CURRENT RELEASE 568

Release notes

One-line summaries of the improvements included in each public release.

Release 568Added the approved branded sharing image with Open Graph and large-image card metadata on public pages.

Release 567Added three deterministic engine-out landing levels for both aircraft, paid solution hints, persistent engine-failure warning, and start/win SMS.

Release 566Made ATOMATOFLAMES answer feedback unmistakable with a persistent green Correct or red Incorrect banner, large check/X, points, matching selected-answer colors, and a single gentle pulse that respects reduced-motion preferences.

Release 565Fixed Airspace Triangle Builder progression: Continue sits directly below the completed picture, is brought into view and focused, advances through all four freshly unlocked levels, and returning players reopen at their latest unlocked level.

Release 564ATOMATOFLAMES now fits compact phone play with six randomized choices, stronger conditional colors, check/X feedback, illustrated green/red reviews, and server-graded performance plus participation credit. The Games landing page now has linked visual teasers for every activity, including VOR.

Release 563ATOMATOFLAMES now marks correct letters with a check and missed letters with an X, resets both on replay, uses its recognizable name in the Games menu, and gives paid review cards green/red borders with explicit check/X outcome labels.

Release 562Removed Beta badges from the Non-Towered Airport Explorer, Towered Airport Explorer, Flight Forces, and both the Landing Simulator overview and play pages; retained Beta labels on the other training games and added regression coverage for the graduated pages.

Release 561Moved Engine Cutaways administrator text alerts from page opening to the actual running-engine transition. Texts identify the two-stroke or four-stroke engine, reuse the existing Textbelt delivery audit and rate limits, and are limited to one notification per engine per page visit. Synchronized starts notify for each engine that reaches running; aborted starts and repeated restarts do not send extra alerts.

Release 560Rebuilt the Beta Airspace Triangle Builder as a physical picture puzzle: players drag the actual full-size colored and labeled SVG regions, with their printed text moving with each piece, into alignment until they snap together. Removed abstract rule cards, text-only drag ghosts, destination-answer buttons, monochrome pieces, and equal-tile recall. All four levels retain the same real diagram pieces while the guide fades from a complete picture to outlines, outer border, and no guide. Added an anytime complete-picture view, keyboard and tap placement, cancellation-safe pointer capture, screen-fitted boards, gentle move counting without accuracy penalties, retained progress and participation tracking, and behavior-level assembly tests.

Release 559Marked the Airspace Triangle Builder as Beta on its game page, both Games and Study menu links, and its Games-hub card, using the existing shared badge treatment.

Release 558Added the beta ATOMATOFLAMES Equipment Match: thirteen randomized single-chance word-bank matches, day-VFR baseline and conditional requirement colors, free reusable SVG picture hints, server-graded points and free percentage scores, and optional $2 personalized illustrated lessons covering every item with exact submitted answers, corrections, mission applicability, PHAK links, verified PayPal access, durable attempt records, administrator text links, and private purchased-lesson/report links on each buyer’s profile.

Release 557Restored clear navigation discovery for the intact four-level Airspace Triangle Builder: moved it from near the bottom of the long Games dropdown to immediately after Sectional Symbols; added the same semantically appropriate airspace-icon link under Study beside the searchable HTML PHAK; preserved its Games-hub card, public route, sitemap entry, study-guide links, participation tracking, and saved level progress; and added focused navigation regression coverage requiring both menu homes and the improved Games ordering.

Release 556Kept the authentic 3D Engine Cutaways homepage preview and its RPM-dependent engine vibration while separating the captured engine from its baked-in information panel; the engine-only layer can now shake without moving the part name or explanation; synchronized the stable text layer with both real camera-angle crossfades; preserved reduced-motion behavior, lazy loading, and the existing 500-to-2,200 RPM acceleration model; and added focused regression coverage preventing full-frame vibration or transformed information text from returning.

Release 555Split the Favorite External Aviation Learning Videos collection into four focused, indexable pages for Learning to Fly, Maintenance, Cautionary Tales, and Visualizations; retained the two complete Free Pilot Training courses, five Mike Busch maintenance talks, and five Pilot Debrief safety case studies in their appropriate sections; added Aviontra’s “How a Fan Becomes a Jet Engine #shorts” to Visualizations with its verified canonical Short URL, creator credit, thumbnail, purpose, an explicit warning that the analogy is conceptual rather than a literal engine design, and exact deep links to the HTML PHAK turbine-engine, turbojet, and turbofan explanations; kept all videos on their creators’ YouTube pages rather than embedding or copying them; added category navigation, responsive layouts, canonical metadata, structured data, sitemap discovery, smoke coverage, and focused rendering and content regression tests.

Release 554Added an auditable API test-coverage view to /kohesion: every logical API now has a stacked endpoint-coverage bar separating live HTTP contracts, targeted regression coverage, and route-contract-only gaps; every individual service has an explicit test badge and expandable list of supporting test files; current coverage is 41 live contracts, 9 targeted regressions, and 1 visible route-only gap across all 51 services, while the method-and-path contract remains complete for every declared endpoint; and added focused regression enforcement so stale evidence, missing test files, miscounted segments, or concealed route-only gaps fail validation.

Release 553Added a complete private API catalog and usage dashboard under /kohesion covering 16 logical APIs and all 51 declared verb-and-route services; documents every service’s GET, POST, or DELETE verb, route, purpose, response totals, and last-use time; instruments every declared /api route after its final response; batches durable counters into independent per-server-instance records so requests do not each cause a storage write and concurrent instances do not overwrite one another; aggregates all historical instance records; and adds toggled square maps whose area reflects calls by API or by individual service, with complete-catalog enforcement and focused regression tests.

Release 552Expanded the automatic temporary-handle vocabulary from 36 adjectives and 32 aviation nouns to one shared catalog of 129 adjectives and 143 aviation nouns, creating 18,447 readable word pairs and 18,447,000 possible suffixed handles; removed the browser/server word-list duplication so both generators use the same source; preserved every handle already stored in a visitor’s browser or player record; and added format, uniqueness, script-order, catalog-size, and collision regression tests.

Release 551Added the Airspace Triangle Builder, a four-level touch, mouse, and keyboard puzzle based on the familiar VFR weather-minimums triangle; every level rebuilds the same eight-piece aid covering E and G at or above 10,000 MSL, C/D/E below 10,000 MSL, Class G daytime and nighttime rules split at 1,200 AGL, Class B, and both altitude dividers; begins with colored labeled pieces and labeled destinations, then removes destination labels, removes color, and finally presents every loose piece as an equally shaped square; includes an original polished triangle rendering, a built-in 3–152 key, drag-and-drop and select-then-place interaction, mistake-aware scoring, saved level unlocks and best scores, participation tracking, rotating FAA-grounded tips with exact PHAK Figure 15-8 links, explicit mnemonic limitations and exceptions, responsive phone layout, menu and Games-hub discovery, sitemap coverage, and focused regression tests.

Release 550Added ten genuinely new Sectional Symbols Challenge meanings after exact learner-view comparison of retained FAA rasters, shipped SVGs, focus rings, and current printed-legend entries: lava flow, sand dunes, Coast Guard station, salt pans, foreshore flat, hang-glider activity, TRSA ceiling-and-floor notation, group obstruction below 1,000 feet AGL, group obstruction 1,000 feet AGL or higher, and high-intensity obstruction lights; added seven real FAA chart areas and three verified examples to existing Boston and Charlotte charts; rejected text-dependent railroad-yard and glacier crops, a misidentified reef, and mixed canal, aqueduct, boundary, breakwater, landmark, and relief candidates; increased the live pool from 216 to 226 examples, from 58 to 65 chart areas, and from 146 to 156 of 331 named meanings (47.13%); added exact target, coordinate, answer, review-evidence, rejection, count, audit, homepage-update, and release regression coverage; and added a review-builder option for reconstructing chart images without rerunning feature metadata queries.

Release 549Removed the public About Matthew section from global navigation, the footer, the general About page, the sitemap, discussion routing, stylesheet preload hints, and author-profile schema links; changed the former biography URL to a permanent redirect to the general About page so old bookmarks remain useful; retained the dormant biography template and original photo assets without exposing them publicly; and added regression coverage preventing the retired section from returning to site discovery.

Release 548Separated the 3D Landing Simulator’s non-aircraft constants and reusable formulas into dedicated landing-constants and landing-formulas modules; kept aircraft-dependent weight, geometry, limits, powerplant, flap, and level values in the aircraft JSON definitions; refactored flight forces, stall behavior, glidepath and PAPI geometry, touchdown scoring, braking, chase and side cameras, gauges, gestures, shadows, buffeting, propeller and wheel motion, unit conversions, and smoothing to compose named pure functions; removed a duplicated scene-transform pass; added architecture regression coverage that verifies immutable shared constants, pure named formula exports, aircraft/config separation, deterministic formula behavior, and use by every landing runtime component; and preserved the existing modeled landing and simulator behavior under the complete landing test suite.

Release 547Corrected the reported Phoenix “Canal” challenge after exact learner-crop review showed that its ring was centered on Scottsdale’s dashed blue Class D airspace boundary; changed the keyed answer, legend reference, category, source identity, distractors, and review evidence together; retired a second Phoenix canal-to-scale prompt that reused the same wrong feature; retired a Blythe numerous-canals prompt that printed its own answer inside the focus ring; reduced the live pool from 218 examples and 149 meanings to 216 examples and 146 meanings instead of preserving inflated coverage; made the administrator’s sectional-report dashboard read the persistent challenge-flag list directly rather than through a stale process cache; tracked all three retired target IDs in the audited flag cleanup; and added exact-position, retired-ID, count, audit, fresh-dashboard, cutoff-preservation, and homepage-update regression coverage.

Release 546Rebuilt the Aircraft Selector’s SVG side profiles around real aircraft-family geometry instead of broad generic shapes; expanded the actively exercised silhouette library from 26 to 34 families; split 57 formerly identical Kitfox, RANS, Just Aircraft, CubCrafters, Bearhawk, American Champion, Aeronca, Luscombe, Piper, Stinson, and RV-15 configurations into dedicated kit-bush, Cub, utility, and vintage-cabin drawings; added distinct Pipistrel, Tecnam, Flight Design, Piper low-wing, and Sling low-wing profiles; rebuilt the Quicksilver, CGS Hawk, Kolb, Titan Tornado, Challenger, and AirBike open-frame or pusher structures from licensed whole-aircraft photo references; corrected every shared wing from an exaggerated planform-like slab to a centered side-view root chord; correctly routed both Quicksilver GT cabin models; retained model-specific proportions, gear, propeller, boom, canopy, and tail cues; and added family-routing, coverage-limit, geometry, syntax, and aircraft-engine-link regression coverage.

Release 545Linked all 251 Aircraft Selector configurations to a complete table of 100 stable engine records; added a textual description and standard identity fields to every record; exposed the existing detailed engine descriptions as a consistent field; made the engine in each selected aircraft profile an accessible control; added a responsive engine panel with standard power, type, arrangement, cooling, drive, fuel, production, and TBO fields; merged the 40-model detailed engine catalog wherever a reliable family or variant match exists; left unavailable values explicitly undocumented instead of guessing; and added complete referential-integrity, description, data-merge, markup, and interface regression coverage.

Release 544Made an automatic forward slip carried into touchdown an explicit 3D Landing Simulator crash; added aircraft-specific slip-contact thresholds, ground-loop duration, yaw, lateral travel, and roll parameters to both shared aircraft definitions; animated the airplane spinning and sliding off runway alignment before the failure result appears; preserved the original touchdown rate in the result; added a deterministic local slip-touchdown scenario and observable ground-loop state; clarified the safe slip-release point in both the flight controls and information page; aligned the behavior with FAA guidance to remove a forward slip as roundout begins; and added model, aircraft-configuration, animation, and browser regression coverage.

Release 543Enlarged and vertically centered the 3D Landing Simulator’s mobile instrument gauges; removed the ordinary phone dock’s redundant bottom safe-area reservation; collapsed full-screen gauge cells to the exact dial height so grid stretching cannot leave blank space below them; allowed wider phones and small tablets to grow each dial to 156 pixels; increased the compact-landscape limit to 96 pixels; and added responsive regression coverage for panel alignment, dial sizing, and wasted-space prevention.

Release 542Vertically aligned the 3D Landing Simulator’s automatic-slip arrow and brake-pedal icon with their accompanying text; replaced the buttons’ implicit two-row placement with explicit icon and text groups; centered each icon against the complete two-line desktop label and the single-line compact phone label; retained the established light-yellow and light-red resting states, darker held states, press-and-hold behavior, and accessible button names; and added structural, responsive, computed-center, no-overflow, and browser-console regression coverage.

Release 541Removed the Aircraft Selector’s complete “Use this as a shortlist, not a purchase decision” advisory panel and its four long explanatory paragraphs; ended the page directly after the matching aircraft catalog; retained aircraft-specific specifications, price methods, source links, flying-count evidence, photo attribution, and uncertainty markers where they are actionable; preserved the shared selector-method styling still used by the Engine Selector; and added focused template, data-integrity, and obsolete-panel regression coverage.

Release 540Prevented the 3D Landing Simulator’s flight canvas from becoming selected or flashing blue during an inadvertent press; disabled text selection, WebKit selection, touch callouts, the default tap highlight, and browser drag initiation only on the interactive canvas; preserved its touch-action-free swipe controls; kept the canvas keyboard-focusable with the existing high-contrast yellow focus-visible outline; and added selection, drag, tap-highlight, keyboard-focus, focused landing, responsive-preview, and browser-console regression coverage.

Release 539Removed the redundant mobile-only “Open full-screen flight deck” button from the 3D Landing Simulator; made “Start challenge” the single clear entry action on every device; retained the existing phone behavior that automatically opens the full-screen flight deck before beginning the attempt; kept the desktop challenge inline and unchanged; returned focus to the start/result action after exiting the phone deck; removed obsolete template, browser binding, and CSS code; and added single-action, automatic-modal, focus-return, mobile, desktop, no-overflow, and browser-console regression coverage.

Release 538Removed the redundant visible “On glidepath” text from the 3D Landing Simulator’s PAPI overlay; retained only the four light units so the overlay is 27 pixels tall on a representative phone and maintains an 18-pixel clear gap above the Chase, Pilot, and Side camera selector; preserved all five live PAPI patterns and the main flight-status guidance; retained a complete dynamically updated accessible label with the state and white/red lamp counts; removed obsolete label markup, browser logic, and CSS; and added no-label, accessibility, responsive-spacing, no-overlap, no-overflow, and browser-console regression coverage.

Release 537Enlarged the 3D Landing Simulator’s RPM and elevator slider handles on phones and coarse-pointer devices; replaced the small browser-default knobs with explicit 30-pixel high-contrast circular handles for Safari, Chromium, and Firefox; thickened the tracks to eight pixels; preserved 48-pixel interaction rows on the ordinary phone layout and compact 42-pixel rows in the full-screen flight deck; added a clearly visible keyboard-focus ring; kept desktop controls unchanged; and added cross-browser CSS, touch-target, responsive-layout, no-overflow, and browser-console regression coverage.

Release 536Corrected the 3D Landing Simulator’s visual glidepath guidance to model all five FAA PAPI indications—four white, three white/one red, two white/two red, one white/three red, and four red—with red lamps on the correct right-hand side; replaced level-specific touchdown-target ratios with an actual viewing-angle calculation toward the aircraft’s fixed 1,000-foot PAPI aiming point; applied the same reference to stabilized-approach scoring; required a 70% landing-quality score to unlock the next level; added explicit Retry and Continue choices after a passing landing, retained the current level after a lower score, and added a non-destructive Level 1 control; documented the behavior on both landing pages; and added geometry, ordering, threshold-crossing, progression, interface, responsive-layout, and deterministic result-screen regression coverage.

Release 535Moved the “Explored X/Y” feature counter out of the 3D Airport Explorers’ view-control button panel and into a dedicated upper-right status overlay inside the airport canvas; kept the button panel limited to Overhead, Ground, Reset, and airspace controls; matched the counter to the existing dark viewport-status treatment; stacked the phone view label and compass to prevent status collisions; retained live progress announcements; and added structural, responsive-style, desktop, phone, no-overflow, and browser-console regression coverage for both airport versions.

Release 534Added the existing runway-and-airplane Landing Simulator icon beside the primary heading on both /landing-simulator and /landing-simulator/play; reused the exact shared SVG sprite symbol already shown in the Games and 3D Interactives menus instead of introducing a duplicate drawing; sized and aligned it independently for the overview hero, focused desktop flight deck, and compact phone layout; retained line-art styling through currentColor; and added shared-source, responsive-style, no-overflow, browser-console, and focused landing regression coverage.

Release 533Split the 3D Landing Simulator into an indexable information page at /landing-simulator and a focused playable flight deck at /landing-simulator/play; moved controls, scoring, ten-level progression, model limitations, FAA guidance, and aircraft sources to the overview; retained the complete game, aircraft picker, saved progress, purchased hints, gauges, desktop controls, and full-screen phone deck on the play route; collapsed the saved-level list until requested; added direct play links from activity hubs, the homepage showcase, and study guides; preserved the overview as the canonical search destination; and added route-separation, no-duplicate-runtime, deep-link, responsive-layout, navigation, and regression coverage.

Release 532Simplified the 3D Landing Simulator’s full-screen phone control from “Close & end” to a compact “× Exit” button; reduced its reserved toolbar width from 94 to 72 pixels; retained a complete accessible label explaining that exiting ends the active flight; preserved the existing safe reset behavior; and added focused label, sizing, obsolete-copy, accessibility, and phone-layout regression coverage.

Release 531Kept the 3D Landing Simulator’s “Put the airplane smoothly on the runway” page title on one line at desktop and phone widths; added a dedicated no-wrap rule with fluid phone typography and restrained letter spacing; retained legibility down to a 320-pixel viewport without clipping or horizontal overflow; and added focused responsive regression plus 320- and 390-pixel browser checks.

Release 530Added an immediate red perimeter pulse for every modeled runway contact during a bounced landing; restart the pulse for closely spaced subsequent contacts; frame the entire desktop landing game and full-screen phone flight-deck modal without blocking controls; retain a brief non-animated warning for reduced-motion visitors; expose the active contact number for browser verification; and add focused behavior, animation, mobile-modal, and accessibility regression coverage.

Release 529Expanded the 3D Landing Simulator from six to ten progressively harder scenarios for both selectable aircraft; added four model-verified short-field and energy-management approaches with exact touchdown-zone solution paths; extended completion scoring and paid-hint coverage through Level 10; added a final all-challenges-complete result screen; reset the next entry to Level 1 after the campaign while retaining points, history, unlocks, and purchased hints; and added flight-model, progression, persistence, and completion-screen regression coverage.

Release 528Enlarged all four analog gauges in the 3D Landing Simulator’s full-screen phone flight deck by letting the instrument row consume essentially the complete viewport width; increased a typical 390-pixel phone’s dial faces from roughly 70 to 96 pixels; removed nearly all panel padding and inter-gauge gaps; enlarged the compact landscape gauges while retaining their runway-safe corner placement; preserved the one-row layout, flight controls, and overflow-free viewport; and added focused regression plus 390×844 and 320×568 responsive browser checks.

Release 527Added semantic zoom to the Aircraft Selector comparison map so aircraft labels and silhouettes grow progressively as the visible data range narrows on phones and desktops; changed plane activation from a fleeting hover response to a pinned detail popup that remains until the visitor taps or clicks elsewhere; repositioned the popup within the chart bounds after zooming or panning; exposed the pinned state to keyboard and assistive-technology users; and added focused regression and responsive browser checks for scaling, persistence, and dismissal.

Release 526Rebuilt the Aircraft Selector’s shared SVG profile geometry around true side-view proportions: replaced oversized top-down planform slabs with compact airfoil-like wing chords, reduced exaggerated landing-gear wheels, preserved visible low-wing roots above the fuselage layer, and added dedicated open-frame drawings for the Legal Eagle, Affordaplane, and Air-Bike families. Rechecked representative low-wing, high-wing, pusher, biplane, and phone cards beside their real-aircraft photos; added regression checks that prevent the obsolete slab-wing paths from returning.

Release 525Moved aircraft selection out of the Flight Forces and 3D Landing Simulator page headers and into a compact shared control row; capped the control at 330 pixels on desktop and 300 pixels on phones instead of allowing the former mobile rule to stretch it across the page; removed obsolete page-specific toolbar and hero styles; and added focused regression checks for placement and responsive width on both interactives.

Release 524Removed the Aircraft Selector’s oversized standalone Part 103-only control after verifying that all 27 Part 103 records exactly match the 27 aircraft already returned by the existing Ultra-light certification choice; removed the duplicate markup, client state, reset and event handling, and obsolete styling; preserved the underlying Part 103 classification and data-layer filter for aircraft details and validation; and added regression coverage that proves the two sets remain identical and prevents the duplicate interface from returning.

Release 523Rebuilt the 3D towered-airport homepage teaser from three optimized renders captured directly from the current WebGL airport model: a wide establishing view, a genuine forty-five-degree camera orbit around the scene’s vertical Y-axis, and a close runway-threshold view. The teaser now crossfades between those authentic camera positions instead of rotating or tilting a completed screenshot, preserves the requested pointer, hover highlight, and explanation sequence, corrects the obsolete Runway 28 label to the model’s actual Runway 27, gives reduced-motion visitors the completed inspection view, and adds regression coverage that forbids future still-image rotation.

Release 522Corrected the 3D Landing Simulator’s mobile chase-camera framing so the unusually high-start scenario no longer pushes the airplane toward the top of the flight deck, replaced the altitude-proportional aim point with a geometrically centered sight line that follows the airplane at every scenario altitude, preserved the established desktop camera, exposed the active framing mode for browser checks, and added deterministic camera tests across the full 430–900 ft starting-altitude range.

Release 521Surfaced licensed real-aircraft photographs directly in every Aircraft Selector result card beside the normalized SVG profile, retained an explicit not-yet-verified placeholder instead of substituting an ambiguous image, added exact-model NXCub and Hummel Multicruiser photographs, expanded the library to 238 configuration mappings and 115 distinct licensed images, preserved creator and license attribution on every card, and added coverage for the new presentation and photo-quality gates.

Release 520Repaired the homepage What’s new row at phone widths by removing the conflicting inherited grid column, sizing each update card to the available panel width, containing long titles, labels, descriptions, and links inside their cards, stacking the compact mobile heading cleanly, preserving one-row horizontal touch and keyboard scrolling, shortening the unusually long Release 519 badge, and adding responsive-layout regression coverage.

Release 519Completed the mobile-only 3D Landing Simulator flight deck by keeping the original RPM and elevator sliders continuously visible inside the full-screen play area; retained the four analog gauges, flap detents, automatic slip, wheel brakes, restart, and pause in the same modal; added an in-modal Guidance drawer for Advice and progressive hints without duplicating any control state; preserved the desktop layout unchanged; added accessible expanded-state, focus, close, Escape, portrait, and short-landscape behavior; and expanded regression coverage for control presence, uniqueness, visibility, guidance access, and desktop isolation.

Release 518Rebuilt the 3D Landing Simulator for phones as a dedicated viewport-sized flight deck; kept the runway, four live analog gauges, flap detents, automatic slip, wheel brakes, restart, and pause together without duplicating control state; added portrait and short-landscape layouts, safe-area support, background page locking, an accessible modal focus boundary, Escape support, and a clearly labeled Close & end control that completes and resets an active attempt; preserved the desktop two-column layout; and added focused markup, state, accessibility, responsive-layout, duplicate-control, and end-at-close regression coverage.

Release 517Expanded the editorial discussion seed from 48 to 53 messages—about ten percent—with two original, threaded conversations about landing technique and unfamiliar-airport taxiing plus one unanswered CFI debrief prompt; distributed the added activity from October 12 through November 5; drew only high-level inspiration from current public aviation discussions while writing entirely original text and retaining private provenance; changed seed-marker handling so additions append under stable IDs without replacing earlier starters or orphaning real visitor replies; populated the local discussion store; and added count, chronology, topic distribution, threading, incremental-seed, database, homepage-update, release-note, and release regression coverage.

Release 516Corrected the 3D towered-airport homepage teaser so its flat overhead capture represents level airport-world yaw with an in-plane forty-five-degree rotation instead of a card-like CSS perspective tilt; preserved the requested sequence of rotation, runway-threshold zoom, pointer arrival, feature highlight, and explanatory callout; removed perspective and preserve-3D styling; corrected the reduced-motion end state; and added regression coverage that rejects future X- or Y-axis teaser tilt.

Release 515Re-audited all ten Release 513 sectional additions at the exact learner-facing crop; retained only Cape May’s complete unmanned-aircraft-activity mark and Meteor Crater’s closed hachured depression; retired the crossed-line hang-glider crop, text-only TRSA name, non-unique TRSA altitude block, clipped Special Awareness notice, mixed foreshore pattern, text-only space-operations notation, cluttered salt-pan pattern, and duplicate Maximum Elevation Figure; corrected the live pool to 218 examples covering 149 of 331 named meanings (45.02%) across 58 real chart areas; made the game preload and decode each chart and wait for two browser paint frames before starting its zoom or timer; added an accessible loading state, retry-safe load cache, failure handling, permanent retired-ID checks, audit documentation, What’s New, release-note, and release regression coverage.

Release 514Kept the homepage What’s new section to one horizontally scrollable row; limited its displayed feed to the 12 newest entries; added touch, mouse, trackpad, and keyboard-friendly overflow; preserved the complete historical record on the Release Notes page; and added permanent item-limit, one-row, accessibility, CSS, What’s New, release-note, and release regression coverage.

Release 513Introduced a ten-candidate Sectional Symbols batch covering hang-glider activity, two TRSA details, unmanned-aircraft activity, Special Awareness Training, crater, foreshore flat, space operations, salt pans, and Maximum Elevation Figure. Release 515 later superseded the original admission decision after a stricter exact-game-view audit retained two unmistakable additions and removed eight text-dependent, mixed, or duplicate prompts.

Release 512Expanded the Sectional Symbols Challenge with ten genuinely new meanings: swamp, ferry slip, towered joint civil-military airport, dam, aerial cableway or conveyor, VFR advisory service, ferry, causeway, seaplane base without fuel, and lookout tower; added nine current FAA chart areas; compared every accepted learner ring side by side across the retained FAA raster, shipped SVG, and printed FAA legend; rejected a duplicate wildlife-refuge example and weak race-track, Mode C veil, VFR-waypoint, and substation candidates; increased the live pool to 216 reviewed examples covering 147 of 331 named meanings (44.41%) across 56 chart areas; and added exact crop, chart, answer, count, audit, What’s New, release-note, and release regression coverage.

Release 511Expanded the Sectional Symbols Challenge with two genuinely new meanings: the gray foreign-airport symbol at London (CYXU) and the Badlands National Park conservation boundary; added two current FAA chart areas; compared each accepted learner ring side by side across the retained FAA raster, shipped SVG, and printed FAA legend; rejected a duplicate U.S. route marker and ambiguous state-boundary, dam, glacier, and divided-highway candidates; increased the live pool to 206 reviewed examples covering 137 of 331 named meanings (41.39%) across 47 chart areas; and added exact crop, chart, answer, count, audit, What’s New, release-note, and release regression coverage.

Release 510Expanded the Sectional Symbols Challenge with three genuinely new meanings: a Johnstown populated-place circle, the labeled United States–Canada international boundary, and Essex/Billing Airstrip’s public-use landmark-value airport symbol; added a current FAA Windsor / Detroit border chart area; compared every accepted learner ring side by side across the retained FAA raster, shipped SVG, and printed legend; rejected duplicate and mixed-feature candidates; increased the live pool to 204 reviewed examples covering 135 of 331 named meanings (40.79%) across 45 chart areas; and added exact crop, chart, answer, count, audit, and release regression coverage.

Release 509Expanded the Sectional Symbols Challenge with a quality-first two-meaning batch: admitted KLOWD as an RNAV waypoint and a tightly isolated Cozad non-perennial stream only after exact retained-FAA-raster, shipped-SVG, learner-ring, and printed-legend comparison; increased the live pool to 201 reviewed examples covering 132 of 331 named meanings (39.88%) across 44 chart areas; documented the larger rejected candidate set; and added exact crop, answer, legend-reference, count, and audit regression coverage.

Release 508Rebuilt the 3D Landing Simulator side-view distance cues: the camera now continuously fits the aircraft, ground, runway threshold, and touchdown area on approach, follows a bounded runway window during rollout, preserves the established linear uncompressed vertical scale, adds low-cost constant-screen-size white edge, green threshold, and red runway-end lights, and shows a restrained expanding locator only when the physically framed aircraft is too small to identify; added focused mathematical and integration coverage.

Release 507Made both 3D engine-cutaway RPM sliders exponential without changing the literal engine model; reserved the first quarter of slider travel for roughly the slowest four percent of each engine range; added tenth-RPM selection below 100 RPM; preserved presets, synchronized limits, inertia, and engine-specific maxima; exposed actual RPM to assistive technology; and added focused mathematical and integration coverage.

Release 506Added consistent keyboard aircraft controls to Flight Forces and the 3D Landing Simulator: Up/Down command nose-up/nose-down elevator, Left/Right reduce/increase power, 0 retracts flaps, 1–4 select successive flap detents, S holds the forward slip, and B holds wheel brakes in the lander; protected form editing from global shortcuts; added compact desktop shortcut maps; and added focused regression and browser coverage.

Release 505Reversed the Flight Forces elevator slider so the left side commands nose-up elevator and the right side commands nose-down; made the direction explicit beside the control; preserved the established positive-up aerodynamic sign convention and the published 28° up/23° down travel; and added focused regression coverage.

Release 504Prevented changing Flight Forces readouts from reflowing the page by reserving responsive, fixed-height space for wind, power, gear, slip, turbulence, flap, efficiency, and status text; isolated live-text layout and paint work; adopted tabular numerals for changing values; and added regression coverage for every stabilized region.

Release 503Reorganized the Flight Forces page header so its title and explanation have a clean two-column reading order; moved the interactive aircraft picker into a separate compact configuration bar; added deliberate desktop, laptop, and phone layouts; and added regression coverage preventing form controls from returning to the informational header.

Release 502Rebuilt the 3D Landing Simulator quality score around current FAA Airplane Flying Handbook and Private Pilot ACS criteria the activity can honestly observe: a stabilized three-degree approach at 1.3 VSO within +10/−5 knots, descent-rate control, aircraft-specific touchdown speed, runway-relative touchdown rate, main-wheel landing attitude, the specified touchdown point and 400-foot normal or 200-foot short-field tolerance, recovered-bounce deductions, and runway remaining. Removed the former fixed 58-knot/90-ft-min guesses and artificial 55-percent floor; separated first touchdown from final stopping position; added a six-part result breakdown, aircraft-specific configuration, durable score-version history, go-around reset behavior, learner-facing source links, and focused regression tests.

Release 501Added a 100-point completion score based on 36 explicit coverage units across all 27 tracked activities, including each Coordinate Hunt mode, FAR/AIM bank, and 3D Landing Simulator level; persisted mode and level interaction in activity records; expanded pilot profiles with a detailed completion map; and separated the public leaderboard into performance, participation, and completion rankings with legacy backfill and focused integration tests.

Release 500Added persistent thumbs-up and thumbs-down voting to every discussion comment, limited each browser identity to one changeable vote per comment, collapsed comments only after at least five votes with a 75% negative share and a three-vote negative margin, kept collapsed comments revealable, omitted them from previews, removed orphaned votes with deleted comments, migrated votes during identity merges, and added focused integration coverage.

Release 499Added a durable unified participation system spanning quizzes, games, 3D interactives, aircraft tools, searchable PHAK study, and discussions; introduced per-handle profile pages with 27-section tried/completed coverage, participation points, training score, and visible discussion history; credited threads and replies with bounded daily awards; and imported existing activity, result, and discussion records on first profile access.

Release 498Made the 3D Landing Simulator wheel-brake control light red at rest and dark red while held, and the automatic-slip control light yellow at rest and dark amber while held, with readable labels and persistent mobile visibility.

Release 497Expanded the internal EJS component library with reusable actions, form fields, content panels, and native dialog shells; migrated Contact, lost-handle recovery, Aviation Events, Flight Forces, and the 3D Landing Simulator; consolidated shared form and dialog structure; and strengthened escaping, allowlisting, accessibility, and integration checks.

Release 496Started an internal EJS component library with shared aircraft picker, range-control, switch, and badge components; migrated Flight Forces and the 3D Landing Simulator; centralized structural CSS; documented adoption rules; and added component-level safety and accessibility checks.

Release 495Kept the 3D Landing Simulator aircraft model selector compact on desktop while preserving its full-width, touch-friendly phone layout.

Release 494Fixed the homepage “Who’s on now?” panel so it records and displays the current visitor immediately, includes live browser heartbeats in the server response, avoids duplicate handles, and remains useful during temporary network or storage delays.

Release 493Reduced public CSS work; generated a public-only bundle without homepage or private-dashboard rules, merged navigation icons and the cinematic background into one request, normalized page-specific cache keys, and added targeted HTTP 103 stylesheet hints.

Release 492Made cross-page navigation faster; consolidated the shared stylesheet under one cache key, extended immutable caching to every release-versioned asset, delayed nonessential live messaging and offscreen discussion requests, and added bounded intent-based page prefetching.

Release 491Added all 13 confirmed EAA SportAir workshop stops; included dates, locations, scheduled subjects, first-party registration links, a dedicated workshop filter, and updated homepage event discovery.

Release 490Updated the homepage “What’s new” panel with the latest question-and-sectional accuracy audit and made homepage summary freshness a permanent, release-blocking validation requirement.

Release 489Audited every current question and sectional flag; corrected three question sources and explanations, added two clearer diagrams, fixed the misplaced Beatrice VOR crop, and tightened two ambiguous sectional views.

Release 488Upgraded detailed quiz reports with a personal missed-subject review plan, source-precision labels, honest FAR/AIM explanation previews, repaired PHAK deep links, and complete validation of every active question reference.

Release 487Added a curated “What’s new” homepage panel that highlights meaningful visitor-facing upgrades, beginning with the expanded 24-scene Cloud Identification activity.

Release 486Expanded Cloud Identification from 16 to 24 optimized, horizon-context training scenes, added five carefully curated transition cases, and made the 10-question no-repeat random draw explicit in the interface and regression tests.

Release 485Changed Cloud Identification transition scenes from cumulative AND scoring to single-choice OR scoring, with full credit for either accepted classification and feedback naming the additional correct answer.

Release 484Moved the 3D Landing Simulator live status and advice banner out of the runway view and into a reserved responsive toolbar, preserving warning colors without blocking the approach.

Release 483Corrected the 3D Landing Simulator mobile elevator gesture so swiping up pushes forward/nose down and swiping down pulls back/nose up, with an explicit on-screen gesture cue.

Release 482Made stalls physically and visibly real in the 3D Landing Simulator with pre-stall warning, separated-flow hysteresis, buffet, lift loss, an immediate Cessna-style nose-down break, recoverable high-altitude behavior, and stall-impact handling.

Release 481Rebuilt the 3D Landing Simulator for phones with an unobstructed flight window, a separate four-gauge instrument dock, large touch controls, full-screen side view, and axis-locked swipe controls for elevator and power.

Release 480Changed discussion avatars to resolve from each author’s current profile at render time, so changing an icon updates previous posts and visible previews together.

Release 479Moved the complete Featured experiences carousel directly beneath the Sport and Private Pilot quiz hero on the homepage.

Release 478Changed support-tier marks into tiny inline propeller indicators that stay attached to each discussion handle on the homepage and discussion board.

Release 477Corrected oversized identity and support-tier icons in the homepage general-discussion preview, including tighter phone sizing.

Release 476Removed the two-stroke running RPM label from the 3D engine-cutaway homepage teaser while preserving its gradual speed animation.

Release 475Removed the redundant actual-running-tool badge from the 3D engine-cutaway homepage teaser.

Release 474Made the 3D engine-cutaway homepage teaser continuously accelerate and decelerate between 500 and 2,200 RPM using the full two-stroke engine inertia curve.

Release 473Corrected the 3D towered-airport homepage teaser so the airport tilts around the Y-axis in perspective before zooming into the runway-end hover demonstration.

Release 472Renamed the homepage activity showcase to “Featured experiences” and corrected its supporting text width, alignment, and wrapping across desktop and mobile layouts.

Release 471Added a server-rendered homepage calendar component showing aviation events overlapping the next 30 days, with responsive event cards and direct links that open each event on the full calendar.

Release 470Added a server-calculated “Most popular activities” homepage widget that ranks real quiz, game, selector, 3D interactive, searchable PHAK, and discussion activity from the rolling previous seven days.

Release 469Added the published-data Cessna 182E as a selectable alternate aircraft in Flight Forces and the 3D Landing Simulator, using one documented aircraft definition across both tools while keeping aircraft-specific landing progress separate. Sonex was deliberately excluded because its published data do not provide the full dynamics needed for a defensible model.

Release 468Rebuilt the engine audio into independently testable RPM-driven ignition/combustion, pulse-modulated exhaust, crankcase/mechanical, and propeller layers, with stronger perceptual loudness compensation for the deeper four-stroke spectrum and complete coast-down sound.

Release 467Moved the Cessna 172N physical, performance, aerodynamic, control, landing, and visualization settings into one validated aircraft JSON definition shared by Flight Forces and the 3D Landing Simulator.

Release 466Replaced the invented SVG engine homepage teaser with two optimized captures made directly from the real running two-stroke cutaway at 2,200 RPM, crossfading between genuine interactive camera angles.

Release 465Corrected the 3D towered-airport homepage teaser into an explicit sequence: rotate the overhead airport 45 degrees, pause, zoom into the Runway 28 threshold, move the pointer onto it, and only then reveal the hover highlight and explanation.

Release 464Converted Flight Forces forward slips from fixed angles, drag, lift penalties, and minimum descent to a C172 lateral force-balance model whose crossed controls produce sideslip, side force, wing-low bank, projected-area drag, and drag-power altitude loss.

Release 463Made the homepage General site discussion preview use uncached runtime records and refresh itself while the visible page remains open.

Release 462Changed live visitor messaging to identify the administrator as “Kohesion (Matthew Baker - site owner)” with Kohesion message bylines.

Release 461Expanded aviation identity choices from 12 to 64 stable named SVG icons and made the full chooser independently scrollable on desktop and mobile.

Release 460Animated every visible engine gear and pulley from crankshaft phase using tooth-count or pulley-radius ratios, correct mesh directions, engagement-aware starter motion, and readable rotation marks.

Release 459Added automatically framed isolated 3D views of hovered, tapped, and selected parts to both engine-cutaway description panels.

Release 458Rebalanced four-stroke engine and propeller audio and restored its 26.7 Hz idle blade-pass layer without compromising full-volume limiting.

Release 457Corrected four-stroke exhaust flow so smoke travels once from the cylinder through the valve, header, muffler, and tailpipe without wrapping backward.

Release 456Removed the remaining high-RPM solid piston substitute so both engine cutaways keep their real piston and connecting rod animated at every speed.

Release 455Kept the two-stroke piston fully animated at every RPM and added RPM-driven mechanical shutdown audio that continues until the engine reaches rest.

Release 454Replaced the homepage Landing Simulator illustration with an actual running-game capture showing the chase view, side view, gauges, runway, aircraft shadow, warning, and touchdown data.

Release 453Replaced the homepage Flight Forces imitation with a tightly framed capture from the actual running Three.js interactive, showing the real Cessna, terrain, and force vectors.

Release 452Turned the 3D airport teaser into a staged demonstration that rotates 30 degrees, zooms into the Runway 28 threshold, moves a pointer onto it, and explains the markings.

Release 451Reserved a readable date column in discussion-board teaser cards and truncated long handles instead of squeezing dates.

Release 450Reduced aviation profile icons to compact mobile identity hints across discussions, previews, leaderboards, recent presence, the handle toolbar, and live visitor messaging.

Release 449Added durable live visitor messaging with visibility-aware presence, a private administrator conversation dashboard, optional on-page replies, adaptive polling, saved read state, and identity-merge continuity.

Release 448Added seven lifetime-spending support tiers with aviation badges, stronger comment typography, identity-linked purchases, historical verified-email matching, and a permanent Helper floor for Kohesion.

Release 447Removed the unnecessary “What I do here” section from the About Matthew page.

Release 446Added lost-handle access requests with conflict redirects, preserved discussion drafts, private identity-linked records, administrator text alerts, and dashboard review.

Release 445Replaced the About Matthew approach statement with a direct note about constant, small improvements adding up to something significant over time.

Release 444Restored the Aircraft Finder with six-month current and sold views, permanent price history, permission-gated imports, and record-specific photo storage.

Release 443Added compact topic-specific SVG icons to every global navigation category and menu item, with shared cached artwork and responsive alignment.

Release 442Removed the unwanted caption beneath the coffee photo on the About Matthew page.

Release 441Removed the unwanted caption beneath the city photo on the About Matthew page.

Release 440Added twelve selectable aviation profile icons stored by stable semantic name and displayed with handles throughout the site.

Release 439Added private administrator identity tools for claiming Kohesion on the current browser and safely merging duplicate profiles with linked-record reassignment, alias retirement, and an audit log.

Release 438Expanded the aviation calendar from seven to seventeen verified events, adding factory workshops and open-hangar days, public aircraft-auction dates, a skiplane fly-in, and regional GA gatherings with dedicated filters.

Release 437Kept “3D Interactives” as the navigation category while shortening every child item to a clean, consistent label without redundant “3D” prefixes.

Release 436Rewrote the About Matthew origin story around learning in public, building interactives for personal study, and sharing that journey with other learners.

Release 435Removed another unwanted transition from the About Matthew biography.

Release 434Removed the living-small paragraph from the About Matthew biography.

Release 433Removed an overly sentimental transition from the About Matthew biography so the interests section stays direct and matter-of-fact.

Release 432Added animated homepage teaser cards for the model-based Cessna 172 Flight Forces diagram and the six-level 3D Landing Simulator, expanding the daily shuffled showcase to eight activities.

Release 431Added a shared Sport and Private Pilot L/Dmax question covering maximum aerodynamic efficiency, minimum total drag, and common lift/drag misconceptions.

Release 430Added a shared Sport and Private Pilot Vx-versus-Vy question with the FAA absolute-ceiling caveat and a direct PHAK climb-performance link.

Release 429Added lightweight topic-specific SVG icons to all 23 homepage discussion teasers, with a safe generic fallback for future or unknown topics.

Release 428Balanced the homepage activity-showcase subtitle across responsive widths so its right-side controls no longer force awkward line breaks or orphan words.

Release 427Removed obsolete release-history checks and redundant implementation-detail assertions from the validation suite while retaining tests for behavior, safety, data integrity, accessibility, performance, and aviation accuracy.

Release 426Added a deterministic month-and-day shuffle for the six homepage activity teasers, with one shared daily order across desktop, mobile, visual layout, and keyboard navigation.

Release 425Rebuilt the homepage 3D airport teaser around a slow turn of the complete airport scene, removing the fake control-tower selection and rotating yellow orbit marker.

Release 424Kept the homepage presence panel populated with Kohesion when the last hour is empty and stable privacy-safe “Unknown ####” markers for recent activity that has no usable handle.

Release 423Shortened the public and administrator discussion badge for editorial starter comments from “Starter” to “S” while preserving the database starter flag and stored provenance.

Release 422Added separate Private Pilot ACS and post-MOSAIC Sport Pilot PTS practice tracks, each split into process and ASEL flight-standard quizzes with 107 source-linked questions.

Release 421Replaced the Flight Forces interactive’s hand-weighted efficiency score with a direct L/D × propeller-efficiency ÷ BSFC range model, plus separate fuel-flow, endurance, air-range, ground-MPG, ground-MPH, drag, and propulsion measures.

Release 420Moved the landing simulator’s challenge and result information panel to the right on desktop, preserving the runway view, with a compact bottom sheet on phones.

Release 419Kept Level 1 landing hints free and added durable server-verified $1 PayPal unlocks for the five solution hints on each later level, using a locally held random entitlement token whose one-way hash is retained with the verified capture.

Release 418Added five model-verified progressive hints to every landing challenge, revealing one per click and reducing that level’s available score by ten percent for each hint used.

Release 417Kept Restart level and Pause available in every landing-simulator state instead of letting the general flight-control lockout gray them out.

Release 416Kept the landing simulator controllable through rebounds, allowing a softened next contact to settle or a powered climb to become a go-around instead of locking every control.

Release 415Made landing-simulator progression resumable by saving completed and current levels, resuming at the saved challenge, enabling unlocked-level replay, and adding a confirmed start-over control.

Release 414Corrected landing-simulator touchdown grading so 181–340 ft/min is firm but controlled instead of an automatic bounce failure, with higher-energy and hard-impact bands modeled separately.

Release 413Kept the landing-simulator elevator readout on one stable line so 0.0° NEUTRAL no longer wraps or changes the control-row size.

Release 412Removed all landing-simulator vertical compression by equalizing the primary scene axes and making the side camera zoom out to frame one linear height scale from approach through touchdown.

Release 411Kept learners on their current landing-simulator level after a failed landing, preserving every unlocked scenario and replacing the Level 1 reset with an immediate same-level retry.

Release 410Replaced immediate bounced-landing failure with a visible, damped three-contact sequence driven by retained vertical impact energy, followed by the result panel only after the final runway contact.

Release 409Corrected the 3D landing simulator’s Cessna-style flap response with gradual electric travel, an initially trimmed configuration, progressive pitch-up on extension and pitch-down on retraction, and coupled lift, drag, airspeed, and flight-path changes.

Release 408Restored the 3D landing simulator’s Restart level control after a crash while keeping the other flight controls locked until the level is restarted.

Release 407Kept desktop navigation labels such as 3D Interactives on one line, with clean ellipsis overflow when horizontal space is constrained.

Release 406Added Chase and Pilot primary-camera views to the 3D landing simulator, with an aircraft-attached eye point and attitude-correct horizon while retaining the synchronized side view.

Release 405Corrected the 3D landing simulator side view to use the Cessna model as its physical near-runway height scale, with live sink rate shown during the flare.

Release 404Added a synchronized runway-side camera to the 3D landing simulator so learners can watch pitch, wheel height, flare, main-wheel contact, and rollout while retaining the original chase view.

Release 403Made all four analog gauges in the 3D landing simulator substantially larger: 136-pixel faces on desktop and 96-pixel faces on phones, with proportionally larger needles, hubs, altimeter hands, and AGL labeling.

Release 402Made the flight-forces gear comparison visibly change groundspeed: animated gear drag now uses an independently tested force model, the gauge retains tenths of a knot, and the control reports measured groundspeed change from the instant each gear selection is made.

Release 401Corrected neutral-elevator behavior in the Cessna flight-forces interactive: the reset condition now begins at a calculated lift-and-moment equilibrium, body pitch is no longer double-counted as climb rate, and the interface distinguishes an aligned elevator from level-flight trim.

Release 400Converted the side-view diagram’s crash and unrecoverable-flight thresholds to an energy-based recovery envelope. Airspeed, sink, bank, rotation, separated flow, roll/reattachment time, and load-limited pullout geometry now determine whether enough altitude remains; gravity and aerodynamic drag then govern any terminal fall.

Release 399Corrected the Cessna side-view ground-velocity vector. Total airspeed is now split into vertical and horizontal components before automatic crab, crosswind, and headwind or tailwind are applied, so steep climbs and descents correctly reduce horizontal speed, groundspeed, and landscape motion.

Release 398Corrected the landing simulator’s elevator sign convention, expanded its approach/roundout/flare coaching, and made the altitude shadow grow, darken, sharpen, and converge beneath the airplane near touchdown. A novice-guidance regression now verifies an accepted Level 1 flare and main-wheel-first touchdown.

Release 397Converted the Cessna flight-forces propwash from a fixed whole-wing RPM multiplier to an actuator-disk momentum model. Actual thrust, propeller disk area, density, and airspeed now determine induced velocity; only the washed root-wing and tail receive the local dynamic pressure, with matching lift, induced-drag, elevator-authority, trim, live-diagnostic, and numerical-test updates.

Release 396Rebuilt the Cessna 172N flap system as thin tracked single-slot surfaces with correct full downward deflection, aft-and-down travel, a visible slot and tracks, realistic extension/retraction timing, and continuously interpolated lift, drag, stall, efficiency, speed-limit, and pitching-moment effects from the actual intermediate position.

Release 395Strengthened the flight-forces landscape’s altitude perspective with a bounded inverse-distance-style power curve. Ground features now grow progressively faster below 1,000 feet and become more than six times their 2,500-foot apparent size near the surface, with smooth easing and a stable touchdown cap.

Release 394Renamed the shared Diagrams navigation collection to 3D Interactives while preserving its existing address, activity links, active-menu behavior, breadcrumbs, and search indexing.

Release 393Replaced the landing simulator’s mixed airspeed and descent shortcuts with one testable Cessna 172N-style point-mass model, including coupled lift, drag, thrust, weight, pitch inertia, stall break, and ground-roll forces plus numerical regression tests.

Release 392Added an optional Advice mode to the landing simulator with immediate corrective actions for dangerous or unstable conditions and neutral observations when coaching is disabled.

Release 391Lengthened the first landing-simulator challenge runway to 1.5 statute miles, keeping its display, pavement geometry, remaining-distance calculation, and tests consistent.

Release 390Added a ground-projected aircraft shadow to the landing simulator as an altitude cue. It follows the airplane over terrain extended beneath every approach, uses a restrained sun-direction offset, spreads and fades higher up, becomes darker near touchdown, and remains framed with the airplane by the chase camera.

Release 389Replaced the landing simulator’s wheel-brake percentage slider with a large press-and-hold brake-pedal button. Mouse, touch, and keyboard users apply full braking only while holding it; releasing, pausing, losing focus, or leaving the challenge releases the brakes.

Release 388Replaced the landing simulator’s plain numeric instrument boxes with the project’s detailed aircraft-style airspeed indicator, three-hand altimeter, signed vertical-speed indicator, and tachometer. Their live needles now follow the simulation state, exact values remain available to assistive technology without visible digital boxes, and distance-to-threshold has moved to the runway-status strip.

Release 387Converted the side-view diagram’s power-related pitch behavior from assigned visual angles to a longitudinal pitching-moment model. UIUC Cessna 172 stability, elevator-control and pitch-rate derivatives now combine with dynamic pressure, mean aerodynamic chord, pitch inertia, thrust-line moment, gear moment, and separated-flow control authority; the calculated angular acceleration integrates into pitch rate and aircraft attitude, and level-flight trim solves the elevator required to balance the same moments.

Release 386Corrected the side-view diagram’s elevator control to the certified 172N range of 28° up and 23° down. Elevator surface deflection and wing angle of attack are now separate states: the visible surface moves through its complete travel in the correct direction, while the wing responds smoothly and the level-flight helper converts its safe AoA solution into a physical elevator command.

Release 385Made the side-view landscape respond to altitude. Climbing now smoothly zooms the terrain outward to show smaller, more numerous ground features and reduces their apparent screen speed using the same calculated groundspeed; descending reverses both perspective cues without changing the actual groundspeed gauge.

Release 384Made the side-view diagram’s level-flight trim helper stall-safe. It now keeps a five-degree angle-of-attack margin below the modeled critical angle, commands a lower recovery attitude when clicked during a stall, and declines impossible level-flight trim solutions instead of pulling the wing into separated flow.

Release 383Replaced the side-view diagram’s simplified vertical-speed gauge with a detailed instrument derived from the project’s existing VSI artwork. The simulator-specific face now shows explicit −2/−1 descent and +1/+2 climb scales, DESC/CLIMB labels, a correctly mapped live needle, and an unambiguous signed feet-per-minute readout.

Release 382Added a live groundspeed gauge to the Cessna side-view flight diagram. Airspeed, groundspeed, vertical speed, and automatic crab/track information now occupy a responsive instrument dock outside the 3D scene, leaving the airplane and force vectors unobstructed while preserving a compact above-the-fold laptop layout.

Release 381Converted wind-tunnel turbulence and buffeting from arbitrary random targets and periodic motion to a Dryden-style colored-gust model. Longitudinal, lateral, and vertical gust velocities now use explicit RMS intensity, altitude-dependent scale length, and airspeed-dependent traversal time; those shared gust states drive dynamic pressure, angle of attack, gust load, bank, yaw, control-surface response, stall wing drop, and efficiency. Stall buffet now uses filtered short-scale noise without inventing lift or altitude.

Release 380Added a progressive 3D landing simulator with a chase-camera view aligned to Runway 18, a Cessna-style aerodynamic model, RPM, elevator, flaps, brakes, a computer-coordinated forward slip, PAPI guidance, stall and speed-limit monitoring, touchdown-energy and bounce checks, realistic landing roll and runway-overrun logic, six increasingly difficult scenarios, saved participation points, activity notifications, discussion and feedback integration, and dedicated automated coverage.

Release 379Expanded the wind-tunnel landing-gear comparison beyond its animation. Raising the representative retractable gear now removes its parasite-drag contribution, increases available acceleration and climb energy, adds a small smoothly blended trim/pitch response, and lets the resulting airspeed change propagate into lift, vertical trend, and efficiency. The live gear readout exposes each effect while the page continues to state clearly that the modeled Cessna 172N itself has fixed landing gear.

Release 378Added fully hinged animated flight-control surfaces to the Cessna wind-tunnel model. Both flaps now move smoothly to the selected setting, left and right ailerons deflect oppositely for bank and forward-slip inputs, and the rudder responds to crossed-control slips, automatic crosswind correction, and yaw damping.

Release 377Corrected the wind-tunnel forward slip so holding the control now causes unmistakable altitude loss. Slip-specific parasite drag is converted into an airspeed-dependent energy-loss rate, effective lift remains reduced, and a smoothly increasing descent constraint prevents the normal climb blend from masking the maneuver while preserving gradual aircraft response.

Release 376Calibrated the wind-tunnel landscape to calculated groundspeed. The distant farmland now uses an independent real-world background scale—one full field-and-road repeat represents roughly 900 feet—so cruise motion remains proportional to knots without inheriting the close-up airplane model’s much faster visual scale.

Release 375Corrected the wind-tunnel landscape direction. Forward and lateral terrain motion now travels opposite the airplane’s complete groundspeed vector, so fields and roads move backward beneath the right-facing aircraft instead of appearing to accompany it.

Release 374Added an unmistakable full-diagram stall warning: the wind-tunnel viewport now flashes a bright yellow border throughout an aerodynamic stall, stops the pulse for terminal loss-of-control or impact states, and provides a steady high-visibility border for reduced-motion users.

Release 373Replaced the wind-tunnel’s simplified airspeed dial with the project’s detailed Cessna-style instrument face, including a realistic 0-to-200-knot scale, white/green/yellow operating arcs, red never-exceed marking, metal bezel, and a correctly mapped live needle.

Release 372Added progressive high-altitude physiology to the flight-forces simulator. FAA oxygen-use thresholds now drive a clearly labeled compressed training clock, visible oxygen and hypoxia states, tunnel-vision progression, pilot incapacitation, a time-compressed uncontrolled descent, and a stopped ground-impact result whose cause identifies hypoxia.

Release 371Corrected the wind-tunnel stall teaching model: the warning and aerodynamic stall now depend on proximity to a representative FAA-grounded 16-degree critical angle of attack, not merely proximity to the calculated 1-G stall-speed reference. Low-speed, modest-AoA flight now reports insufficient lift and descent without falsely declaring a stall, and the live reference shows both speed and AoA margins.

Release 370Added a press-and-hold forward-slip control to the Cessna wind-tunnel diagram. Pointer and keyboard holds smoothly cross-control the airplane, while the model applies slip-specific lift loss, parasite drag, stall-speed, descent-rate, airspeed, heading, efficiency, and live-readout effects; releasing the control smoothly restores coordinated flight.

Release 369Replaced the wind-tunnel’s overlapping flat grid and painted terrain bands with one coherent Three.js landscape: a textured patchwork of fields, hedgerows, crop rows, and a road, with subtle distant relief and seamless groundspeed/crosswind motion.

Release 368Moved the vertical-speed indicator into the wind-tunnel viewport so both live flight gauges stay above the fold with the airplane; desktop places airspeed and vertical speed together across the upper-left, phones stack the compact gauges beside the altitude ribbon, and the now-empty below-diagram instrument section was removed.

Release 367Removed the redundant round altimeter from below the wind-tunnel diagram: altitude remains continuously visible on the full-height ribbon beside the airplane, the supporting panel now contains only a centered vertical-speed indicator, and the unused altimeter rendering work and styles are gone.

Release 366Rebuilt the wind-tunnel stall behavior around a persistent aerodynamic state: pre-stall buffet no longer moves the airplane vertically, separated flow now causes a smooth one-way lift break and docile nose drop, altitude loss continues through the stall, scripted oscillating lift and roll are gone, and recovery requires the pilot to hold angle of attack below a distinct reattachment threshold before lift and pitch recover.

Release 365Added automatic ground-track hold to the wind-tunnel diagram: crosswind now produces a calculated into-wind crab angle, the airplane visibly yaws to the corrected heading, lateral drift is canceled whenever available airspeed permits, along-track speed reflects the correction, and a live plan-view indicator compares heading with ground track.

Release 364Recalibrated the wind-tunnel flight model against the 1978 Cessna 172N POH: the live airspeed indicator now responds across the modeled envelope, 2,100–2,500 RPM cruise settings use the published 94–116-knot performance rows, clean and full-flap stalls anchor at 50 and 44 knots, power-off glide anchors at 65 KIAS, maximum climb follows the altitude-dependent POH table, and a new asset version prevents an older cached needle from appearing stuck.

Release 363Corrected the wind-tunnel airspeed indicator geometry so its needle now follows the visible half-circle scale exactly: 0 KIAS points straight up at zero, 90 KIAS points right, and 180 KIAS points down, with no below-zero needle position.

Release 362Added an explicitly labeled retractable-landing-gear comparison to the wind-tunnel diagram: the gear now extends and retracts visibly, contributes live parasite drag, changes equilibrium airspeed and lift through dynamic pressure, affects climb or sink and efficiency, and reports drag, speed trend, and lift together without misrepresenting the fixed-gear Cessna 172N.

Release 361Removed the moving horizontal tick lines from the wind-tunnel altitude ribbon to eliminate the flashing white-line effect while retaining readable altitude numbers, the current-altitude pointer, and climb or descent trend.

Release 360Connected the wind-tunnel terrain to the airplane’s calculated ground-velocity vector: forward motion now scales with airspeed and headwind or tailwind, crosswind produces proportional lateral terrain motion, zero groundspeed stops the grid, and the repeating model-scale grid moves continuously without visible edges.

Release 359Moved the live airspeed indicator into the wind-tunnel viewport beside the airplane so it remains above the fold on desktop and mobile, while keeping altitude and vertical speed in a compact supporting panel below.

Release 358Fixed the wind-tunnel crash sequence so ground impact remains stopped and visible: the hidden restart control is no longer accidentally activated when flight controls are disabled, restart appears after a short result pause, and a fresh pointer or keyboard action is required.

Release 357Added a gradual Cessna-like pitch response to power changes in the wind-tunnel diagram: reducing RPM now lets the nose settle, increasing power adds a modest nose-up tendency, and elevator input remains the primary pitch control.

Release 356Simplified the wind-tunnel instrument panel to the three gauges needed for this lesson—airspeed, altimeter, and vertical-speed indicator—and removed the unused gauge rendering work.

Release 355Moved the wind-tunnel stall annunciator from the lift-vector centerline to the upper-right corner so it never obscures the lift arrow or its label.

Release 354Kept every wind-tunnel force vector and its complete label inside the visible canvas by projection-testing the current camera and responsively shortening extreme arrows on desktop, short screens, and phones.

Release 353Added a recoverable-to-terminal loss-of-control progression to the wind-tunnel simulation: a sustained turbulent deep stall can develop into a steep downward spiral, then fall to ground impact, show the cause, stop the simulation, and offer a restart.

Release 352Added a terminal ground-impact state to the wind-tunnel simulation: reaching zero altitude now shows a crash, freezes physics and controls, records impact speed and descent rate, and offers a clear restart.

Release 351Standardized every wind-tunnel slider so its label and live value stay together directly above the control at desktop, narrow-window, and phone sizes.

Release 350Removed the direct airflow control and made indicated airspeed respond to thrust, drag, pitch, gravity, weight, and configuration; also corrected power-off flight so a stopped engine enters a visible drag-derived glide descent instead of holding altitude.

Release 349Added a full-height altitude ribbon to the wind-tunnel viewport with a smoothly scrolling 200-foot MSL scale, centered current-altitude window, and concise climb/descent cue.

Release 348Added shaped cabin doors on both sides of the wind-tunnel Cessna, including readable seams, handles and hinges, plus more realistic separated door, rear-cabin, and windshield glazing.

Release 347Added subtle smoothly damped random yaw around the wind-tunnel airplane’s vertical axis, visually increasing realism without changing instrument heading and while respecting reduced-motion preferences.

Release 346Added a separate -30 to +30 knot crosswind control with explicit left/right signs and live lateral-speed, total-groundspeed, and track-drift calculations that preserve indicated airspeed and aerodynamic forces.

Release 345Added a centered -30 to +30 knot wind-component control with clear tailwind/headwind signs and a live groundspeed calculation that does not distort indicated airspeed or lift.

Release 344Coupled wind-tunnel RPM to modest propwash-assisted lift and to excess-power climb or descent, so power now changes both displayed lift and altitude trend.

Release 343Made the wind-tunnel airplane move smoothly toward the top or bottom of the viewport in proportion to its live climb or descent rate, with force vectors following it.

Release 342Marked the interactive Cessna 172 flight-forces diagram as BETA with the site's established badge treatment.

Release 341Rebuilt the wind-tunnel airframe from Cessna 172N three-view proportions, correcting its cabin and cowling profile, tapered tailcone, swept tail, wing span, spring-steel gear stance, and oversized propeller.

Release 340Compacted the wind-tunnel desktop opening so its navigation, title, complete 3D stage, status strip, and all primary controls fit within a typical laptop viewport without scrolling.

Release 339Refined the wind-tunnel Cessna with tapered high-wing and tail geometry, separate flaps and ailerons, mirrored glazing, aircraft lights and trainer details, a physically aligned propeller, and subtle randomized longitudinal-axis motion.

Release 338Made wind-tunnel RPM visibly functional with a true 0 RPM engine-off position, live horsepower and thrust feedback, correctly scaled thrust arrows, RPM-dependent propeller blur, and stopped-engine instrument behavior.

Release 337Corrected and made explicit the complete-engine combustion-event calculation, prevented dual spark plugs from being double-counted, and gave the two-stroke tuned exhaust a distinct sharper resonance while preserving a deeper four-stroke character.

Release 336Changed engine audio to representative complete powerplants: a two-cylinder two-stroke and four-cylinder four-stroke, with every firing event included in the synthesized rate.

Release 335Made the high-RPM piston optimization clearly visible on both engine cutaways with a static swept-motion volume, fixed piston silhouettes, and an in-canvas state badge.

Release 334Added a whole-flight efficiency gauge with a drag-crossover index, wing-flow, engine/propeller, configuration, and lift-balance components that respond to every simulator control.

Release 333Added a complete live trainer-style instrument panel to the Cessna wind tunnel: six-pack, magnetic compass, engine, fuel, electrical, suction, flap, and stall indications all respond to the simulated condition.

Release 332Added an interactive 3D Cessna 172N-style wind tunnel with independent airflow and RPM controls, elevator and 0–40° flap inputs, force vectors, aerodynamic calculations, turbulence, flight-limit warnings, stall buffet, and a nose-down stall break.

Release 331Reduced engine-page CPU/GPU load with bounded adaptive resolution, shadow-free lighting, capped rendering, static/offscreen throttling, allocation-free flow updates, and high-RPM transform skipping.

Release 330Removed the two-stroke intake crankcase flash while preserving visible air and fuel flow.

Release 329Added independent complete-propeller visibility switches to both interactive engine cutaways.

Release 328Enabled Control-drag panning in both engine cutaways and added clear visible and accessible instructions.

Release 327Enlarged both detailed and blurred propellers to representative light-aircraft proportions.

Release 326Made the running-engine diagram teaser the first visible homepage showcase card on phones.

Release 325Kept a prepared 15:1 fuel/air charge visible upstream of the closed four-stroke intake valve.

Release 324Delayed diagram mouseover descriptions for one second and faded them in to reduce flashing.

Release 323Gave the reduction to Demo speed a gentler, more natural inertial coast-down.

Release 322Made acceleration and deceleration strength scale with the distance from selected RPM.

Release 321Collapsed the ground-adjustable propeller controls by default with accessible expanders.

Release 320Added an inertial engine and propeller coast-down after ignition is switched off.

Release 319Repaired mobile pinch-to-zoom and separated engine-part taps from touch gestures.

Release 318Added RPM-dependent browser-synthesized combustion and propeller sound with independent volume controls.

Release 317Gave the propeller blur real depth with separated swept planes and a curved outer shell.

Release 316Extended the propeller blur fade through 3,000 propeller RPM and retained a persistent 2% high-speed disc.

Release 315Added a stationary high-RPM piston sweep blur while mixture, combustion, and exhaust animations continue running.

Release 314Moved the mobile engine-part description beneath the 3D canvas so it no longer blocks the engine.

Release 313Fixed the detached-material bug that kept the intermediate propeller blur invisible, then made the working disc darker, stronger, and visible through pattern RPM.

Release 312Engine starts now select the correct idle preset and use a 15-second five-stage sequence so every startup explanation remains visible for at least three seconds.

Release 311Added a clear three-stage propeller display: visible blades, stronger middle-speed motion blur, then near disappearance at very high RPM.

Release 310Added adaptive propeller motion blur: a translucent disc replaces aliased blades above roughly 500 propeller RPM or during sustained low frame rate.

Release 309Added stopped-engine-only pitch-shim controls and visible blade-angle adjustment to both 3D propellers.

Release 308Added running-only, engine-specific Demo, Idle, Pattern, and Cruise RPM presets while preserving gradual engine inertia.

Release 307Moved RPM operating-range help onto the tachometer bands, available by hover, keyboard focus, or touch.

Release 306Removed the requested explanatory line beneath the four-stroke RPM controls.

Release 305Removed the requested explanatory line beneath the two-stroke RPM controls.

Release 304Removed the redundant stopped-engine instruction from the engine visualization.

Release 303Removed the unnecessary completed-start status sentence from the running engine display.

Release 302Moved the four-stroke alternator body, mounts, and wiring aft of its pulley so the direct-drive propeller has full physical clearance.

Release 301Moved each engine’s Start/Stop control and live startup message into its RPM-selection panel.

Release 300Made the selected RPM a hard ceiling throughout engine start, removing the artificial catch-speed surge above low study settings.

Release 299Enlarged both engine propellers and added an interactive stopped-engine pitch-pin and shim mechanism to the reduced-drive three-blade propeller.

Release 298Added engine and propeller inertia so selected RPM changes accelerate and decelerate gradually instead of jumping to the new speed.

Release 297Featured the 3D engine cutaway lab on the homepage with a lightweight running-engine animation and perspective camera orbit.

Release 296Removed the remaining engine-start speed jumps by using one continuous RPM-driven path from starter cranking through first firing, stabilization, and running.

Release 295Made the intake manifolds and exhaust headers slightly transparent so their internal gas-flow animations remain visible.

Release 294Recalibrated four-stroke oil-temperature, CHT, and EGT behavior so low-RPM study operation no longer displays a misleading HOT warning.

Release 293Moved the four-stroke starter motor and electrical connections aft of the ring gear while preserving pinion alignment, giving the direct-drive propeller realistic physical clearance.

Release 292Removed the distracting white square tip blocks from all three blades of the two-stroke propeller while retaining the four-stroke propeller's contrasting tip markings.

Release 291Moved the engine RPM and Start controls directly beneath each interactive cutaway, moved the long part navigator below the operating controls, and removed both redundant gas-flow color-key panels.

Release 290Moved the four-stroke alternator belt and pulleys completely outside the crankcase, with a supported external shaft, aligned mounts, and rerouted charging connections.

Release 289Made two-stroke scavenging visibly retain most of the fresh 15:1 charge above the piston while only a smaller brief branch escapes through the open exhaust; also added physically connected magneto drives and representative charging systems to both engine cutaways.

Release 288Extended the two-stroke 15:1 visualization through crankcase-to-cylinder transfer and scavenging loss, using 15 white air markers for every blue fuel marker.

Release 287Separated carburetor induction into white filtered air and blue float-bowl fuel, with 15 air markers per metered-fuel marker representing an approximate 15:1 air-to-fuel ratio by mass.

Release 286Made the engine RPM control literal and set both cutaways to a 10 RPM slow-motion default so the crankshaft turns at the speed shown.

Release 285Made the engine exhaust animation a denser, evenly spaced continuous stream without the former mid-stroke pause and second puff.

Release 284Replaced the four-stroke engine's single misleading oil loop with separate pressurized-supply, crankcase-splash, and gravity-drain animations, using much smaller and less distracting oil droplets.

Release 283Made four-stroke compression unmistakable: the charge now darkens continuously and becomes progressively denser as the piston compresses it, with a brief on-model compression callout.

Release 282Added two independent spark plugs and complete visible ignition paths to both engine cutaways: a mechanically driven, self-powered magneto plus a battery-powered electronic controller and coil with crank-position and manifold-pressure inputs.

Release 281Rebuilt both engine starts as an explicit continuous sequence: power and ignition preparation, starter-drive engagement, mixture-drawing cranking, first firing with starter assistance, drive release, idle stabilization, oil-pressure verification, and smooth acceleration without a crankshaft-position jump.

Release 280Added a limited fresh-charge short-circuit stream to the ported two-stroke scavenging animation, showing some mixture entering the open exhaust and blending toward exhaust gray.

Release 279Made both engine starting circuits explicit with a heavy red battery-to-starter cable, a separate black battery-negative cable to a bolted crankcase ground, marked terminals, realistic lugs and boots, and individually inspectable circuit paths.

Release 278Added a grouped button for every modeled engine part; selecting one now reveals it when needed, highlights it, explains it, and smoothly zooms the 3D camera in for close inspection.

Release 277Replaced the symbolic carburetor with a detailed inspectable cutaway showing a pleated air filter, choke and throttle butterflies with controls, true venturi, main jet and discharge nozzle, transparent float bowl and fuel level, hinged float, inlet needle and seat, fuel line, fittings, and transparent inline fuel filter.

Release 276Replaced the four-stroke engine's hidden simplified valve mechanism with a complete, camera-facing animated overhead-valve train: phased cam lobes, tappets/lifters, pushrods, rocker arms and shaft, valve guides and seats, helical springs, retainers, keepers, and moving intake/exhaust valves, all individually inspectable.

Release 275Added animated, inspectable propellers to both engine cutaways: a direct-drive two-blade propeller on the four-stroke and an exposed 18:45-tooth 2.5:1 reduction drive powering a three-blade propeller on the two-stroke, with calculated propeller RPM.

Release 274Added continuously adjustable RPM sliders and full-size live tachometers to both animated engines, with engine-specific operating ranges, idle/cruise/caution/redline markings, and correct shared limits during synchronized operation.

Release 273Rebuilt both engine starting drives with individually modeled flywheel ring-gear and pinion teeth, aligned motor and crankshaft axes, axial gear engagement, and an inspectable overrunning roller clutch with a visible helical drive sleeve.

Release 272Added optional engine instrumentation to both 3D cutaways: visible CHT and EGT probes, tach pickups, color-coded harnesses, live cockpit gauges, four-stroke oil-temperature and oil-pressure senders, and a single switch that hides the entire sensor layer.

Release 271Rebuilt the spark plug in both engine cutaways with a ceramic insulator and ribs, terminal, steel hex shell, crush washer, threaded body, center electrode, curved ground strap, visible firing gap, and an ignition lead that meets the terminal.

Release 270Changed the four-stroke induction visualization to one continuous fuel-air draw across the intake stroke instead of cycling the visible flow twice.

Release 269Kept burned exhaust gas continuously dark and dense from the end of combustion through the exhaust stroke, header, muffler, and tailpipe, with gradual fading only after it leaves the visible outlet.

Release 268Added a complete visible four-stroke lubrication circuit with amber sump oil, screened pickup, animated engine-driven gear pump, full-flow filter, pressure galleries, bearing and valve-train feeds, gravity return, running oil-flow animation, and individually identifiable components.

Release 267Moved every engine part description directly beside its 3D cutaway on desktop and into a compact in-diagram panel on phones, keeping identified-part guidance visible without scrolling and preventing description changes from moving the page.

Release 266Stopped engine-cycle page reflow by keeping the changing stroke status compact, reserving fixed header dimensions, and confining detailed live flow guidance to the fixed-size visualization overlay.

Release 265Made incoming fuel-air flow unmistakable in both engine cutaways with brighter continuous blue routes, seven larger fast-moving charge packets, pulsing direction arrows, immediate blue chamber filling, and synchronized intake labels.

Release 264Changed both animated engine cutaways so the compressed blue charge flashes bright yellow at ignition, fades to smoky gray through the power stroke, and remains gray as it exits through the exhaust.

Release 263Added a dedicated Diagrams menu and landing page, and moved both 3D airport explorers and the animated two-stroke/four-stroke engine cutaways into it with matching navigation, breadcrumbs, and search discovery.

Release 262Slowed the Instrument Scan observation and instrument trends by 15%, and added a gentle desktop upper-panel emphasis that visibly includes the magnetic compass and all six primary instruments before returning to the full panel.

Release 261Added distinct interactive FBO explorers to both 3D airports: a compact 13-feature small-airport facility and a full-service regional terminal with more than 30 inspectable rooms, staff roles, pilot services, amenities, decorations, safety equipment, rental cars, and crew transportation.

Release 260Upgraded the parked airplane in both 3D airports and added a 27-part interactive aircraft walkaround with desktop dialog, full-screen phone view, cabin cutaway, system explanations, and seamless return to the same airport view.

Release 259Repaired engine synchronization so one click starts both models, links them at the same crankshaft RPM, provides visible status, and uses one unambiguous shared control set.

Release 258Clarified that the two-stroke animation has four overlapping pause points within only two piston strokes, with downstroke, BDC, and upstroke labels replacing misleading 1–4 stage numbering.

Release 257Completed both engine models with identifiable carburetors, intake manifolds, animated mixture paths, and distinct two-stroke expansion-chamber and four-stroke header/muffler exhaust systems.

Release 256Added battery, ignition, starter-motor, drive-pinion, and ring-gear visuals to both engine cutaways, plus a required interactive cranking sequence before either engine can run.

Release 255Improved the animated engine cutaways with continuous blue mixture compression, a rapid smoky-gray post-ignition transition, expanding visible exhaust particles, clearer gas-flow legends, and a correctly mounted four-stroke camshaft.

Release 254Added an interactive two-stroke versus four-stroke aircraft-engine learning page with rotatable animated 3D cutaways, hover and touch part identification, visible combustion-cycle timing, a comprehensive qualified comparison table, exact PHAK links, and FAA Powerplant references.

Release 253Reviewed all twelve current Sectional Symbols reports, corrected the Washington NDB and Bingham Route 85 focus rings, removed answer-revealing DME wording, retained the Sandberg weather-site correction, documented eight verified challenges, and safely cleared only reports through the audit cutoff.

Release 252Replaced the FAA catalog term “landplane” with clear learner-facing airport wording throughout the Sectional Symbols quiz and searchable index while preserving the official source terminology.

Release 251Reviewed all ten newly flagged Sectional Symbols targets against retained FAA rasters and legend entries, corrected the cluttered Sandberg off-airport ASOS focus ring, documented nine verified false positives, and safely cleared only pre-audit reports.

Release 250Expanded Sectional Symbols to 199 visually audited real-chart prompts and 130 distinct FAA meanings, with ten new exact-crop challenges and explicit rejection of two misleading candidates.

Release 249Added a responsive aviation-events calendar with confirmed fly-ins, experimental and ultralight expos, soaring contests, hang-gliding championships, clickable multi-day event lines, official organizer links, category filters, and calendar-file downloads.

Release 248Expanded Favorite Pilot-Training Videos with Hoover’s five most-popular Pilot Debrief safety case studies, official-channel rankings, investigation cautions, and direct NTSB source guidance.

Release 247Expanded Favorite Pilot-Training Videos with Mike Busch’s five most-viewed EAA-produced Savvy Aviation webinars, ranked from the official channel and paired with concise viewing guidance.

Release 246Added a curated Favorite Pilot-Training Videos page featuring Free Pilot Training’s complete Private Pilot and dedicated Sport Pilot ground-school starting points, creator attribution, FAA-study cautions, and direct companion practice links.

Release 245Added eight substantial learn-and-practice destinations with original explanations, worked examples, responsive illustrations, exact PHAK deep links, authoritative sources, and direct paths into the matching activities.

Release 244Added trustworthy source-file modification dates to every sitemap entry and replaced all 437 legacy PHAK wrapper responses with tested permanent redirects to the corresponding semantic chapter sections.

Release 243Expanded Sectional Symbols with 10 visually audited radio-aid and weather-service prompts across 9 new real chart areas, raising the game to 172 verified prompts and 103 distinct meanings while rejecting crowded or unsupported candidates.

Release 242Expanded Sectional Symbols only after exact FAA raster-versus-SVG review: 12 hand-placed meanings across 8 new rural chart areas, raising the live game to 162 verified prompts and 95 distinct meanings while rejecting uncertain automatic candidates.

Release 241Reset Sectional Symbols answer highlighting between challenges by clearing old scoring classes and focus while suppressing stationary-pointer hover until the visitor moves or navigates again.

Release 240Completed the exact-zoom visual review of the other 142 Sectional Symbols challenges, corrected 15 misplaced or incomplete focus rings, preserved all 150 real-chart prompts, and added regression coverage for every correction.

Release 239Reviewed all eight flagged Sectional Symbols challenges at their exact live crop, corrected three focus rings, removed one ambiguous airspace-class inference, strengthened four labels and answer sets, and safely cleared only pre-audit reports.

Release 238Audited all ten live question flags, corrected six defective or ambiguous items, rebuilt two diagrams, added a dedicated traffic-conflict diagram, and preserved analytics for four verified questions.

Release 237Added live discussion-identity regression testing for unverified and verified comments, verified badges, protected handles, draft preservation, device conflicts, and cross-device verified recovery.

Release 236Completed the searchable PHAK conversion by fully reflowing Chapters 3, 4, and 6, exporting all 54 FAA figures, preserving old page links, and deep-linking relevant reports to stable sections.

Release 235Renamed the Sectional Symbols report control to “Flag this symbol,” clarified its messages, and kept it visible within the playable viewport while preserving exact context, duplicate protection, dashboard reporting, and administrator alerts.

Release 234Fit active Coordinate Hunt rounds above the fold at 1512×870 with tighter top spacing, a shorter map, map-level controls, and overlaid answer feedback.

Release 233Fully converted PHAK Chapter 17, Aeromedical Factors, into semantic HTML with all 25 FAA figures, repaired lists, stable anchors, searchable sections, compatibility redirects, and exact question references.

Release 232Made aircraft- and engine-selector dials automatically enable their associated numeric filters whenever a visitor changes a dial value.

Release 231Tightened secondary-page desktop headers into compact two-column layouts while preserving mobile and custom photo designs.

Release 230Expanded Sectional Symbols to 150 reviewed prompts covering 83 FAA symbol meanings, or just over 25 percent of the named inventory.

Release 229Pinned Coordinate Hunt longitude guides to the top edge and latitude guides to the left edge by preserving the map aspect ratio and redrawing guides throughout zoom animations.

Release 228Fixed Coordinate Hunt reset so it immediately restores first-step zoom and all 14 named, clickable map choices, including after an interrupted animation.

Release 227Added a deferred homepage Topics panel that ranks real discussion threads as New, Hot, or Active using recency and reply activity, filters removed messages, and links directly to each conversation.

Release 226Expanded Sectional Symbols from 82 to 93 exact-crop-reviewed targets and from 15 to 26 meanings, with required FAA legend-entry links and 11 new hand-placed examples while continuing to exclude crowded or uncertain generated candidates.

Release 225Retired the ambiguous Bingham Canyon mine/quarry challenge because its focus selected only part of a large to-scale mine depiction and nearby chart text gave away the answer; the complete FAA legend reference still teaches mine and quarry symbology.

Release 224Added one-tap flagging to every Sectional Symbols challenge with exact chart, symbol, answer-state, timestamp, duplicate protection, administrator text alerts, and dashboard counts.

Release 223Clarified VFR visibility in the pilot-privileges comparison: Sport Pilot operations require at least 3 statute miles, while the Private Pilot 1-mile rule applies only in qualifying Class G conditions.

Release 222Added a production text alert and site-activity record whenever a visitor opens the searchable PHAK landing page.

Release 221Added contextual answer-review guidance for below-green-arc RPM readings that are not diagnosed as engine-speed problems.

Release 220Restored the full instrument panel after every recorded or skipped diagnosis so its final readings remain visible with the answer feedback.

Release 219Redesigned Coordinate Hunt so every prompt maps to an exact labeled city or geographic feature among 14 globally distributed choices.

Release 218Moved the Coordinate Hunt grid above the land layer so its lines and labels remain visible over the whole map.

Release 217Fully converted PHAK Chapter 9 into semantic HTML with all 10 FAA figures, repaired list structure, preserved legacy links, searchable sections, and precise report references.

Release 216Fully converted PHAK Chapter 1 into semantic HTML with all 25 FAA figures, repaired list structure, preserved legacy links, searchable sections, and precise report references.

Release 215Increased background visibility by changing the site’s main content surface from 97% to 90% opacity on desktop and mobile.

Release 214Removed the animated landing-aircraft overlay while retaining the existing sunny airfield background and subtle video treatment.

Release 213Replaced the prior face-outline logo with the approved transparent cap, filled aviator sunglasses, aviation headset, and boom-microphone mark.

Release 212Changed the homepage feedback invitation to the shorter “Help us be better…” heading.

Release 211Removed the remaining recent-participation disclaimer from the homepage “Who’s on now?” panel.

Release 210Simplified the homepage recent-activity panel by removing its explanatory sentence and unreliable count badge while preserving the live handle list.

Release 209Allowed visitors to delete their own forum comments after ownership verification and recursively removed every reply beneath a deleted comment.

Release 208Registered chosen handles immediately on the server, blocked cross-browser handle reuse, and added a keyed device signature based on version-free browser and OS families plus orientation-independent screen resolution.

Release 207Prevented duplicate discussion comments and replies by disabling both post controls immediately during handle checks and submission, with safe recovery after validation or network errors.

Release 206Replaced the Sonex contribution banner’s weak text caret with the same bold, optically centered CSS chevron used by the main navigation.

Release 205Replaced the circular STP initials with an original transparent two-blue SVG mark featuring a baseball cap, aviator glasses, one ear, and a goatee.

Release 204Added Matthew Baker’s biography page with three personal photos, his multidisciplinary background, the story and goals behind Self-Taught Pilot, and a clear pilot-in-training disclosure.

Release 203Added a subtle sunny-airfield video background with randomized slow landing aircraft, a 97%-opaque content surface, and mobile, Data Saver, and reduced-motion fallbacks.

Release 202Made study-guide branches remember their expanded state and replaced confidence dropdowns with compact square None, Low, and High radio controls.

Release 201Simplified identity wording throughout the site to “handle.”

Release 200Removed the homepage handle-selection panel after a visitor chooses a permanent handle while preserving it for replaceable automatically assigned handles.

Release 199Added a one-hour “Who’s on now?” activity panel, explicit assigned-handle storage, and a site-wide handle toolbar that only lets automatically assigned names be replaced.

Release 198Added an optional homepage handle panel that reuses saved identities, checks existing and verified names, and lets visitors continue without choosing one.

Release 197Rebuilt both certificate study guides as 120-plus-item confidence trees with shared Sport/Private browser state and direct PHAK, FAR/AIM, game, and quiz study paths.

Release 196Added legible linked source clippings for PHAK, FAR, and AIM references in detailed reports, using exact local PHAK excerpts and compact source-grounded guidance previews.

Release 195Fully converted PHAK Chapter 7, Aircraft Systems, to semantic HTML with all 50 FAA figures, repaired source-list omissions, stable anchors, legacy redirects, search coverage, and precise report links.

Release 194Restored free Passed or Not passed outcomes for Sport and Private Pilot practice exams while keeping exact scores and detailed analysis behind payment.

Release 193Corrected the Palo Verde sectional target from a power line to the FAA non-water-well symbol and added an exact-coordinate regression check.

Release 192Added the Hummel Multicruiser twin-engine Part 103 aircraft to the Aircraft Selector with sourced specifications and itemized kit and engine-package pricing.

Release 191Moved the animated homepage showcase directly below the hero, aligned path icons with their headings, and corrected homepage navigation caret centering.

Release 190Added licensed Engine Selector photos, model-aware SVG drawings, exact piston-count filters, and sourced VW and half-VW cruise-burn data.

Release 189Replaced Aircraft Selector blanket used-price depreciation formulas with evidence-only used prices and explicit data-coverage notices.

Release 188Improved the homepage 3D Airport preview with a gentle perspective orbit, layered callout motion, and an animated orbit cue.

Release 187Made email-verified discussion handles exclusive so other browsers cannot select, claim, or receive leaderboard credit under the protected name.

Release 186Added threaded discussion replies and optional email-verified handles, expanded Aircraft Selector silhouette families, and standardized whole-aircraft photo presentation.

Release 185Replaced the Aircraft Selector minimum-seat dropdown with exact 1, 2, 3-to-4, and 5-to-6 seat radio choices.

Release 184Expanded the Aircraft Selector to 113 reusable real-aircraft photos covering 235 configurations, with complete attribution, visual review, resilient imports, and honest fallbacks.

Release 183Added source-reviewed engine TBO, calendar-limit, cruise and full-power fuel-burn data with operating context, filters, sorting, chart axes, details, and comparisons.

Release 182Added deduplicated administrator texts for every quiz and game start and completion, distinguished both 3D airports, and added first-interaction alerts for the open-ended aircraft and engine selectors.

Release 181Shortened Instrument Scan observation by 40%, added partial-success scoring with immediate missed-issue feedback, and strengthened simulated turbulence with occasional larger bumps.

Release 180Added dated, official-source production status to every Engine Selector record, with filtering, result badges, detail evidence, and side-by-side comparison.

Release 179Replaced abbreviated Engine Selector chart and specification labels with full manufacturer, model, and plain-language names throughout the chart, details, and comparison table.

Release 178Expanded the Aircraft Selector to 250 configurations with missing Quicksilver, Kolb, and Air-Bike models, plus a compact animated plane-type selector for broad visual layouts.

Release 177Fully converted PHAK Chapter 15, Airspace, into semantic HTML with all nine FAA figures, two accessible regulatory tables, repaired source omissions, preserved legacy links, and precise airspace report references.

Release 176Moved Sectional Symbols to one fail-closed, human-editable JSON source; added discoverable FBO interiors, realistic cars, Class D fuel and maintenance facilities, and subtle normal-flight instrument and cockpit motion.

Release 175Removed depth flicker from both 3D airports and rebuilt the towered airport runway intersection so Runway 18/36 markings correctly take precedence through the crossing.

Release 174Added a lightweight animated homepage showcase for five flagship training activities, with four-card desktop presentation, swipe and arrow navigation, lazy-loaded real game imagery, and reduced-motion support.

Release 173Added Lakeview Regional, a second 3D airport with an operating control tower, crossing Runway 09/27, Class D overlay, controlled movement-area details, ATIS, and ARFF facilities.

Release 172Expanded the 3D Airport Explorer to 45 inspectable features with a recognizable AWOS compound, complete sign families, coherent Runway 18 precision-approach equipment, improved lighting, and additional ground-safety details.

Release 171Corrected the 3D Airport Explorer's reversed A/D controls so A moves left and D moves right in both ground and overhead modes.

Release 170Added a detailed rental car outside the FBO and replaced the 3D Airport Explorer's blocky trainer with a smooth, tapered, higher-detail airplane.

Release 169Confined 3D Airport Explorer hover highlights to the exact item under the pointer and rebuilt airport signs with sharp, auto-fitting, correctly oriented two-sided text.

Release 168Rebuilt the 3D airport with a full parallel Taxiway A, two runway-end connectors, separate apron access, corrected hold markings, signs, centerlines, and blue edge lights.

Release 167Added a firm above-ground camera boundary to both 3D Airport Explorer view modes, including orbiting, panning, and movement controls.

Release 166Added subtle irregular wind direction, lift, and fabric flutter movement to the 3D Airport Explorer windsock.

Release 165Made the 3D Airport Explorer PAPI lights respond to camera position with realistic high, on-path, low, and out-of-sector indications.

Release 164Replaced the 3D Airport Explorer text heading indicator with a live circular N/E/S/W compass and camera-following needle.

Release 163Replaced the 3D Airport Explorer phone movement letters with labeled directional, climb, and descend arrow controls.

Release 162Added a complete interactive 3D airport explorer with overhead and ground navigation, detailed feature inspection, touch controls, and FAA-grounded airport markings, signs, lights, and visual aids.

Release 161Increased the FAR/AIM Finder description-hint penalty from one point to two points for every different description revealed.

Release 160Corrected and clarified FAR/AIM Finder medical-reference questions, including the Part 61 BasicMed timing rule and the distinct Part 67 and Part 68 special-issuance rules.

Release 159Changed FAR/AIM Finder hints to cost one point per different description revealed, removed the redundant revealed-status message, and returned the learner to the top for every new question.

Release 158Added FAR/AIM Finder scoring that awards full credit for unaided correct answers and reduced credit when a description hint is revealed, with separate saved 100-point bests and averages.

Release 157Changed FAR/AIM Finder choices to show only part, chapter, or rule numbers initially, with accessible tap-or-click description reveals and separate answer buttons.

Release 156Audited all eight current question flags, repaired seven flagged questions and two diagrams, restored a missing takeoff visual, and reset analytics for revised questions without deleting historical reports.

Release 155Reduced iPhone and cellular startup time with compressed responses, a lightweight homepage stylesheet, deferred analytics delivery, and a less congested first-load resource order.

Release 154Re-audited all 50 Instrument Scan scenarios, removed conflicting answer clues, animated both heading instruments during turns, and added a clear 30-degree compass-alignment challenge.

Release 153Made the Instrument Scan completion text open its saved scenario-by-scenario review directly instead of the aggregate activity dashboard.

Release 152Added the FAR/AIM Finder with 80 oral-style source-location challenges covering the Sport and Private Pilot regulation set, NTSB reporting, and AIM Chapters 1 through 9.

Release 151Fully converted PHAK Chapter 12 into semantic HTML with all 29 FAA figures and upgraded weather-theory quiz reports to precise section links.

Release 150Rebuilt the Chart Supplement quiz with balanced reading skills and compact, question-specific FAA excerpts that work on phones.

Release 149Removed a Honolulu flag-like mark that was incorrectly keyed as shoreline and corrected the Minneapolis anchor to a non-towered seaplane base with fuel.

Release 148Corrected the sectional review renderer to match the live focus ring, re-audited every prompt, and removed 20 incorrect or ambiguous challenges and their misleading choices.

Release 147Added a complete searchable FAA sectional-symbol index covering 331 named symbols and variants, rebuilt its source previews from the current guide, and added real-chart power-line, road, and mine/quarry practice.

Release 146Fully converted PHAK Chapter 13 into semantic HTML with all 21 FAA figures and upgraded weather-related quiz reports to precise section links.

Release 145Preserved comment drafts and added a clear inline Yes/No interface when a discussion handle is already in use.

Release 144Balanced sectional quizzes by symbol meaning so large verified pools such as stadiums cannot dominate a round.

Release 143Replaced the blurry Honolulu sectional reconstruction with a 2304 × 1440 crop reprojected from the FAA’s current 300-DPI Honolulu inset.

Release 142Added a 400-point non-beta training leaderboard, automatic temporary aviation handles, and reusable handle claiming without accounts.

Release 141Graduated the Sectional Symbols Challenge, Cloud Identification Challenge, and Aviation Weather Decoder from beta.

Release 140Reviewed every live sectional challenge individually and removed 12 incorrect, miscentered, or visually ambiguous crops.

Release 139Removed ambiguous auto-positioned Victor-airway prompts whose final chart crops did not clearly show the printed V-numbered route.

Release 138Fit the sectional map and every answer choice into one responsive game viewport on desktop and common phone sizes.

Release 137Made sectional choices active during the zoom and replaced misleading lighted/unlighted obstacle labels with visually correct AGL height classes.

Release 136Removed ambiguous auto-positioned sectional airspace boundaries, tightened symbol highlights, and added visually verified river, lake, shoreline, tidal-flat, spot-elevation, and maximum-elevation questions.

Release 135Replaced the uniform three-message forum seeding with an uneven mix of empty topics, unanswered posts, short exchanges, and busier multi-thread conversations.

Release 134Kept the full sectional chart and highlighted symbol visible after the zoom cycle while the learner chooses an answer.

Release 133Changed the Sectional Symbols Challenge to randomized 10-question quizzes from 10 different chart areas and aligned Atlanta’s circled-R airport answer with the exact FAA legend wording.

Release 132Fully converted PHAK Chapter 14 into semantic HTML with 60 FAA figures and 129 precise report links; also corrected Atlanta’s GA95 sectional highlight and changed the sectional activity to one slower 10-second zoom cycle.

Release 131Restored the Sectional Symbols Challenge to 148 target-level-audited symbols on 25 real FAA chart areas and replaced the isolated-card pulse with exactly two slower zoom-in-and-out cycles.

Release 130Quarantined incorrect generated real-chart sectional questions, kept 140 source-audited FAA legend cards live, and added a fail-closed visual answer-key gate plus reproducible review sheets.

Release 129Aligned the Sectional Symbols Challenge to the current FAA sectional legend with 140 official recognition cards covering 331 named symbols and variants, plus audited source pages and documented exclusions.

Release 128Removed the Aviation Weather Decoder deadline, gave each coded chunk its own focused four-choice pool, added speed-and-accuracy scoring, and saved personal best, average, and recent score history in the browser.

Release 127Fully converted PHAK Chapter 2, Aeronautical Decision-Making, into responsive semantic HTML with 24 standalone FAA figures, preserved legacy URLs, and upgraded all 157 related report references to the exact ADM, PAVE, 5P, 3P, DECIDE, or automation section.

Release 126Pre-populated every discussion topic with clearly labeled, original starter conversations under fictional aviation handles, including threaded replies and removable admin moderation.

Release 125Replaced the weak menu-caret glyph with a bolder, vertically centered CSS chevron across desktop and mobile navigation.

Release 124Centralized forum reading and posting on Discuss, removed activity-page comment popups and activity links, and added lazy read-only recent-comment previews that link to the correct topic.

Release 123Simplified Discuss into three focused test topics and added an Aircraft and Engines section for starter planes, low-cost planes, Part 103 ultralights, CFIs, and engines while preserving comments from retired topic names.

Release 122Expanded the Aircraft Selector to 89 licensed real-aircraft photographs covering 198 of 244 configurations, with local optimized copies, full attribution, and honest model/variant scope notes.

Release 121Changed the neutral discussion fallback name from “Anonymous pilot” to “Anonymous,” including previously stored anonymous comments.

Release 120Made discussion handles a one-time browser choice that must be entered twice identically, then remains locked for future comments.

Release 119Remembered a commenter’s optional display name in browser local storage and reused it across the full Discuss page and per-activity discussions.

Release 118Made all three Aircraft Selector Wing Storage choices full-width and substantially easier to read on desktop and mobile without enlarging the rest of the filter panel.

Release 117Expanded the Aircraft Selector to 244 configurations with requested aircraft families, variants, aliases, and cabin-width data; corrected Kitfox wing lengths; and compacted oversized title cards across secondary pages so tools and content appear sooner.

Release 116Added a curated library of locally served, reusable aircraft photographs to Aircraft Selector details, displayed beside the normalized SVG profiles with model-scope notes, creator attribution, source links, license links, lazy loading, and honest no-photo fallbacks.

Release 115Added a mixed Sport and Private Pilot Trick Questions quiz with 48 original, source-checked challenges across 16 commonly confused FAA knowledge areas and graduated round sizing.

Release 114Added the current Spirit Engineering SE-1 to the Aircraft Selector with manufacturer-sourced specifications, published starting price, folding-wing and tailwheel filters, and its own normalized SVG profile.

Release 113Compacted the desktop Aircraft Selector controls into a denser cockpit grid so every filter and quick preset remains beside the comparison chart, while preserving larger touch controls on phones.

Release 112Added Easy, Medium, and Hard Coordinate Hunt settings, including untimed cardinal DMS practice with an adaptive labeled coordinate grid and separate personal bests for each setting.

Release 111Added an interactive Aircraft Engine Selector with 40 sourced engine models, four price conditions, powerplant and ownership filters, a customizable comparison chart, three-engine comparison, and evidence-based airframe compatibility filtering.

Release 110Expanded the Aircraft Selector to 224 configurations with 71 new/build and 112 used choices at or below $45,000, added Hummel, Fisher, Pietenpol, Sonerai, legacy Sonex, Thatcher, Kolb, KR-2S and other grassroots aircraft, calmed pinch and trackpad zoom, and added sourced reported-flying counts with filtering.

Release 109Expanded the Aircraft Selector to 168 configurations, including 29 new/build and 57 used choices at or below $45,000, with a dedicated under-$45k quick filter.

Release 108Added one Discuss page with permanent topics for every activity, lazy per-page comments, strict plain-text and language filtering, rate limits, and dashboard moderation.

Release 107Made the homepage load faster by deferring PayPal until the donation panel opens, preloading the hero image, and adding durable browser caching for static assets.

Release 106Reorganized the growing site around a shared desktop and mobile menu, four focused hub pages, and a much shorter homepage that keeps the two main written exams prominent.

Release 105Expanded search discovery from 28 sitemap entries to 413 canonical pages, noindexed 154 legacy PHAK wrappers, and added chapter-specific links from handbook pages into relevant quizzes and games.

Release 104Rebuilt the Aircraft Selector silhouettes with consistent nose-right orientation, corrected pusher propeller and landing-gear placement, and cleaner low-wing, bush, STOL, trainer, and high-wing geometry.

Release 103Added new/build versus used pricing throughout the Aircraft Selector, including kit-plus-expected-engine breakdowns, and added pinch zoom plus a logarithmic $1,000-step price dial with finer budget control.

Release 102Temporarily removed the current-aircraft marketplace from navigation and search indexing and disabled its listing, detail, and image routes by default while preserving its code and stored data for reconsideration.

Release 101Added 105 clearly marked best-guess aircraft prices from owner forums, market discussions, and comparable configurations, with older figures adjusted to May 2026 dollars using BLS CPI-U and linked price evidence.

Release 100Expanded the Aircraft Selector to 130 distinct model and configuration records, separated landing-gear, engine, clipped-wing, extended-wing, folding-wing, removable-wing, current, and legacy variants, and added dedicated tailwheel and tricycle switches.

Release 99Added a cockpit-style Aircraft Selector with accessible SVG switches and dials, a curated sourced model catalog, normalized transparent aircraft profiles, customizable pan-and-zoom plotting, presets, sortable matches, and three-aircraft comparison.

Release 98Added a current post-MOSAIC Sport Pilot vs. Private Pilot privileges comparison, with Part 103 as a clearly labeled baseline and a separate guide to endorsements, ratings, and upgrade paths.

Release 97Fully converted PHAK Chapter 5 to responsive semantic HTML with 71 separate FAA figures and remapped 169 detailed-report references to precise aerodynamics sections.

Release 96Marked the full training-game collection as new beta work in active refinement and added durable, game-specific feedback selection, texts, and dashboard reporting.

Release 95Expanded Coordinate Hunt to a 25-second clock with unlimited progressive clicks, four labeled map-bound coordinates, and a visible 0°, 0° reference marker.

Release 94Audited all 42 live flagged questions, improved 13 questions or graphics, repaired three diagrams, and added cutoff-safe automatic and dashboard clearing without hiding new reports.

Release 93Added a free timed Coordinate Hunt with eight common latitude/longitude display styles, a public-domain vector world map, three-click progressive zoom, reset, distance-based scoring, keyboard controls, and saved personal bests.

Release 92Added 12 dated UTC/Zulu calculation questions covering standard and daylight time, elapsed flights across time zones, METAR/NOTAM timestamps, and calendar-day rollover.

Release 91Audited all ten airspace topics in the Free Pilot Training “most missed” video and added 15 FAA-grounded questions for genuine coverage gaps without duplicating the existing Federal-airway item.

Release 90Retired the easiest five percent of the active question bank after an auditable quality review and added sortable question accuracy to /kohesion for future evidence-based difficulty audits.

Release 89Added an 80-question Chart Supplement quiz built from 30 real FAA airport pages and expanded oral-practice coverage after a line-by-line audit of a complete mock-checkride video.

Release 88Expanded the METAR game into a 100-report Aviation Weather Decoder with balanced METAR, TAF, PIREP, and winds/temperatures aloft challenges; only METARs may begin partly solved.

Release 87Reduced Instrument Scan repetition with problem-family spacing and recent-history memory, kept the full panel visible on desktop, and changed phones to a broader four-group Z-pattern sweep.

Release 86Made acronym quizzes more challenging with guaranteed two-way recall, 48 one-word component questions, and reverse questions that mix real aviation acronyms with a plausible fake.

Release 85Fully converted PHAK Chapter 11 to semantic HTML with 34 separate PNG figures, readable formulas and lists, preserved legacy URLs, and 184 upgraded detailed-report links.

Release 84Excluded scrap aircraft and helicopters from Aircraft Finder ingestion and every public marketplace result while retaining hidden source records for audit history.

Release 83Restyled the homepage VOR Navigation card to match the layout, responsive behavior, visual emphasis, and action-button treatment of the other training games.

Release 82Changed the Sonex contribution area into a slim, always-visible top banner with an accessible click-to-open PayPal popout.

Release 81Added the Aircraft Finder foundation with permanent historical records, a rolling 90-day public window, normalized specifications and seller contacts, source-permission controls, cached listing images, and on-demand plus nightly ingestion.

Release 80Fully converted PHAK Chapter 16 to semantic HTML with 40 separate PNG figures, stable section anchors, semantic navigation tables, preserved legacy URLs, and 217 upgraded detailed-report links.

Release 79Rebranded the site as Self-Taught Pilot, made selftaughtpilot.com canonical, and added tested page-preserving redirects from the existing Sport and Private Pilot domains.

Release 78Restored private four-character administrator report links in result texts and /kohesion while keeping learner-facing result codes hidden and ordinary unpaid report URLs locked.

Release 77Added a free interactive VOR Navigation Trainer with reusable SVG receiver and CDI instruments, realistic damped motion, 30 FAA-grounded scenarios, and randomized setup and interpretation sessions.

Release 76Simplified Instrument Scan to one randomly generated five-question game and removed every public ten-question start and replay option.

Release 75Added short, server-secured text notifications whenever someone starts or completes any METAR, instrument-scan, sectional-symbol, or cloud-identification game.

Release 74Made METAR timeouts teach the next missed item with a large animated answer reveal before offering Try again or Leave choices.

Release 73Fully converted PHAK Chapter 10 to semantic HTML with 15 separate PNG visuals, stable section anchors, preserved legacy URLs, and 212 exact detailed-report links.

Release 72Removed the four-character result code and internal report identifier from every learner-facing payment, sample, and detailed-results screen while retaining internal matching data.

Release 71Added question reporting to every paid detailed-results item, with trusted answer context, duplicate suppression, dashboard counts, and the existing administrator text alert.

Release 70Refocused the Sectional Symbols Challenge on generic chart meanings, broadened it beyond airports to 11 symbol families, added verified shelf/terrain targets, and increased close-up magnification for small marks.

Release 69Expanded /kohesion with an all-activity overview, GA4 visitor and free-game reporting, verified sales and contribution reporting, and a durable paid-sales ledger when test data is deleted.

Release 68Made /kohesion render immediately, load each report asynchronously on demand, cache repeat reads, and download stored dashboard records in parallel.

Release 67Moved written, acronym, oral-practice, and Part 103 scores behind verified report payment while keeping the cloud/weather, METAR, gauge, and sectional training games freely scored.

Release 66Simplified the Sport and Private Pilot written-test choices to one randomly generated 20-question exam for each certificate.

Release 65Added drag-to-reorder and discard/restore workspaces to the METAR game, plus randomized degree-or-compass wind-direction answers with nearby compass distractors.

Release 64Rebuilt the Sectional Symbols Challenge with pointer-free pulsing SVG feature groups, a slow eight-second zoom-and-hold observation, and untimed hidden-map recall.

Release 63Increased the METAR Speed Decoder clock from eight to 12 seconds per unsolved tag while preserving its 10-second orientation allowance.

Release 62Added the beta Cloud Identification Challenge with 16 original horizon-context scenes, simultaneous close-up views, exact-set checkbox scoring, and saved progress.

Release 61Added the beta Sectional Symbols Challenge with 25 real FAA-derived all-SVG areas, 290 timed feature prompts, one-click scoring, saved progress, and raster-to-vector visual audits.

Release 60Randomized each METAR challenge starting point, scaled its clock with a 10-second baseline plus eight seconds per unsolved tag, and replaced fastest time with a persistent average pace per tag.

Release 59Added a balanced, nonrepeating 100-challenge METAR deck, exhaustive solvability checks, and a compact mobile answer layout that keeps every selected tag visible.

Release 58Audited every flagged question for wording, logic, unique answers, FAA support, and diagram clarity; rewrote weak items and rebuilt three training graphics.

Release 57Made administrator texts GSM-safe and single-segment, saved feedback before delivery, recorded Textbelt quota and failures, redacted provider secrets, and added communication status to /kohesion.

Release 56Added a separate 72-question Part 103 ultralight bank and randomized 20-question quiz, seven original aircraft-identification visuals, complete regulation coverage, and optional $2 detailed reports.

Release 55Added production Google Analytics with privacy-conscious page measurement, test and game events, verified purchase and donation conversions, and a browser opt-out control.

Release 54Made the Sport Pilot domain canonical, redirected the Private Pilot domain, and added focused search landing pages, structured breadcrumbs, trust pages, and an expanded sitemap.

Release 53Properly reflowed PHAK Chapter 8 into semantic HTML with 39 separate PNG figures, responsive navigation, and preserved report deep links.

Release 52Slowed the Instrument Scan Challenge into a move-and-pause sweep, removed automatic hints, and added penalized replay/hint aids, point scoring, and saved personal bests.

Release 51Audited the complete PHAK for important acronyms, greatly expanded the acronym quiz, balanced each quiz across subjects, and added realistic fabricated distractors.

Release 50Added a large FAA-grounded oral-practice bank, randomized 10-question Sport and Private oral quizzes, $4 detailed reports, and local PHAK deep links.

Release 49Added reusable high-detail SVG gauge assets, upgraded the Instrument Scan panel, and standardized quiz instrument figures on the shared library.

Release 48Moved Sport and Private Pilot subject lists and preparation guidance to dedicated guide pages so the exam landing pages stay focused.

Release 47Added a searchable, downloadable HTML edition of FAA-H-8083-25C and question-specific PHAK section links in detailed quiz reports.

Release 46Added a Skip question control to Instrument Scan challenges so an unanswered round can be recorded and the quiz can continue immediately.

Release 45Added a two-pass animated Z-pattern instrument sweep, delayed flight context, a three-second final panel view, fade-out, and a portrait-phone landscape reminder.

Release 44Added a GET READY and 3-2-1 countdown before showing each Instrument Scan panel for ten seconds.

Release 43Converted the Instrument Scan Challenge to free 5- and 10-question quizzes with optional paid analysis and removed report prices from landing pages.

Release 42Marked the Instrument Scan Challenge and METAR Speed Decoder as beta features.

Release 41Added a five-second instrument-scan game with animated SVG gauges and 50 multi-problem scenarios.

Release 40Changed the acronym quiz to 10 questions and added question-count-based detailed-report pricing.

Release 39Made selected METAR decoding tags clickable so choices can be returned directly to the word bank.

Release 38Removed the three-step “How the Practice Test Works” block from the home page.

Release 37Compacted the METAR word-bank tags so all choices remain visible without scrolling the bank.

Release 36Added a 20-question acronym-only quiz with percentage scoring and optional $2 detailed review.

Release 35Moved mobile METAR gameplay to the top of the viewport and increased each challenge to two minutes.

Release 34Added a secure choose-your-own-amount PayPal contribution option for the Sonex fund.

Release 33Made the site-wide search, social-sharing, and structured metadata certificate-neutral.

Release 32Changed the detailed question-by-question report price to $2.

Release 31Redesigned the METAR game as a compact above-the-fold desktop workspace with a two-column play area.

Release 30Increased the METAR game clock from 30 seconds to 60 seconds per complete report.

Release 29Added a homepage feedback form that texts submissions to the administrator with rate limiting and spam protection.

Release 28Replaced the words minus and negative in METAR temperature tags with a leading hyphen.

Release 27Shortened every METAR wind-speed choice to compact labels such as 14 kt and 14 mph.

Release 26Changed every METAR time choice to a 12-hour label such as 3:36AM UTC while preserving the coded Zulu group.

Release 25Changed every METAR observation-day choice to a concise ordinal label such as 1st day, 2nd day, or 3rd day.

Release 24Added a blurred METAR timeout screen with options to try a fresh report or quit to the home page.

Release 23Changed the METAR game to one continuous 30-second clock for each complete report.

Release 22Made METAR and the four-letter station identifier prefilled game freebies and removed airport names from the word bank.

Release 21Added an eight-second per-choice METAR countdown with automatic loss tracking, board clearing, and fresh-report loading.

Release 20Added a timed METAR decoding game with realistic randomized reports, close distractors, undo, scoring, and answer breakdowns.

Release 19Separated IFR-only questions into their own category and excluded them from Sport and Private Pilot test generation.

Release 18Added administrator text alerts for newly flagged questions and changed detailed reports to $3.

Release 17Redesigned high-use aviation diagrams using FAA handbook concepts and added full-size diagram viewing.

Release 16Corrected grammar throughout the active question bank and standardized answer-choice punctuation.

Release 15Added dedicated Sport and Private Pilot landing pages and reorganized the homepage test choices.

Release 14Added focused slips, skids, spin recovery, and crosswind-landing coverage while retiring repetitive variants.

Release 13Added randomized Private Pilot tests, dual scoring, expanded loading questions, reference auditing, and reporting refinements.

Release 12Corrected PayPal capture verification for completed report purchases.

Release 11Made PayPal the primary checkout and hid manual payment details when automatic checkout is available.

Release 10Added verified PayPal checkout, automatic paid-report delivery, and webhook support.

Release 9Expanded acronyms, VOR and Victor-airway coverage, Private-only groundwork, and analytics tabs.

Release 8Added question flagging, flag analytics, and deletion of selected completed-test records.

Release 7Added dashboard date/time context and hover previews for question content.

Release 6Improved test completion and detailed-report reliability.

Release 5Added the private /kohesion results and question-analytics dashboard.

Release 4Improved durable Cloud Run storage and deployment behavior.

Release 3Added persistent detailed result reports and private report links.

Release 2Added randomized quick-test and full-exam generation.

Release 1Launched the initial Sport Pilot practice-test site and question bank.

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