Sbob
SOH-CM-2024
I think many of us have been here. 
We find a repaint of an aircraft we REALLY like so we snag it. Then, we find the download for the actual aircraft the textures fit.
It might still be payware, it may have always been freeware, it may have been payware that was later released as freeware.
Whatever, its now installed in the sim along with the repaint we wanted.
Along the way, we probably had to update stuff like the sound folder, panel folder, effects, and sometimes the flight dynamics.
Again, whatever. Its now ready to rack up some hours in the log book.
There's just some final things to figure out, and this is true for MOST military aircraft in FS.
Where were they based and where did they fly?
After some digging on-line, the answers become clear. Well, mostly..
Eventually, we find the name of the air base and usually the four letter ICAO code. We then jump in the sim for a round of Airport Roulette.
In the later editions of Flight Sim, there's a good probability we'll find the right location or at least we'll be able to get close.
Its time to start the engine(s) and contact the tower. We hit the ~ key and hear "Tower, Mike Sierra zero zero zero, taking off to the north" or something close to that.
Crap. We need a callsign and number. It just gets worse when we get handed off to Approach:
"Mike Sierra zero zero zero is type Boeing" followed by silence. Well, crap again..
In this thread I'll be discussing how to get those fields filled in so our comms sound a little more legit.
I'm guessing most of us have had experience with the Edit Voice Pack program. I'm not going to beat that horse unless anyone has questions, from here on I'll call it EVP for short.
As most of us know (?), EVP files and the edited Voice Pack in FS are binary. Either they all work or they don't. There's also a definite upper limit on how many call signs and aircraft types can get crammed into the main voice file and you defiantly need to know how to economize when adding EVP files. One of the cool features of the EVP program is that it will provide an updated list of callsigns for your reference. The file is named airlines.cfg and its located in your main Aircraft folder. You should get in the habit of updating this file when you add EVP voice files, just look under the "Tools" header in EVP and you'll find it.
From here on I'll also throw in another limit so this post doesn't turn into "War and Peace". I'll be using the good old Alphasim F-84F Thunderstreak as the main example. The aircraft is cool but its a little bit of an oddball in the FS world so there are some challenges ahead.
The first two fields we'll need to deal with are the aircraft builder and the type. You can find these two lines in the [General] section of your aircraft.cfg file, usually just beneath the [aircraft.XX] lines. Each line only needs to appear once in the aircraft.cfg file. Mine look like this:
[General]
performance=Model: M. Davies\nPanel: P. Perrott\nFlight Model: J. McDaniel\nTextures: M. Davies\n\nMax Speed @ S.L.: 695 mph\nMaximum Range: 2,314 miles \nService Ceiling: 44,000 ft\nEmpty Weight: 13,800 lbs\nGross Weight: 28,000 lbs.\nEngine: (1) J-65-W-3 turbojet 7,220 lb st \n\nArmament:\n6 M-3 .50 cal Browning machine guns. \nUp to 6,000 lbs of ordinance on four wing pylons.\n\n
editable=1
atc_type=REPUBLIC
atc_model=F84
This looks fine however, FS doesn't recognize "F84" as a voice file and I can't find one online so we'll need to get crafty.
What will work is "Thunderbolt". Its close enough and after a while, I don't even notice that its wrong.
One idea would be to use a variation of "P47" but I also have the option of using:
atc_model=A10
OK, we're past that hurdle. Now, its time to work on the callsigns.
In the real world, military callsigns change A LOT. Some are considered constant ("Air Force One", "Thunderbird 3", etc.) but most need to change several times a year.
We're back using a "best fit" on this. I try to keep my callsigns constant and believable. As long as I can come up with something close, I'm happy. My overall convention is to use a believable (historic) callsign followed two or three digits of the aircraft's tail number. In the case of an F/A-18 belonging to VFA-195 in Japan, the callsign would be "Chippy 4-1-5".
If its an actual formation flight, I might change it to "Chippy 3". "Chippy" is the traditional callsign for The Dambusters. While the three digit numbers aren't accurate (they change with every flight) they're close enough.
A really good source for callsigns is Military AI Works. The only problem with MAIW is that they concentrate on MODERN aircraft.
Still, they've compiled hundreds of these callsigns and I (mostly) trust their research. I'll take a break for now, I've been typing for a while, but in the next post we'll dive deeper into finding the right callsigns for 1950's-1970's era military planes of various nations plus WWII aircraft.
We find a repaint of an aircraft we REALLY like so we snag it. Then, we find the download for the actual aircraft the textures fit.
It might still be payware, it may have always been freeware, it may have been payware that was later released as freeware.
Whatever, its now installed in the sim along with the repaint we wanted.
Along the way, we probably had to update stuff like the sound folder, panel folder, effects, and sometimes the flight dynamics.
Again, whatever. Its now ready to rack up some hours in the log book.
There's just some final things to figure out, and this is true for MOST military aircraft in FS.
Where were they based and where did they fly?
After some digging on-line, the answers become clear. Well, mostly..
Eventually, we find the name of the air base and usually the four letter ICAO code. We then jump in the sim for a round of Airport Roulette.
In the later editions of Flight Sim, there's a good probability we'll find the right location or at least we'll be able to get close.
Its time to start the engine(s) and contact the tower. We hit the ~ key and hear "Tower, Mike Sierra zero zero zero, taking off to the north" or something close to that.
Crap. We need a callsign and number. It just gets worse when we get handed off to Approach:
"Mike Sierra zero zero zero is type Boeing" followed by silence. Well, crap again..
In this thread I'll be discussing how to get those fields filled in so our comms sound a little more legit.
I'm guessing most of us have had experience with the Edit Voice Pack program. I'm not going to beat that horse unless anyone has questions, from here on I'll call it EVP for short.
As most of us know (?), EVP files and the edited Voice Pack in FS are binary. Either they all work or they don't.
There's also a definite upper limit on how many call signs and aircraft types can get crammed into the main voice file and you defiantly need to know how to economize when adding EVP files. One of the cool features of the EVP program is that it will provide an updated list of callsigns for your reference. The file is named airlines.cfg and its located in your main Aircraft folder. You should get in the habit of updating this file when you add EVP voice files, just look under the "Tools" header in EVP and you'll find it.From here on I'll also throw in another limit so this post doesn't turn into "War and Peace". I'll be using the good old Alphasim F-84F Thunderstreak as the main example. The aircraft is cool but its a little bit of an oddball in the FS world so there are some challenges ahead.
The first two fields we'll need to deal with are the aircraft builder and the type. You can find these two lines in the [General] section of your aircraft.cfg file, usually just beneath the [aircraft.XX] lines. Each line only needs to appear once in the aircraft.cfg file. Mine look like this:
[General]
performance=Model: M. Davies\nPanel: P. Perrott\nFlight Model: J. McDaniel\nTextures: M. Davies\n\nMax Speed @ S.L.: 695 mph\nMaximum Range: 2,314 miles \nService Ceiling: 44,000 ft\nEmpty Weight: 13,800 lbs\nGross Weight: 28,000 lbs.\nEngine: (1) J-65-W-3 turbojet 7,220 lb st \n\nArmament:\n6 M-3 .50 cal Browning machine guns. \nUp to 6,000 lbs of ordinance on four wing pylons.\n\n
editable=1
atc_type=REPUBLIC
atc_model=F84
This looks fine however, FS doesn't recognize "F84" as a voice file and I can't find one online so we'll need to get crafty.
What will work is "Thunderbolt". Its close enough and after a while, I don't even notice that its wrong.
One idea would be to use a variation of "P47" but I also have the option of using:
atc_model=A10
OK, we're past that hurdle. Now, its time to work on the callsigns.
In the real world, military callsigns change A LOT. Some are considered constant ("Air Force One", "Thunderbird 3", etc.) but most need to change several times a year.
We're back using a "best fit" on this. I try to keep my callsigns constant and believable. As long as I can come up with something close, I'm happy. My overall convention is to use a believable (historic) callsign followed two or three digits of the aircraft's tail number. In the case of an F/A-18 belonging to VFA-195 in Japan, the callsign would be "Chippy 4-1-5".
If its an actual formation flight, I might change it to "Chippy 3". "Chippy" is the traditional callsign for The Dambusters. While the three digit numbers aren't accurate (they change with every flight) they're close enough.
A really good source for callsigns is Military AI Works. The only problem with MAIW is that they concentrate on MODERN aircraft.
Still, they've compiled hundreds of these callsigns and I (mostly) trust their research. I'll take a break for now, I've been typing for a while, but in the next post we'll dive deeper into finding the right callsigns for 1950's-1970's era military planes of various nations plus WWII aircraft.
BTW, I'm putting together a set of pilot textures for Alpha's George-the-Pilot. Stuff like the orange flight suit, a new darker green flight suit, and a combo of a dark green flight jacket over orange pants. Let me know if you want them and I'll either post the set or e-mail it out. This texture is pretty standard for the old Alpha jets and you can use them with many of their aircraft. The new textures become a bigger deal at higher resolutions.