Hot Start Challenger 650:

Quick Points

  • Take-off calls by both crew are based on the Speed entries from the CDU.
  • FLCH and Climb Thrust selection during initial climb.
  • Localiser and Glide Slope Calls if the APPR mode is armed.
  • Landing reverse calls
  • 1'000 ft to go on altitude captures.
  • FO can now pre-flight the aircraft if selected in the settings.

Aircraft Settings

The aircraft settings window can be accessed via two methods.
1. Hidden click spot in the title of the Status HUD
2. Via the X-Plane menu bar system by navigating:

Plugins > FlyWithLua > FlyWithLua Macros > CrewPack XP Settings


Settings

  1. 'Master Switch' - disables CrewPackXP for the loaded aircraft.
  2. Once the script has been initialised, a short and very tacky sound bite will play as confirmation.
  3. Dropdown menu to select between Starting Number 1 or Starting Left Engine format for the voice call associated with engine start.
  4. Enables the Localiser Alive and Glideslope Alive calls from the First Officer.
  5. Automatically selects FLCH during take-off through 400 ft.
  6. The First Officer will automatically perform the pre-flight scan flow once the script has been initialised.
  7. Volume slider to control the cockpit crew callouts

Status HUD

The status HUD is located on the left side of the screen by default. It will auto-hide when the mouse is not in the vicinity of the HUD.

Status

  1. Title of the loaded aircraft script and version number. Doubles as a hidden click spot to open the aircraft settings.
  2. Trigger point to run the First Officer Pre-flight setup routine.
  3. Trigger point to run the First Officer Securing Checklist.
  4. The status bar indicates if the TO Callout mode is armed and the current detected Vspeeds.

If the status HUD is moused over during initialisation, it will indicate how long until CrewPackXP is useable.

Status_Init

Once the Beacon is turned on, the FO commands will become inoperable.

Status_Beacon

Moving the Status HUD

The position of the Status HUD cannot be adjusted within the X-Plane environment. It can, however, be adjusted within each aircraft script's code.

To adjust the code, open the CrewPackXP_HS650.lua file with a text editor and look for the following section on lines 35-37.

35   -- Settings Window Position
36   local intHudXStart = 15
37   local intHudYStart = 475

The intHudXStart variable controls the position of the HUD horizontally on the screen in pixels. 0 is the far left of the screen.
The intHudYStart variable controls the position of the HUD vertically on the screen in pixels. 0 is at the bottom of the screen.

Example

If another X-Plane plugin is occupying the same space and you wish to move the HUD further up the screen:

  • intHudXStart can remain the same at 15.
  • intHudYStart can be increased to a higher value. With a monitor resolution of 2560 x 1440, the top of the screen would be 1440 pixels. So the current 475 can be changed to 1200 to keep it from overlapping with the X-Plane internal menu.

The code would be adjusted to:

35   -- Settings Window Position
36   local intHudXStart = 15
37   local intHudYStart = 1200

Event Triggers

First Officer Pre-Flight

The First Officer pre-flight scan flow can be called from either the Status HUD or automatically via the aircraft settings.

preflight

The First Officer will attempt the following:

  • Remove Main gear Chocks
  • Remove pitot and AOA covers
  • Open the cabin door
  • Open the cabin window blinds
  • Moves the Captains HUD into the stowed position
  • Lowers both control columns
  • Establish electrical power on the aircraft with APU
  • Set Hydraulics to Auto
  • Set ECS
  • Bring all 3 CDUs to the STATUS page
  • Turn on Cockpit and Cabin lighting

First Officer Securing Checks

The First Officer secure checks can only be called from the Status HUD. The First Officer will only complete these actions provided the beacon is off, and both engines N2 is below 5%. Whilst running the checks, there will be a moment where the First Officer will pause and await the APU to shut down before completely powering down the aircraft.

The First Officer will attempt to secure the following:

  • Emergency Lights.
  • AC/DC Utility Switch.
  • Thrust Reversers.
  • Hydraulics.
  • ECS.
  • Power.
  • Close all blinds.
  • Chock the aircraft, install the covers and gear pins.
  • Close the main door.

Cockpit Callouts

All crew callouts have a time-based callout logic to prevent two simultaneous callouts. Occasionally this may result in the second callout being slightly delayed. For example: "V1, Rotate" may blend into a single continuous callout, which will cause "Rotate" specifically to lag the actual speed.

Arming Take-off Mode

In order to suppress unwanted callouts, CrewPackXP will attempt to determine if the aircraft thrust reference is in a take-off mode. Presently only the full TO N1 mode provides a dataref that CrewPackXP can read. Once it has been triggered, CrewPackXP will remain in Take-off mode until the completion of the take-off phase.

The method to engage Take-off Mode is as follows:

1) Complete the FMS PERF INIT to derive the TO N1 setting in the THRUST LIMIT page
N1

2) Press the TOGA Buttons on the side of the power levers to bring the ATS into N1 TO.
This is the trigger mode CrewPackXP can read.
TOGA ATS

At this point the Status HUD should show TO Mode is: Armed with nil speeds. If performing a full thrust take-off, continue to step 4.

3) To continue into Flex mode, proceed to page 2 of THRUST LIMIT and enter the required details. Select the line select key to activate FLEX
FLEX

The Status HUD should remain in the TO Mode is: Armed state.

4) Enter the TAKEOFF REF page to send the Vpseeds. CrewPackXP will capture the speeds at this point.
speeds

CrewPackXP will attempt to read the N1 value and speeds from the CDU screen and store these in case they are accidentally deleted. This will be accomplished by temporarily taking over CDU 3 (most rearward on pedestal panel) during the take-off procedure.

Take-off

During take-off the following events can be expected:

Trigger Callout Crew Acknowledgement
N1 increases above 60% "Set Thrust" -
N1 reaches target min 85% - "Thrust Set"
Passing 80 kts "80 Knotts" "Checked"
V1 +/- 3 kts "Vee One" -
Vr +/- 3 kts "Rotate" -
V2 +/- 3 kts "Vee Two" -
VSI above 50ft/min and above 30ft AGL "Positive Rate" -
Passing 400 ft "Speed Mode" Selects FLCH
Passing 1,000 ft "Set Climb Thrust" Selects climb thrust in CDU 3

Aircraft Configuration

Flaps

Callouts are provided for all stages of flap selection.
The callout will occur after the flap lever has been in a new flap position detent for 1 second.
Flap callouts are inhibited on the ground.

Gear

Callouts are provided for gear selection. This is triggered when the gear handle is moved into either the up or down position.

The PNF will confirm when the Gear cycle has been completed by stating Gear Up \ Down Indicated.

The gear movement is also responsible for resetting the landing callouts. A complete Gear Up and back Down is required for each flight.

1000 ft to Assigned Altitude

The PNF will announce Thousand to Go whenever the altitude of the aircraft is passing through 1,000 ft of the selected altitude on the autopilot mode control panel.

Localiser and Glide Slope

Callouts will be made once there is movement detected on the CDI for both localiser and glideslope indications. The glide slope callout cannot be made until after the localiser callout. Both are reset once the aircraft moves beyond 2.5 degrees of the selected course, which is full-scale deflection on the CDI.

In order to minimize nuisance callouts, the Localiser and Glide Slope callouts are only armed whenever the aircraft autopilot is in approach mode. Hand flown raw data approaches will not receive this callout.

Landing Callouts

The callouts on landing are inhibited until after a gear cycle has been completed. i.e., the gear has been selected up and reselected back down.

The following callouts can be expected:

Trigger Callout Acknowledgement
Reverse thrust selected and engaged "Two Greens" -
Reverse thrust selected, and either engine remains in forward thrust "Reverse Unsafe" -

Final Thoughts

A final acknowledgement for the inspiration on the tacky audio bytes that are contained within the Challenger experience.
- Zibo Mod: General inspiration to attempt such a feat with my crappy coding skills.
- Airplane: You should never stop in the red zone, which is for loading and unloading only.
- 'Turbz': Who always reminds my friend group that something is made of itself.