Military AI Works

I found some FS9 waypoints on one of my archive disks, (Invisible Airstrips).

To save time and effort has anyone tried them in FSX?

Col.

They will work fine for the most as long as you don't fly out to them. There is still the elevation issues between FS9/X, not an issue overwater, but one can expect holes or walls of earth. I did see a "wall" while watching some Ft. Wayne A-10s go to the range, the waypoint would need to match the surrounding elevation.

Hi Chris,

I was going to use them for AI, I thought that was the point to fly out to them, or have I misunderstood?

Col.

I tried a TnG to a waypoint using an FS9 WP in FSX, the ai aircraft (Chipmunk) took off and made it's way to the WP, did the usual circled and did a few TnGs then when the time was up it climbed... And climbed and climbed when it got to 18000 ft I quit the sim.
I set a VFR plan so may be that was the fault, I also noticed the AC actually did a touchdown rather that go missed which would have looked better.

Col.

Yep when we first did Lakenheath we found that aircraft did not return from VFR TNGs.

If you think about regular TNGs VFR ones always touch down and IFR ones always overshoot.

The golden rule with waypoints is not to use VFR TNGs. It might seem a bit daft with a Chipmunk but you should try the IFR plan.

There is a second rule with TNGs. If the height difference between the airport you arrive at is greater than 8000' below the airport you left the the aircraft will disappear on approach, if you are following it, but that is not what you found here.

I went away to try a IFR Steve, yes you are right, it is a while since I used a WP for a TnG.
This time it was success, Aircraft left, got to the WP, only did one missed approach then contacted ATC to return to base, climbed to the asinged altitude then returned to base.
Very pleased, I like using these for training flights and mock air sea rescue.

Col.

I made a new WP last night, then did a IFR flightplan using AIFP3, I got a message popup saying there was no time zone for this airport.
I double checked I had everything the same as one that is working and I don't think I missed anything, obviously the map co ordinations are different but that is all.
Any Ideas please?

Col.

Have you specified a country In the Airport ID and Location fields?

I am trying to remember if it works it from the Longitude or the Country or both.

There are 5 fields in the Airport ID and location section and I think that you have to fill in at least the top 2 and the bottom one. The city also helps but I think that the only time you would need the state/province would be when a country has multiple time zone.

The other thing it might be is that if you are not loading a set of txt files, so that it is using the AIFP database to generate an airports list you need to have the airport added to the database, as AIFP doesn't know about it.

If that is the case you should 'Find/Collect Airports' make sure that you select addons and the sim that the addon is designed for and also select 'Scenery Library' as an option or it will sort through your entire PC.

A warning for you it will take a long time to search through all your folders that are in the scenery library. You may think that it is hung but it is not.

Hi Steve,
Yes filled all those in, I made sure by copying from one that worked, obviously changing the name of course.
I got the map co-ordinations by going on the FSX map then moving the plane icon to the spot where I wanted the WP then copied the long/lat on a piece of paper, double checked it after the error came up.

Col.

OK so if you are creating it from scratch and not modifying one with a txt file then you have to add the airport to the database.

If you don't and you aren't using an airports.txt file AIFP will not know where the airport/waypoint is.

Yes did that as well, got AIFP to 'Collect Airports' I saw it in the list after it collected then I saved it, plus updated the data base.

So does it still not know the timezone?

If you don't mind send me a copy and I will have a look.

After all the messing I did with it I deleted it and I emptied my bin, I will try again.

Edited, Hang on found a copy on my desktop.

Col.

OK got it. I think I may have an idea as to why but I need to check this out.

OK, I found the cause and I shall explain my working out so that people can better understand how AIFP works.

Firstly, I checked the AirportList_AddOns.dat file and found that no time offset is kept there. I also checked the source of other afcad files and found that no time zone info is kept in the raw xml code.

So the next thing I looked at was the name of the afcad, LPW0. Could it be that it was confused by the fact that country code of 'LP' is actually Portugal and it was confused by the fact that the airport was in the UK?

So I copied it creating EGL0 and I got the same thing. You can manually add the timezone and offset but you shouldn't have to so what was the cause?

When I searched the updated AirportList_AddOns.dat I found that both EGL0 and LPW0 were together in the list but below addons from the United States.
That was when i found the cause. You had the Country in the properties as 'Unitied Kingdom'. AIFP looks up the country in the time zone table and couldn't find 'Unitied Kingdom'.

I removed the afcads from the active scenery path folder and re-updated the addon airports. Both were then missing from the new AirportList_AddOns.dat .

When I altered the country to 'United Kingdom' and added the afcads back into the path. Again when creating a flightplan it complained that the airport was not in the list, as no airports.txt was available to use, so I then collected the airports again.

This time the both LPW0 and EGL0 were both available.

So the bottom line is that to have the time zone working you must have the country spelled correctly in the afcad properties. Once you do it will pick up the offset if the airport is either in an airports.txt file that you have loaded or if it is included in the AIFP airports addon database.

I think I have covered everything.

Wow Steve, you did all that, you are amazing mate. I can't believe I spelled UK wrong, when I saw what you typed I spotted it right away but not when I put it in, how bazaar.
Sorry for delay in the reply I'm not feeling too good, hopefully tomorrow I may improve, thank you once again but as you say it will help others if they make a few WPs.

Col.

What can I say mate, after 30 years as a software/systems analyst is hard to switch off. It just comes naturally now.

Hello again Steve, feeling a little better so changed the WP to the right country lol.
AIFP3 recognised it and I made the flightplan, aircraft set off and got to the WP did 2 TnG's then vanished, so something I must have missed, possibly in my flightplan.
The thing is when I tried a WP I already had a few days ago the AC did the TnG's then returned to base, I'm puzzled.

Col.

What is the time difference between the arrival of the TNG leg and the departure time to return home?

10 mins I think, should it be longer?

Col.