Black Box

Black Box records your flights on your computer. Open one afterwards to see every force on a timeline beside the route, try a different setting against that exact flight, and feel the result through your stick.

What Black Box records

Each saved flight holds:

• the route, when the simulator sends position data
• every force effect, sample by sample
• the settings in use, including any you changed during the flight
• events such as takeoff, touchdown, gear and flap changes, and autopilot on and off

Black Box records no audio and no video. The files stay on your computer unless you export them.

Turn recording on

Recording is off until you turn it on. Pro asks once, in the Flight recordings step the first time you start it.

1. Tick Automatically save flights locally and click Continue.
2. Start the simulator and fly. At the top of the Black Box page, the status changes from Waiting for flight to Recording and shows the elapsed time.
3. End the flight. Pro saves it about 30 seconds after the simulator stops sending data.

While a flight is recording, Keep this flight at the top of the page saves the flight so far and carries on in a new recording. If you pause the simulator for 30 seconds or more, Pro saves the flight so far and starts a new recording when you continue.

If you skipped the step, open Black Box, click Options, then Storage settings, and tick the same box. While the library is empty, the page also shows Turn on automatic capture.

Storage settings

Storage settings shows where flights are saved, how much space they use and how much is free on the disk.

Setting	Default	What it does
Automatically save flights locally	Off	Records your flights while Pro is running.
Storage allowance	2 GB	The most space saved flights may use. Choose from 1 GB to 50 GB.
Age limit	30 days	Flights older than this are removed, unless you keep them. Until the allowance is full removes flights only when space runs out.
Maximum size per recording (MB)	500	When a recording reaches this size, Pro saves it and turns recording off.

A typical flight uses about 40 MB per hour. Some use 80 to 105 MB per hour or more. At those rates, a 500 MB recording holds roughly 5 to 12 hours.

When the allowance or the age limit is reached, Pro removes the oldest flights you have not kept. Recording also stops when the disk has less than 16 MB free.

The flight library

Black Box opens on your flights, newest first and grouped by day. Each row shows a small force trace, the title, aircraft, simulator, start time and length. Kept, Incomplete and the number of markers appear on the right.

The map

Control	What it does
Fit flights	Zooms the map to show every route in the list.
Layers · download	Opens the map downloads. See Maps.
Expand	Gives the map the whole page. Restore brings the list back.
+ and −	Zoom in and out. Drag the map to move it.
Hide map	Hides the map and leaves the list. Show map brings it back.

Point at a flight in the list to highlight its route. Click a route to select its flight, then click Open flight. Where routes overlap, Pro asks which flight you mean. Drag the bar under the map to change its height.

Find a flight

• Search flights matches the title, the aircraft or the simulator.
• All aircraft limits the list to one aircraft.
• All flights switches between all flights, Kept flights and Needs attention, which lists flights marked Incomplete.

The map shows the same flights as the list. The list holds 100 flights at a time; use Older and Newer to move between pages.

Look after your flights

Open opens a flight for review. The ••• button on each row holds the other actions:

• Keep protects the flight from automatic clean-up. On a kept flight the same item reads Unpin.
• Rename… gives the flight a title you will recognise, such as "Evening circuits at KPAE".
• Flight summary (CSV), Flight track (CSV) and FFB-Bridge flight… export the flight. See Export a flight.
• Move to Recently deleted… asks you to confirm, then removes the flight from the list. Undo delete brings it straight back.

Kept flights still count toward the storage allowance. If only kept flights are left, recording stops until you free space or raise the allowance.

Deleted flights stay in Recently deleted for up to seven days, or less when the allowance needs the space. Open it from Options and click Restore to bring a flight back.

The buttons next to the search box:

• Import flight adds a .ffbflight file, for example one you exported on another computer.
• Select puts a checkbox on each flight. Select visible ticks every flight on the page, and Export summaries (CSV) saves one file with a row for each. Click Done when you have finished.
• Options holds Refresh, Recently deleted and Storage settings.

Review a flight

Click Open on a flight. The header shows the aircraft, date, time, simulator and the area you flew in. Opening a flight and playing it on screen never moves your stick. Back to flights returns to the library.

Display sets the layout: Map, Split or Forces. These buttons appear when the flight has a route. Hide sidebar gives the map and timeline the full width.

The aircraft on the map marks where you were at the playhead. The line under the map gives the altitude, ground speed, track and position at that moment. Click the route to move the playhead there, and click Fit route to see all of it. If the simulator stopped sending positions for a while, Next position jumps to where the route picks up again.

Play and select

Control	What it does
Play review	Plays the flight on screen. While it plays, the button reads Pause.
Stop	Stops playback.
Time	The playhead position and the length of the flight.
Add marker	Adds a note at the playhead.
Review only and Device forces	Play on screen only, or through your stick. See Feel a flight through your stick.
Repeat segment	Plays the selected segment in a loop.
Clear segment	Removes the selection and goes back to the whole flight.

To select a segment, drag across the force timeline. You can also move the playhead and press I to set the start and O to set the end. Other keys: Space plays and pauses, Esc stops, and M adds a marker.

The force timeline

Each line is one force effect, in percent of full force. The chips above the graph name each signal and show its value at the playhead. Click a chip or a line to select that signal. The sidebar then switches to Tune so you can change it.

Control	What it does
Choose signals	Opens the Signals tab, where you show or hide whole groups such as Loading and springs or Vibrations and buffets. Show all signals brings everything back.
Reset view	Shows the whole flight at the default force scale.
Fit selection	Zooms the time axis to the selected segment.
Fit forces	Scales the force axis to the lines on screen.
Hide selected	Removes the selected signal. Bring it back under Hidden traces on the Signals tab.
Selected only	Shows only the selected signal.

The mouse wheel zooms the time axis. Ctrl with the wheel zooms the force axis, Shift with the wheel moves along the flight, and Ctrl+Shift with the wheel moves the force axis. Click the time ruler to move the playhead.

Zoomed out, the heading reads Overview · Zoom for recorded samples. Zoom in to see each recorded sample. The line under the buttons then gives the exact value at the cursor.

Moments and markers

The Moments tab lists what happened during the flight. Click a moment to move the playhead there.

• Flight moments shows events such as gear down, flaps and touchdown, your markers, and settings you changed in flight.
• Force activity lists each time an effect came on, with its peak level.

To mark a moment, move the playhead and click Add marker or press M. Type what you felt, for example "Rumble too strong on rollout", and click Add marker. You can also type the note in the box at the bottom of the Moments tab.

You can mark a flight while you fly. With Voice Control on, say "mark what just happened" to mark the last 30 seconds, or "mark this" for the current moment. To add a note, say "as" and the note, for example "mark what just happened as buffet too strong".

Try a different setting

The Tune tab shows how the same flight would have felt with a different setting. Your changes go into a draft; the recording never changes.

1. Select a signal on the timeline, or click the setting button at the top of Tune and pick a setting. Find a force or setting narrows the list.
2. Move the slider or type a value. If the effect has a response curve, tick Use custom curve and drag the points, or edit the Input and Response % columns.
3. Pro recalculates the forces with your draft for the selected segment, or for the whole flight when nothing is selected.
4. Click Draft to draw the draft's lines beside the recorded ones. Click Recorded to go back.

For example, if the elevator felt too heavy on a C172 approach, select the approach, lower Elevator load to 70% and compare Recorded with Draft.

Your draft lists every change with its recorded and draft values. Revert undoes one change, Reset curve to A puts a curve back the way it was recorded, and Reset at the bottom discards the whole draft.

To keep the result, type a name in the box under Reset and click Save profile. Pro saves a new profile with your draft settings. It does not change the profile you fly with. To fly with the new profile, choose it on the Profiles or Tuning page.

Feel a flight through your stick

Device forces plays the recorded forces, or your draft, through your stick or yoke. Feel the runway rumble on rollout again, lower it in your draft, and feel the difference.

1. Close the simulator. If your stick is armed, disarm it.
2. Open the flight. Select a segment if you want one, and tick Repeat segment to loop it.
3. Click Device forces, then Arm & play. Pro checks the recording, then arms the stick, and the status reads Forces active.
4. To switch versions, click Recorded or Draft on the Tune tab. A draft change takes effect from the playhead.
5. Click Stop or press Esc to end playback. The stick returns to its own centering.

Pause depends on your base. Where the base supports it, the stick holds your profile's centering spring and the button changes to Resume forces. On other bases, Pause ends playback and the stick returns to its own centering. Leaving the review or the Black Box page also ends playback, and so does Safety Stop.

Maps

Pro includes a basic offline map, so your routes show without an internet connection. For more detail, click Layers · download on either map to open Map layers & downloads. Once terrain is installed, the button reads Layers.

Pack	Adds	Download
Natural Earth detailed vectors	Province borders, more inland water, major roads, urban areas and approximate airport points	About 13 MB
Natural Earth terrain	Terrain colour and shaded relief	About 26 MB

Tick a pack and click Download selected. Import pack… installs a pack file you already have, and Remove selected deletes an installed pack. Show terrain turns the terrain layer on and off. Packs apply to both maps and to postcards.

Neither pack shows runways or streets. Reviewing a flight sends no position data anywhere; only the pack downloads go online.

Export a flight

Export	Where	What you get
Flight summary (CSV)	The flight's ••• menu	One row: title, aircraft, simulator, start and end time in UTC, recorded length, sample counts, distance and the first and last position.
Export summaries (CSV)	Select in the library	One summary row for each flight you tick.
Flight track (CSV)	The flight's ••• menu	One row for each recorded position, about once a second: time, latitude, longitude, altitude, ground speed, track and pause state. A flight without a route gives a file with only the header row.
FFB-Bridge flight…	The flight's ••• menu	The recording as a .ffbflight file. Open it in Pro on another computer with Import flight.
Postcard	The map in a flight review	A picture of the route with up to three force traces, as PNG (2400 × 2080) or SVG.

A .ffbflight file does not include your marker notes or the route. Export the flight track or a postcard if you want those too.

The CSV files are UTF-8, separated by commas, with a full stop for decimals in every language. The recorded length is the time Pro recorded, not block time.

To make a postcard, open a flight with a route and click Postcard on the map. Edit the Title, add a Caption if you like, and tick up to three force traces. The preview shows exactly the image you will get. Choose the Format, then click Save postcard... and pick where to save it.

Problems

Problem	What to do
No flights appear	Click Options, then Storage settings, and check that Automatically save flights locally is ticked. A flight appears about 30 seconds after the simulator stops sending data, or when you click Keep this flight.
A flight has no route on the map	The simulator sent no position data for that flight. The forces are still there: use the Forces display. A map pack cannot add a missing route.
Device forces is greyed out	This recording cannot be played through the stick, for example because it has missing samples. Review only, the timeline and the exports still work.
Playback through the stick will not start	Read the message under the transport. "Close the simulator before force playback." means MSFS or X-Plane is still running: quit it completely. "Disarm and release the active force session before playback." means the stick is armed for flying: disarm it with the arm button at the top of the window. Then click Arm & play again.
Recording stopped and the status reads Needs attention because storage is full	Raise the Storage allowance, or delete flights you no longer need and click Unpin on old kept flights. Then tick Automatically save flights locally again.
The status reads File limit reached	The flight reached Maximum size per recording (MB) and was saved. Raise the limit if you fly long sessions, then turn recording back on.
The draft looks the same as the recording	Check that Draft is selected, not Recorded. Check that the effect you changed was active in that part of the flight: a stall buffet change does nothing on a flight without a stall. With a segment selected, the draft covers only that segment.