FDR files are files that list what happened in a Flight Data Recorder

(probably in a real airplane), that can be re-played in X-Plane.

Xavion, for example, is an App on the App store that records your flights in
real airplanes (or, for that matter, cars and boats as well).
So, if you go for a flight with Xavion, then afterwards simply have Xavion
running on the same LAN as X-Plane, you can go to the
FILE:LOAD FLIGHT
menu in X-Plane and import any flights that you have flown in Xavion into
FDR files on your hard drive, which X-Plane can then read and replay,
which is pretty cool!
It is sort of cool to replay your actual flights in Xavion, and zoom out to see
those flights on a global scale, including altitude.

As well as being written by Xavion, FDR files can be made by you!

The FDR files are TEXT, so anyone can write them.
See “Example FDR file.fdr” file in the INSTRUCTIONS folder in X-Plane to
see a sample FDR file.

Se we start off with some headers, as shown here with some sample data:

CALI,-120.2534,34.1345,275 // calibration: give the

expected ground elevation in feet at a given longitude and latitude. the
FDR-reader will then offset elevation as needed to be on the ground at this
location in X-Plane
ACFT,myplanes/myplane.acf // aircraft path, relative
to the aircraft folder in X-Plane
TAIL,N12345 // tail number
TIME,18:00:00 // local time
DATE,08/10/2004 // local date
PRES,29.83 // local baro pressure
TEMP,65 // local temp in
degrees F
WIND,230,16 // wind in degrees true
and knots true

MARK, 5,Marker at 5 seconds // a marker to show up

in replay to mark events, with time in seconds and then the marker label
WARN, 5,Resources/sounds/alert/1000ft.WAV // a warning sound to
play, with time in seconds and then the warning wav file
TEXT, 5,This is a test of the spoken text. // a warning sound to
play, with time in seconds and then the spoken text
EVNT, 5,10,

Then we move to the columns of data, each stated with the term “DATA”.
Now, looking at all this data, you will want to know what each column is for,
and here is the list:
(and see the file ‘FDR files in X-Plane template.csv’ in the folder this file is
in for a smaple csv for you).

" time secon" , "This is time in seconds from the beginning of the recording."
" temp deg C" , "Temperature, in degrees C, of the ambient air near the airplane, at
your current altitude."
" lon degre" , "Longitude, in degrees."
" lat degre" , "Latitude, in degrees."
"h msl ft" , "Height above mean sea level, in TRUE feet, regardless of any
barometric pressure settings or other errors."
"radio altft" , "Radio altimeter indication."
" ailn ratio" , "This is the aileron deflection, in ratio -1.0 (left) to +1.0 (right)"
" elev ratio" , "This is the elevator deflection, in ratio -1.0 (nose down) to +1.0
(nose up)"
" rudd ratio" , "This is the rudder deflection, in ratio -1.0 (left) to +1.0 (right)"
" ptch deg" , "Pitch in degrees, positive up."
" roll deg" , "Roll in degrees, positive right."
" hdng TRUE" , "Heading in degrees TRUE."
"speed KIAS" , "Indicated speed in knots."
" VVI ft/mn" , "Indicated vertical speed in feet per minute."
" slip deg" , "Indicated slip in degrees, positive nose-right."
" turn deg" , "Indicated rate-of-turn, degrees per second positive right."
" mach #" , "Indicated Mach number."
" AOA deg" , "Indicated Angle of Attack."
"stall warn" , "Stall warning, 0 to 1."
" flap rqst" , "Flap handle position, 0.0 is retracted, 1.0 is extended."
" flap actul" , "Flap-1 deflection ratio, 0.0 is retracted, 1.0 is extended."
" slat ratio" , "Slat-1 deflection ratio, 0.0 is retracted, 1.0 is extended."
" sbrk ratio" , "Speedbrake deflection ratio, 0.0 is retracted, 1.0 is extended, 1.5 is
ground-deployed."
" gear handl" , "Gear handle: 0 is up, 1 is down."
"Ngear down" , "Gear #1 (nose?) deployment ratio: 0.0 is retracted, 1.0 is down."
"Lgear down" , "Gear #2 (left?) deployment ratio: 0.0 is retracted, 1.0 is down."
"Rgear down" , "Gear #3 (right?) deployment ratio: 0.0 is retracted, 1.0 is down."
" elev trim" , "Elevator trim, -1.0 is nose down, 1.0 is nose up."
"NAV-1 frq" , "Nav-1 frequency, in a 5-digit integer form with no decimal, like
12150."
"NAV-2 frq" , "Nav-2 frequency, in a 5-digit integer form with no decimal, like
12150"
"NAV-1 type" , "Nav-1 type. NONE=0, NDB=2, VOR=3, LOC=5, ILS=10."
"NAV-2 type" , "Nav-2 type. NONE=0, NDB=2, VOR=3, LOC=5, ILS=10."
"OBS-1 deg" , "OBS-1, in degrees 0 to 360."
"OBS-2 deg" , "OBS-2, in degrees 0 to 360."
"DME-1 nm" , "0.0 means no DME found... any positive value means we are
getting DME data."
"DME-2 nm" , "0.0 means no DME found... any positive value means we are
getting DME data."
"NAV-1 h-def" , "Horizontal (localizer) deflection, -2.5 to 2.5 dots, positive fly
right."
"NAV-2 h-def" , "Horizontal (localizer) deflection, -2.5 to 2.5 dots, positive fly
right."
"NAV-1 n/t/f" , "Nav-1 NAV/TO/FROM: nav=0, to=1, from=2."
"NAV-2 n/t/f" , "Nav-1 NAV/TO/FROM: nav=0, to=1, from=2."
"NAV-1 v-def" , "Vertical (glideslope) deflection, -2.5 to 2.5 dots, positive fly up."
"NAV-2 v-def" , "Vertical (glideslope) deflection, -2.5 to 2.5 dots, positive fly up."
" OM over" , "Over marker, 0/1"
" MM over" , "Over marker, 0/1"
" IM over" , "Over marker, 0/1"
"f-dir 0/1" , "Flight director on, 0/1."
"f-dir ptch" , "Flight director pitch, degrees, positive up."
"f-dir roll" , "Flight director roll, degrees, positive right."
"ktmac 0/1" , "Autopilot is holding knots or mach number (knots=0, mach=1)"
"throt mode" , "Auto-throttle mode: off=0, on=1"
" hdg mode" , "Autopilot heading mode: 0=wing-level, 1=heading, 2=localizer or
other CDI"
" alt mode" , "Autopilot altitude mode: 3=pitch sync, 4=vvi, 5=airspeed,
6=airspeed with alt arm, 7=alt hold, 8=terrain-follow, 9=glideslope hold"
" hnav mode" , "Localizer CDI is ARMED for capture."
"glslp mode" , "Glideslope CDI is ARMED for capture."
" back mode" , "ABack-course on, 0/1."
"speed selec" , "Autopilot speed selection, knots or Mach number."
" hdg selec" , "Autopilot heading selection, degrees magnetic."
" vvi selec" , "Autopilot vertical speed selection, feet per minute"
" alt selec" , "Autopilot altitude selection, feet MSL indicated."
" baro in hg" , "Barometric pressure dialed into the altimeter, inches HG."
" DH ft" , "Decision height dialed into the radio alt, feet AGL."
"Mcaut 0/1" , "Master Caution alerting, 0/1."
"Mwarn 0/1" , "Master Warning alerting, 0/1."
" GPWS 0/1" , "Ground Proximity Warning, 0/1."
"Mmode 0-4" , "Map mode: 0 through 4 can give sme different map results."
"Mrang 0-6" , "Map range: 0 through 6 will give different map ranges."

4 times, once per possible engine: "throt ratio" , "Throttle ratio 0.0 to 1.0, but
emergency settings can actually exceed 1.0."
4 times, once per possible engine: " prop cntrl" , "Propeller RPM command, per
engine."
4 times, once per possible engine: " prop rpm" , "Propeller RPM actual, per
engine."
4 times, once per possible engine: " prop deg" , "Propeller pitch, in degrees, per
engine."
4 times, once per possible engine: " N1 %" , "N1, per engine."
4 times, once per possible engine: " N2 %" , "N2, per engine."
4 times, once per possible engine: " MPR inch" , "Engine Manifold Pressure, per
engine."
4 times, once per possible engine: " EPR ind" , "Engine Pressure Ratio, per
engine."
4 times, once per possible engine: " torq ft*lb" , "Engine torque, per engine."
4 times, once per possible engine: " FF lb/hr" , "Fuel Flow, per engine."
4 times, once per possible engine: " ITT deg C" , "Turbine Inlet Temperature, per
engine."
4 times, once per possible engine: " EGT deg C" , "Exhaust Gas Temperature, per
engine."
4 times, once per possible engine: " CHT deg C" , "Cylinder Head Temperature,
per engine."