Using Way Points

In the past I used to use way points a fair bit but since I returned to FS I have forgot a few things as I've said in other posts lol.

 

Any way I created a test flight yesterday and set the height at 7000 for the ai aircraft but when ATC issued instructions it said it had to climb to 17000, I thought I must have made a typo in the flight plan but on checking I hadn't so I investigated further.

All I could think of was the way point was at 17000 so ATC didn't climb the aircraft as it got closer it instructed it to climb to that altitude from the start.

 

I've also noticed some way points seem to work better than others, on some the ai aircraft will reach it and circle and in some cases do a few circles till it reaches it's time then return to base on the ones that don't work the aircraft will reach the way point then fly off and lose any ATC communication and never return to base and sometimes gain altitude and keep going.

 

Does anybody else here work with way points and what is your method?

I've always wanted to use waypoints in flight plans, but I don't know how. Does it involve an invisible airport in the air? Isn't 7,000' represented by 07 or would that be 700'? Maybe 070?

Like I said in my first post, I did this a lot and got fairly good at it but I have forgot some of it and the bit I forgot is the bit that is making this not work for me lol.

 

If I remember rightly there are 2 types of waypoint, 1 is where the ai aircraft take off and head for the waypoint and do some TNG's then return back to base, this waypoint must have an AFCAD witch must have a code and also be very small it can also be invisible.

It must not be any higher than 1700 ft above the altitude of the base airport if so the aircraft may crash on the return leg.

 

The other type from memory is where the ai take off and head for the WP and if it is at the edge of the ai boundary it will vanish. At the right time it will reappear at the boundary and return to the base.

I have used this type to populate an airport, it can be a useful little tool.

Once I created a waypoint over Mojave KMHV at 20'000 feet. The AFD has no runway, just a reference marker. I scheduled two TNG's, but curiously the QB-47 used for this purpose do endless circles.

 

 

 

In fact it's quite ok, as the QB-47 should fly as a training drone.

 

 

Bernard

Yes in the past I used to place ships and have aircraft doing recon missions above but for some reason I'm missing something, probably something very simple, I just created a TNG to a reference point, the AC got there then did a turn then flew on endlessly.

@leuen,

I tried doing a route to a reference point, the AC went there but I couldn't get it to do the loops like your demo, can you copy and paste your flightplan by any chance then I could change the reference point to one of mine and see how it goes please?

Flightplan:

AC#10,TEST,51%,1Hr,IFR,00:00:00,00:15:00,200,R,0001,9MHV,00:17:00,00:32:00,200,R,0002,KMHV

 

AFD:

 

Bernard

Hi Bernard,

 

The flightplan you posted I tried by changing the times and waypoint, but I notice you didn't have it as a TNG, the reason I asked was when I tried it the aircraft flew to my waypoint then did a u-turn and headed back to base.

I thought great it is working then it flew over the base and kept going in a straight line for hundreds of miles and never turning back.

I'm still missing something, this is so annoying because as I said earlier I used to do this a lot, may be it is the timing of the arrival/departure at the waypoint or the altitude I don't know.

Inserting a TNG or not doesn't changed anything. So I deleted it, and the effect remains the same: never ending circles. I added the same flight with a similar AFD at China Lake, and the AI almost has the same behaviour, besides that this flies in a corridor reaching from Southern Idaho to south of San Clemente.

 

Interesting that they are two ways to create waypoints: either the method I used (just a reference point) or with a small runway and runway link of 10 ft like MWAI does it. With the second solution AI extend the landing gear while approaching the waypoint.

 

Bernard

I tried it using the reference point the way you did it but all that happens is the AC flies to it, flies on for a while then gets directed to do a u-turn then it flies on forever.

So0 I made a tiny runway and added it to the reference point, this time the AC flew to it and turned then returned back to base, I made the Flight plan a TNG too by the way.

I had the TNG/return time very close so it only made one pass before returning so I might experiment with a slightly longer period for perhaps 2-3 passes before returning.

Double post sorry, the site wouldn't accept it for ages so I posted again then 2 came up.

So0 I made a tiny runway and added it to the reference point, ...

With or without runway link?

 

Bernard

Just an update if anyone is interested, I have it working OK now, it seems to work best when I use a mini invisible runway as the waypoint.

I got the aircraft to fly to it and attempt to land then do a u-turn to try again then after a couple of attempts it flies back to base.

Shame about it dropping the landing gear at the waypoint but another way to avoid the disillusion is to use an aircraft without retractable wheels.

As I recall if you make it a VFR flight, then the TNG is wheels-up

I changed the flightplan to VFR and the wheels came down, it did a couple of passes on the waypoint then instead of flying back to base it flew off to nowhere with it's wheels down.

Sorry I clearly recall wrongly... may be that one lands, the other doesn't.

I have this stuff somewhere, can't put my hand to it right now.

No problem I know you were trying to help, in my first post I used to use Way points a lot and since my return to FS I have forgot a lot of stuff but it is slowly coming back.

At least now I have them working in a fashion, I just need to improve a little.

I changed the flightplan to VFR and the wheels came down, it did a couple of passes on the waypoint then instead of flying back to base it flew off to nowhere with it's wheels down.

Same for me. So hopefully Wing_Z has the solution ...

 

Bernard

I bet if you studied the flight plans of Military AI works you could figure out flying patterns, etc. I have ship plans for St.Martin. I have have always wanted to place ships en route between California and Hawaii so that the flight isn't as boring.

I have have always wanted to place ships en route between California and Hawaii so that the flight isn't as boring.

 

Unfortunately in FS9 ship traffic like with FSX doesn't work. Unless you create an AFD and a traffic each fifty miles (radius within AI are shown). Or at leas you could add static ships with animated wakes.

 

Bernard

I did this years ago, its great fun.

 

Static or AI?

Unfortunately in FS9 ship traffic like with FSX doesn't work. Unless you create an AFD and a traffic each fifty miles (radius within AI are shown). Or at leas you could add static ships with animated wakes.

 

Bernard

 

 

I thought I could just create two or more seaports and have them go between the coast of California to Hawaii. So you're telling me I have to make seaports every 50 miles?

@leuen, I had this scenario as ai aircraft but a static ship but I did have another where the ship moved but it didn't sail too far so the ai aicraft always spotted it.

 

@CRJ have you looked at FS Shipyards website yet?

To get ships moving as AI you have to create AFD like for airports. And as you know Traffic Explorer only shows AI parked or moving at airports within a radius of about fity miles. So if f.i. you create an AFD and traffic at San Diego it only will be shown within this radius. Traffic files available at FS Shipyards are limited in the same way.

 

There also is an other problem: oceans aren't flat as we could presume. There are good chances that AI ships will hurt unevennesses, bound and disappear. Anyway, I'm not sure whether you still will see AI ships from 10'000 or even 20'000 ft. I only added ships at approaches of airports near ports or waterways.

 

Bernard