In our last development update we previewed some of the recent work on the MSFS Fokker F28's exterior animations, ground equipment and aircraft systems coding. Alongside continuing work on those areas, the team have been busy configuring the numerous exterior and interior aircraft lights that bring the aircraft to life at night, and we thought we’d bring you along on a quick tour of an Air Anglia F28-4000 to see how all that work is coming along.
An accompanying video can be found here.
We’ll start with a walkaround to highlight some of the exterior features of the F28. Standing in the front of the aircraft, you can see our custom GPU is connected, the stairs are extended and the nose lights are retracted - a typical parked configuration. The iconic T-tail and engines are also visible against the ominous weather!
The F28 passenger door includes integrated airstairs, which are useful for avoiding those jetway fees and for operating from remote airports. They are also jetway compatible, with the option to fold down the handrails and a retractable step, which is fully simulated here.
An upwards-sliding service door can be found on the starboard side, along with the downward-extending forward and centre cargo doors.
Moving back towards the tail, there’s also an aft cargo door. From here we can see the distinctive flap fairings on the wings, the optional engine hushkits and large tail-mounted airbrakes, similar to those found on our 146 and RJ.
Four variants of the F28 will be included, with the longer -4000 with two over-wing exits on each side shown here:
We’re now ready to board the aircraft via the airstairs, with a great view of the wing, engine and T-tail.
As previewed in an earlier entry, a detailed passenger cabin is included, with overhead and sign lighting that can be controlled automatically or manually.
Moving into the cockpit, the emergency back-up lighting is switched on; this consists of instrument and overhead flood lights.
Taking a seat on the Captain’s side, we can switch on the independently dimmable instrument panel white flood and instrument lights.
The overhead panel has integral lighting, aided by two large dome lights and white and red reading lights for the Captain and Co-pilot.
A variety of red flood lighting is also available for the instrument and side panels.
The interior lighting controls are spread around the cockpit but all the exterior lighting controls are grouped together on the centre pedestal, with individual controls for each of the retractable wing and nose landing lights.
MSFS has stunning lighting capabilities which allow us to realistically simulate all of the different types of lighting on a classic airliner such as the F28, with over 50 dynamic lights covering the exterior, cabin and cockpit. This close-up of the overhead panel shows the incredible detail we can now achieve.
As we taxi to the runway, you can see the excellent visibility provided by the taxi, landing and flare lighting. All our lights use custom effects to ensure realism.
Even the quirky logo lights which are built into the flap fairings are simulated, as seen here from the rear of the passenger cabin.
We’ll finish up the tour with a view from the cockpit on final approach, showing a typical lighting configuration.
In the coming weeks we’ll begin testing the custom-coded fuel, air conditioning and pressurisation systems, as well as upgrading our custom ground equipment which includes a GPU, chocks and cones. We’ll bring you previews of that work in the next update.
