Is there an easy way to put AI aircraft and vehicles on GA-only airports?

S

Sid2008

Charter Member
Is there an easy way to put AI aircraft and vehicles on GA-only airports?

I was wondering if someone can briefly tutor me how to add a parkeing area to the plethora of small fields we have in FS9 and then put GA traffic and perchance some ground vehicle traffic.

Am I being too ambitious?

Thanks,
Sid
 
I think you can open up any air field in Afcad, create parking spaces, apply tags for those spots like cessna, piper, etc. and then increase your traffic percentage to 100% in the sim. Then you should have a healthier population of GA. Be careful to link the spots to a taxiway so the AI can find the spots, else they'll land and disappear.
 
First thing, Read the manual that comes with AFCAD, it tells you all you need to know about adding parking spots. Then search the big sites for files by David 'opa' Marshall, he has 'newsletters' and how-to's a plenty. Study the relevant ones and set to work.

Just adding parking to a bare FS9 airstrip will probably not add any traffic to the field. If the default scenery has no parking usually the default traffic do not go there. Two options, search for a pack that someone else has done already for your field of choice or add your own traffic with TTools (Y-route inteface is a helpful addition to TTools).

Jamie
 
TTools being Traffic Tools, also by Lee Swordy.

TT and AFCAD compliment one another. AFCAD is for working on airports, and TT is for working on traffic. Read the manuals from both programs and you'll know everything you need to know about AI traffic.

Note that some planes don't work as AI. Trial and error will tell you which ones. One thing to beware of is planes that mostly work, except they're invisible in certain views. If you're looking in a view where you can't see them, you'll still crash if you collide with them. So when you use a plane as AI and check to see if it works, be sure to look at it in spot, panel and VC views and make sure it's visible.
 
Once you get the knack of how AI is created, how to make traffic programs for a plane, etc, its pretty fun and easy. Getting them to work at first might take you a while to understand why something isnt showing up at first. Once you are past that barrier, you can start creating AI in just several min's and have them in FS pretty quick.

I found it was easier to hand write the traffic strings, copy/pasting them from others and changing out the planes and times and airports for my own, then changing times for what I needed. Makes it a bit easier and quicker. There are programs that can create it for you, but of the several I tried, none worked, and hand writing them became easier and quicker then the auto programs.
 
Bit of a learning curve with AI traffic. The manual can be confusing at first. I used a single traffic file, from an addon, and modified it until I got a plane to show up, take off and land when and where I wanted it to. Much more enjoyable flying experience.
 
[fltsim.0]
title= Boeing 737-800 Virgin Blue Winglets
sim=aia_737_NG
model=no_refl
panel=
sound=
texture=virgin
atc_id=VH-VOW
atc_airline=Virgin
atc_flight_number=505
ui_manufacturer=Aardvark
ui_type=Boeing 737-800
ui_variation=Virgin Blue (Winglets)
description=AI Aardvark 737-800
atc_id_color=0000000000
visual_damage=1
atc_parking_codes=VOZ
atc_parking_types=GATE

You must make sure that the texture file is named exactly the same as the texture file you have in the aircraft folder otherwise you are going to have lots of pretty white planes flying around. You can change the title line if you wish (don't touch title= though) I did change the one above from the default to Boeing 737-800 Virgin Blue Winglets. And make sure the atc_airline= is the correct callsign.

Next scroll further down the aircraft.cfg file until you find this,

[Reference Speeds]
flaps_up_stall_speed=122.0 //Knots True (KTAS)
full_flaps_stall_speed=103.0 //Knots True (KTAS)
cruise_speed=435.0 //Knots True (KTAS)
max_mach = 0.86
max_indicated_speed = 340 //Red line (KIAS)

Once you have this info ready to add it to TTools.

#3 Open your red Ttools icon, on the right hand side you will see a column FS2004 Traffic files, click on the traffic030528.bgl until it highlights it grey and press decompile. Now open the file in AI Utilites folder that downloaded with Ttools called Aircraft030538 this will open in notepad and list all of the default aircraft that comes with FS9. Now you need to add your Virgin Blue aircraft, the last aircraft listed on that file should be,

AC#59,62,"Vickers Vimy Transatlantic"

You simply add the next number in the sequence so it will be

AC#60,

then the cruise speed, it must exactly match in this file, so in our example it was
435, and finally the aircraft name itself, simply copy the title line (excluding title=) like so

"Boeing 737-800 Virgin Blue Winglets" -> you MUST add the apostrophes around the this part.

So when you are done this is how it will read,

AC#60,200,"Boeing 737-800 Virgin Blue Winglets"

Repeat this step with each plane you add by just adding the next number in the sequence. Now go back to Ttools and press compile. Make a note of what the aircraft number was in this case AC#60.

#4- Its flightplan time, this does take some getting used to. Go back to Ttools and again decompile, this time open the flightplan030528 file these are the flightplans used by Orbit, Landmark and Global Freightways etc. As I like flying with real world airlines I simply copied these to a file in my documents in case I wanted to use them later. Once that was done I deleted all of the out of flightplans030528 file. To write the flightplan you must convert all local times to GMT.
Below is a daily flight for Virgin Blue,

AC#60,VHVBF,10%,24Hr,IFR,20:29:46,@21:54:51,310,F,0203,YBBN,22:59:53,@00:29:53,300,F,0216,YSSY,01:59:53,@03:24:58,370,F,0225,YBBN,06:00:00,@07:30:00,360,F,0252,YSSY,09:00:00,@10:24:44,350,F,0253,YBBN,10:59:53,@12:29:53,340,F,0276,YSSY
AC#60 - This is the aircraft number you assigned in Aircraft030528 file.
VH-VBF - The aircrafts registration
10%- This is used in connection with the traffic density slider, I always use 10% as my default when typing the flightplans.
24Hr- There are several different times to add to this it can be 2Hr, 4Hr, 8Hr, 12Hr, 24Hr, Week. If you add anything under 24Hr you will get the same flight every 2,4,8, or 12 hours if you want it to look like real world stick with 24Hr or WEEK (which we will get to later).
IFR- You can have your flights either IFR or VFR
Then comes the flight times this one departs Sydney at 20:29 GMT 10:29AM Local and arrives in Brisbane at 21:54 GMT 11:54AM Local, you will notice a @ symbol being used this will force the plane to arrive at that time and if you lowered the cruise speed to 200 knots earlier you MUST use this symbol.
310- This is the flight level that it will climb to
F- This means ATC will call the plane by Airline and flight number e.g. "Virgin 203" adding and R instead of F will have ATC calling it "VBF"
YBBN- This is the airport code, you must start the days flying at the airport you are going to end the days flying at if you are using 2,4,8,12, or 24 hour flight plans. So in the case above we depart Sydney for Brisbane and the last flight on the plan is 276 to YSSY.
You must write the plan as complete with commas, above using GMT to show departure and arrival times, the airline websites all have timetables which makes planning easy just convert the times shown to GMT and you should have no problems.
For International flights its largely the same principle, but you add WEEK instead of 2,4,8,12 or 24Hrs. And they are a longer flight plan as it goes on a 7 day week instead of 24 Hours, below is a QF744 weekly flight plan,
AC#72,VHOJS,10%,WEEK,IFR,5/23:43:08,@6/15:04:45,330,F,0149,KLAX,6/21:59:25,@0/10:32:28,320,F,0008,YSSY,0/12:13:22,@0/22:00:18,380,F,0031,WSSS,0/23:33:49,@1/13:14:32,380,F,0031,EGLL,1/23:03:56,@2/11:54:12,390,F,0010,WSSS,2/13:43:43,@2/19:41:47,390,F,0010,YMML,2/21:22:41,@2/22:41:26,350,F,0010,YSSY,3/05:49:38,@3/15:37:48,320,F,0005,WSSS,3/16:56:33,@4/05:35:45,320,F,0005,EDDF,4/23:50:52,@5/11:54:23,310,F,0006,WSSS,5/13:59:53,@5/19:17:21,310,F,0006,YSSY
Again all times are GMT at each local airport and the day/time must be added as above, these take some time to get used to and will cause many headaches along the way, but if you want to 5 or 6 QF 744 parked at LAX just as in real life its worth the effort. The only worry about arrivals and departures is that the last leg must arrive at the departure airport used in the start of the flight plan.
Go back to Ttools and hit compile, if you get a 'Red' Message there is something wrong with the flightplan a lot of times you may have added a . instead of , they must be written perfectly or it will not compile
.
#5- Finally to make your airlines park in there correct spots go into AFCAD again and find Aircraft editor in the tools section, highlight the desired aircraft in the list then match it to a the name in the parking code selector, that don't have to be identical, for instance I use Qatar Air Cargo for my Qantas domestic so they don't park at the International Terminal. I suggest reading the tutorial in Afcad on how to assign gates, parking codes etc.
Click to expand...

This is a tutorial I found when I first started messing with AI. Can't remember where I got it from or who wrote it but it's been a massive help in deciphering the flightplan code.
 
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