Create a flight - go to airport oddities

[jgf]

On the "Go to airport" page, select country menu, I have "United States" and, farther down, "USA". Selecting the former gives me the normal US listings, selecting the latter changes nothing, whatever country was previously displayed is still there, though "USA" is now highlighted. The same situation exists with "United Kingdom" and "UK". Where are these apparently useless listings coming from, and how do I remove them?

Also, what determines whether a scenery appears in "default scenery" or "add-on scenery"? All my add-on scenery is on a different drive from FS9 and the vast majority appear in the default menu, yet a few items appear in the add-on scenery section of "Go to airport". Can these be moved to the default section?

Finally, in the add-on scenery area most listings are duplicate entries, none of which display anything in the search results window when selected. For example, six "Nagasaki" listings, two "Honda Airport" listings, three "Miyazaki Airport" listings; there are two listings for "VF London" (assuming Visual Flight London), selecting one of these produces nothing in the results window, selecting the other lists ten items in the results.

Basically, I'd like all my airports on the default page so I don't have to remember that some may be somewhere else, and eliminate all dead entries.

[StringBean]

You have addons where the author has used a different country name than the default files, that is why you see United States and USA.

You would have to edit the AFD files for the addons to correct this.

Sometimes that is easy, sometimes not because...

The only scenery you will see listed in the "add-on scenery" listings will be those that were created for earlier versions of FS, or at least were created using tools designed for earlier versions.

I do not believe there is any way to change that, as far as I know, short of re-building them completely and converting them to XML-based.

Addons created with tools current to FS9 will be XML-based and you can edit those with ADE9X.

The earlier addons are most likely SCASM-based and, while not impossible to edit, it takes a little more work and understanding of how the files work. Also you use different tools. I have had some success editing SCASM-based addons, and I have screwed some up too.

peace,
the Bean

[jgf]

Thanks. But with no airports listed for USA or UK, I have no idea which files to suspect. VF London is for "FS2002/2004" and "the installer will detect and install the correct version"; Heathrow, London City, etc. can be accessed from the default menu and there's no sign of conflicts or complications. I'm still confused about all those "empty" listings in add-on scenery, I can scroll through and click on each of the six Nagasaki entries, or any of the others, and nothing appears in the search results window (I know I could just ignore these ...I also know leaving such loose ends is asking for trouble somewhere along the line).

FWIW I'm in the midst of another FS9 purge, but digging deeper this time. Removing rarely used and duplicate aircraft (I seldom fly heavies, why do I have eight different 747s?), removing unused scenery (an evening spent comparing four different Japan meshes, another deciding that UTUSA with GEPro is preferable to most of my photosceneries), tracking down conflicts, etc.

[ScatterbrainKid]

I've been flying FS2004 and FSX for years and the scenery adding routine is still a hit-or-miss affair for me, I don't suppose i'll ever get the hang of it.
As for purging unwanted duplicate aircraft I'm a bit better at that but still make goofs, for example my Cessna 172 is now an all-black useless silhouette because it was linked (aliased) to files from one of the Cessnas that I'd deleted, grrr..

PS- the Go To Airport routine can be fiddly too, so I usually use the map instead to simply drag the plane icon to whatever airport i want it to start at

[StringBean]

If you really want to know what files are causing the issue you can start deactivating your addons in the Scenery Library and determine the culprit by process of elimination.

peace,
the Bean

[ReggieF5421]

But with no airports listed for USA or UK, I have no idea which files to suspect.

One of the 'problems' with FS2004, and to a lesser extent FSX, is that scenery designers can put airport header information in scenery files which have no runways, aprons, parking, etc. Taxi sign files are a major culprit in FS2004. That cause FS to think the file holds an airport - so the file is indexed with others in the Go To Airport section. But because the file has no runways or start locations - FS does not display the airport as selectable. Only the category - such as UK or USA.

As we've learned more over the years, experienced designers have produced fewer of these type files, but older files and new designers still do it.

[jgf]

... for example my Cessna 172 is now an all-black useless silhouette because it was linked (aliased) to files from one of the Cessnas that I'd deleted, grrr..

...

You merely lost the textures. Install any textures for that aircraft and you're back in business.

[jgf]

If you really want to know what files are causing the issue you can start deactivating your addons in the Scenery Library and determine the culprit by process of elimination.

peace,
the Bean

I was hoping to forego that route. Not too difficult for the Japan scenery since the majority of add-on airports are from Simmer's Sky. But even though the US scenery is grouped (NE, Midwest, etc.) and can be enabled/disabled as such, many sceneries contain multiple airports, necessitating removing a couple of files at a time and starting the sim again ("building scenery database, this may take a few millenia").

Are there any utilities which function outside the sim that could help with this?

[jgf]

One of the 'problems' with FS2004...

As we've learned more over the years, experienced designers have produced fewer of these type files, but older files and new designers still do it.

So I may be chasing my tail here.

I was naively hoping this would be a relatively simple bgl edit, but am beginning to think it's better to "leave well enough alone".

[StringBean]

So I may be chasing my tail here...

I would personally rather spend my time flying.

peace,
the Bean