Opinions needed

[clarke123]

After it was mentioned in another topic I downloaded Rysiek Winawer's RPP_FPGen, it looks promising but I can't test it because MS excel isn't active on my system and I can't get a trial key because it keeps saying there's a fault with my internet connection, which there isn't. Forget all that anyway, what I want to know is does Rysieks FP really work as well as it says, it seems too good to be true. What do you guy's make of it? If it really is that usefull I'll buy MS office thingy ( I have been using a wordpro thingy that came with my first computer and was desinged for windows98, I make it work on Vista by sheer force of will and swearing a lot coz I am beyond tight with money ) because this FPGen sounds like a godsend. Any feedback appreciated.

[Blank Fang]

I'm sure youl end up getting excel then!

[bismarck]

I use it a lot. Very useful and easy to learn.
Only a couple of little lacks in my opinion.
You can't determine the exact start time of a flight, and most important to me, it can't manage more TNGs consecutively.

Giorgio.

[kungfuman]

I've used it to good effect, but when using to generate a random order of destinations (which supposedly you can control the probabilities for) it doesn't work as well as advertised. I found that the first airfield in the list consistently gets a lot more visits than it should, usually as the first leg of the generated flightplan (as if you had set it to generate plans with a specific order of destinations - even though you have set "STAR" or "RAN"). But if you use something like AITM (freeware) or similar traffic organising program, it is easy to identify these shortcomings and correct them.

Great for generating large amounts of rough and ready plans in a short time, but you will want to examine the output closely to iron things out here and there if you want to achieve the best quality plans. For producing high quality plans it can still be a good starting point.

[campbeme]

it can't manage more TNGs consecutively.

Giorgio.

What do you mean by this Giorgio?

Mark

[scottr5213]

Clarke, you can go to openoffice.org and download there product, it is free and works with any office product.

[Firebird]

It is office compatible but it is not macro compatible, as far as I know. If this changes then it would make a lot of people happy.

[bismarck]

it can't manage more TNGs consecutively.

Giorgio.

What do you mean by this Giorgio?

Mark

For example, if I want to start from an airport, go to the first waypoint and then to a second waypoint, both with TNG, and come back, it doesn't consider the second waypoint.

Start from LIPA ( flight type TOUR)
1st WP WP01 TNG
2nd WP WP02 TNG

The flightplan doesn't consider the second waypoint.
It works if you insert an airport between the two TNGs
LIPA
WP01
LICZ
WP02

Giorgio

[GrahamS]

There is no way you can program consecutive TNGs in that way to waypoints, you MUST have a hard landing in between. It is the AI engine which prevents this, not the program you are using for the flightplans.

[bismarck]

There is no way you can program consecutive TNGs in that way to waypoints, you MUST have a hard landing in between. It is the AI engine which prevents this, not the program you are using for the flightplans.

I read about this many time, but it is not exactly true. The following is an example of a FP I manually created for mine Atlantique.

AC#264,ATLANT,50%,24Hr,IFR,03:00:00,TNG03:39:39,85,F,1016,AT03,03:42:00,TNG04:14:21,12,F,1016,AT02,4:17:00,TNG04:56:59,12,F,1016,AT01,5:00:00,TNG05:39:48,12,F,1016,AT04,5:42:00,TNG06:16:22,12,F,1016,AT05,6:19:00,TNG06:43:50,12,F,1016,AT06,6:46:00,TNG07:34:32,12,F,1016,AT07,7:37:00,TNG08:33:40,12,F,1016,AT05,8:36:00,00:00:00,85,F,1016,LIEE

It works perfectly, the airports are fictious (excluding LIEE), they only have a runway of 2.000m in length and 0,1m in width at 500 m above the sea level.
With TVB, I can follow the aircraft flying across every waypoint and come back home.
Hope this can be usefull for someone.

Giorgio

[mikewmac]

There is no way you can program consecutive TNGs in that way to waypoints, you MUST have a hard landing in between. It is the AI engine which prevents this, not the program you are using for the flightplans.

I read about this many time, but it is not exactly true. The following is an example of a FP I manually created for mine Atlantique.

AC#264,ATLANT,50%,24Hr,IFR,03:00:00,TNG03:39:39,85,F,1016,AT03,03:42:00,TNG04:14:21,12,F,1016,AT02,4:17:00,TNG04:56:59,12,F,1016,AT01,5:00:00,TNG05:39:48,12,F,1016,AT04,5:42:00,TNG06:16:22,12,F,1016,AT05,6:19:00,TNG06:43:50,12,F,1016,AT06,6:46:00,TNG07:34:32,12,F,1016,AT07,7:37:00,TNG08:33:40,12,F,1016,AT05,8:36:00,00:00:00,85,F,1016,LIEE

It works perfectly, the airports are fictious (excluding LIEE), they only have a runway of 2.000m in length and 0,1m in width at 500 m above the sea level.
With TVB, I can follow the aircraft flying across every waypoint and come back home.
Hope this can be usefull for someone.

Giorgio

Giorgio,

It has been a while since I worked on this problem, but as I remember it the reason that your FP's utilizing multiple
waypoints work is that you have all your waypoints and IFR flight levels between them below 1700 feet.

I also remember that we found some other ways to work around the problem with the FS9 AI engine relative to
using multiple consecutive elevated airport waypoints that Graham refers to, but they were so cumbersome as to
be impractical.

Mike

[clarke123]

I've used it to good effect, but when using to generate a random order of destinations (which supposedly you can control the probabilities for) it doesn't work as well as advertised. I found that the first airfield in the list consistently gets a lot more visits than it should, usually as the first leg of the generated flightplan (as if you had set it to generate plans with a specific order of destinations - even though you have set "STAR" or "RAN"). But if you use something like AITM (freeware) or similar traffic organising program, it is easy to identify these shortcomings and correct them.

Great for generating large amounts of rough and ready plans in a short time, but you will want to examine the output closely to iron things out here and there if you want to achieve the best quality plans. For producing high quality plans it can still be a good starting point.

Sounds perfect for my needs. Looks like I'm getting MS office. Thanks for the input.

[Joecoastie]

Look for "MS Office for Home & Students". if you don't want to buy the full blown product. It's considerably less expensive ($120 vs $320). It contains Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and OneNote.

[clarke123]

Look for "MS Office for Home & Students". if you don't want to buy the full blown product. It's considerably less expensive ($120 vs $320). It contains Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and OneNote.

Cheers mate, thats the one I'm after, £99.99 round my way. No wonder Gates is a billionaire.

[BadPvtDan]

I was able to get that for $20 US through my school.

[clarke123]

Just a little update - payday came and £99 went. Just installed and given a little test to get some AAC Gazelles into Aldergrove and it's perfect. Best flight plan generator ever. Thanks for the advice lads, well worth it.

[jimrodger]

Could you post a link to where you got the Gazelles, been busy hunting to no avail.

Cheers Jim

[clarke123]

They're not AI they're Cyril Pioffet's FS2002 model used with Holger Sandmann's AI Heli packs from hovercontrol.com and an AAC paint by UKMIL. Sorry if I got your hopes up, I'd kill for a proper AI Gazelle too.