Bigger AI planes on smaller airports

[rijploeg]

Does anybody know how to get AI to land bigger planes on smaller airports. I know a few airports where in real life planes like the 757 land but when you try to program these flights in Traffic Tools the planes won't land.

[Jacek]

Search for this file on flightsim.com ait10.zip

It should do it.

[rijploeg]

I know the program. Very usefull to make flightplans, but a plan with a 737 for an airport where only AI cessna's, pipers and learjet land won't work. At least, the 737 doen't land on such an airport.

[JohnPenn]

Hi All

I THINK that the problem is available gates of the right size
at the airport.

I,ve tried to get 767's into EGPF( glasgow) without any luck.

Cheers
John

[CARTED]

You can change the parking attributes in the ...afd.bgl in scenerydb/afdfiles/scenery/ folder using a hex editor. Use AFDtree open the ...afd.bgl appropriate to your airport and scroll down to the airport. You should see each parking spot has some numbers next to it eg a typical GA small spot would be:
GA SML 0x00200081

open the ....afd.bgl file with the hex editor and search for the hex string, which is above number backwards in blocks of 2 numbers. Think of the number as 00 20 00 81, so what you are looking for is 81002000.

There will be more than one parking spot using this code because each ...afd.bgl file contains dozens of airports. What I do is slowly scroll up to I find the airport name in the coded information on the right or the ICAO code. If it's the right airport, I then slowly scroll down to the highlighted hex string found by the search. If it's not, continue procedure until found. All the parking codes for each airport are together and the letters XB are on the right of the screen. You could also search first for the ICAO code, then search for the hex string. It should be the first after the appropriate ICAO code.

The numbers to change are 2000 to whatever you want from the list below. Parking for a dash 8 would be 4000, for a 737 9000 and a 747 A000. I did notice the jet gates often included 0C and all mine are shown as 900C or A00C.

Close AFDtree then save hex edit changes.

Also check you have enough runway, for there are AI limits on runway length. A 737 needs 6000ft, a 777 10,000ft. Once you do all this, the jets will land and park.

Parking codes:
10 Ramp GA
20 Ramp GA Small
30 Ramp GA Medium (King Air)
40 Ramp GA Large (Dash8)
50 Ramp Cargo
60 Ramp Mil Cargo
70 Ramp Mil Combat
80 Gate Small (Dash 8)
90 Gate Medium (737)
A0 Gate Heavy (747)
BO Dock seaplane GA

David, Australia

[rijploeg]

I changed the Hex codes like the way it was mentioned by David. I jused Hex Workshop 3.1. Because the runway is 5906 long I didn't change the 2000 and 3000 to 6000. Only to 4000 (Dash)There are only two things. First of all I never saw the letters XB on the right of the screen and second (and most important) the dash planes land but after the call to exit the runway the plane still disapears. I also tried other planes (the Beech 1900D or a Chieftain) I think these planes would fall in the same league as the Lear, so in the 3000. These planes won't land and park either. Does anyone have an answer to all this?

[rwilmott]

An other alternative, if you don't mind losing 1 or 2 models of small aircraft from showing up at all as AI, is to replace them with a larger craft.

For instance, I replaced all dash8's in my AI with Airbus 300's. In this example, replace the dash8 texture folders with those from the airbus. Replace the .mdl file in the Model folder with the airbus' .mdl file (rename it to what the dash8 .mdl was). Replace the dash8's .air file with airbus' .air file (again, rename it to what the dash 8's was).

Now anywhere a dash8 would normally appear, you'll see an airbus because ATC *thinks* it is really a dash8. If you want, you can also edit the aircraft.cfg file and add in airline names, which you'll hear ATC refer to.

An inelegant hack, but it's effectice at adding a few bigger planes to smaller airports.