Surveys

Preview 2024.1, updates, and spring feedback form results

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Welcome back to this week’s blog post. Last time, we played catch-up and let you know about the spring 2024 feedback form we posted. This week I want to cover a few things, so this post may be a little longer than normal. We are going to cover preview builds, Talking flight monitor updates, project priorities, project restructuring, a new partnership, and results from the spring 2024 feedback form. So, let’s get started!

Preview builds

It has been a little over a year since we posted a preview build. Since then, Talking flight monitor has been going through growing pains in the form of a complete conversion from dotnet 4.8 to dotnet 8.0. We also started converting the windows and dialogs in Talking flight monitor over to a newer, more accessible user interface library. The conversion is going well. However, many people have been anxious, wanting to know when the next preview would be posted. We then posted a poll late last week, asking whether or not we should bring back the preview builds before the conversion was complete. The pole indicated that 99.9% of the respondents wanted the preview builds to return, even if the conversion wasn’t complete. In response to this interest, we brought back the preview builds. Preview 2024.1.503 is available for downloaded, and can be found on this website under the preview releases link. Make sure you read the entire release notes before downloading and using. By using the preview builds, you agree that Talking flight monitor and all of its associates, developers, and partners aren’t responsible for damage caused by the preview. The preview will be released around the 15th of each month.

Updates

After the preview release, the only updates are that the PMDG 737 overhead/anti-ice panel and the main area of the overhead panel are complete.

Project priorities

The BVI pilots communities have been talking about Talking flight monitor project priorities over the past week or so. It has come to our attention that a projected feature, ‘flows and checklists’ be implemented as soon as possible. This is because many of the community members feel that they would lose access to a first officer feature (provided by another developer) if we don’t act fast. Our official position is that we need to finish the PMDG 737 panels before attempting to create flows and checklists for it. Among other things, we are in the middle of a conversion/restructuring project at this time and might find it difficult to respond to the request quickly.

Project restructuring and new partnership

While we go through the conversion process, we will also go through and implement a modular approach to Talking flight monitor development. This means that when portions of source code can be isolated from the rest of the codebase, it should then be isolated and packaged so it can be reused in other projects. Doing this will make the software faster and more reliable. It also gives users the ability to download components or modules they are interested in using. For example, why force everyone to download Talking flight monitor with PMDG 747/777 support when they will never use it? So, while we work through the conversion process and other items on the table, we will work on the modular design for the project. This modular redesign will not require a redesign of what is already finished or planned, so no worries there.
On the restructuring side of things, I recently started a software development company that focuses on supporting other software developers in their journey of becoming a professional software developer, student, or other professional in the field. It develops accessible software tools for those students/professionals so they can independently complete their work tasks. Inspiragon (my company) and Talking flight monitor agreed to a partnership. The terms of the agreement are Inspiragon will provide me at no cost as a three-quarter time contractor to work on Talking flight monitor. It will also cover Talking flight monitor’s development related expenses, if any, in exchange for revenue on paid addons. This also means that Talking flight monitor’s website will change throughout the rest of this year. Inspiragon will add a new feature request form, a new contact form, and potentially a new bug tracker. This way, there is no need to create an account on GitHub. Just fill out the form and submit it, and you are done. Now, coming out of this partnership is the requirement that Talking flight monitor develop paid addons to be sold on Inspiragon’s website. So, at some point in the future, we will start working on those paid addons. At this point, I don’t know much about the paid addons, other than they will be on a monthly or yearly subscription rate. When the time comes, we will release more details. You can visit Inspiragon’s website at www.inspiragon.com. At the time of writing, the website is nearly empty. It is just getting started. Bare with us as we go through growing pains together.

Spring 2024 feedback form results

In the spring 2024 feedback form, we got some interesting results. Some we were expecting, others were a surprise. To start, Most participants use P3D. However, most of them also voted for us to drop support for it. Next, everyone used payware aircraft and voted to consolidate features, preserve the state of the trim toggle, and convert the automatic detection of aircraft into a manual selection process. Finally, most of the participants voted to have the left and right bracket (command keys) separated from the TFM virtual keyboard while providing a way to turn them on and off without affecting the TFM keyboard. There may be follow up polls or feedback forms throughout the year to further narrow down the interest of the communities that use Talking flight monitor.
This has been a long post, so I will end it now. Keep watching YouTube for new videos, the website for new content, and the TFM communities for support in your flying adventures. Until next time…

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!

Fall 2022 survey results

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Each year, we put out a survey asking the blind simming community where TFM should focus its development efforts. The topics included in each survey are ones that have a significant impact on our time and resources or have no definitive answer through social media polling. After the survey has finished, we gather the results and publish them for the public to read. Sometimes we put out follow-up surveys to answer questions posed by the previous survey or new topics that are asked before the next fall survey is posted. The rest of this post has the results of the fall 2022 survey that ran for the month of November 2022. In the results of the survey, we will put priority on answers with a rating of 50% or higher. Questions where answers are listed from most voted on to least voted on, we will work on resolutions in the order listed. Thanks to everyone who took part in the fall 2022 survey. The survey results are below.

 

Do you have interest in a mobile app?

60% yes

40% no

 

What platform are you most likely to use?

85.7% IOS

57.1% Watch OS

42.9% Android

14.3% Mac

 

Should we invest in a mobile version of TFM, rank the TFM features that we should include in TFM mobile. Results are listed from most voted on to least voted on.

PMDG Panels

Flight Status

PMDG FMC

Ability to automatically announce changes in panel controls

Vatsim data

 

What PMDG aircraft should TFM focus on when support for the 737 is finished?

64.3% 747

35.7% 777

 

Should the 737, 747, and 777 include first officer type of features? This may include checklists, separation of work loads, and more.

73.3% yes

26.7% no

 

Choose the types of additional vatsim data TFM should include. Results are listed from most voted on to least voted on.

ATIS Information, Weather, runway usage patterns, frequency

Facilities, ratings for controlled locations

Pilot ratings, new supervisor, others

Prefiles, information on the prefiled flight plans

general, version, last updated, provider etc

Servers, information about the login servers

 

The Vatsim traffic tab of the nearby aircraft window includes the following columns. Rank them in the way you want them listed in TFM: Results are listed from most voted on to least voted on.

Callsign

Distance From

Rating

Altitude

Ground Speed

Heading

Bearing to

 

The Vatsim controllers tab of the nearby aircraft window includes the following columns. Rank them in the order you want them listed in TFM. Results are listed from most voted on to least voted on.

Callsign

Visible Range

Rating

Facility

Frequency

 

What forms of documentation do you have an interest?

60 % Text files in the TFM download

60 % A keypress within TFM

53.3 % YouTube videos

40 % A new website hosting the documentation

33.3 % Blog posts in a documentation category

26.7 % Microsoft Word Files

20 % Podcast episodes

6.7 % I don’t want documentation at all

 

How verbose should we make TFM documentation:

53.3 % Verbose

46.7 % Brief

 

What database feature should we focus on next?

86.7 % Flight tracker

13.3 % Landing Reports

 

Identify areas where the PMDG 737 FMC lacks. The following are points of interest taken from the short answers given.

It is too slow.

The cursor in the display test jumps around.

Not all FMC buttons have visible keyboard accelerators.

The FMC should be easier to use for new users.

The controls are visually confusing to look at.