Glossary

This chapter explains terms which occur in the context of Sky Dolly and this manual.

Term	Description
AI Aircraft	The → flight simulator typically populates the sky and runways with various aircraft, also called AI aircraft (AI stands for artificial intelligence). An AI aircraft may have a predefined flight plan (“fly from A to B by going over C”), is following some real-world flight or - in the context of a → formation flight - is created and controlled by Sky Dolly.
Aircraft	In Sky Dolly the aircraft represents the recorded data, including position data and static data such as aircraft type, tail number and category. Each aircraft is associated with a → flight.
API	API stands for application programming interface and is mostly relevant for developers (only). However this term frequently appears in forum discussions in combination with → SimConnect. It represents the “public interface” - the contract between the function provider and caller, broadly put - that a caller can use to access the funtionality and data.
Flight	A flight stores the initial flight conditions (visibility, temperature, wind direction, …) and also the flight plan of its first recorded → aircraft. A flight may have several associated aircraft (→ formation flight).
Flight simulator	The flight simulator acts as the “server” in the communication with Sky Dolly (“client”), which happens with the official → SimConnect → API. Sky Dolly is built upon a → plugin architecture, and as such also the connection with the flight simulator is plugin-based. Currently MSFS 2020 is supported as flight simulator.
Formation flight	A → flight with more than one aircraft. A formation flight has exactly one → user aircraft, all the other aircraft are spawned as “AI controlled aircraft” (→ AI aircraft).
GNSS	Global Navigation Satellite System. Used to determine the position and altitude, the most well-known system probably being the → GPS.
GPS	Global Positioning System, a satellite based sytem to determine the position and altitude.
Position	The position of the aircraft on the ground or in the sky, specified by its latitude, longitude and altitude (in feet). Each → aircraft has its own list of positions, essentially defining its flight path.
Waypoint	A point of the flight plan. Waypoints are stored for each → flight, according to the flight plan of the first recorded → aircraft.
SimConnect	SimConnect is the name of the official → API with which add-ons such as external applications like Sky Dolly can communicate with the → flight simulator. SimConnect first saw its use in Flight Simulator X, but is nowadays supported by a range of other → flight simulators, including MSFS 2020.
User aircraft	The user aircraft is the one being followed by the camera in the → flight simulator, or in other words: the one which the user normally has control over.

Index | Glossary