This is the first of a series of articles I intend to post here at
Flightsim.com. I will be talking about some things that I have learned about
CFS. Most of the things I will be talking about are just basic. I figured
that if I didn't know then someone else might not know as well. I will be
talking about the "Aircraft" file structure and what you can do to have some
control and understanding of those files.
Here are a few preliminary tips to get started.
1. You must know how to use Explorer, or whatever it is that you use to move
about your system.
2. You must know how to rename files and folders
3. You must know how to drag and drop, or move files around your system.
4. You must know where your Aircraft, Gauges, Sound, and Missions folders are.
5. You need to know how and why you need to backup whatever it is that you will
be working on. If you don't know why, you will soon learn.
6. Install your Combat Flight Simulator at C:\CFS. If you let CFS put it where
it wants, then you have a bunch of clicking to do every time you want to work
on your aircraft files. About 30 minutes of that and you will get the message.
So, if it is not at C:\CFS (or something else that is short and sweet and
directly under" C:\"), remove it and reinstall. If you do remove it, delete
everything that is left. You should have a backup of anything that doesn't come
with CFS. Then empty your recycle bin and run Defrag just so you can say you
started off with a clean system.
7. If you have IntelliMouse, set the wheel button option to open up Explorer
when it is depressed. This is really great. One click of the wheel button, and
explorer comes up and "CFS" is staring you right in the face.



First of all I want to talk about Aircraft folder names. You know! These are
the names of each of the aircraft under the Aircraft folder. CFS comes with 27
folders under the Aircraft folder. These are the names of the Aircraft in those
folders. Only 9 fly from the start. The best thing I can say about these
folders is LEAVE THEM ALONE. At least for now. There are plenty of airplanes
here and else where to download and these are the ones I want to talk about.

I like to unzip planes in a test directory and work on them there until I am
ready to drag and drop them off under the C:\CFS\Aircraft directory (Directory
and Folder mean the same to me)

Assuming you have downloaded and unzipped an airplane you will want to move it
to your aircraft folder, but first, let's talk about a naming scheme. I like
to keep my planes in a "class" format. Sort of like the way they name ships. I
have a P51 class, a P47 class, a P40 class, a Bf109 class, a Fw190 class, a
Hurricane class, a F4U class, a P38 class, etc, etc. If you look at the default
P51d folder, and then my first downloaded P51 would be P51d1, the second would
be P51d2 and so on. Look at the default Bf109e and Bf109g. My downloaded 109's
are Bf109a, Bf109c, and ECT. You get the picture. I think this is important
because it keeps most of your planes (I have 130) in a neat order and you can
find them better. You can label them correctly in the aircraft.cfg file later.
Once you have a good name plan for your folders then you will be better able to
spot them. They come with really strange names and if you don't rename them,
you are gonna get lost. The only thing you have to worry about is a mission
that comes with a plane that is used for that mission. Then you are sort of
stuck with the name that comes with the plane.

So, you now have a good file structure and have several downloaded planes.
Everything looks good. But there is trouble lurking just beneath the surface.
Your planes should fly ok, but you have work to do.

So, be looking for my next post concerning the Visual window and texture file
problems and how to deal with that…………………….maxwood