This is a rather inelegant, inefficient, but workable, hack I came up with
for the float-plane (I'm using the dhc-2 and dhc-6) or other
seaplane/amphibian, "airport" to simplify starting the aircraft at a
specific location.
If anyone can provide the proper method for this I will be overjoyed, as
this method requires eliminating an existing airport.
1. Start FlightGear, advance to the panel to select the airport. Find
airports you (think) will never need to use (expendable) and note the
identifiers (i.e. 01OR).
2. Go to C:\Program Files\FlightGear\data\Airports (or where ever your
FlightGear program is located).
3. Open the "apt.dat.gz" file and extract the "apt.dat" file
4. Open the "apt.dat" file with your text editor (such as Wordpad)
5. Using the search (binocular icon), enter your expendable identifier, and
find
6. On the first line starting with "10" such as:
7. "10 36.249861 -090.319305 18x 178.61 3342 0000.0266 0000.0000 60
121121 1 0 2 0.25 0 0300.0300"
8. The "36.249861 -090.319305" is the Latitude and Logitude to be replaced
with yours
9. The "18x" is the runway to select on startup (if not the default)
10. The 178.61 is the starting bearing to be replaced with yours.
11. The "3342" is the runway length to be replaced with "0000" (any
numbers/entries after this point I have no idea what they do, but don't seem
to mean anything for this discussion (?).
12. Save the file.
13. Keep a list of the Airport Identifier with your assigned Location name
to refer to on startup I find the Memento.exe program ideal for this sort
of thing.
For some reason I have no idea about, your plane may start at 180 degrees
off your entered bearing. Sometimes it will swing around to the proper
bearing, sometimes not. For the dhc planes I generally hit "p" when the
scene appears to pause it, then hit "g" to raise the wheels, hit help for
the dhc model, hit "autostart", advance the throttle about six clicks, turn
the rudder full to the direction you want to go, and hit "p" again to
continue.
I also keep a Memento note of the original "apt.dat" entry before it's
changed.
As I said, inelegant, inefficient, but workable.
Please, someone provide an improvement on this method.
Cheers, Neil
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stay on top of everything new and different, both inside and
around Java (TM) technology - register by April 22, and save
$200 on the JavaOne (SM) conference, June 2-5, 2009, San Francisco.
300 plus technical and hands-on sessions. Register today.
Use priority code J9JMT32. http://p.sf.net/sfu/p
_______________________________________________
Flightgear-users mailing list
Flightgear-users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-users
