If you're talking about the repaints downloaded from the FSD site, I'm running about 50% on them. The Cessna 337 Skymasters installed okay. But with the military version, the O-2 Skymaster, the provided repaint installers can't find FS and there's no way to browse to it. So I'm stuck there.
The FSD 337H Skymaster is my favorite GA aircraft and I'm glad I got it (currently racing it to Melbourne from London
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=24610 ). But if I had to do it over again, I'd leave the O-2 alone. And that's not just because of the repaints.
I've had the FSD Cessna O-2A since 2005 and can sympathize with your frustration. Here are some tips I've learned along the way that you might find helpful.
Open the "FSD 02A Load Manager.exe" located in the aircraft folder. Bottom-center is the "Stored Data" heading. Click the Manage button. From here you can browse and set your flightsim path. The 1st line is the path to the simulator and the 2nd line the path to the aircraft directory. Normally line 1 would be C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9 and the aircraft directory at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\Aircraft\FSD O2A.
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Installing new paints:
make sure they have a "Paint.cfg" included in the new texture folder. The format (
in bold) of the Paint.cfg is :
scheme=Default Paint scheme
ui_variation=Default
atc_id=21284
title=FSD Cessna O-2A Default
description=Cessna O2A by FSD for FS2004
glass=0
Install the new texture folder as usual, Run the Load Manager per instructions and Save.
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You make changes to the aircraft.cfg or the panel.cfg, and you want them to be permanent:
They won't be unless you
also make the changes in the "Loadout.cfg" that is contained in the Data folder.
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Work Arounds:
New Paints: Make a copy of the default 0-2A "texture" folder, rename to the new texture name, install the 5 textures and Paint.cfg and overwrite.
Add the new paint to the aircraft.cfg as usual.
If you ever start up the Load Manager again, be sure to select the new aircraft and Save.
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Goofs:
Load Manager doesn't reproduce aim.bmp and the 2 Pilotsb_xxx bitmaps when installing new texture pkgs. I manually moved the 3 bitmaps into the new texture folders and the sight crosshairs returned to the VC military config (aim.bmp).
The Hobbs Meter resets to zero for each FS9 flight.
All the info in Stored Data of the Load Manager is at zero. I think this also makes the Maintenance & Operation section unusable.
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EDIT: Forgot this one. If you use your radios and want ATC to reference your 0-2A:
[General]
atc_type=Cessna
atc_model=02A //<--"Zero-Two-A" says Oh-Two-A //O2A--"Oh-Two-A" doesn't work
editable=0
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Hope this is helpful. Once you get by what doesn't work in the auto-prep stuff, the Oscar Deuce itself is a really nice looking and nice flying aircraft.