Mission builder-aircraft start position.

[demorier]

There is a simple little text edit trick to move an aeroplane to the end of the runway in mission files.?? Forgotten how to do it again.!! This time I will save some notes.

[vidal]

Hello.
I thing it is located into the [runway.x] chapter in the dp file.
Player's aircraft position is describes by :
" takeoff_start_pos=-450,0 "
The first number is related to the distance frm the center of the runway, and teh second one is the axial distance.

[Jagdflieger]

Yes, on missions starting from an aircraft carrier, the start position is determined by the ship's DP file.

Ie:

[flight_deck_section]
width=32.577024
length=262.128
takeoff_start=-2,16.7801544,-119
takeoff_stop=-2,16.7801544,120
landing_start=0,500,5000
landing_touch_down=1.279999,16.7801544,-126.0524784
landing_stop=1.279999,16.7801544,0

On land airfields, the start position is in the airbases.dat file under the airfield you wish to take off from:


[runway.0]
id=9000
name=Abbeville
heading=130
allegiance=0
units_across=1
base_lat=N50 8.66
base_lon=E1 50.35
base_alt=201
takeoff_start_pos=-500,0
takeoff_stop_pos=1600,200
landing_start_pos=5000,350
landing_touchdown_pos=500,0
landing_stop_pos=-250,0

[demorier]

Thanks for that people....I got it now.

[Devildog73]

However............on land missions, if the author has a different log/lat/heading than your airbases.dat, the aircraft will be where the author's airbases are located, not yours. I know that as I installed Jean's north Africa scenery, it changed the actual layout of Achim's airbases. I started on a taxiway instead of the end of the runways. I go into MB and find the center of the runway and write down the coordinates. I then open INFO and airbases.dat and edit the coordinates to match the new position. This puts me at the end of the runway, though not always on the exact right heading. Though, in a P-40, one has to use so much rudder, the heading at engine start is kind of immaterial except for AI. You want them on the correct heading of the runways.

To correct the heading hit F3 to open a full view with heading text. Find the correct runway take off heading and then close CFS2 and open your airbases.dat again and correct the heading in the entry for that airbase. Then, make sure you delete; filelist.dat, *.cdp, and INDEX in that install. When you restart CFS2, the AI and your plane will be on the proper starting place with the correct take off heading.