IOS Features - FS-FlightControl
The features and functionality that are supported by IOS are extensive, however, bear in mind that the instructor station has been designed to operate across different simulator platforms and avionics suites; not every feature may operate with the intended avionics suite. For example, flight plans can be generated and sent to FSX in the standard .pln format, but they cannot be send directly to ProSim-AR in the correct format (as at the time of writing).
I have purposely not duplicated what has already been written on the FS-FlightControl website. The website provides a well detailed description of the features and functionality of the software and includes numerous screen shots.
Broadly speaking, IOS has been developed around 12 main modules. Like-minded themes have been grouped into whatever module is specific to the subject. If the information exceeds what can be displayed on one page, then one or more sub-pages (sub-tabs) are provided. There is a gamut of features
Main Modules
Position: Aircraft re-position, runway preference, aircraft scenario, approach presets, airport selection and re-position options.
Map: Street map, satellite map and height map. Navaids, AI aircraft, weather, aircraft location, compass and route/flight plan overlay.
Flight Planing: Route and flight plan generation with load tool. Importing and exporting of data with flight plan generated onto roving MAP.
Conditions: Environmental conditions relating to weather (artificial and real-time), visibility (CAT presets), winds, clouds, precipitation, altitude levels, barometric pressure, presets, time and season, accelerated time, and user-generated conditions. This section is very detailed and is examined in several sub-tabs. Many of the presets are as easy as clicking a button on the screen. For example, ILS visibility conditions can be generated by clicking one of the CAT buttons (CAT I, II, III, IIIa/b/c).
Push back: Graphical interface enabling push back of aircraft at any angle and distance.
Fuel/Load: Fuel volume, passenger, crew and cargo weights, aircraft weights (ZFW), center of gravity (%CG) and load tool.
View/Slew: Alters external camera views of aircraft and enables the slewing of aircraft.
Failures: Aircraft system failure conditions that can be triggered immediately, at pre-defined times, or at random.
Statistics: Approach statistics - Graphical representation of aircraft in relation to vertical and lateral position, aircraft position, ground altitude, vertical speed, pitch, and bank angle. Results can be exported to Google Earth for further analysis.
Network: Module to control all computers and software within your simulation network (server and any number of client computers).
Aircraft: Selectable list of aircraft options re: altitude, speed, direction, radios, TCAS alert status, engine parameter outputs, throttle outputs, autopilot, light and switches, etc.
Settings: Customization of all aircraft, map, and program parameters: colours, fonts, map layouts, etc. Additionally, other variables can be customised such as CAT visibilities and decision heights.
Favoured Features
I’ll be honest, the more I use IOS the more I enjoy my simulation experience. At the very least, IOS provides a reliable way to store various approach scenarios to numerous airports at different times, seasons and weather conditions. Granted, that this can be done from the flight simulator menu, however, it cannot be done as cleanly nor as quickly as it can from the IOS module.
Although I do not use all the features available in the program, there are several that I continually use. It is these I will discuss in further detail.
POSITION: Position refers to the position of the aircraft whether it be on the ground or in the air. IOS enables the user to select from several ground positions such as the gate, runway, terminal, base approach, straight-in approach, etc. A click of the mouse will position your aircraft to any of several preset locations.
I find this to be a very good time saver, especially if you do not want to simulate a long taxi or some other part of the flight but wish to concentrate only on one aspect – such as the approach phase. In addition to various presets, this page also allows customized approaches to be generated and saved.
Another aspect of this page deserves mention; the ability to select a chosen aircraft livery, parameter list (fuel state, trim, radio frequencies, etc) and save this to custom-named 'slot'. This is another time-saving feature and easy method to choose a pre-saved livery of an aircraft type.
STATISTICS: For those who fly by the numbers and want to improve their approach techniques, the statistics section provides a graphical interface that records the vertical and lateral deviation of the approach. It also records airspeed, vertical speed and several other characteristics.
CONDITIONS: Conditions broadly refers to environmental and weather conditions at the airport selected, or at various pre-selected waypoints or weather stations. Changing weather conditions, visibility, season and time is as easy as clicking a button.
This page is exceptionally feature-rich and the instructor station can generate live weather, weather from an imported METAR string or any number of pre-saved weather themes. For those interested in setting up specific weather events, for flight training, it is very easy to do so.