EC-135/Second Life Features
SECTION 8. SECOND LIFE FEATURES
Contents
1 HUD
When you first wear the HUD it will be dark and "disconnected" will be displayed to indicate the HUD has not connected to an aircraft. When you sit in either the pilot (right) or co-pilot (left) seat, the HUD will connect and light up. The top part of the HUD includes duplicates of the PFD, FLI and CAD displays. One of the displays will be shown full width, while the other two are displayed half-width. Clicking on a display will make that one the full-width display.
The bottom half of HUD includes the following:
- Sim Crossing Status - Small light in upper left corner that shows the sim crossing state. A green light indicates normal connectivity, while a yellow or red light indicates no connectivity. It is normal to see a yellow or red indication for one or two seconds during a sim crossing.
- Aircraft ID - Shows the tail number of the aircraft the HUD is connected to. "--" will be displayed when disconnected.
- HOBBS meter - Shows total time on your aircraft in hours and tenths of hours. Accumulates time only while engine is running.
- Collective - Collective controls the total thrust the helicopter is producing. Drag the red dot with the mouse to move the collective. You can also use the Up/Down arrow keys in HUD mode or PgUp/Down keys in Keyboard mode. The red dot will show current collective position regardless of which method you use to manipulate it.
- Cyclic - Cyclic controls the direction that thrust is directed. Drag the red dot with the mouse to move the cyclic. In cruise flight, turns should be performed primarily with cyclic, with the pedals used for trim.
- Anti-Torque - Anti-Torque (pedals) is used to control the tail rotor thrust. Use the mouse in the horizontal bar to set pedal position, or use the Left/Right arrow keys to control anti-torque. The pedals should be used for turns during hovering flight, and for trim using the inclinometer while in cruise flight.
2 MINI-HUD
In addition to the standard HUD, there is also an alternative "Mini HUD". The mini HUD is essentially the same as the lower portion of the main HUD.
3 FAILURE SYSTEM
The Shergood EC135 supports random or passive failures that can be turned on through the @Options menu using the "Failures" setting. There are five possible settings.
- N - No Failures - No random failures, and no progression of partial failures.
- P - Passive Only - Only failures caused by mishandling of the aircraft or progression of partial failures.
- L - Low Random - Passive failures plus 50% chance of failure per hour.
- M - Medium Random - Passive failures plus 50% chance of failure per 30 min.
- H - High Random - Passive failures plus 50% chance of failure per 5 min.
The types of failures that can occur are:
| Failure | Description | Possible Causes | Proper Response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine Fire | Engine catches fire and fails. | Overspeeding Engine | Engage fire suppression and shut down engine |
| FADEC | FADEC system fails resulting in inability to automatically control engine speed. | Random Only | Turn off FADEC and switch to manual mode. |
| PFD | Computer driving primary flight display fails resulting in loss of information on the display. | Starting engine with avionics powered | Use backup instruments or PFD for other pilot. |
| Main Transmission | Main transmission driving rotor from engine ceases to function. | Exceeding mast moment. Overspeeding. | Enter autorotation. |
| Tail Rotor | Tail rotor ceases to spin resulting in loss of anti-torque control | Random Only | Enter autorotation |
| Bus Short | Electrical short on one or both of the electrical buses. | Excessive electrical load | Bus tie on faulty bus should be opened to isolate it from the good bus. |
Failures can only be corrected when on the ground with the engines stopped by either clicking on the affected component (or on the avionics maintenance panel in front of pilot collective for electronic systems failures). Alternatively the "Repair" function from the @Cheat menu can be used to repair all failures.
Some failures types have symptoms that can be observed through a visual inspection. A tail rotor failure can be detected from oil dripping from the rotor, and a failed/burnt-out engine can be observed from the burn marks on the compressor blades.
4 SEATING ACCESS CONTROL
For the purpose of access control, there are three classes of seats : pilot, crew and passenger. The "crew" class includes all seats in the cabin other than the right-seat pilot. The base aircraft contains no passenger seats, but may control access in certain pod attachments to the helicopter. Each seat class can be separately set to restricted or guest. When a class is set to "restricted", only the owner or avatars who have been added to the registered crew list can use that class of seat.
The access controls are found in the @Admin menu which is accessible only by the owner. Each of the three class will be shown with a preceding "R" to show it is in restricted mode or "G" for guest mode. Also in the @Admin menu are buttons to Add, Remove and List registered crew members.
5 Menus
5.1 MAIN MENU
Menus are only available to the owner and registered or guest pilots of the aircraft. In general button options beginning with an "@" are sub-menus, and options beginning with "( )" or "(*)" are options that can be toggled. The buttons on the main menu are:
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
| Park/Unpark | Make the aircraft non-physical/physical. Normally this occurs automatically when you sit in the aircraft, but this option can be used to control this manually. |
| Eject | Select an occupant to eject |
| Safe Unsit | Slide avatar outside aircraft before unseating them. Useful when aircraft is physical. |
| @Options | Control various flight option settings. |
| @Get | Get various things include HUD and manual/help notecards |
| HUD Connect | Reestablish connectivity between helicopter and HUD if it becomes disconnected, or if you wear HUD while already seated. |
| @Admin | Access owner-only options |
| @Cheat | Displays the "Cheat" menu with options to bypass various procedures. See "CHEATS" below for more details. |
| @Realism | Enable or disable "realism" features of the aircraft flight characteristics. |
| @REGISTER | Access the aircraft registration menu. This button will only appear on the main menu if an N number had not yet been assigned. (aircraft must be parked/non-physical) |
5.2 ADMIN MENU
The admin menu contains options only available to the aircraft owner. Buttons/Options are:
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
| Recal. W&B | If you make any changes to the linkset, you should use this option to recalibrate the weight & balance for the scripts. |
| (?) Pilot | Set pilot seat to guest (G) or restricted (M) |
| (?) Crew | Set copilot seat to guest (G) or restricted (M) |
| (?) Passenger | Set passenger seats to guest (G) or restricted (M) |
| Add Crew | Add an authorized crew member. A maximum of 12 crew members can be registered. The crew member to be added should stand within 10m of aircraft to be recognized by the system. |
| Remove Crew | Remove a crew member from the authorized crew member list. |
| List Crew | List the authorized crew members. |
| @REGISTER | Assign or changer your aircraft's registration. See "N-NUMBER ASSIGNMENT" in Section 1 for more details. (aircraft must be parked/non-physical) |
| @Paint | Change the color/markings of your aircraft. See "PAINTKIT SYSTEM" below for more details. (aircraft must be parked/non-physical) |
5.3 PAINTKIT SYSTEM
The paintkit system allows you to change the appearance of your helicopter. It is accessed through the @Paint sub-menu found on the @Admin menu. On this menu there are several built-in colors, and a "Custom" button to load a paint set from a separate "paintkit" prim. For custom designs you can either use a paintkit from a 3rd party vendor, or load your own texture set into the paint kit that came with your helicopter. To apply a paintkit, simply rez the paintkit near your helicopter and select "*Custom" from the @Paint menu. The helicopter will search for nearby paintkits and allow you to choose which you want to apply. Instructions on how to create your own custom paintkits can be found in the paintkit object.
5.4 OPTIONS MENU
The options menu is accessed from the @Options button on the main menu and is available to any registered pilot.
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
| (?) Chat | If enabled, information chat messages will be displayed. If disabled, all informational chat messages will be suppressed. |
| (?) Controls | Select a control scheme. Control schemes are discussed in the CONTROLS section near the beginning of this document. |
| (?) Failures | Enabled/disable the random failure system. |
| (?) Fragile | If enabled, a crash will cause helicopter to burst into flames and become non-responsive. Resets after a set time (or until ELT is turned off). |
| (?) Copilot | Enable or disabled copilot controls |
| (?) Int-Menu | Disables access to menu from clicks on the internal surface of the window. |
| (?) Alerts | If enabled, alert messages about collisions or other unsafe conditions will be given. If disabled, no alert messages will be issued. |
| (?) Dust | If enabled, dust effects are produced when the aircraft is near the ground, water, or over a prim. |
5.5 CHEATS MENU
The cheats menu accessed from the @Cheat button on the main menu allows you to access functions to bypass several of the normal procedures.
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
| Charge Bat. | Charge the battery to full. |
| Fast Start/Stop | Use this button to start or stop your helicopter without going through the full procedure. You will still need to wait for the rotors to come to full speed when using Fast Start. |
| Repair | Repairs all accumulated damage and failures. |
| @Fuel | Accesses a sub-menu that lets you set the fuel level to a specific level. |
5.6 REALISM MENU
The realism menu lets you enable or disable some of the RL helicopter flight characteristics. The features that can be enabled/disabled are:
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
| Battery | If disabled, the battery will not run out. |
| Density | If enabled, density altitude will have an effect on aircraft performance. This comes in play when operating at high altitudes. At high altitudes hover height and climb rate will be reduced from their values at lower altitudes. |
| ETL | If enabled, additional lift/performance is gained when forward airspeed goes above about 20 knots due to the main rotors constantly moving into clean air. When disabled, the additional performance is always available. |
| Low RPM | When enabled, pulling excessive collective can result in decay of main rotor RPM. Decay can occur when the MP gauge is above red line. If this effect is disabled, rotor RPM will not decay when pulling collective beyond the red line on the MP gauge. |
| Torque | When enabled, torque effects from the main rotor will be experienced. Torque increases as collective is pulled and manifests as a right turning tendency. As a result, left pedal will need to be increased and maintained as collective is increased. |
| Vortex | When enabled, the helicopter can be subject to "vortex ring state" also known as "settling with power". This can occur when the helicopter is in a vertical descent of more than 300 feet/min with a forward speed of less than 30 knots while collective is at more than 50%. When vortex ring state occurs, the helicopter will experience a loss of lift and begin descending rapidly, even if additional collective is pulled. |
| Translate | If enabled, the effects and compensation for translating tendency are disabled. |
