Need Help With Carriers

[Arkycharlie]

Having finally made a number of successful F-18 landings in FSX Acceleration and having made several addon aircraft capable of carrier landings, I have been diligently seeking information about how to find moving carriers in free flight. There are numerous schedules out there, and finding static carriers is not a problem, but I have yet to find a carrier that is actually cruising according to the schedules that I have found. I have ships and boats at 100%, I set the day of the week and the GMP time, take off and start looking, and all I find is a static carrier. I have searched SOH to no avail so am hoping that one of you more experienced guys will have pity and point me in the right direction. Thanks!

charlie

[IanP]

You don't have any FS9-format AI traffic (e.g. WoAI, MAIW) installed, do you? They wipe out ALL FSX AI, including the carriers.

Your best option, regardless, is AiCarriers2 from the major download sites. Put the carrier where you want it, when you want it and tell it to move. ;)

Ian P.

[djscoo]

The moving carriers spend a few hours in port before moving along their schedule. If you want instant moving carriers, I recommend AICarriers it is a program that allows you to place all types of ships w/ landable decks wherever you want while the sim is running. I'll post the link, just give me a sec to find it.:ernae:

[djscoo]

http://www.taskforcefsx.com/aicarriers.html

[Arkycharlie]

Thanks guys!!! Yes, I have MAIW installed and I had a feeling that was a problem. I appreciate the download link also! Your help is greatly appreciated!

charlie

[Helldiver]

If you landed on a static carrier, you'd probably chop through every single wire. The forward motion of the ship lessens the severity of the hook catching the wire.

[EgoR64]

:wavey:

You can also play with the Traffic Toolbox SDK, Whence loaded you can place carriers anywhere real time- very cool tool !!

I use to put carriers Somewheres in the Open Ocean, Fun Stuff, Comes free with FSX.

Also can change locations of your flying AI......Sweet !!

Cheers !! :applause:

[SkippyBing]

If you landed on a static carrier, you'd probably chop through every single wire. The forward motion of the ship lessens the severity of the hook catching the wire.

Interestingly when they were trialling the last Ark Royal with Phantoms they drove her backwards up the Channel to get zero wind over the deck to check all the launch and recovery equipment would work on a still air day. I've never found an explanation as to why they needed to do that as even on a still air day they could make wind, I'll see if I can dig the article out.
On the other hand when the cables were uprated in the mid '50s the original Wyvern tailhook started cutting them in two as the end was acting like a knife on the larger diameter cable.

[Arkycharlie]

I've made quite a few landings in various aircraft on static carriers and cutting the wire has not been a problem so far.

Unfortunately, I bought the Standard edition of FSX and do not have SDK at this time. However, I have a deluxe edition ordered and look forward to having some more tools to play with.

On the MAIW issue, does anyone know specifically what files cause the problem. At the moment, I have removed all of the aircraft from my addon AI aircraft folder and still cannot locate a moving carrier. Maybe I missed something.

Another question, has anyone added a tailhook to the Jan Visser F-86? I added a tailhook section to the aircraft.cfg file but the coordinates. etc. are all wrong and it doesn't work properly. So far, I really like the ABC Corsair, the Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat, and the T-45 Goshawk for carrier landings. I pretty much stick with freeware and would appreciate any suggestions of other good aircraft in this regard. Thanks!

charlie


Interestingly when they were trialling the last Ark Royal with Phantoms they drove her backwards up the Channel to get zero wind over the deck to check all the launch and recovery equipment would work on a still air day. I've never found an explanation as to why they needed to do that as even on a still air day they could make wind, I'll see if I can dig the article out.
On the other hand when the cables were uprated in the mid '50s the original Wyvern tailhook started cutting them in two as the end was acting like a knife on the larger diameter cable.

[SkippyBing]

It's not actually the aircraft that cause the problem, it's the traffic.bgl file which will be in the Scenery/World/Scenery folder somewhere. I'm not sure what the MAIW one is called but I'd look in there and see if there's one called MAIWTraffic.bgl or some such.

[IanP]

Even if you add a hook to a non-carrier aircraft, it'll probably crash every landing because the gear won't be strong enough - you'll need to beef that up a lot too (gear section of aircraft.cfg).

Any FS9-format Traffic file will cause FSX traffic to vanish. I'm told - although I've never used it for this - that the AI Flight Planner tool (AIFP - available from Avsim) will search for and find FS9-format AI files, allowing you to convert them to FSX format and removing the problem. There was a thread about this not too long ago.

Ian P.

[Arkycharlie]

Thanks guys, that's very helpful! I feel like an idiot for not realizing immediately that an aircraft not built for carrier operation will lack the beefed up components to allow for the stress of carrier landings. :isadizzy:


Another question. As I mentioned earlier, I pretty much stick to freeware, because there are a lot of very good aircraft (by my standards at least) that are free and much of my enjoyment of FSX is being able to fly a ton of different types, and I couldn't afford this with payware. I have well over a hundred freeware aircraft in my "hangar" with a VC of one sort or another and add new ones on a pretty regular basis. I bought a "fighter pilot" package of five aircraft from Abacus and was thoroughly disappointed. I know, you get what you pay for, but it soured me a bit on payware. One of my main disappointments in the Abacus aircraft is their extremely poor flying characteristics. I find the F-18 and the Growler to be extremely unstable in low speed flight necessary for carrier landings. My question is, on better payware, do you get substantially better flying characteristics than the typical freeware aircraft? I know that it is probably difficult to generalize on questions like this but I was just hoping for an informed opinion. Thanks!

[N332DW]

dont forget about the Acceleration AI carriers , everthing works in SP

here is the AI schedule by day of the week ,,,

===SP XL AI CARRIERS ======
ALL TIMES ARE LOCAL:
===========================
PHNL SUNDAY PM - MONDAY AM
Depart Pearl Sundays 1645,
counterclockwise around Lanai, Maui and Molokai
Returns Mondays 0300 .

KSFO MONDAY PM - WEDNESDAY AM
Departs KSFO Mondays at 1915,
Arrives KPAE Wednesdays about 0630

KGNU TUESDAY AM - WEDNESDAY AM
Departs KGNU Tuesdays 0330,
runs down the coast 10-20 miles offshore,
turns around near Wilmington, NC around 1445,
Returns Wednesdays 0125

KSAN WEDNESDAY AM - WEDNESDAY PM
Departs KSAN Wednesdays 0515,
Arrives KSFO Wednesdays 2315

PHNL THURSDAY AM - THURSDAY PM
Depart PHNL Thursdays 0445,
clockwise around Molokai, Maui, Lanai
Returns Thursdays 1600,

KPAE FRIDAY AM - SATURDAY PM
Departs KPAE Fridays 0715,
Arrives KSFO Saturdays 1800

KGNU FRIDAY PM - SATURDAY PM
Departs KGNU Fridays 1540,
-directly off shore of KNTU at 1630
runs down the coast 10-20 miles offshore,
turns around near Wilmington 0240 Saturdays,
Returns Saturday 1325

KSFO SATURDAY PM - SUNDAY AM
Departs KSFO Saturdays 1730,
Arrives KSAN Sundays 1115
===========================

[Arkycharlie]

Hey, thanks for the detailed schedule!

Something else I have learned that also works to produce a moving aircraft carrier. In missions, select the carrier tutorial. As soon as it starts, hit the semi-colon key to "save" the flight. Put a check in the default flight box and save it as the default flight. Close FSX and then reopen it. It makes the acceleration F-18 aircraft the default aircraft and it shows Seattle International airport as the location. However, if you open it in free flight, the F-18 is actually on the moving carrier of the carrier tutorial mission. You can change the F-18 to any aircraft of your choice, fly it off the carrier, and like in the mission, come back around and land on the carrier.

charlie

[dennison]

You need a utillity called AI Carriers. you can place carriers in free flight from the addons drop down menu when installed in FSX. You can place them at will, and also make them change heading from the same menu.

Below an example with the excellent UKMIL Chinook and a.i HMS Invinceable by Simon Swallow. Not to mention the fantastic ai carrier utillity by Lamont Clark.

http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/1848/ai1hv1.th.jpg (http://img360.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ai1hv1.jpg)http://img360.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)


http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/3083/ai2ml7.th.jpg (http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ai2ml7.jpg)http://img84.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)


http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/9775/ai3xt7.th.jpg (http://img369.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ai3xt7.jpg)http://img369.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)


Here is a download link;

http://www.simviation.com/fsxutilities1.htm


Enjoy

[Arkycharlie]

Thanks dennison! It's downloading right now. I can hardly wait to try it. There are so many free utilities out there that I haven't tried that I often wonder what all I'm missing.

[noshadez]

Anybody with clues on how to add Accelleration attachpts for arrestor wires on an orig carrier model? I have done everything to the SDK letter - attachpt_cable_1_1 and attachpt_cable_1_2.....I have used everything from 4 point polys to closed boxes to closed tubes to attach to..I even looked at the accelleration default carrier with a hex editor and my attachpoint naming is correct.. I made a mission test with my carrier and the accel carrier easily switched out and the accel hornet catches on the accel default carriier but not on mine..I have even prayed at it but no joy..no catch..FSDS/3dmax all of it and nothing:male:Give me a PM Microsoft guy that made this..this is nutz

[CG_1976]

http://www.taskforcefsx.com/aicarriers.html

Hum, I guess my comp and its security sentry hates Media Fire. All browsers blocking that site the Developer linked for download.

[sparouty]

Hi everybody,
To answer to NoShadez's problem, I recommand this post : http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8673&highlight=attach+point

I used it successfully for my Acceleration carrier project (french "Clemenceau"): it solved all the mistakes I had made :d
Good luck!

SP

[IanP]

aicarriers2r2.zip at Avsim:

<table align="center" bgcolor="#aaccee" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" align="left">Category: Flight Simulator X - Utilities (http://library.avsim.net/index.php?CatID=fsxutil) </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left" width="*"> AI Ships Creator (r2) UPDATE for Aicarriers2 </td> <td align="right" nowrap="nowrap"> <!-- http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/images/Link.png (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/esearch.php?DLID=112008) --> http://library.avsim.net/images/ZipDive.png (http://library.avsim.net/zipdiver.php?DLID=112008) http://library.avsim.net/images/Download.png (http://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=112008) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table border="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td> http://library.avsim.net/sendfile.php?Location=AVSIM&Proto=file&ImageID=182338 </td> <td width="*"> File Description:
This is a small software that allows you to place and control single ships or complete naval fleets in Flight Simulator X. It doesn't need complex editing of traffic files or mission files and works in free flight. Simply add carriers or any other type of ships anywhere you want. Requires Java JRE 1.5 and FSX SP1 (RTM version is not supported). Works with Acceleration carriers (catapult and cables are supported). The package also includes hard decks cruiser and destroyer models and misc carrier textures.
</td> </tr> </tbody></table>
<table align="center" bgcolor="#aaccee" border="0" width="50%"><tbody><tr> <td width="25%">Filename:</td> <td width="75%">aicarriers2r2.zip</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="25%">License:</td> <td width="75%">Freeware</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="25%">Added:</td> <td width="75%">4th November 2007</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="25%">Downloads:</td> <td width="75%">9472</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="25%">Author:</td> <td width="75%">Lamont Clark (lc0277)</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="25%">Size:</td> <td width="75%">5402kb</td></tr></tbody></table>
Ian P.

[dennison]

OOoops my mistake it's version 2 in my shots above, i should have said so. I assumed simviation would have the updated version when i posted the link.


http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/4999/ai4ge9.th.jpg (http://img61.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ai4ge9.jpg)http://img61.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)