a significant milestone for the project, so it’s important you read this post in full to gain an understanding of the new landscape in its entirety.

 

Management transition

As you may have seen over the past week, TFM’s management processes have undergone a transition. Andy and Jason believed that, given the shift to payware and the increase in tasks and expectation that this would lead to, it was necessary to diversify the ways in which TFM consults with the community. They therefore decided to create a ‘tfm taskforce’ comprised of three individuals to support in managing different parts of the project. This trio, including myself, is set to spearhead various new segments of the project, ensuring a seamless and efficient operation.

 

As the Communications Manager, my role encompasses handling all forms of communication, including this blog, and fostering a dialogue with our valued community. I’m here to bridge your thoughts with actionable outcomes, working closely with the team to ensure your voice is heard, valued, and acted upon.

Rob Kipp joins us to steer the logistical aspect, focusing primarily on our transition to beta cycles, which is crucial for refining our offerings. Meanwhile, Gus Pacleb will lend his expertise in crafting clear, long-term strategies for feature planning, ensuring TFM’s roadmap is both ambitious and achievable.

Andy continues to lead the development efforts, with Jason providing support and advisory insights when possible. This collective effort aims to secure a future for TFM where quality and innovation are at the forefront, reflecting our commitment to excellence as we move towards a payware model.

 

Website downtime

You may have noticed some temporary downtime with the TFM website. The transition to a new server was completed much quicker than expected, and the website has returned to normal operations for now. Expect to see some fluctuation with the site over the next month, I.E individual pages not working as expected, as we continue the transition. If you have a particular issue on a given day, keep trying. Hopefully you’ll notice a slightly smoother experience, and this marks the beginning of Andy’s switch to focus full-time on TFM to reflect the necessary increase in development in the coming months. You should, as happened in this case, begin to see the fruits of this decision.

 

Contact methodology and support

We understand this transition brings questions and maybe even concerns. Rest assured, our team is fully committed to delivering value that meets your expectations and that is ultimately proportional to the subscription fee.

Our engagement channels remain open through the official contact form on our website or via email at info@talkingflightmonitor.com. Additionally, I’m personally available for private discussions through dm, acknowledging the relationships I’ve built within this community.

Support will remain a cornerstone of our service. We aim to provide clear, focused assistance on TFM-related inquiries through our official channels. We remind you that TFM support cannot provide you with detailed guides on aircraft systems or simulator issues and will focus primarily upon the workings of TFM which is, ultimately, simply a tool to give you access to other complex addons which all have individual support mechanisms alongside documentation of their own. We would be grateful therefore if you could keep questions routed in specifics. As we develop our documentation, we anticipate this will streamline support requests further.

 

Call for help with documentation

In line with this, we’re calling on the community to contribute to TFM’s documentation. Whether it’s through written guides or video tutorials, your expertise can greatly benefit users and enrich our resources. Contributors will enjoy the perk of free TFM releases for the duration of their involvement, as a token of our appreciation. We encourage interested candidates to submit a sample peace of documentation, covering how to operate the TFM speed or altitude boxes in the pmdg 737. This can be submitted via email at the above address, or by DM to one of the team. We will eventually require videos to be made as part of the documentation, so please do indicate if you would like to do this alongside the written documentation, as we are willing to form a small team if that turns out to be necessary. Any documentation would be simple to follow, perhaps contain thoughtful but concise bullet points, and does not need to go into inordinate detail regarding aircraft systems since such detail can be found elsewhere. You may, if you wish, use any of the tutorial information on bvipilots.net and include it in your work, given that this is custom material.

 

Closing thoughts

Lastly, our subscription and beta infrastructure remain under development. The old official release version of TFM, which was made freely available prior to the last preview cycle, will remain accessible via our website, offering a solid foundation for users whilst we prepare for the next phase. This version includes support to varying levels for the 737, 747 and 777.

 

This week symbolizes a rebirth of sorts for TFM, invigorating a project that has admittedly stagnated for various reasons in previous months.

Stay tuned for more updates. We intend to publish another detailed blog post within the next fortnight to keep you updated on the transitioning infrastructure.

Best wishes

Declan

Communications Manager, Talking Flight Monitor

Talking flight monitor moves to a closed source platform, will offer it for purchase

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Welcome back to the blog. In this post we will describe future plans for Talking flight monitor and its move to a closed source platform. It will also move to a software as a service subscription model. There is a decent amount to cover, so let’s get started.

After careful review of the GPL3 license, along with professional consulting from a licensed attorney, we decided that the paid addon model will not work. The GPL3 license requires that any software interfacing with paid plugins that work from a proprietary license is in violation of the GPL3 license. On the other hand, any software licensed under a proprietary license accessing portions of a GPL3 licensed application must comply with the GPL3 license. This means that the paid plugins we would make requires distribution of that plugin’s source code. Since the closed source plugins would have security mechanisms to validate user licenses in place, it is a security risk to both users and Talking flight monitor. It opens the door for hackers, viruses, and other issues that compromise security. Another aspect of this decision is in Talking flight monitor’s current codebase. At this time, it would take significant rewrites to portions of the code to accommodate a paid plugin system. It also presents a security risk while in the open-source market. When closed source, it would take minimal code modification to implement a security mechanism to validate users and subscriptions.

Currently, there is no interest in Talking flight monitor’s source. During the past three years, there have been a few pull requests to add minimal functionality to Talking flight monitor. There also seems to be a lack of interest in the preview builds as offered. Compared to the official release, the preview builds are hardly used. Sure, there are some community users that make use of the preview builds, but it is minimal. As Talking flight monitor grows and expands its offering, it is starting to incur expenses that need a consistent revenue to stay alive. With the amount of research, coding time, and hours of work dedicated to Talking flight monitor, the project cannot continue unless it is compensated for its time and effort. We also have put our vested interest on the line. In its current state, anyone can take the source, modify it, and claim it as their own derivative work. With the past three years on the line, we need to protect our intellectual property.

Over the coming weeks and months, we will start to shut down the opensource aspect of Talking flight monitor. During this time, development will stop while we make the transition. Any official downloads or preview builds will still be available during the transition period. Once the transition is complete, we will modify the website to accommodate paid subscriptions, feature request forms, bug report forms, and new contact forms. Once that is complete, we will make any adjustments to comply with local and international copyright laws, licenses, and distribution requirements. Once Talking flight monitor is secure, we will remove the official build and any preview builds that are available on the website. We will then modify Talking flight monitor to validate subscriptions, then offer it for purchase. The preview builds will be available to anyone who has a paid subscription. Talking flight monitor will also offer private beta cycles for a select few that apply as a private beta tester. The terms of the beta testing program will be announced later.

Again, the move to closed source is to simplify the licensing process and compensate the developers for their time and expenses. More about the transition will be released as more details become available. We hope you have enjoyed Talking flight monitor as an open source project, and continue enjoying it as we move to closed source.

Catching up, spring 2024 feedback form

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Welcome back to the blog. It has been a while since we last posted here. In the last post, we mentioned that we would start vlogging on YouTube. We also mentioned that any significant amount of text updates would come here instead. Well, here we are with a text-based update.

TFM progress

We would have to write a novel to cover the updates and things that happened since the last update. Some of them are listed below.

• TFM is now running on dotnet 8.
• We now recommend people build from source.
• * At this point, focus is on MSFS, not P3D.
• We are waiting for the upcoming PMDG 777 for MSFS.
• … and more.

We will be getting back to our text-based updates with more PMDG 737 development. It will be an exciting time for TFM/PMDG users!

Spring 2024 feedback form

There have been some technical problems with the fall 2023 feedback form. As a result, not very many people had the chance to fill it out. Besides, end of the year feedback forms might have a conflict with the end of year holidays. So, we decided to try our feedback forms at the start of the year. The spring 2024 feedback form is now available. We are seeking feedback from the BVI pilots community and others with a vested interest in TFM’s direction. This feedback form focuses on keyboard commands, consolidating similar/related features into a single feature, and removing legacy (no longer used) components. Feel free to fill it out. We are looking for solid direction, so be sure to follow the directions at the beginning of the form. You can find the link at the top of any page on this website.
This is all we have for this week. Stay tuned for more posts here and on YouTube. Until next time, have fun flying!

Post surgery update/P3D support

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In last month’s blog post, we covered the heartbeat of Talking flight monitor and what it will take to address existing bugs and to do an in-place upgrade of the entire system. This week, we will update everyone on my surgery and provide some important news about supporting P3D and Navigraph.

 

Surgery update

 

Surgery went well. The doctor wants me off my feet for at least four weeks. This means I can do light weight activities inside. He put a limit on how long I can be on my feet, including how long I can sit at a desk during the day. As a result, I had limited time with my laptop, until my wife found a workaround. Now, I can “sit at my desk” as long as possible. This still means limited times because sitting on the couch with my feet up on my desk chair stresses out my back after a while. At least it is as many times during the day as I want. Doing flights is easy because I can be at my desk until autopilot takes over, then move to the couch. I will keep everyone updated on the next stage of recovery with the next blog post.

 

Navigraph support

 

Talking flight monitor is now added to the Navigraph HUB. Anyone with a subscription should be able to add the current cycle. This is only for the source builds though. If you would like to build from source to test bleeding edge code, follow the directions found at Building TFM from source. We are currently adding support for the database, so no new features will arrive until this is finished and tested.

 

P3D support

 

P3D 6 was released sometime last month. Some significant changes were made to improve the P3D framework and scenery. However, these changes broke support for the PMDG line of aircraft. In other words, PMDG aircraft do not work in P3d6. PMDG announced that after trying to add support for P3D 6, they had deeper problems than just changing some installer files. In the same announcement, they stated that revisiting this problem wouldn’t happen until the 777 and 747 were added to MSFS. This puts the timeframe sometime in mid or late 2024. As reported in the announcement, PMDG most likely won’t continue support for P3D if the changes require too many resources or too much time. Since MSFS arrived on the scene, the market share for P3D 4 and later has significantly declined. Even though more addons and scenery exist for P3D than MSFS, more addons are being altered or newly developed for MSFS. This brings us to Talking flight monitor’s placement in the market.

Talking flight monitor strives to support as many simulators as possible. However, we are also limited in time and resources. Since market value of P3D is declining in favor of MSFS, and PMDG doesn’t support P3d 6, we are not supporting P3D 6 nor continuing new development on P3D 5. Any new development in Talking flight monitor will be focused on MSFS. Keep the following in mind.

 

  • When features are identical in both simulators, we will support P3D5 and earlier.
  • If Talking flight monitor works in P3D6, it is at your own risk.
  • As long as the PMDG SDKs are the same or close to the same, we will support the P3D versions.
  • When the PMDG SDKs are drastically different, the MSFS versions take priority.
  • Navigraph support is independent of a simulator, so works in both P3D and MSFS.
  • We will not support Aerosoft products.
  • We do not support FS2Crew or similar products.
  • We do not support the PMDG DC6, TS4xxx, or similar aircraft.
  • Support for Osobo aircraft requires an evaluation.

Again, we will do our best to keep P3D5 and earlier support going. However, we can’t make promises to the effect. We hope everyone understands our decision to back off on P3D support. In the event PMDG does support P3D 6, we will reassess the situation.

 

Future preview builds and current status

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Welcome back. Last time, we covered important info about Flight sim expo, some Talking flight monitor updates, and that there is going to be down time because of my surgery this week. Before that happens, I would like to take a little time to explain what will happen with updates going forward. So, let’s start.

The heartbeat for Talking flight monitor monitors aircraft and simulator state, then announces changes based on some user settings. This heartbeat also gives pilots the ability to press a key command to open dialogs or get aircraft information on demand. We also have some utility or satellite systems to help the heartbeat do its job. The previous version of the user interface library we used forced us into a specific coding pattern, which was less than desirable. In the process of building Talking flight monitor over the past three years, we built its heartbeat into a single block of code that is over 5400 lines of related and unrelated source. All together, our code base has over 25000 lines of source that needs to be sorted out. Our plan is to fix as many current bugs and add as many new features as possible while reorganizing the code base. This may take some time since we also have to convert the existing source into the new framework version and move the dialogs and windows over to the new user interface library. The process may take a decent amount of time. However, the plan is to do an in-place upgrade. This means that pilots will not be interrupted with down times or lack preview builds to test. The entire process is always ongoing, so an estimated time is unknown at this time. Starting today, I will not be actively working on Talking flight monitor until my recovery process allows me the comfortable time to do so. I will keep everyone updated on the process and how things are going, especially with Talking flight monitor.

This will most likely be the last blog post for the week. I will evaluate the ability to write one next week and go from there. I hope everyone is having fun flying with Talking flight monitor. It is always our goal to make more and more systems or simulator features accessible with Talking flight monitor. If you have any ideas, feel free to send them through the contact form, and one of us will get back with you as soon as possible. Good luck on all your flights, and I will see you on the other side of surgery.

Flight sim expo/TFM updates

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Welcome back! Last time we covered the new PMDG 737 cockpit panels window and our intent to list all converted panels in each update. During our time off, we went to Flight sim expo and had a great time. There is a little to cover, so let’s get started!

 

Flight sim expo

 

Flight sim expo was a great experience, and we plan on doing it again next year. The museum staff and expo volunteers did an excellent job helping out and accommodating us as blind visitors. We took a look at several exhibitors and have things to report.

 

Navigraph support

 

One of our main stops was the Navigraph booth. Everyone there had great things to say about Talking flight monitor. We had the time to explain what Talking flight monitor did for the BVI pilots community, which was one of the problems they had when we applied for access to the Navigraph database. As a result of talking to them in person, we are ever so close to getting access. At this time, I am in conversation with their CEO on where to save the nav data when it is available. He also pointed out that since FMS data manager is going away at the end of this year, and since it is not accessible for us, they are going to include us in the Navigraph HUB. We will keep everyone up to date on this matter when something new comes around.

 

Fly by wire A320N support

 

A new development came out of visiting Fly by wire’s booth. After talking to

their head developer, we discovered that we could support the A320N and the A388 when it is released. This would require pilots to make use of a helper utility called sim bridge. It comes with the A320N and is the mode in which we would access the FMC. The Fly by wire SDK is complete and well documented. The only thing we are waiting on is access to the EFB. Without it, it is impossible to set your Sim Brief user ID and access settings.

 

Beyond ATC

 

The Beyond ATC booth had a few things in store for us as well. After talking to the lead developer about accessibility problems BVI pilots ad with ATC software in the past, he was interested in making Beyond ATC completely accessible for assistive technology. We will see what is in store for us when it is released.

 

Talking flight monitor presentation

 

Our presentation went better than expected. I don’t know the final count on attendance, but we had a few key people present. Among them were the Navigraph CEO with two other managers, some active-duty pilots, some retired pilots, and some interested hobbyists. You can access the presentations from expo by accessing your flight sim expo account or waiting until the no-share clause of our agreement is no longer valid. Once this done, anyone can watch them on YouTube for free.

 

Talking flight monitor’s 3rd anniversary event

 

Talking flight monitor is now three years hold! Happy birthday TFM! This year’s event will take us from George Bush International (KIAH) to Toronto (CYYZ) on September 2, 2023. This is the first Saturday in September. Everyone should start parking at KIAH between 11:30AM and 12:00PM EST. We hope to have everyone off the ground no later than 1:00PM EST. This is a Vatsim event, but is not required for those who don’t want to use Vatsim as their ATC. For those who want to watch the event streamed live, we will stream it live from our YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/@talkingflightmonitor).

 

Development down time

 

I am having surgery on August 2, 2023. There will be at least a week of down time for initial recovery, so there will be no development progress during this time. I will reevaluate my recovery progress after the first week to see if resuming work is possible. I will keep everyone updated on my progress. My problem is not serious or critical, so I will remain stable through the recovery time. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers – I hate general anesthetic!

 

 

Talking flight monitor updates

 

Now, on to Talking flight monitor updates. July has been busy, so not much in terms of development has happened. We do have a new jump to runway, jump to gate, and destination runway dialog available. We will cover jump to gate and destination runway. Jump to runway has no new features at this time.

 

Jump to gate

 

Jump to gate is a dialog where pilots can enter an airport code and get a list of gates and ramps available at the given airport. In the current release of Talking flight monitor, pilots have to sift through gates and ramps to find a suitable gate or ramp to park. In the new version, pilots have the ability to narrow down the list of interested gates or ramps, making it easier to find one to use.

 

Destination runway

 

Destination runway is a feature that gives pilots the ability to track ILS landings with heading and altitudes instead of percentages. In the current release, pilots enter their destination airport code, choose an ILS runway and press OK. When the ILS becomes active, Talking flight monitor will start reporting ILS tracking information in heading and altitude values. In the event the system crashes or restarts, pilots have to choose their destination runway once again. This could cause problems on descent or on final approach. In the new version, pilots still enter their destination airport code and choose an available runway. However, we expanded the list of runways to include ILS and LOC only approaches. New in the destination runway dialog is a checkbox allowing the pilot to save their current destination runway for future use. When checked, the system will save the chosen airport and runway. We also included a new key command ‘destination runway info’. To access this new feature, press right bracket (]), then the letter N on the keyboard. This will announce information about the current destination runway. Now, there are safety nets in place if the system crashes or the pilot is forced to restart.

 

We don’t have a release date for the new Talking flight monitor, but we will keep everyone updated as we make progress. We hope to see you in the next blog post. Happy flying, and if you need anything, send us a contact us form on the website.

 

PMDG 737 rebuild series week 9: TFM database, support options

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Welcome to week 9 of the PMDG 737 rebuild series. This week, we step away from building panels and focus on a much larger feature that TFM desperately needs: database support. I would also like to remind everyone of support options at the end of this post.

 

Database support

The following discussion on TFM’s new database support has nothing to do with Navigraph, which is a different feature from the below description. Read carefully before spreading the word.

TFM now has the ability to store data it generates in a database. We start by focusing on speech history. The new features include the following.

Brings 2 new settings to the output category. ‘Save output to a database’ and ‘Include timestamps in the speech history’. When checked, ‘save output to database’ will make use of a TFM generated database to store different information. When not checked, TFM will revert to its current behavior. The speech history size control in the output category in settings will not be available when using database support. When using database support, a new feature, ‘Include timestamps in speech history’ will become available. When checked, timestamps are included in the speech history found by pressing right bracket (]) then CTRL+S while TFM is running. When not checked, the speech history behaves the same as before with the exception that history is kept forever, and across restarts.

TFM automatically generates the database and everything it requires to use the new database features. The current location for the database is the user’s documents folder under Talking flight monitor/data/TFM.db. Manually deleting this file or folder structure will force TFM to regenerate the database on next restart. To stop regenerating the database after it is deleted, uncheck the ‘Save output to a database’ box in output category in TFM settings before deleting it and restarting TFM.

The new database support provides limitless possibilities in the future. With something simple such as speech history to something as complex as storing complete flights, landing rates, custom panel states, and more. The only limit is your imagination. This brings us to an important topic. TFM support and feedback channels.

 

 

Support and feedback

 

TFM has a few support and feedback channels available to users. With new users coming on board, joining different BVI communities, and the number of BVI pilot communities growing in number, it is impossible to reach everyone in person or on a Team Talk server. So, it is critical that new feature requests/feedback go through one or all of the following channels. We can no longer take feature requests, bug reports, and feedback by word of mouth.

 

Available support channels

 

 

Other options  will come available in the coming weeks. We would like to request users make use of the options above when requesting support. It goes a long way in speeding up fixes, implementations of features, and reviewing feedback.

 

state of PMDG 737 for Microsoft Flight Simulator

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Just wanted to drop a quick post here and let people know of the current status of TFM and support for the new PMDG 737 for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

As of now, PMDG has not yet released an SDK (software development kit) for the new PMDG 737. As a result, FSUIPC 7 has not been updated with any new offsets that might be required. Additionally, the existing offset block for the 737 is actually disabled in FSUIPC 7, since they weren’t needed until PMDG came out with their new aircraft.

We’re keeping an eye on the FSUIPC and PMDG forums and will have some more information once the new SDK comes out for the 737.

 

Introducing Talking flight monitor

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People have often wanted to know a little about us, and how Talking flight monitor (TFM) got its start. We will introduce ourselves and give a little background on TFM.

First, let us meet Jason, the founder of TFM. I have dabbled with coding all my life, ever since I learned Basic on the Apple 2E when I was a kid. Talking Flight Monitor started for me as a project to keep me sane during strict Covid lockdowns in Canada.

I have been interested in aviation for a long time. My first experience with flight simulation was with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 and an incredibly old product called FS Navigator. I had often thought that we could do much more with the flight simulation add-on infrastructure.

Next, let us meet Andy, TFM’s co-founder. Having graduated with honors and as a lifetime member of the Delta Mu Delta international honor society, my work embodies excellence and dedication. In my 16 years of experience, I have embraced leadership and innovation in accessibility and software and web development. Proficient in multiple programming languages and familiar with the government and nonprofit sectors, my project management and leadership roles have provided opportunities to advance inclusive design in transportation, information technology, and the gaming industry. I have always been interested in flying, especially when I had some sight. Unfortunately, I knew nothing about flying an airplane. Now that I am completely blind, the ability to fly in a simulator is impossible if it were not for TFM.

We created TFM out of frustration with other simulator addons which were limiting, inaccessible, and others which were discontinued. With these addons, workarounds were standard par for the course, requiring most BVI pilots to limit their flying capacity instead of enjoying a flight. Since its first official release almost two years ago, TFM has grown from a small Python app which monitored a few aircraft instruments to a .net based simulator addon that supports most freeware aircraft and the popular PMDG 737, 747, and 777 aircraft series. TFM now has over ninety keyboard shortcuts, monitors over one hundred aircraft instruments and systems, and provides a way to customize your flying experience. If you have any questions about getting started, feel free to fill out the contact form and one of us will get back with you.