Post by Dutch Owen on Oct 28, 2012 11:31:13 GMT -5
For years FSCaptain has been remiss in not providing a good selection of airlines and schedules to choose from, limiting itself to a few fantasy ones based on MS default airlines with schedules based only around the three demo-enabled airports.
In 1.4 this changes with the addition of more than a dozen real-world airlines with realistic worldwide schedules. Also the MS default ones are updated with schedules imported from the FS AI schedules (thus somewhat unrealistic but widespread throughout the world.) Acme, the one outlier that's FSCaptain specific has had ten worldwide hubs generated for it and some hand-made flights in interesting parts of the world.
You, too, can easily use the tools of FSCaptain to create airline schedules fairly painlessly. Here's how.
Firstly if you are interested in quick and easy schedules for your fantasy airline use the Hub Generator. It can generate a hub-and-spokes type schedule from any airport with a user-selectable mix of flights. The generated flights can be manipulated manually after generation if you want. It's all described in the User's Guide under the Airlines chapter, in the schedule sub-section.
But you want real schedules for airline X?
Here's one path that will work. It's not perfect but it will get you a realistic if not totally real schedule. It all depends on the input.
Important: you need to use FSCaptain 1.4 or a later version for this process. Earlier versions had bugs that have been fixed.
Go to the World of AI website: www.world-of-ai.com/ and download the package for any airline you're interested in along with the installer package if you haven't already got it. Put both in some new folder all by themselves.
Execute the installer and select the airline package(s) you downloaded. Now this is really important. Unless you want to install that package as an AI airline in your FS, you need to extract it to a folder rather than install it into FS9/X. So be sure to check the extract files for manual installation box, and then the decompile flightplans box. Choose your target simulator (FS9 or FSX) and your target folder which will contain the output. After you click on extract and agree and then install that target folder will have a new folder named for the airline with everything you need to import the schedule into FSCaptain.
Now go into the Administrator and create an airline configuration that matches the airline you're creating. I'd base it off an existing one. Change the names and any policies you want to modify. Put in a new name in place of the (newname) and click on Apply. Then when you click on the Schedule button down at the bottom you'll see a blank slate. We're going to import the WOAI schedule into FSCaptain. Click on the Import button.
In step 1, aircraft, click on Browse and navigate to the folder created after you did the WOAI extract (it will be named for the airline you extracted by the WOAI installer.) You'll see a file starting with Aircraft_000 - that's your aircraft list. Select it.
In step 2 you'll see the list of airplanes on the left and blanks on the right. Normally we'd want ALL the airplanes but if you only want flights for particular types just move them. If you're moving them all you don't have to select each one, just click on the --> button until all the planes have moved from the left side to the right side.
Almost done. Now in step 3 use the browse button to navigate to the same folder you found the Aircraft_000 file inside and click on the file that starts with Flightplans_. Pick a GMT time adjustment and then click on Import below.
Boom! Your schedule is filled with the imported AI schedule.
This isn't perfect. The GMT time adjustment applies to all the flights so local departure times outside the timezone you picked will be off. There are no arrival times. Service codes all default to zero (optional snack) and the aircraft type defaults to "none" which means no restrictions.
Be sure to Save your new schedule before you exit.
But you now have a fairly realistic schedule as a starting point (or maybe ending point if you're happy with it.)
In 1.4 this changes with the addition of more than a dozen real-world airlines with realistic worldwide schedules. Also the MS default ones are updated with schedules imported from the FS AI schedules (thus somewhat unrealistic but widespread throughout the world.) Acme, the one outlier that's FSCaptain specific has had ten worldwide hubs generated for it and some hand-made flights in interesting parts of the world.
You, too, can easily use the tools of FSCaptain to create airline schedules fairly painlessly. Here's how.
Firstly if you are interested in quick and easy schedules for your fantasy airline use the Hub Generator. It can generate a hub-and-spokes type schedule from any airport with a user-selectable mix of flights. The generated flights can be manipulated manually after generation if you want. It's all described in the User's Guide under the Airlines chapter, in the schedule sub-section.
But you want real schedules for airline X?
Here's one path that will work. It's not perfect but it will get you a realistic if not totally real schedule. It all depends on the input.
Important: you need to use FSCaptain 1.4 or a later version for this process. Earlier versions had bugs that have been fixed.
Go to the World of AI website: www.world-of-ai.com/ and download the package for any airline you're interested in along with the installer package if you haven't already got it. Put both in some new folder all by themselves.
Execute the installer and select the airline package(s) you downloaded. Now this is really important. Unless you want to install that package as an AI airline in your FS, you need to extract it to a folder rather than install it into FS9/X. So be sure to check the extract files for manual installation box, and then the decompile flightplans box. Choose your target simulator (FS9 or FSX) and your target folder which will contain the output. After you click on extract and agree and then install that target folder will have a new folder named for the airline with everything you need to import the schedule into FSCaptain.
Now go into the Administrator and create an airline configuration that matches the airline you're creating. I'd base it off an existing one. Change the names and any policies you want to modify. Put in a new name in place of the (newname) and click on Apply. Then when you click on the Schedule button down at the bottom you'll see a blank slate. We're going to import the WOAI schedule into FSCaptain. Click on the Import button.
In step 1, aircraft, click on Browse and navigate to the folder created after you did the WOAI extract (it will be named for the airline you extracted by the WOAI installer.) You'll see a file starting with Aircraft_000 - that's your aircraft list. Select it.
In step 2 you'll see the list of airplanes on the left and blanks on the right. Normally we'd want ALL the airplanes but if you only want flights for particular types just move them. If you're moving them all you don't have to select each one, just click on the --> button until all the planes have moved from the left side to the right side.
Almost done. Now in step 3 use the browse button to navigate to the same folder you found the Aircraft_000 file inside and click on the file that starts with Flightplans_. Pick a GMT time adjustment and then click on Import below.
Boom! Your schedule is filled with the imported AI schedule.
This isn't perfect. The GMT time adjustment applies to all the flights so local departure times outside the timezone you picked will be off. There are no arrival times. Service codes all default to zero (optional snack) and the aircraft type defaults to "none" which means no restrictions.
Be sure to Save your new schedule before you exit.
But you now have a fairly realistic schedule as a starting point (or maybe ending point if you're happy with it.)
