GA AI Flight Generator

I recently installed the GA AI flight Generator, it is working fine but if anyone else is using it I have a question, it seems to be generating a lot of Ford Trimotor flights which I would like to not have as many, there is a % probability you can alter but even when I have it low there is still a lot of Ford Tri's that I want, any help appreciated.

Col.

It's a long time since I used 'GA-Traffic', great program as I remember :)

My "quick and simple" work-around for circumstances like this was to simply eliminate any unwanted aircraft from the list in GA-Traffic, then manually assemble a traffic file for the specific aircraft.

It might be worth-while spending some few minutes with the FS2004 TrafficToolbox SDK.

By presenting the program with a pre-assembled set of files specifying only which aircraft you want to use and which airfields you want them to appear at it'll generate a set of random flight plans for you. I use it for my micro-lights to keep them from cluttering the major airfields whilst still having a level of activity "out in the country" on the farm-strips etc. ;)

You might reduced the percentage generating AI GA flights. But doing this way, you will reduce ALL GA flight, irrespective of whether they are Tri-Motors or not. I rather would suggest to deactivate those flights in the flightplans. Especially the flights which takes six or more hours. I proceeded this way and reduced GA flights down to thirty percent, and there are still enough planes.

Bernard

Thanks guys, I reduced the % a bit more and i'll try that failing that I will eliminate the aircraft as suggested.

chris I do have TrafficToolBox installed but I wasn't aware I could set random flight plans and specify airfields etc, I'll have another look at it, had it for years too lol.

Col.

chris I do have TrafficToolBox installed but I wasn't aware I could set random flight plans and specify airfields etc, I'll have another look at it, had it for years too lol.

Col.

As is so often the case, the documentation is a little bit cryptic, but if you "Dump Airport List" from the Tools menu in FS2004, you can then extract the required airfields from that file (usually put into the folder where the Flights are stored, Documents\Flight Simulator Files) and assemble these into a new text file.

The aircraft data is in AircraftTypes.csv in the SDK folder, just copy the lines you need into a new csv file, then compile a new 'Ford_Traffic.bgl' or whatever you want to call it from the Command prompt.

Obviously, the airfields you choose will need to have parking available. Some default airfields don't actually have any parking, so you may need to get AFCAD out and edit as necessary ;)

Thanks Chris, I've had Tools for years, I know to delete aircraft that are holding up AI from taking off or landing etc, I've seen the Dump Airport but never bothered with it, to be honest I was a bit afraid to look in case it deleted things I wanted lol.

Another question about the AI generator: What is it with the 'Money per Week/Flight' thing?

Col.

I've had Tools for years, I know to delete aircraft that are holding up AI from taking off or landing etc,

You're not confusing TTools with Traffictoolbox, are you?

Another question about the AI generator: What is it with the 'Money per Week/Flight' thing?

Col.

As I understand it, this is one of the program's features to try to emulate "real life" performance, in that if a specific aircraft can't generate sufficient income on a Taxi/Rental/Business or whatever flight to be able to "pay" the landing and parking fees at any specific airport, as defined elsewhere in the program, the flight simply won't be created.

Probably OK for larger GA aircraft operating commercial flights between busy major airports, for my grass strips and my Turbulent or Skycatcher, not a factor I'd considered ;)

Hi again Chris, No I'm not confusing I just typed Tools as a shortened title, I used to use TTools a while ago but now I use AFP.

I have TrafficTooldBox installed. When I watch my AI I used 'TrafficViewBoard' with that I can follow an AI the whole journey if I want plus listen to ATC talking to it.

Col.

I tried to get a DC3 to be a GA, I selected it in the menu and went through the process of making it a GA but it still has the RED X next to it and it isn't in the Aircraft folder in the generator flight plans.

Any Ideas?

Col.

I tried to get a DC3 to be a GA, I selected it in the menu and went through the process of making it a GA but it still has the RED X next to it and it isn't in the Aircraft folder in the generator flight plans.

 

Any Ideas?

 

Col.

Maybe the program considers the DC3 to be an airliner and therefore not in it's remit?

GA-Traffic will exclude 'planes above a certain weight … so it says on p4 in the instructions, also p7 of the instructions "planes with red X are not usable for GA traffic, because they are to heavy, have no wheels or no engine" … maybe you can adjust this to suit, but be prepared to manually eliminate other aircraft that fall under the new parameters.

Maybe another instance to prepare a separate "DC3_Traffic.bgl"?

Hi Chris, Yes I saw the weight thing, I thought I had tricked it at one point I swapped an aircraft in the Aircraft flight plans for a DC3 then instead of letting the GA Generator generate the flight plans I copied the three files and let AFP do it instead.

The DC3 is in there but still not showing, I think the reason is the airfields it is flying to and from only have small parking so as you say I will have to do a seperate flight plan, it was just a thought that I could perhaps include it in the AI GA.

Col.

Like I said above I put the 3 flight plan files in AIFP and in doing so AIFP found lots of errors like flight times too close together and one had the same aircraft listed twice.

Col.

Curiously several AI GA packages available here, include default DC-3 in their flightplans. So how do they work? As GA or as airliners?

Bernard

Curiously several AI GA packages available here, include default DC-3 in their flightplans. So how do they work? As GA or as airliners?

 

Bernard

They'll probably work exactly as they're designed to ;)

In this particular instance, the program GA-Traffic is specifically designed to utilise aircraft below a specific weight, (and some other parameters), thereby eliminating the DC3 due to it's size. The parameters can be over-ridden, but doing so may introduce several other larger aircraft to the list, defeating the initial object of the program, to generate a good selection of random GA traffic operating in a reasonably realistic manner.

It's not such a big deal to generate a few random flights for one or two specific aircraft between a choice of airfields using the TrafficToolbox supplied with the FS2004 SDK.

I once had GA-Traffic auto-generate a flight plan with a Microlight doing 500kts at FL300 - you have to be quite selective with aircraft in that program!

Be aware that it will ignore any airport with any faults which show up in AFCAD2 or ADE, so basically most add-on airports and an awful lot of default airports.

I began using Gunnar Daehling's Airport AI Enhancer instead, where you can specify a group of airports and a group of aircraft to create a custom traffic .bgl. It's not as choosy as GA-Traffic about airports, and will show all airports that you have installed.

I created a set of GA Traffic .bgl's for every airport in the freeware UK2000 series, then de-bugged and merged them together using AIFP, so that I only had one GA-Traffic_UK.bgl.

Thanks Tim, nice to see you talk to you again, I just downloaded Airport AI Enhancer I'll take a look.

Col.

I downloaded AI Enhancer in the zip there are 2 versions 1.7 and 2.0 are the both for FS2004 or is it just the 1.7 there is no readme?

Col.

I downloaded AI Enhancer in the zip there are 2 versions 1.7 and 2.0 are the both for FS2004 or is it just the 1.7 there is no readme?

 

Col.

I think the v1.7 is FS9 and the V2.0 is FSX (enhancer_x) in the zip.

I tried v1.7 on my W10 machine and it hung whilst "detecting airports", then when restarted it reported "File not found" … if I get the urge I'll try it on my XP machine ;)

Well 2 things:

I installed AI Enhancer, it generated a flight plan but no aircraft shown anywhere, tried it twice no joy, don't know what is wrong there.

So then I had a thought, going back to the GA Generator it dawned on me what I did, I unchecked Airliners and only had GA checked, so when I checked the airliners the GA flight plan I had with the DC3 worked, so there it was, I watched it taxi and takeoff and fly OK.

By the way I had no other airliners in the Aircraft folder only GA and the DC3.

Col.

With reference to the Airport AI Enhancer, it was my fault the aircraft didn't show, it set a flight plan with 50% and I only had my traffic set for 25% after I changed it the aircraft were there.

Col.