flight planning

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groundcrew
Second Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Posts: 16
Joined: 20 Feb 2007, 22:19

flight planning

Post by groundcrew »

hello,

i am thinking of making some flightplans for a fleet of f16's i am repainting for volkel afb in the netherlands. does any of the flightplanners over here have some info as how to make the flightplans. i got some stations i want them flying to. is there a program you guys use for your packages to make up the flightplans or doe you hand type them?
hope anybody can help out otherwise it will be a long typing session... :wink:
thanks jw
max2202

Post by max2202 »

You can type every leg as a seperate line in notepad, like this:

AA;111;AMS;RTM;02:50;07:00;4;F16

Where the AA stand for airline, then flightnumber, departure airport, arrival airport, departure time, arrival time, day and airplane. Then you can compile it into flightplans with a program called: Mraicompiler.

I hope this helps.
sprocky
Major
Major
Posts: 765
Joined: 26 Feb 2007, 09:33
Version: FS9
Location: 40kms west of EDHI (Airbus)

Post by sprocky »

Hi groundcrew,

it maybe a little more complicated than max2202 wrote before.

First create an airport file for example Airports_Volkel.txt. List all your airports you want your aircraft going to.

Example:
EHVK,N51* 37.01',E5* 42.27',69

which is:
ICAO,North/South,East/West coords,altitude

When all airports listed -> save the file.

Next thing is to create the aircraft file for example Aircraft_Volkel.txt. There you put all your aircrafts involved in your plans:

Example:
AC#1,400,"F16 Air Force of the Netherlands"

AC# should be a unique number (need to remember for the flightplans)
400 speed (Traffic Tools needs this value)
The name of the a/c can be found in the aircraft.cfg. It is important to use the same syntax. Also the name should be unique.

Example:
[fltsim.0]
title=F16 Air Force of the Netherlands
...

After you have listed all your a/c -> save the file.

Last thing is to create the flighplans. But it is the part that takes the biggest part of time in your project :lol:

Creat a file for example Flightplans_Volkel.txt and write your flightplans.

Example:
AC#1,4528,1%,WEEK,IFR,1/07:00:58,1/09:08:33,290,F,4528,LIED,1/11:00:58,1/11:59:18,260,F,4528,LEPA,2/08:01:58,2/09:00:18,290,F,4528,LIED,3/10:30:08,3/13:02:35,250,F,4528,ETME,4/07:45:58,4/08:17:39,150,F,4528,ETNL,4/17:45:58,4/18:17:39,160,F,4528,ETME,5/07:30:50,5/08:51:27,270,F,4528,EGVA,6/11:30:50,6/12:27:41,270,F,4528,EHVK

AC#1=your unique AC# in your a/c file
4528=registration
1%=a/c will show up if your traffic slider in FS will be the same or a higher value
WEEK=period
IFR or VFR=self-explaining
1/07:00:58=day/time departure
1/09:08:33=day/time arrival
290=Flight Level
F or R=ATC uses Flightnumber or Registration
LIED=arrival airport
...

Save the file when your flightplans done.

Run TTools from Lee Swordy. Launch FS and you should see your AI flying around.

Things to remember:
This is a very short explanation. A lot more can be done. Just take some other plans and play with them - but take care of copyrights.
You need at LEAST two legs for each aircraft.
Each AC# can appear more times in the flightplans file but only ONCE in the aircraft file.

Questions will be answered in this forum. :)

Cheers
Jan
Former technician in MFG2 at ETME (home base of PANAVIA The flying computer TORNADO. sadly closed now)
max2202

Post by max2202 »

It could be done much easier. MRAIcompiler compiles 1 file with all flightplans and airports. You just need to write down the legs in the way I typed above. Then run MRAIcompiler which makes a file with all airports and flightplans, you only need to make your own aircraft.txt and offcource put the right repaints with the right aircraft.

When I'm home tonight (at work right now), I will explain a little better with example codes.
groundcrew
Second Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Posts: 16
Joined: 20 Feb 2007, 22:19

Post by groundcrew »

hello,
thanks for your replies so far guys!! just one little question, how do you figure out how long a f-16 flies from station a to station b? i think the time will differ when it flies at for example 200kts or mach 1.0. is there a way to find that out aswell.
jw
max2202

Post by max2202 »

To answer your last question, I think the best way is to go to http://gc.kls2.com/ and let it calculate for you.

Then the first question on how to make flightplans. I will explain the way I did it, with plans I made for learning flightplanning.

First open a clean notepad and start making legs for the planes, like this:

MP;8111;AMS;EBB;12:15;20:55;1;M1F
MP;8111;EBB;NBO;22:25;23:30;1;M1F
MP;8111;NBO;AMS;00:00;09:00;2;M1F

This is an MD-11 starting at 12:15 at AMS to EBB en then onto NBO before returning to AMS. I already explained the different times.
This way you keep it simple and you dont get confused. Remember to return all flights to the starting airport, this way you dont get any problems
compiling the plans.

So for a F-16 in the Netherlands it could look like:

AA;1;EHVK;EHLW;12:15;14:55;1;F16
AA;1;EHLW;EHEH;16:25;18:30;1;F16
AA;1;EHEH;EHVK;00:00;02:00;2;F16

This way it start on monday at 12:15 flying from Volkel to Leeuwarden,
then flying on the same day at 16:25 from Leeuwarden to Eindhoven, and
the last leg starts on Thuesday at 00:00 from eindhoven to Volkel.

When you're done making the flightplans, MRAIcompiler comes in http://www.fs2000.org/last/news.asp?id=9808

Open the program and click on "open timetable", and choose the
flightplans you just made. It will then show all flights. Then you can
click on "Compile flightplans", save the file.

The saved file will from the plans above will look like this:

EHVK,N51* 39.43',E5* 42.46',69
EHLW,N53* 13.51',E5* 45.15',3
EHEH,N51* 27.00',E5* 22.46',72

*AC#,AAF16,1%,WEEK,IFR,1/10:15,@1/12:55,100,F,0001,EHLW,1/14:25,@1/16:30,100,F,0001,EHEH,1/22:00,@2/00:00,100,F,0001,EHVK

As you can see, it makes its own airport "database" of the airports,
which are in the flightplans. You only need to chance the *AC#, into
AC#1, This will return in the aircaft.txt.

This file you need to split into two files,

airports.txt: this contains the compiled airports
flightplans.txt: this contains the compiled flightplans

Then you need a third textfile wich contains the aircraft which uses the
flightplans. I hope you know how to add a repaint, else you just need
to ask and I will explain that too.

The aircraft.txt will look like the following:

AC#1,430,"F-16"

As you can see the AC#1 returns here, the 430 stands for airspeed and
the F-16 is the title which return in the aircraft.cfg in the aircraft folder.

So you will end up with 3 files:

airports.txt
flightplans.txt
aircraft.txt

Rename those into something like:

airports_own_F16_flightplans.txt
flightplans_own_F16_flightplans.txt
aircraft_own_F16_flightplans.txt

Then you can compile the whole flightplan into 1 BGL file with TTools
found at: http://www.simviation.com/fs2004utilities1.htm




I hope this makes all sense, and I hope you wont be scared off, reading all this.
This is the best way of making flightplans, and you dont get confused easy.


Well have fun in making flightplans :P

Gr. Max
groundcrew
Second Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Posts: 16
Joined: 20 Feb 2007, 22:19

Post by groundcrew »

thanks for the help max!! starting typing as we speak

gr jw
sprocky
Major
Major
Posts: 765
Joined: 26 Feb 2007, 09:33
Version: FS9
Location: 40kms west of EDHI (Airbus)

Post by sprocky »

Max,

seems to be easier than the way I create my FPs. But there are some questions about your procedure:

1. How do you create TNGs?
2. How can you tell ATC to use regs instead of flight numbers?
3. How do you tell the AI a/c which flight level to use (military low level flights)?
4. How to chose VFR instead of IFR?
5. Do I have to add all airports (or a turnpoint) that are not in the default FS manually or where does the MRAI compiler get its information?

Hope your answer on all these questions wont be: edit your files :cry:

Thanks for spending your time on answering my questions.
Jan
Former technician in MFG2 at ETME (home base of PANAVIA The flying computer TORNADO. sadly closed now)
max2202

Post by max2202 »

sprocky wrote:Max,

seems to be easier than the way I create my FPs. But there are some questions about your procedure:

1. How do you create TNGs?
2. How can you tell ATC to use regs instead of flight numbers?
3. How do you tell the AI a/c which flight level to use (military low level flights)?
4. How to chose VFR instead of IFR?
5. Do I have to add all airports (or a turnpoint) that are not in the default FS manually or where does the MRAI compiler get its information?

Hope your answer on all these questions wont be: edit your files :cry:

Thanks for spending your time on answering my questions.
Well, you got some good points there. I only made some flightplans for cargo airlines so I didn't need to worry about TNGs and VFR/IFR.

1. Most airlines won't do TNG's, unfortunatly we are at MAIW... so you need to edit your flightplans.
2. I guess you need to use a reg instead of a 2-letter airline code.
3. Unfortunatly you need to edit your flightplans.
4. Same as point 1.
5. MRAI compiler uses a airport database in the form of a txt file. Just add
missing airports to it.

The problem of making flightplans is, that it is very time consuming.
Especially if you want to make 100% real flightplans. But you dont want
to think about making flightplans for Continental, KLM or AA all by hand.
Eventualy you will end up editing your flightplans, but then most of the work is done by MRAIcompiler.

Gr. Max
sprocky
Major
Major
Posts: 765
Joined: 26 Feb 2007, 09:33
Version: FS9
Location: 40kms west of EDHI (Airbus)

Post by sprocky »

Max,

thought you would give these answers. Unfortunatly I create military flightplans. But I will give MRAI a try and see if it can speed up the process :)

You mentioned you have created FPs for cargos. Are they available somewhere ? Especially I am interested in smaller cargo carriers flying around Europe.
Jan
Former technician in MFG2 at ETME (home base of PANAVIA The flying computer TORNADO. sadly closed now)
max2202

Post by max2202 »

No they are not available. I made some flightplans for learning processes,
and as I said before, it is very time consuming. Maybe you can tell me,
which plans you are looking for, and I will look in to it. But don't ask to
much from me, as I still have a social life between working and simming :P

Gr. Max
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