FGFS User Documentation

The FlightGear Manual

This is designed to be "The Manual that comes with the Software." The PDF version is intended to be viewed or printed and has a very professional look. The html version is a quick conversion and may not be as nice in some respects as the pdf version.

• Download "The FlightGear Manual" (pdf)
• View "The FlightGear Manual" (html)

FlightGear Quick Reference Guide

• FlightGear Short Reference (Adobe PDF)
• FlightGear Short Reference (html)

Additional Documentation

• FlightGear FAQ
• Mini-HOWTO: 3D Aircraft Models in FlightGear
• Mini-HOWTO: Configuring Views in FlightGear
• FlightGear Wiki User Documentation

FGFS Tutorials

Additional tutorials are always welcome. FlightGear has a zillion features that aren't immediately obvious. Tutorials can be a great way to point out some of the more subtle features and details of FlightGear.

• A basic flying tutorial using FlightGear.
• A Circuit in FlightGear uses over 20 screenshots to show how to fly the FlightGear Cessna 172 smoothly by concentrating on attitudes.
• FlightGear Flight School - A tutorial to walk you through the basics of flying an aircraft (set in the context of simulating all the procedures with FlightGear.)
• Envoyez-vous en l'air ! - A FlightGear tutorial in French.
• Building FlightGear with the free Cygwin compiler under Windows. Very detailed and well done. HTML Version. PDF Version.

FGFS Papers and Presentations

Several papers have been published that center on or at least reference FlightGear. As we can provide copies or links, I will add them here:

• Here is a paper and handout presented at UseLinux 2004 by Alex Perry.
  The Paper.
  The Handout.
• Here are two papers presented at the European Space Agency ASTRA conference 2002 (ASTRA = Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation.)
  Landmark Recognition for Localization and Navigation of Aerial Vehicles
  Determination of Planetary Meteorology from Aerobot Flight Sensors
• FlightGear was presented at the May 7, 2002 LUGOD meeting in Davis, CA. You can view the meeting minutes. You can also view a collections of photos from the presentation. Also available are the presentation slides.
• AIAA 2002-0817 - Icing Encounter Flight Simulator - Written by Bipin Sehgal, Robert Deters, and Michael Selig.
• The FlightGear Flight Simulator History, Status and Future - [html] [pdf] - slides from Alex Perry's talk at LinuxTag 2001
• FlightGear visual scenery - [html] [pdf] - the slides from Alex Perry's talk at UKUUG Linux 2001 - Linux Developers' Conference
• Using PCs in Flight Simulation Research - Presented at a flight simulation conference, May 24 - 25, 2001. Moscow, Russia.
• Flight Gear - The Flight Simulator for free? - Written by Michael Basler, 1998.
• Flight Gear - noch (k)ein neuer Flugsimulator - Written by Michael Basler, 1997. Comment: This gives a really interesting historical perspective on how far this project has come since the early days.
  A nicely done human translation to english. (Rough Babel Fish translation to english)

FGFS Development Docs

Here is a collection of documentation which attempts to describe the development side of Flight Gear.

Airport / Nav Aids

• Robin Peel's AirNav format specification.

Autopilot

• FlightGear's Configurable Autopilot System.
• [ old ] Altitude Hold Module
• [ old ] Heading Hold Module

Flight Model

• Notes on/Summary of LaRCsim code
• Description of all the LaRCsim public variables
• The Official LaRCsim manual (postscript file)

Portability

• Portability guide - notes to developers.

Scenery

• FG Internal Coordinate Systems for Scenery
• Stars
• The Sky Dome (sky to haze blending, and dusk/dawn effects)
• Scenery Generation for Flight Gear (A brief overview)

Time

• The Periodic Event Scheduler

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