Well, all things come to an end. And now it is the time for DA. There’s a lot of reasons behind this decision and I will give you a few of them at the end of this post.
So what’s going to happen? We will continue to work on our current projects (CRJ and the Fokker VC). However, we will do that without using our own brand, website and forums. Support will be moved to the Aerosoft forums (DA20, Cheyenne and CRJ) and the Flight1 forums (Fokker). Our website and forums are going to be set to read-only for good on April 15th. No forum registrations will be accepted after this point.
So, why are we doing this? First, all three of us have significantly less time available to do flight simulation stuff in our spare time. Florian became an airline pilot and has to spend much time in hotels away from his PC (developing on a notebook is no real alternative), Alexander transferred to a different department and has a much higher workload than before. I started my own company and that requires most of my time and energy. We had the choice between reducing our flight simulation work to nothing more than development itself or to stop it completely. We chose the first way because we didn’t want to waste all the time and money that went into the current unfinished projects.
We’d like to thank everybody who spent these past six years with us (the Katana was the first DA project, released on April 2nd, 2004). Never say never, so we might be back at some point if things change in our lives or one of the new flight simulator currently in development, make doing aircraft interesting and fun again
Goodbye!
Hans Hartmann
Alexander M. Metzger
Florian Praxmarer
Hans General
The Digital Aviation aviation team wishes all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2010.
We’d like to thank all of you for your help in the forums, bug reports and especially for your patience when things couldn’t be finished on time. Have a nice holiday season and see you all in 2010.
Your Digital Aviation Team
Hans General
Some time has passed since the last update on our CRJ project and again we had some changes in our team. Owen Hewitt and Nick Landolfi unfortunately had to leave the project due to personal reasons not related to the CRJ. They’re succeeded by Aerosoft’s Martin Schmieschek – though most of you might not know his name, a lot of you already own scenery and aircraft he worked on. The basic 3d aircraft and virtual cockpit models are already done and he’s working on details now. But don’t think it’s already almost done. It’s the details that require most of the time.
On the panel side of things, I’m happy to announce that I moved the FMC navigation data into a SQLite database. This improves both, stability and performance of the FMC code. When the CRJ is released, it’s going to contain a utility to transfer Navigraph’s Cheyenne/Fokker Navdata into the SQLite database.
Robin Bilgil sent me two new screenshots of the 2d cockpit for you to look at. I’d preferred to have them filled with some life, but work on the FMC kept me from doing this in the past few weeks.
Hans Aircraft, CRJ 700/900 CRJ, CRJ Development
Today, Florian has released a new beta version of Service Pack 2.1 for the Digital Aviation Fokker 70/100 product. This Service Pack introduces a change which became necessary due to changes of the inner workings of GDIplus in Windows 7.
Download links and a complete list of changes and fixes are available at our forums.
Hans Aircraft, Fokker 70/100
We just uploaded a fix for a problem with the virtual cabin/cockpit yoke in the Cheyenne IIXL 4.0 for FSX.
You can find the download and additional information here.
Hans Cheyenne
Finally! Aerosoft just released the Cheyenne Update to their customers. Customers at Simmarket will follow shortly. There will be no updates, only full versions, so please uninstall the Cheyenne from your PC, get the new version via your Aerosoft/Simmarket account and do a fresh installation.
You can find a list of additions, changes and fixes in this thread on our forums.
Please also note that we changed we use version number 4.0 instead of 2.0 because the FS9 versions already had numbers like 3.4. Version 4.0 is also we only version that will be supported in the future.
Hans Cheyenne Cheyenne SP2
It has taken time, and quite a lot of it, but now, Service Pack 2 for the Fokker 70/100 is finally complete.
You can find a detailed description of the bugfixes and new features of SP2 in our forum in English and German.
Service Pack 2 Download from Flight1 Software (~12.5 MB)
The download is an all-in-one package for all CD and download versions for FS2004 as well as FSX. Service Pack 1 is required before install.
A new full installation including SP2 is being prepared by Flight1 and will be available at some point next week.
florian Fokker 70/100 Fokker SP2
Good news! Final testing for the Fokker Service Pack is now finished and the date was sent to Flight1 so they can create an installer. We’re looking forward to a release next week.
florian Fokker 70/100, Uncategorized Fokker SP2
Today, we uploaded the release candidate for the Cheyenne 2.0 to our servers. Unless we stumble over some serious bugs in the next few days, it will be released the week after next. Everybody who’s interested can already download the release candidate from the public beta section of our forums: http://www.digital-aviation.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=6105&start=0
So, why 2.0?
There’s a simple but important reason for bumping the version number up to 2.0: Escape from version hell. We want a common version number for both, the FS2004 and FSX versions, and we’re perfectly sure that customers want this too. Aerosoft will also prepare new installers for this version so there’s no need to start at v1.00 and download tons of service packs to finally get the latest version.
There’s another reason for this. You might be aware that the navdata format introduced with the Cheyenne is in use with several other add-ons like the Flight1 Cessna Mustang and Super 80 products and of course our Fokker. As more and more developers are using this format, Navigraph and us decided to put the navdata in a more “neutral” location than the “Digital Aviation” folder. This location will be “<FS Folder>\Navigraph\NavData”. The Cessna Mustang already uses this folder, the Cheyenne and Fokker will start doing so starting with the release of the upcoming service packs.
So, the bump to 2.0 will help everybody to identify their version of the Cheyenne in order to get the correct navdata installer from the Navigraph site. (Note: the new path will be in the release version only, not in this release candidate!)
There’s a simple way to identify version 2.0: load the aircraft and watch the Trimble startup “screens”. If it says “SYSTEM CODE: DA02 c2009″ you got v2.0 
What will follow?
To be honest, the Cheyenne has pretty much reached the end of its development cycle. This means there won’t be any more service packs unless it’s about real show stoppers. It’s CRJ time now and after that we certainly will have to start thinking about other simulation platforms and perhaps there will be a new version of the Cheyenne when a successor for FS (whoever might do that) finally hits the shelves.
Hans
Hans Cheyenne Cheyenne SP2
Service Pack 2 (Fokker Version 1.0.2):
SP2 took us a week longer to finish because we completely reprogrammed the MCC (Multicrew Coordination) network driver, which wasn’t planned initially. The upside is that this saves us from having to do another separate update later on. SP2 work is finished now and we start a final series of tests until Tuesday 19th and then send the update to Flight1 so they can build the setup routine.
Virtual Cockpit News:
We had some nice progress on the virtual cockpit last week and are working on the animation code right now. Glare shield, glass displays and standby instruments are already complete. Although implementation progresses quickly, we can’t give a time line yet.
Florian
Hans Fokker 70/100 Fokker SP2
