AI Helicopters converted to flyable ones?

So I'm looking at the JYAI AH-1Z and the JYAI UH-1Y from MAIW. They work very well as AI helicopters in different sceneries.

My question is can you convert these helicopters into flyable ones by replacing the aricraft.cfg file and the .air file? This would be used as a personal aircraft on my flight simulator and not put out there for distribution so I think there wouldn't be any legal issues....

Some you can, some you can't. All I can say is try it - that's pretty easy to do. These instructions say "plane", you can substitute "helicopter".

How to make an aircraft fly like a different plane:

1. Back up the plane's folder to another location for safekeeping. If you are keeping the AI version then copy the folder and rename it to a flyable name you like.

2. In the plane's folder rename the aircraft.cfg file to aircraft_old.cfg

3. Copy the AIR file and the aircraft.cfg file of the plane that flies properly into the plane's folder.

4. Open both the copied aircraft.cfg file and the aircraft_old.cfg file using Notepad or Wordpad.

5. Copy the top sections of the aircraft_old.cfg file (headed by fltsim.0, fltsim.1, etc.) and overwrite the same part of the aircraft.cfg file.

6. Copy the following sections from the aircraft_old.cfg file and paste them over the same sections in the aircraft.cfg file, replacing them:

a. Contact Points

b. Lights

c. Views

d. Effects (if desired)

e. General (if desired)

7. Copy the sim= line from the aircraft.cfg file *of the plane that flies properly* and paste into all the sim= lines of the new aircraft.cfg file.

8. If you created a copied and pasted folder to keep the AI version, edit the title= and ui_variation= lines of all the fltsim sections so they are unique.

9. Save the new aircraft.cfg file. Restart FS.

Now that aircraft should fly like the other plane.

If the COG and reference datum positions of both planes are not the same (in the Weight and Balance section, usually 0,0,0), then this method will not work without a lot more work, but this is unusual (except for the default aircraft).

Hope this helps,

Tom,

That worked perfect! They fly like a dream now. There's still some funky stuff going on that I attribute to the .MDL file (when you turn on NAV lights, the rotors start spinning and when you turn on beacon light, it hovers about 5ft off the ground) but not worth trying to go and correct. Like I said, it flys great now.

Thank you for all of your help! I appreciate what you did for me!

Hi,

Glad to help. The issues you are seeing are due to it starting life as an AI heli, with some specific AI animations. If you can live with those you'll be fine.