Roger Wensley

Stewie, I just checked AFCAD and the one ended runway can be made with AFCAD too. Email me and I will send you a screenshot of the AFCAD runway information. rogwen at rogers dot com

Stewie, I make all my FS2004 scenery with SceneGenX. Some 600 or so airfields so far.

Thinking back to FS9 I remember that it needed Ultimate Terrain to become a real simulator and not just a toy. Then along came FSX and I discovered that the Fraser River disappeared 40 miles east of Vancouver and that FSX too needed Ultimate Terrain, so I dumped it and went back to FS9! Now we have MSFS and what they have attempted is a much better version of Ultimate Terrain that includes a lot of errors and doesn't yet work properly. The airfield scenery buildings bear no relation to reality, as in FS9 and FSX. Ah well, back to my FS9 northwest Ontario fields.

They show up on the parking because flying into a mountain stops the rest of their flying and they skip on down to the next planned part of their flight, which is to park. Happens a lot with AI in hilly areas, and it just takes luck for it all to work properly.

 

I did mention before the single end runway that I made and which worked for me. I noticed just now that I misquoted the runway ends; it was the take off to the south that was stopped and all planes landed from the north and took off towards the north. Is SceneGenX the only airfield programme that makes a single end runway that works? Wouldn't that solve your problem? Or have I misread it all?

I am not yet involved in MSFS, so I have no personal experience of the difficulties (or ease) of installation and use. But, if Windows 10 generated bad publicity like this I suspect we would all be looking at Apple products. For some reason I find myself thinking of Trump.....

I have been deterred from buying and installing FSMS by all the complaints. It seemed to me to be a good idea to wait for updates/corrections to all be completed before venturing into what currently appears to be a potential lion's den. But to find that even the installation is flawed and unexplained? Well, that to me is astounding.

Obviously I wasn't flying every day of every week for two years (hmmmm, missed opportunity?) so I can only say what I found, and anything is possible. With the short summer rain storms the wind was often from the west! Tobago is a nice island. The cops there only carry pistols, while in Trinidad they have automatic weapons. Trinidad with a population of around 3m has 2 or 3 or 5 daily murders and a higher murder rate than New York with 10 million.

That statement about trade wind directions is true overall, but not necessarily so locally. Trinidad is around 7 degrees North and the locals told me that the winds there and further north up the chain of islands were almost always from the south side of east. I lived there for two years and I found that to be true. The shortest runway I have ever seen is on Saba island at under 1,000 feet and it is aligned 12-30, presumably for that reason. There are video on YouTube, take a look:

I just rechecked to be sure before I write this, but SceneGenX (which I use for scenery) allows a runway to be one-ended, and it does actually work. I have only used this once, for Monument Valley, where there is a solid lump of rock to the north. FS9 acts strangely when you try to state which runway you are about to use for take off; a quote from my installation instructions here:-

"Do not be surprised when you ask to select a runway for take off and FS9 only gives you 16 as a choice, even though you know this is the wrong one. When you accept it FS9 will quickly switch it to 34; apart from a possible sense of humour I have no idea why it does this."

The trade winds are from the southeast for almost the whole year round.

Hans, One of the problems with SBuilder is the conflict between roads and existing grass airfield backgrounds. But, note that I wrote "existing" etc. Making a road often deletes part of the existing grass, but then you just remake the missing bit of grass and it all works.

Hans, I wrote those instructions from memory, so apology in advance if........ Let us know if it works for you.

Hans,

 

Two polygons in the same area can complicate things, in many different ways that I won't go into now, and sometimes a choice has to be made. But, when you say you made a road "polygon", do you mean that you did not select "line" to make the road? With Sbuilder open and the plane position showing, and the zoom increased to 512, you select "line" and NOT "polygon" and then draw the road route. When it is complete you point to the line and select "properties", then "VTP2", then the point next to "assembled", and then put the cursor in that blank space and another window will open with a series of selections for lines. Select the road you want and then click on "points" and probably reduce it to 20 and click on "change" and then save and make the bgl. Maybe you already did it that way?

 

A second thought; you did realise that you use the position of a plane in FS9 to show the points that you want the road to go to? In the form of a red cross on the Sbuilder screen.

Hans,

You can do whatever you want, it's up to you, but you don't need to locate textures before you use SBuilder. SBuilder comes with it's own textures for concrete roads, or dirt tracks, or whatever, and it "paints" the road over the existing texture in your version of FS9, whatever that texture is. It doesn't care if the texture is a forest or a farm field, it will "paint" the road wherever you direct it to. So as SBuilder doesn't care what the texture is then you don't have to care either. You just decide where you want the road to be. If you want help email me rogwen at rogers dot com.

Roger

SBuilderFS9 will paint a road for you, or make a forest, or a farm field, or a city. Or all of them. It is not perfect but it (mostly) works, and for the simple process of making a road it is ok. If you need some help getting started you can ask me for a nudge in the right direction.

But is he contactable somewhere, preferably by email?

Does anyone remember who was the creator of the SceneGenX airfield scenery making programme? And is he still contactable? Was it Thomas Hiscox? Great programme, and I have used it for all my FS9 scenery.

Tom, I was going to write the same thing!

I would think Tom meant that if you use a lot of flyable planes for AI then you are more likely to find one that doesn't work. And it usually doesn't work by not landing where it is supposed to land while you are watching for it, and then is on the parking spot by magic when you next look there. That's my experience anyway. Tom has a bunch of planes that all come in two versions, flyable and AI only.

Surrodox, That one you found is not what I want as it still looks exactly the same as the standard DC3, even though it may have been (or maybe not?) technically adjusted to fly like a turbo version. Plus I do not want or need to adjust the technical performance, as if it is an AI plane nobody would be able to tell if it is flying as a standard DC3 or a Turbo version by just watching it take off or land. All I hoped to find was a "look-like-a-turbo" that would perform as an AI plane and every other aspect is irrelevant.

 

CGSimpson, I definitely do not want a version for FSX, as for sure it would never fly as an AI plane in FS9.

Well that simplifies this conversation then! So, if someone would like to modify the engine cowlings of a DC3 then fine, and if not then I will carry on with the straight DC3 and the time period will be five years earlier.

Bernard, I think that is listed as "for FSX" and not "for FS2004". But to be sure, where did you download it?

Bernard, What is it? Where is it? And do you use it in FS9?

Tom,

 

I know that, but after reading the problems with even just getting it started I was not optimistic! Plus my knowledge of plane conversions is zero. Also, the BT-67 is only for FSX, as far as I can see.

 

Roger

I have seen that, and read about the problems. But I want this for an AI plane so that anyway wouldn't work for me. I also have the textures that go with the AI plane, so slightly modifying an existing and working plane seemed to me to be the best way to go.