iPhone

X-Plane for iPhone and iPodTouch

Hi Everybody!

This is the central-point for X-Plane for iPhone! X-Plane for iPhone is only $9.99, so grab it today

X-Plane for iPhone is a fun little 'slice' of X-Plane that is just the right size to fit on the cool little platform that is the iPhone and iPodTouch. We actually managed to get about 95% of the flight-model accuracy, many of the weather, sky conditions, and times of day, the default flight area, and 4 cool planes into this little sim, so you can fly around in the virtual skies when actually stuck back in seat 23-D, wishing you were flying instead!

We have just had our fourth free update, with more planned! We are also spinning off airliner and helicopter versions, with more spinoffs planned as well! As we update the graphics, flight, and interface technology, we will be periodically updating ALL the various little 'flavors' of X-Plane for iPhone with that new technology, so much much more is still in the wings! For example, we optimized the RAM and frame-rate for the airliner version, and those changes have been released in a standard X-Plane free-update as well. We may also import the advanced EFIS instrumentation from the airliner version to the regular version, and 2 more planes are planned for the regular version as well! Our mission is to have most the fun and power of the full desktop version available in the iPhone... though for the iPhone, it will obviously have to be broken into maybe half a dozen little $10 'pieces', since the iPhone does NOT have the RAM and screen real-estate to do everything at once! By pricing at only $10, though, we can give pretty amazing value by giving cool little 'pieces' of desktop X-Plane for very tiny prices!

FREE-UPGRADE HISTORY: (SO FAR!)

Free update 9.10, the TENTH free update to X-Plane, is here now!

Improved Rendering: Stars at night. Kind of nice.
Better water rendering.
Better mouse-response on the map and window scaling, translating, zooming, etc.
The multi-touch on the maps is really nicer now.
If you fly off the edge of a level, you now wrap around the other side, on all X-Plane apps... this is especially useful for EXTREME, where you cover ground really, really fast.
Frame-rate optimizations.
Final-Approach buttons should always work well... there were a few hilly-terrain cases that started you off a bit low, but those should be addressed.

Free update 9.08, the EIGHTH free update to X-Plane, is here now!

NOW WITH MUTLIPLAYER! SEE THE RIGHT-MOST TAB IN THE SETTINGS MENU!

NEW FLIGHT MODEL ADDITIONS:

As requested: An AUTOPILOT on the glass-panel planes!
Turn it ON to lock your ROLL AND PITCH.
Hit HDG to hold current HEADING... Hit it AGAIN to go BACK to holding ROLL!
Hit ALT to hold current ALTITUDE... Hit it AGAIN to go BACK to holding PITCH!
All of this is exactly like the Garmin 1000 GFC-700 autopilot in my Columbia-400.
As well, hit the AUTO-THROTTLE button to hold your current AIRSPEED by adjusting throttle.

As we get multiplayer and racing going on, the following becomes important:
If you hit another plane in flight, the result is... interesting.

NEW SCENERY AND SOUND ENHANCEMENTS:

New data presented for the other guy: Gear, flaps, stabilizer trim, wing sweep,
flight-control deflections, speedbrakes, rotor-disc angle for the helos,
afterburners and afterburners-angles for the jets: The works!
This stuff is visible in the AI plane you fly against in RACING and EXTREME, and the multiplayer
friend you are racing against in RACING, or flying with in all other flavors of X-Plane!

New skidding and touch-down sounds!
Touch-down skid is even realistic, tracking the moment of inertia of the wheel, tire friction with the runway, and touchdown force!
In the REAL plane, a HARD landing just give you the sound of a hard THUMP, but a really SOFT landing gives a long
Squeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaakkk of the wheels as the slowly spin up to speed due to the low load on the tires to spin them up!
X-Plane for iPhone simulates all of this accurately!
This is NO GAME: The physics are are REAL!
Can you touch down smooth enough to get a nice long squeeeeaaaakkk on touch-down?
I can!

NEW FLIGHT INTERFACE:

You now have a pointer to the other guy on your HUD, right around your compass-rose.
This is kind of convenient if you get separated from the AI, or want to find your friend in multiplayer-flights!

NEW GENERAL INTERFACE ENHANCEMENTS:

'Final Approach' buttons are now available for all starting locations, as per common request.

Compass rose on the map to see your map heading... kind of nice as you rotate it.
Remember: Drag the map with 2 fingers to control it!

MINOR ENHANCEMENTS:

Frame-rate improvement! We are working amazingly hard to squeeze out every last percent of the performance this thing has! Our iPods become quite hot when we run X-Plane on them, if that is any indication of what is going on here!

Minor tweaks and refinements to various aircraft to make them a hair more realistic.

Free update 9.07, the SEVENTH free update to X-Plane, is here now!

New instrument panel type for ALL X-Plane flavors.
This new instrument panel is the 'Heavy' mechanical type, for planes like the King-Air, MD-88, and the like.
This panel is also used in the B-1 Bomber in X-Plane EXTREME.
So we now have THREE instrument panel types: General Aviation standard, Heavy Standard, and EFIS.

New flying regions for ALL flavors of X-Plane, with new refinements in the appearance of many scenery areas.
We now have desert, forest, midwest, snowy, Southern-Californian, and other scenery texture-sets for scenery
in Florida, Alaska, Swiss Alps, deserts of the Southwest more.

We now have landing, taxi, navigation, strobe, and beacon lights on the planes, where appropriate.
This makes them look kind of nice, and makes the planes visible from far away.
This is especially nice for X-Plane EXTREME, where the other B-1's, B-2's SR-71's, and F-22's can get away from you pretty quick.

The pause button stays lit now when paused, and pauses the SOUND as well, which is kind of convenient

The helos should be a hair easier to manage in the Helicopter version as we refine the flight-model a bit more.

Countless general enhancements from user-feedback: Refinements in sound, graphics, flight-model, and interface.
We are now really starting to load up with planes, OTHER planes to chase (in the Extreme version now, soon to
come to the other flavors as well), scenery areas, and instrument panels. X-Plane for iPhone is starting to become
a pretty 'deep' application, with lots more to explore in each update.

9.06, the SIXTH free update for X-Plane for iPhone, is here now!

New stuff:
MULTIPLE FLYING REGIONS! These were the number-one requests from customers: More planes and more scenery, and now we have them!
X-Plane-9 and X-Plane Airliner have BOTH gotten more PLANES added (as free-update 9.05) and now we are adding more FLYING AREAS AS WELL for this free-update 9.06.
In the Settings menu, you can select varied flying regions such as San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Southern California, the Grand Canyon, Catalina Island, and Hawaii
in the various X-Plane flavors! (Regular, Airline, Helicopter). We are now OVER a total of ONE THOUSAND airports, NAVAIDS,
airplanes, and maps across the four flavors of X-Plane, distributed SO FAR as a total of 3 new products and 10 free updates for a total of under $19.99.

Better scenery! We have tuned the textures and graphics technology as well! The scenery should look quite a bit more fascinating and varied and real in all apps!
So now we have not only MANY DIFFERENT flying areas, but each one looks much better and more realistic as well... and of course more is still to come!

Better Frame-Rate! The frame-rate for 9.06 is a decent bit better than it was for 9.05 thanks to careful tuning of the scenery.

As we move into the SIXTH free update for X-Plane, and SECOND free update for X-Plane Airliner and Helicopter, we are getting into a power and variety
of flight simulator that is starting to rival DESKTOP products... for $9.99 or less on your IPHONE.

This is simply stunning technology and power... more than I could have imagined possible, and, of course, we are not done yet! MORE free updates and products
are to come as we continue to improve our technology to use every last bit of iPhone performance.

Considerably better flight model!
We have also improved the accuracy of the drag-modeling of the fuselage, making the cruise, deceleration, and glide performance much more accurate.

All-new EFIS, as recommended by an airline pilot that uses X-Plane airliner for iPhone to practice for his 6-month checks in the multi-million dollar big sims!
This new EFIS is applied to ALL X-Plane apps!
X-Plane for iPhone is now moving into the same territory as the desktop: Pilots are now using it for keeping up their skills to fly more safely in the real thing.
This is especially funny because airline pilots take flight-checks every 6 months in 10-million dollar full-motion flight-simulators...
and are now starting to sit in the lobby of the flight-training buildings where these sims are housed practicing on their IPHONE to be more brushed-up for the check!
Har!

The HELICOPTER version now has new sounds, as well, and more accurate auto-rotation performance thanks to an improved engine governor.

We now have a PAUSE button, because people asked for it.

As we move forwards, we will come out with MORE flavors of X-Plane (priced at $9.99 so anyone can afford them) and release even MORE free upgrades
as we continue to improve our technology... and what is REALLY amazing is that as we develop new technology for ONE simulator (such as the new
EFIS system recommended by a real airline pilot for Airliner, or the new thrust and flight-control systems we are working on for another product) we will distribute
this technology to ALL the flavors of X-Plane as free updates (as we are doing for 9.06 for ALL flavors of X-Plane today) so that each version of X-Plane
benefits from the new technology of the others. At the end of the day, we have the most powerful line of products for iPhone, I am quite sure.

X-Plane 9.05 is here now! YOU SHOULD GRAB IT FOR SURE!

Two new planes added in this update: Piper Malibu and Beech King-Air!

The Malibu is pretty speedy with it's low drag, but very slow to accelerate with
it's small prop, high weight, and modest power.

The King-Air is an easier plane to fly in a sense, with it's very generous power
supply and twin large propellers. The King-Air is typically considered one of the safest,
most versatile and powerful planes around that will always get you out of any jam you get into.

As well, we have new EFIS instrument panels for some of the planes!
This is technology that we imported from X-Plane airliner.

X-Plane 9.04 is here now! YOU SHOULD GRAB IT FOR SURE!
This is a the fourth free update, with plenty of improvements!

->Improved flight model accuracy:
The thrust and drag-modeling of the planes is now more accurate.

->Improved instrumentation:
The Turn-Coordinator is now improved to show standard-rate-turn markings.
ILS's are now more accurate... We now have our magnetic variation and magnetic and true headings all right on tne money.... this is avaition training-grade software on the iPhone!

->Improved Interface:
We have a slightly higher-contrast interface... This is a bit easier to read in very bright-light conditions, as we sometimes have in the cockpit of real airplanes. (Where many people play with X-Plane for iPhone!)

->Improved control of each flight: Enter a weight and balance for the plane any time you like and the settings are preserved until you change them again or load a new plane... They are not reset whenever you change locations any more.

->Improved rendering:
The props blend better graphicaly now, not interfering with the clouds.
We have a new runway texture that looks more realistic... much nicer.

->Improved map:
Airport ID's are now displayed on the map... kind of convenient.

->Reduced memory-useage:
We have tuned X-Plane to use less RAM! Now, you should not need to re-start the phone to avoid out-of-memory auto-exits.

With these improvements, X-Plane is now more accurate, better-looking, and uses less RAM as well so it should be able to run even if you do not restart your phone before use!

As well, all of these improvements have been loaded into X-Plane-Helicopter and X-Plane-Airliner!

X-Plane 9.03 is here now! This is another free update, and has a number of cool improvements over 9.02!
I keep giving out free updates to a $9.99 program because.. umm.. I want to!
Here's what's new for 9.03:

FULL INSTRUMENT PANEL, complete with VOR and ILS navigation!

You can now hit the INSTRUMENT PANEL view and see the standard instrumentation identical to what is found in many real airplanes. Drag the panel up and you can even see radio freq selectors at the bottom of the panel where you can dial in VOR and ILS freqs to shoot actual VOR and ILS approaches! (The frequencies are listed on the MAP in the standard settings menu).

You can now shoot ILS and VOR full IFR approaches on your PHONE, with full-screen instrument panels responding to the tilt of the phone. That is flight-training on your PHONE. Is THAT enough power for us? ;-)

X-Plane 9.02 is here now! This is another free update, and has a number of cool improvements over 9.01!
Here's what's new that you asked for, and get in 9.02:

More airports!
There are 3 of them now, and the little RMI at the bottom of the HUD points to the closest one.

Map! It's in the location screen now.
Drag it around... with BOTH fingers!
Pull your fingers apart and push them together! Swizzle them around! Watch what the map does!
WHY control the map this way? BECAUSE IT'S FUN!

The planes now have much nicer-looking propellers.

Lateral accelerometer calibration as well as vertical! It's in the SET menu.
Why? Because some guy emailed me a video of his iPhone sitting on a carpenter's level, with the cirrus-jet slowly banking to the right!
I had to admit a lateral accelerometer calibration was needed!

Some little scenery and frame-rate improvements! Kind of nice!

X-Plane 9.01 is a free update, and has a number of cool improvements over 9.00:

25% frame-rate improvement! I REALLY like the increased fluidity of the sim in 9.01 thanks to this increase.

Calibration screen for phone tilt! One guy writing a review at the AppStore said he likes to fly on the couch, and wants VERTICAL to represent neutral-elevator: Fly on, couch-dude! Just go to the SETTINGS tab in the interface and set any phone angle as neutral! Now you can relax in bed or on the couch, with vertical being the reference-point for neutral-elevator, or sit up holding the phone in your lap with HORIZONTAL being the reference-point for neutral elevator, or anything in between! Set the center-point as you see fit!

Higher-contrast interface! One person said his eyes are a little weaker these days, so we contrasted the interface a bit more to make it easier for all to see! I managed to do this without making the interface look too harsh, I think.

Power and flaps set for you on the final approach selections. One guy writing a review at the AppStore was rather paniced that he had to move his thumbs 1/4" to set the power and flaps on final.. oops! So, X-Plane now sets 25% power and flaps automatically when you set yourself up in flight, to be more closely configured for your landing! Kind of convenient.

The interface screens are organized a bit differently... much better I think. This lets volume-control and neutral-elevator control be in their own system-config screen, with a different screen dedicated to setting your location! Kind of nicer organization.

Now for some INSTRUCTIONS!

People keep asking me for some INSTRUCTIONS for running the iPhone version of X-Plane, and a lot of these people are NOT pilots, I think, so here we go with the basics!

THE TAKEOFF

First of all, tap the BRAKES on the lower-left to turn the brakes off. Drag the FLAPS, on the RIGHT side of the screen, down to about 1/3 or 1/2 of the way down to get ready to take off. This will partially-lower the flaps to give you more lift to get you in the air more quickly. (We do NOT put them ALL the way down because they would add too much drag). Then drag the throttle (on the left) all the way to the top. This will give you full power. Tilt the phone left and right to steer down the runway, holding the phone at about a 45-degree pitch (neutral-elevator). When you get to about 80 knots or so (the scrolling tape on the LEFT side of the screen) tilt the phone back towards you to raise the nose, and away you go. Tilt the phone left and right to steer, and hold the nose about 10 degrees up to climb away from the runway. Hit the GEAR button to raise the landing gear, and - after a while - drag the FLAPS slider (on the right) up to the top to fully retract the flaps. Hold that nose up about 10 degrees or so as you climb out, gear and flaps UP, power should remain at full for the climb. To fly, always stay above about 80 knots or so, at least, to avoid stalling! Add power, or lower the nose, to be sure that this happens. The altitude is displayed on the tape on the right, and the vertical speed is printed right underneath it. The MACH number (for jets, anyway) is on the left, right under the airspeed indicator and displays as a percentage of MACH 1, the speed of sound.

THE MENUS

Now that you are flying, try the different views. Tap the CENTER of the screen to see the various menu icons at the top. The LEFT one is the standard cockpit view, which is out the windshield w/ the Heads Up Display. The next one over is the external view. Hit that, and then drag your finger around on the phone to adjust your viewing angle. Now here is where it gets REALLY cool: Put TWO fingers down far apart on the screen and then drag them closer together to zoom OUT! Put your fingers on the screen close together and then drag them apart to zoom IN! This is a nice way to control the views that is not possible with a mouse-pointer, because it looks at BOTH your fingers AT ONCE! The next view-menu over is the spot view, which is my favorite... hit that to have a stationary view and watch as your aircraft flies by. The next view is the linear-spot, where the camera takes a constant-speed trajectory to match your airplane's flight-path... holding formation with that camera here is just like flying formation in a real plane. Finally the next view over is the SETTINGS menu, and if you are in an external view, the final view menu shows the forces on the airplane, which is kind of nice if you want to see a little illustration of what the flight model is doing to propagate the flight.

THE SETTINGS MENUS

Once you hit the SETTINGS menu icon in the cockpit, the menus you have are quite clear: Place the craft in random locations, or on whole new random flights if you hit the RESET RANDOM FLIGHT button. Or put yourself on final or takeoff on the runway. The PLANE menu item lets you pick from any of 6 planes, the Cessna 172 being the basic airplane, the Columbia-400 being a high performacne tubocharded piston, the Cirrus vision being the next-generation personal-jet that is in development now, and the Piaggo Avanti being a super-efficient Italian turboprop business-plane. The TIME, SKY, and WIND menus are obvious. The WEIGHT menu is kind of interesting. You can scoot the center of gravity FORWARDS to give you more stability, or AFT to make the plane more maneuverable. Additionally, you can adjust the weight of the aircraft. Lighter airplanes will perform better than heavier ones, of course. The SET menu is kind of nice: Just hold the phone at any angle you like, hit the SET CURRENT PHONE TILIT AS CENTER button and the current attitude of the phone will be the zero-elevator entry. This lets you fly with the phone in your lap if you are sitting or standing, or held at the vertical if you are lying down.. kind of convenient!

Here is an on-line video showing how to fly X-Plane for iPhone as well!

OK, that is a nice little summary of how to fly X-Plane for iPhone... happy flying!

FLYING AN ILS OFF OF THE INSTRUMENT PANEL

Tap the center of the screen to invoke the various menus, and click on the upper-right (settings) menu. You will see a map, with the frequencies of the ILS, Localizer, and VOR of the area. Drop 2 fingers down on the map and swizzle to pan, rotate, and zoom the map. See the ILS to LOWI is on frequency 111.10, heading 260 degrees, to an airport at an elevation of 1910 ft. Now hit the LOWI FINAL 26 button. Then hit the INSTRUMENT PANEL button. The slide the panel up with your finger to see the NAV (navigation) radios. Set the left one to 111.10 (if it isn't already). Now click above or below the little knob on the lower-left of the HSI (the instrument with the compass-card in it) until the HSI us set to 260 degrees. (The yellow arrow is pointing to 260 on that compass card... 10 degrees to the left of the W for west, which is 270 degrees). At this point, the localizer CDI (or course-deflection indicator, the yellow vertical bar will wander left or right to indicate if you are left or right of the course to the runway.. aim towards the deflection to intercept the course to the runway). As well, you will see little yellow arrows to the left and right of that compass indicator indicating the glideslope to the runway. If those needles are ABOVE the center of the instrument then you will want to fly UP, and if they are below the center of the instrument then you will want to fly down to intercept the glideslope. Your goal is to fly to keep the localizer CDI centered to stay on the localizer, and the glideslope CDI's centered to stay on the glideslope. Do this until you get to 2110 feet on the altimeter (upper-right instrument) and then tap the panel and the HUD view button (upper-left button) and, if you have done everything right, then the runway will be right in front of you. As well, if you have managed things properly, then you will be at the stalling speed of the airplane +30% speed (around 90 knots in the Cirrus Jet) with the gear and flaps down (remember you can still see gear, flaps, and throttle in the panel view).

Can you do it? I can. I can also look off to the side when you take a picture of me 'cause I am too cool to look directly at the camera! ;-P