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AW139 Changelog

AW139 5.00 for X-Plane 11 (spring 2024)

  • New model rebuilt from zero, the most modern version with long nose and windowed pilots doors
  • New cabin, panels, landing gear with only 10% of reycled components from the previous versions
  • New main and tail rotor, with new frame-rate agnostic animations at low and high speed and rotor disc tilt effect
  • New Epic Primus™ Phase 7 replica in full XGA resolution, rebuilt from zero with fully functional PFD and MFD*
  • New 4-axis FD, with collective modes ALT, GS, VS, GA, ALTA, ALVL, RHT, VGP and pitch modes IAS, DCL, HOV, GA
  • New CLTV/YAW trim function, with collective-to-yaw cross-feed, yaw heading hold, lateral ball trim, wing-level
  • New textures, new liveries, custom tail numbers and .psd template, with 2x resolution for fuseleage and rotors
  • New custom beacon and strobe lights, now they blink at the real frequency, with a nice async
  • New functional audio panel, with manageable volumes for all audio sources or master HDPH mode
  • New winch, wire-cutters, inlet filter and floats, all manageable from inside the cockpit and auto-saved
  • New cosmetic FMS screen with standard X-Plane functions in XGA resolution
  • Overhauled flight model, with better handling behaviour and performances
  • Improved HOV (auto-hover) heading stability, low speed handling and overall performances
  • Added FT REL dual command, which now controls also CLTV/TRIM REL to free magnetic brakes all at once
  • Added user guide

*POWER PLANT screen, other MFD modes MAP, PLAN, SYSTEM will be added in the next updates

AW139 4.01 (Current)

  • Improved model, fuseleage and interiors have being ported to Blender and overhauled
  • Improved flight model, now experimental with new turbine models and rotor-driven hydraulics
  • Improved cockpit, flight controls have now night lighting and fully animated switches
  • Improved textures, cabin and panels got new lights, materials and normal maps
  • Improved cyclic trim, now with a new trim reset command very useful in ATT mode
  • Improved rotor animations, now spinning flawlessly, with linear regression on port side
  • Improved callouts, LDP and TDP are now triggered by CAT A and ENGINE IDLE is less sensitive
  • Fixed a bug causing almost every autopilot mode to be unresponsive and messy
  • Fixed a bug causing rotor brake to be always engaged at launch
  • Fixed a bug causing the collective to be inverted in VR
  • Fixed a bug preventing the CAS messages to be seen on Windows
  • Fixed a bug preventing the CAS messages to activate and deactivate panel lights
  • Fixed a bug preventing the product license to be verified at startup on some configurations
  • Fixed a bug preventing the main rotor’s NR to be correctly working on MFD
  • Fixed a bug causing the collective trim switch to invert CLTV/YAW TRIM functions
  • Added a hide yoke function
  • Added AviTab™ cockpit integration* in HD with custom mount, landing camera and glowing light
  • Updated plane maker panel, now with a 2048 x 2048 texture and room for more HD instruments
  • Updated ATT mode (CWS), new code and autopilot constants ensure precision and steadiness
  • Updated lights, exterior and cockpit emitters are now HDR and lights control has been rewritten
  • Updated pilot, the same guy of the AW109 is there to do amazing things
  • Updated interactions, useless animations and manipulators are now gone forever
  • Updated meshes, vertices and faces have been heavily optimized and deduplicated
  • Updated textures, fuseleage got new engine grids and clearer window glasses
  • Updated pilot view, now higher and regressed as in reality
  • Updated PLA, both levers have lights and are in flight position by default
  • Updated PFD, consistently with the other metrics, barometric pressure is now HPA
  • Updated sounds for flip switches and knobs, landing gear sound is being reduced at 4″
  • Updated installer security and speed, now powered by Amazon S3

* Get the AviTab™ plugin on https://github.com/fpw/avitab/releases/

AW139 4.00 RC7

  • Fixed cyclic responsiveness when ATT mode is on
  • Removed 30° bank limit when ATT mode is on
  • Added animated air vents, pilot side
  • Minor functional and visual refinements
  • Windows installer upgraded to 64 bits
  • Fixed the «parsing URL» installer’s bug

AW139 4.00 RC6

  • Dynamic CAS crew alert system reproduced with 85 warning, caution and advisory messages
  • Warning and caution lights on panel now follow a CAS event
  • Warning and caution acknowledge is now also possible with CAS RST button on collective
  • CAS messages can now be scrolled with CCD inner rotary knob
  • Added MAP zoom function to CCD outer rotary knob when LH is selected, works also in HSI MAP mode
  • Fixed a bug causing persistent FT after aircraft unload
  • Added proper nose wheel lock functionality to GEAR panel
  • Blade flapping sound during flares, nose pitches and tight bank degrees on turns
  • MFD and PFD selection with LH and RH button on CCD panel is now evident on screen
  • Fixed ATT mode, pitch and roll ≤ 30° are kept until FT REL is pressed and cyclic is moved
  • ATT pitch and roll can be fine tuned with cyclic hat switch when FD STBY is on
  • Fixed occasional bugs on certain autopilot FD modes
  • Minor functional and visual refinements
  • Refined fuel management
  • Fixed the «exceeded activations» installer’s bug

AW139 4.00 RC5

  • Installer for Windows, Mac and Linux with serial autentication and encrypted file archive
  • Fixed battery issue which was still causing failed re-starts under certain conditions
  • Fixed generators issue causing battery mischarge and consequent quick draining
  • Fixed incorrect electrical consumption for every single system on board
  • Electrical hydraulic pump now off by default and with reduced pressure, as in reality
  • Added electrical hydraulic pump sound
  • Fixed hydraulic sources with refined values and display indicators
  • Added hydraulic Shut-Off-Valve (SOV) switch functionality on the interseat panel
  • Fixed misbehaviour of DH labels MIN and MIN + 100 ft on attitude sphere
  • The LOW HT AWG switch on the MISC panel now inhibits all low height aural warnings
  • Added landing gear aural warning < 150 ft with gear up, mutable by LOW HT AWG switch
  • Added decision height aural warning, mutable by LOW HT AWG switch
  • Fixed tricky collective raising in VR
  • Better sound behaviour at start-ups and shut-downs
  • Better engine response at higher altitudes
  • Better rotor spooling-up speed
  • Fixed minor 3D details on fuseleage and interiors
  • Added blinking caution and warning lights with HDR spills

AW139 4.00 RC4.1

  • Fixed rotors still moving when rotor brake caliper is at maximum pressure, an X-Plane issue bypass
  • Fixed PMS issue still occourring after a power-off, now each engine starts, idles and restarts as expected
  • Fixed over-TQ and rotor-high issue when switching from IDLE to FLT mode on PMS
  • Fixed scaled shadows on cabin and panel, as X-Plane shaders won’t stop changing
  • Fixed wrong electrical values on MFD
  • Fixed rotor brake lever sound missing

AW139 4.00 RC4

  • Rewritten SAS and ATT logic based upon AP1/2, FT and CPL activation, a huge fix but the most desired one by real pilots
  • Rewritten autopilot FD modes from scratch so that they obey to the real logic, also added custom toggle commands
  • Fixed excess of power (HP) and aircraft weights values, now real AW139 pilots should feel at home a lot better
  • Fixed unrealistic display values and arrows behavior for NG, ITT, TQ and PI along with range warnings
  • Fixed continuous input to trimming switches both on cyclic and collective, keep each hat switch pressed to increase or decrease values
  • Fixed rotor brake’s caliper effectiveness, now it is proportional to the action on the lever and won’t turn the helicopter anymore
  • Added a retractable spotlight to the belly, it can be switched on and pointed in any direction by using the rightside hat switch on the collective
  • Enlarged cabin sound sphere, now VR pilots should not get outer sounds when attempting to lean their heads towards the window
  • Fixed seats headrests issue on custom liveries showing both closed and open configurations, now they have the hole opened
  • Fixed livery template UV map misplacements on tail boom, stabilizer, belly and added nose logo area, now authors can paint it just right
  • Unified N2 102% commands into a single toggle, this is to help out the serious simmers with their hardware
  • Making the old user guide available as a separate download, looking forward to write a much simpler procedural sheet
  • Added cyclic and collective manipulators, this allow a greater usability for VR pilots with touchpads and mouse pilots as well
  • Fixed invisible pedestals on custom liveries higher that 00 (default), fixed the livery template as well
  • Fixed both fuel pumps needed to start one engine, now each engine is correctly related to its fuel pump
  • Digital wind indicator back in place, now compensating the wind direction with the heading
  • Fixed SAS REL and FD STBY buttons on cyclic, now they work as expected
  • Fixed tires appearing raised from the ground
  • Fixed minor details on cabin and external meshes
  • Fixed nose glass transparency issue
  • Raised avionics fans volume just right

AW139 4.00 RC3

  • Fixed pedals still moving when CLTV/YAW trim is ON, now they stay in position unless CLTV/YAW REL (collective) is being pressed
  • Fixed cyclic trim up and down function, now it trims pitch when FT is ON and IAS mode (FD) is OFF, otherwise it modifies IAS reference
  • Fixed cyclic trim left and right function, now it trims roll when FT is ON and HDG mode (FD) is OFF, otherwise it modifies HDG reference
  • Fixed engine power, fuel consumption and weights parameters
  • Fixed Sagem® map display showing along with every user custom livery, now the instrument is finally gone (until version 4.1)
  • Fixed parking brake lever sound, now it’s there
  • Refined rotor spooling up time, now closer to reality
  • Fixed reversed CCD (Cursor Control Device) left and right function when LH (MFD) is selected, up and down function are fictional
  • Updated livery template with a convenient UV map layer and instruction note, now it’s easier to identify parts of the fuseleage
  • Updated custom livery folder logic, now additional liveries must be tied to sequential numbers (04, 05, …); this was done to prevent the off-shore external objects showing along with every custom livery, as they will show up only with the default off-shore liveries (Default 00 to 03)

AW139 4.00 RC2

  • Fixed the marching ants issue affecting many textures on some graphic cards due to wrong UV maps
  • Fixed internal glass opacity, as reported too dark by many pilots using VR headsets
  • Fixed collective trim up and down function when CLTV/YAW trim is ON, the hat switch trims collective, otherwise it changes the reference target value if a FD collective mode is engaged (ie. VS or ALT reference)
  • Fixed rotor brake strenght, now it’s a lot less brutal
  • Fixed vents sound when battery is off