AeroTow: Choose and guide the towing aircraft !

[Daube]

Hi all,
For those who love gliding in FSX, I have recently discovered an excellent little freeware (but still in Beta) module nammed Aerotow. Thanks to Jetstreamsky in the WWII topic again for letting me know about this module :)

This module allows you to:
- choose any of your aircrafts as a towing plane
- predefine a generic flight path (right or left loops, starting a this or this altitude etc...) so that the towing aircraft remains above the airfield. 8-)
- tell the towing aircraft to follow the VFR flight plan you have defined ! :o
So basically, it is now possible, as the author states, to reproduce those famous WWII gliders flights starting from England and ending in France !
It's also possible to make the towing aircraft follow a valley in case you are taking off from an airfield in the middle of the mountains. :)

More info here:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6497

Download the latest version here:
http://lennundus.orgkaos.org/failid/workinprogress/aerotow/?M=D

Installation instructions:
1- Unzip the content of the archive directly in your FSX root folder, so that you get a new little folder nammed "Aerotow" in it.
2- Copy-Paste the following lines into your EXE.XML file (just before the last line </SIMBASE.DOCUMENT>). This file can be found in the same folder as FSX.CFG.
REMOVE THE SPACE AFTER THE < SIGNS !
(if anybody knows how to quote such a piece of coding ? :banghead:)


< Launch.Addon>
< Disabled>False< /Disabled>
< ManualLoad>False< /ManualLoad>
< Name>Aerotow< /Name>
< Path>Aerotow\Aerotow.exe< /Path>
< CommandLine>< /CommandLine>
< NewConsole>True< /NewConsole>
< /Launch.Addon>

3- Launch configure.exe in the aerotow folder, in order to define your towing aircraft and the generic path (loops, altitude, length etc..), save and close
4- launch FSX, create a flight with the glider on the ground and get in the cockpit
5- go to the menu and choose the flight planning, in order to define a VFR flight plan with GPS route for your towing aircraft.
6- once this is done, go back into the cockpit and call the towing aircraft with SHIFT+CTRL+Y
7- in the communication window that has appeared, choose 'active flight plan', the window will dissappear immediately.
8- enjoy ! :)

Small example: I'm being towed by an An-2 Colt which is gently going back toward my start airport (Sion), after having made a smooth 180 degrees turn :)
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/daube_image541.jpg

[harleyman]

Way cool...Thanks..............:applause:

[kilo delta]

Looks very interesting :)

Btw, what An-2 is that?:wavey:

[Daube]

Hmm I believe it's made by Vlad Z... sorry I can't write is name, I'm unsure of the spelling :redf: And I do not have my gaming PC here so I can't check the archives... however, it's a FS9 plane, the only one with a (very nice) VC, you can't miss it :wavey:
EDIT: Vladimir Zhyhulskiy :)
EDIT2: you can find it on avsim, filename an2zh_08.zip.

[kilo delta]

Thanks a million, Daube.:ernae:

[Killbilly]

AH! I've been waiting for something like this. Thanks for the HU! :applause:

[CodyValkyrie]

Most excellent, thanks for the HU

[kimdahl]

A little question:

Will this module also retract the landing gear of the towing plane? It looks rather stupid to have a C-47 flying all the way to France with the wheels down...

Regards
Kim

[Daube]

The author talks about that in the original topic. The current version does not retract the gear, but he has identified the issue and he is working on the solution for the next release :)

[jetstreamsky]

..........
Small example: I'm being towed by an An-2 Colt which is gently going back toward my start airport (Sion), after having made a smooth 180 degrees turn :)


I've been using the Waco UPF-7 for that job, but the An-2 looks worth a try too. Certainly aircraft with fixed undercarriage is best for now.

Found your post on CheckSix, interesting site will have to trawl through there to see what else is going on, thanks.

Allan

[Dain Arns]

Outstanding! :applause: :ernae: :applause:

[An-225]

*bump*

Anyone thought of modeling the external tank for Captain Sim's Space Shuttle, and having it tow you 300 km above Earth? ;)

[JT8D-9A]

*bump*

Anyone thought of modeling the external tank for Captain Sim's Space Shuttle, and having it tow you 300 km above Earth? ;)
That's an interesting idea. Do you (or anybody else) know if it's possible to influence the length of the tow rope?

For those who have also problems with the configurator, you can also change the tow plane via the FSX.cfg (under the SIM section: TowPlaneTitle=XXX).

[Killbilly]

This is a little beauty of a program. It works exactly as advertized and has now given me a reason to fly the glider again. I had huge amounts of fun on my three test flights.

Now, we just need some developers to give us some true FSX gliders! :d

[Dain Arns]

True. Wolfgang Piper's glider's are not made for FSX, just optimized. They will not display in DX10. But they work very well otherwise, and still look great in FSX... :kilroy:

http://www.fsglider.de/frset_e.htm

[Railrunner130]

Very cool find!! Thanks for sharing!!

:ernae:

[jetstreamsky]

Make sure you try this with CumulusX http://luerkens.homepage.t-online.de/peter/ and Simprobe http://carrier.csi.cam.ac.uk/forsterlewis/soaring/sim/fsx/dev/sim_probe/

CumulusX creates ridge lift and Simprobe reads the underlying mesh to tell CumulusX where to create that lift when compared to the wind direction and strength.

These programs make a world of difference as you can set up the conditions and go soaring for miles working the hillsides on a great cross-country adventure.

[Dain Arns]

Wish Aerosoft would get that darned Discus done... :frown:

[JT8D-9A]

[...]They will not display in DX10[...]

Really?

[smithcorp]

Wish Aerosoft would get that darned Discus done... :frown:

Ditto - my wallet is burning a hole in my pocket for that glider! Have you seen the reasonably recent news on their forum that it will come with a winch launch utility thingy?

[CBris]

That is a dream come true. Thanks for the HU.

I am waiting for the Aerosoft glider too.