arms twisted; SIMPLE AI Flight Planner -STEP by STEP

[Milton Shupe]

Nicely done Nigel! Now I can try it. :-)

[Daube]

Nigel, thanks a billion for this excellent little tutorial.
Now I can start my own tests and investigations, I never found the courage to do this before.

For information, for any FSX'ers reading this => AIFP also allows you to automatically look for FS9-format AI Flight plans in your FSX folder, and then proposes you to convert them to FSX format.
(FS9-format flight plans will prevent any other FSX-format traffic to work, including the boats and aircraft carriers. Once you convert the FS9 ones to FSX, all the traffic comes back.)

PS: I believe this topic desserves to be a permanent sticky, because it's usefull.

[rich12545]

Does this work very well with marine traffic?

[nigel richards]

After finishing this tutorial late last night, it suddenly dawned on me that the whole thing would probably be heading due-south at lightning speed.

My only consolation was that maybe, before taking a nosedive, it would help at least 1 person with traffic.

I am therefore thrilled, to see it may now be three!

Nicely done Nigel! Now I can try it. :-)

Thankyou so much Milton.
It would be nice to think that for once, you would be at the receiving end, after so much giving.

Nigel, thanks a billion for this excellent little tutorial.
Now I can start my own tests and investigations, I never found the courage to do this before.

For information, for any FSX'ers reading this => AIFP also allows you to automatically look for FS9-format AI Flight plans in your FSX folder, and then proposes you to convert them to FSX format.
(FS9-format flight plans will prevent any other FSX-format traffic to work, including the boats and aircraft carriers. Once you convert the FS9 ones to FSX, all the traffic comes back.)

PS: I believe this topic desserves to be a permanent sticky, because it's usefull.

Thankyou Daube!
Its worth a billion to hear it may be useful.

Does this work very well with marine traffic?

Yes, Rich!
You will be able to handle all your traffic. Ships, cars, buses, trucks...even motorbikes! Yep, I pinched 'Maverick' from the excellent MAIW 'Miramar' pack, and have him shooting around a fair few airports.

You can install a whole fleet of battleships in one file. I'll later be covering something similar.



Gentlemen, my greatest reward, would be to see some pics up here from what you have picked up.

[Duckie]

Hey Nigel, thank you so much for taking the time to put this down on "paper" for us AI challenged folks. I will certainly give it a try once my easel is sufficiently cleared to the point where I won’t feel guilty actually getting in a little stick time!

[nigel richards]

This step is like a holiday - you make it as deatailed as you like. EASILY!!!

We're going to use the hardwork you did with your first traffic file, and in a couple of minutes; fill an airport!...

Attachment 56002

1. Depending on your settings you may or may not see your aicraft.
If you dont, it doesn't matter!

2. Go to File, Open TTools File Set.

Attachment 56003

You'll get a pop-up dialogue box!
Find the first flightplan you successfully made in the previous tutorial.

Open!

Attachment 56004

1. There's your flightplan!

2. Still no aircraft? Yikes?

Nope! No problem!

Attachment 56005

1. Double-click your flightplan.

2. Bingo! There's your aircraft!

3. There's the flightplan details!

Attachment 56006

1. For the first time, you're going to click 'Insert FP in LIst'

Click it!

2. You just created a second Flightplan with the click of a button!

Attachment 56007

1. Like it? Okay, go on clicking till your hearts content!

Each click is a new plane in your traffic! Wow!

Stop! That's enough for now.

Attachment 56008

1. You now have access to each Flightplan, simply by clicking.

2. For each individual Flightplan you select, you have complete access to edit parameters without affecting the others.

As you're making your airport busy, you'd be well advised to start playing around with duration.

Go back to the first flightplan if you're lazy, then do that clicking stuff again.

or

individually select each Flightplan and vary the flight duration.

For this exercise, make them all 2hr flights.

Here comes the best bit...

Attachment 56009

You can now choose any aircraft in your aircraft list.

Click each Flight plan, change the aircraft and save each one at a time.

Now, as you did yesterday:

1. Save as the Flightplan (only once - they're all together here).

2. Compile the Flightplan to Bgl

3. Exit the program (we're done there). now copy/paste your new Bgl File to your scenery folder!

That's it!

It takes a couple of minutes to do,...
A couple of hours to explain/illustrate!

Now, we're firing up fs again. Ready?

[nigel richards]

Hey Nigel, thank you so much for taking the time to put this down on "paper" for us AI challenged folks. I will certainly give it a try once my easel is sufficiently cleared to the point where I won’t feel guilty actually getting in a little stick time!

Thankyou Sir!

That easel of yours is churning out magic!

You really deserve a double helping of stick-time when you're done!!!

[Wing_Z]

Good to see this as a sticky, and I would hope it migrates into the Tweaks and Tips Subforum when done here.
I would suggest that this programme is a fairly painless way to get into AI, especially if you previously glazed over at the thought of Traffic Tools.
But remember each item you put into a flightplan is required, be it in a text file or in "remote control" software like Nigel describes here.

And if you want to get a little further into AI, you will need to get into the text files to have an understanding of how the traffic will work.
"Remote control" will take you 90% of the way, which may or may not be enough for you...
I also have an aversion to "manually" editing stuff, and so I have generated a spreadsheet which takes all the pain out of the repetitive stuff.
It is still a "source" thing though, as I prefer to see the data. (There are spreadsheet solutions which are "remote control" too.)
I may post a 3-step of that in due course...

Nigel, please forgive me for chipping in to your thread above, I was playing with these new 787's and was delighted to see them show up as planned!

EDIT: Oh, and FS does do VFR!
It's fun to watch VFR planes gloomily sit on the apron, when it rains.
Also, you can get creative with touch and go circuits, depending on whether they are VFR or IFR.

[nigel richards]

Here we are back in the sim already.
Can't be bad!

Attachment 56012

Oops! All alone! Did I put that Bgl file in the scenery file?
What have I being doing with my 'traffic' settings today?

Ah! Yes, I put them at zero while working on some sounds this morning...still don't have a cockpit for that one..

YET!

Attachment 56013

Traffic slider shoved up! That's more like it.

Put a Cat amongst the pigeons.

If you did the 2hr edit, you may have to bump up the time by an hour.

Attachment 56014

Variety really is the spice of life.

Attachment 56015

Still kept a healthy population of Avias...its like flying with SOH buddies.

Attachment 56016

I even did a variation of our little lesson with different paints of one basic aircraft.
The Grumman is me, wisecracks!

Attachment 56017

Here comes that traffic...looks like a little buddy we're all familiar with at SOH!

Attachment 56018

I just jumped into my Hawk 'chase-plane'

Yeah, that's our Smoothie out there in front...not the grey one, I think that's AndyG43; always the polite Gent!
They're all here, though, somewhere.

Time for a little pay-back, for knocking the tops off my olive trees!
Go on then little buddy, leave the Smooth talk with the ATC girl and get on with the clearance!

(He doesn't know I'm here yet...my Hawk's got cammo)

Attachment 56019

Oh, hello Matt! Going somewhere perhaps...or is this your flying lesson?

[Milton Shupe]

Okay, I am getting the hang of this my friend. Thank you a bunch for introducing me to this. I have avoided it for years.

[Naismith]

And now Milton is teasing us....

[Flyboy208]

Wow! I had never heard of this software before .... Gonna give it a go tonight. Cheers Nigel ! Mike

[nigel richards]

Good to see this as a sticky, and I would hope it migrates into the Tweaks and Tips Subforum when done here.
I would suggest that this programme is a fairly painless way to get into AI, especially if you previously glazed over at the thought of Traffic Tools.
But remember each item you put into a flightplan is required, be it in a text file or in "remote control" software like Nigel describes here.

And if you want to get a little further into AI, you will need to get into the text files to have an understanding of how the traffic will work.
"Remote control" will take you 90% of the way, which may or may not be enough for you...
I also have an aversion to "manually" editing stuff, and so I have generated a spreadsheet which takes all the pain out of the repetitive stuff.
It is still a "source" thing though, as I prefer to see the data. (There are spreadsheet solutions which are "remote control" too.)
I may post a 3-step of that in due course...

Nigel, please forgive me for chipping in to your thread above, I was playing with these new 787's and was delighted to see them show up as planned!

EDIT: Oh, and FS does do VFR!
It's fun to watch VFR planes gloomily sit on the apron, when it rains.
Also, you can get creative with touch and go circuits, depending on whether they are VFR or IFR.

Thanks Wing Zulu, beautiful pics my friend.

Now you've got me learning too! I read that bit about IFR/VFR traffic a few years back in a zillion-page-long 'expert' guide to TTools or something.

Glad to hear its not true...took the guide for face value, and never bothered to try.

I admire and respect hand-editing WZ, its the only way I would ever work on sounds. A case of what works best and familiarity I suppose.

I don't have that ease with traffic, and don't have the time to attain it.

So I need a versatile tool, that will allow me to do everything in traffic, and tell me when I'm messing up!
AI Flight Planner does that!

And I remember in my bad old days of TTools, when, through my editing mistakes, I was sitting around on airports, ranting and raving like a mad dog...or Englishman, furious because the bally 08:45 bus to Biggin was late...or didn't show up at all!

Wow! I had never heard of this software before .... Gonna give it a go tonight. Cheers Nigel ! Mike

Go for it Flyboy!

And make me proud as punch of yer, with some nice progress pics when you have time.

Ps: You'll be able to use those awesome MAIW planes for some smooth traffic of your own now!

[nigel richards]

This should have been the first sentence in the whole tutorial!

So I sincerely hope the author of this wonderful program will forgive me for this major oversight.

And thankyou Don Grovestine, for that other amazing piece of magic;

Static Aircraft .mdl Maker...or SAMM as we have all come to know it!

[Milton Shupe]

Now that I am getting over the newness, I shall try to get more realistic. But I can't help posting two more as the Dash 7 looks great in FedEx clothes, and Oleboy's photo real scheme on the 156 is awesome!.