August 2021 Major Update

The Flightline Beta 4.53 [0.4.53] Update, also known as the August 2021 Major Update was a major update to Flightline released on August 7th, 2021. It added the ability to spawn aircraft at Connerview, the Flight Plan Editor and associated Flight Director, and the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400. The update also included a variety of bug fixes, updates to physics simulation, framework for cockpit button interaction, a custom Level of Detail (LoD) script to improve performance. A further bug fix was released on August 14, 2021, as Flightline Beta 4.55 [0.4.55].

New Features and Bug Fixes

 * New aircraft: Bombardier Dash 8 Q400
 * Users can now create flight plans, which can be navigated by the autopilot
 * Flight plans will render on supported 3D cockpit displays
 * Flight director support has been added, providing visual feedback on the autopilot's control
 * Approach mode has been added, allowing the autopilot to navigate approaches
 * Switches have been added to the quick actions for both the flight director (FD) and flight plan navigation (NAV FPLN)
 * Approach mode can be enabled without a flight plan by configuring the ILS and switching on flight plan navigation
 * Vertical control of the autopilot now supports open climb/descent, flight path angle, and vertical speed modes
 * Lateral control of the autopilot now supports both track and heading modes
 * Control of the autothrottle now supports both N1 and speed modes
 * Groundwork has been laid for interaction with 3D cockpits
 * Instrument optimizations dramatically minimize the FPS-penalty of flying in 3D cockpit mode
 * Some 3D cockpit displays have been reworked for realism
 * The deviation indicators for the ILS have been changed on 3D cockpit displays to accompany the flight director
 * Desired altitude and desired speed will now display on the altitude and speed tapes
 * Runway markings (more specifically, touchdown zone markings) have been appropriately spaced
 * Some scenery objects have been redone to optimize for performance
 * Slightly adjusted the cloud sizes, and the amount that spawn within a given space
 * Rain now (partially) obeys the laws of physics
 * Manual management of world scenery objects (WLoD) has been added for better use of RAM
 * Users can now spawn aircraft at Connerview
 * The entire mass of the aircraft is now correctly applied
 * Removed linear behaviour of flap lift
 * Removed linear behaviour of spoiler drag
 * Engine rotation speeds now match their real-life values, and are no longer fixed
 * Support for variable propeller pitch is being tested on the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400
 * A prompt class has been added which will be used to beautifully ask you things
 * Fixed a glitch that prevented the randomization of wind directions
 * Fixed a glitch that caused random screeching of the wheels
 * Fixed a glitch that caused aircraft to spawn with oddly-placed landing gear
 * Fixed a glitch that caused a divide-by-0 error when calculating true airspeed
 * Fixed a glitch that prevented the autopilot from properly reaching its altitude when a low vertical speed was entered
 * Fixed a glitch that could prevent you from resetting your statistics and progress
 * Fixed a glitch that could soft-lock the game in situations where Roblox's services are unreachable
 * Fixed a glitch that could cause the cursor to go missing

Subject-To-Change Behaviour

 * When the NAV FPLN switch has been toggled on, an algorithm sets the waypoint to navigate to, and may not always be the one specified at the beginning of your flight plan
 * When the NAV FPLN switch has been toggled on after previously being off, the speed and/or altitude will not change if there is no such command at the set waypoint (that is, if the flight plan contains '||' at the set waypoint)
 * Approach mode will not switch from ARMED to MANAGED if your heading is not within 90 degrees of the runway's heading
 * The autopilot has the ability to navigate along the back course of the selected ILS if approach mode is enabled

Important Notices

 * The nose gear of the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 uses a different type of linkage, which may cause unexpected behaviour
 * The autopilot currently does not limit downward pitch, which may cause unexpected behaviour
 * If the end of your flight plan is an approach and the NAV FPLN switch is toggled on, approach mode will be automatically set to ARMED when it has been reached
 * If a flight path angle of 7 degrees or more is required to navigating the flight plan, the autopilot will switch to open climb/descent mode, where pitch is used to maintain speed instead of throttle
 * The throttle used during open climb/descent mode is either maximum in a climb, or 30% N1 in a descent
 * Although the range for detecting a jetway has been slightly increased, they may still not be detected in certain positions
 * The 2D displays for aircraft that do not have cockpit models, have not been updated yet

Changelog [0.4.55]

 * When the aircraft initially spawns, the set waypoint is now the one specified at the beginning of the flight plan, regardless of the spawn location
 * Users can now temporarily override the autopilot's set speed and altitude while in NAV mode by selecting the associated text field and pushing Enter
 * Autopilot and navigation code now executes at the same rate as that of the physics code
 * Fixed a glitch that could cause a logarithm-of-0 error while generating wind directions if the right conditions were met
 * Fixed a glitch that could lead to severe, exponentially-growing oscillations in altitude during glideslope capture
 * Fixed a glitch that could lead to severe throttle fluctuations while auto-throttle was engaged
 * Addressed an issue that causes format checks to randomly fail on packets sent for replication
 * Addressed an issue that causes the main menu music to begin playing unexpectedly