I am trying to add a new airport to the FLY! II data files. I have added the required data line to the Airport pod and the required data line to the Runway pod, but when I try to fly to the new airport the runway and its lights do not appear. All I can see at the new airport is the rotating beacon. I am not interested at this point worrying about taxiways or other scenery. I can not find any documentation on adding an airport. Can anyone tell me what I am failing to do?LarryG

I am trying to add a new airport to the FLY! II data files. I have added the required data line to the Airport pod and the required data line to the Runway pod, but when I try to fly to the new airport the runway and its lights do not appear. All I can see at the new airport is the rotating beacon. I am not interested at this point worrying about taxiways or other scenery. I can not find any documentation on adding an airport. Can anyone tell me what I am failing to do?LarryG

Hi Larry and welcome to (or is it back?? ) the Fly!II Forum.Adding airports into Fly! II is rather involved. You will be needing several programs to help you do this, plus information from the Fly Developer's Forum for what different categories mean / input format required. If you are already familiar with the below mentioned tools, I will apologize now!WORD OF WARNING: Due to the AVSIM HACK OF 2009, MANY FILES FOR FLY! AND FLY!II IN THE LIBRARY WERE LOST. As the sim is no longer supported, and original authors are hard to get in contact with, re-uploading their files is very difficult.So to begin with, I would suggest you read through theFly!2 Database Mini Tutorials on the Developer's Forum first. I would like to suggest you copy/paste into a document file (Wordpad or similar works best, Notepad will work, but harder to follow format at times) the entire tutorial so you have the information readily available to you. In short, the are several pod files that have to be modified before an airport will show in the simulator. For what you describe, you only need to modify two - the AIRPORT.POD file and the RUNWAY.POD file. Items required: a. VOL!Edit by Didier Rigault, found at the ROTW website (last version produced was 1.13 - english version was 1.12), available at the SimVol (ROTW) website under Fly!II Utilities (need the French page, not available on English page right now). NOTE: even though the filename has "fr" near the end, it does work for English speaking people. This program makes it much easier to input data into the database files.b. DexImport by Frank Racis. Does not appear to be available online any longer... PM me if you do not have.c. Helpful program, not really needed but useful to have - Fly! Distance Calc by Colin Sare - PM me if you wish this file. Will assume you have the main information regarding your airport, but I always re-confirm via the AIRNAV website: www.airnav.com : Information of airport to include airport main latitude/longitude for the Airport database pod; runway lat/long for the high and low end of each runway for runway database pod; when ready to go further, information regarding VOR, ILS, etc. for those respective pod files. I usually just print out the page.You will need Vol!Edit to help you unpod and interact with the database files, and will need DEXImport to help add the runway and airport information back into the pod file itself. So, to just add a runway, this is what you basically would do. Download and install Vol!Edit. Once set up and paths identified, you would open the AIRPORT.POD file (using the toolbar menu DBD FILES/Open a DBD file from a POD file) located in the system subfolder under the main Fly!II folder.Find the LAST US (or country code needed) airport listing, noting the Key (Unique) (for example US99995 or similar coding). You will need to press the button marked Add a Line at the end - and enter in the next number - i.e. US99996, and rest of data as required. KEEP NOTE OF THE UNIQUE ID you just made. Once the information has been entered, you would press button marked UNSELECT ALL, then for the airport you just entered, click once in the column marked EXPORT - a 1 should appear. Now, select from the toolbar the DEX Files, and then select Export Selection (DEX). Be sure to note where the file is being saved - sometimes in the main Fly!II directory, or in the Fly!II\Data folder. Be sure to name the file to something like this: APT_PUJ.dex; RWY_PUJ.dex, COMM_PUJ.dex, etc. BEFORE you save it. This is so you know which pod file it goes with for future reference. If you need to, you can modify right from this file instead of going through the whole listing.The Runway(s) itself is a tad trickier. As you can see in Vol!Edit, there is a lot of information needed. You would find the LAST listed US (or country of choice) RUNWAY ID and - as before - add a line to the end to input your runway. Study several airports and how the data is entered... especially the HIGH END and LOW END. You will need to know the Magnetic variation as you will be needing true heading for input for each runway. Again, AIRNAV website for US Airports is invaluable for the information. When you go to enter the Lat/Long of the airport, I BELIEVE IT IS DEGS/MIN/SEC and Vol!Edit will convert to Fly! coordinates for you. DISTCALC is a nice program if you only know LAT/LONG of one end of a runway and the heading and length, but not LAT/LONG of opposite end. Fortunately for US Airports, AIRNAV will most likely list LAT/LONG for both ends. To tie the runway to the actual airport, be sure to input the AIRPORT key you used in AIRPORT.POD in the Airport Key column! Now, basically like you did earlier, press the unselect All button, click once in the Export column to get a 1 (or x to show) on the line of your runway, select DEX FILES - Export Selection (DEX), name file as RWY_xxx.dex and save it. I generally save my dex exports to the main Fly!II folder, as DEXImport will normally open there first.Now, DEXImport is needed to get these two files back into the actual POD file. Install the program and be sure to set it up to your Fly!II\System folder. The program is fairly straight forward to run. Import your two files, run the sim and if all went well, you should be able to select your airport in the Flight Planner window then teleport to the runway.Hope this helps you, and if you need any assistance just holler!Best regards,

Ken: I appreciate your prompt reply. I believe that I followed your instructions. I have the Fly!2 Database Mini Tutorials, VOL!Edit V1.13, and DEXImport V1.2 and have been using them in the past. (I am an instrument rated private pilot and use the sim to practice instrument approaches. Since no one is providing updates to the last navigational data provided by ROTW, I have been adding the GPS waypoints and navaids as I need them without difficulty.) The only exception to your suggestions that I did was that I had to create a unique runway key (used in the runway pod) and a unique airport key. I made sure that they were unique by reviewing the unpodded files using VOL!Edit. I believe that they are linked together in the runway pod as it asks for both the runway key and the airport key. I could not find any documentation about how to construct the unique runway key and that may be my problem. The unique runway key I used was:3EB1D5EGAs I said, I am sure that it is different than any other runway key (unique), but I really don't understand what the individual characters in this key may represent and this may be my problem. Do you happen to know?I have been a quiet member of the forum for a number of years. It is a great sim, it is a shame that there is little to no support for it anymore.LarryG

Ken: I appreciate your prompt reply. I believe that I followed your instructions. I have the Fly!2 Database Mini Tutorials, VOL!Edit V1.13, and DEXImport V1.2 and have been using them in the past. (I am an instrument rated private pilot and use the sim to practice instrument approaches. Since no one is providing updates to the last navigational data provided by ROTW, I have been adding the GPS waypoints and navaids as I need them without difficulty.) The only exception to your suggestions that I did was that I had to create a unique runway key (used in the runway pod) and a unique airport key. I made sure that they were unique by reviewing the unpodded files using VOL!Edit. I believe that they are linked together in the runway pod as it asks for both the runway key and the airport key. I could not find any documentation about how to construct the unique runway key and that may be my problem. The unique runway key I used was:3EB1D5EGAs I said, I am sure that it is different than any other runway key (unique), but I really don't understand what the individual characters in this key may represent and this may be my problem. Do you happen to know?I have been a quiet member of the forum for a number of years. It is a great sim, it is a shame that there is little to no support for it anymore.LarryG

Hi Larry - think of the Unique key as simply that - a token for the Sim to know which Runway is associated with which Airport. For me, the simple thing to do was to go to last US airport listed, and then create the next key in logical order. As long as we are matching key length and NOT duplicating another runway key accidentally, the key should work for the runway you are making. If you created the APT_xxx.dex and the new RWY_xxx.dex file - and in the RWY it i s pointing to correct Airport in APT, then it should display. One possible reason may be this: did you TerraScene the area you are creating this airport for? If so, then guess what... You will need to re-run TerraScene. This is due to the way the Fly! Slicer works in flattening areas. One cannot just add in airports like with MSFS. I had to re-run my TerraScene of Atlanta Metro when I added in KPUJ. But then, I decided to also add in the latest Tiger data for updated roads, ponds, etc. If not the above, then if you would like, I can take a quick look if you want to send me the two dex files. I sent a PM to you with my email already. Cheers,KenP.S. ***Thought*** you had been on way back when!!! Yes, the old Sim is dieing a slow death - ROTW is doing a nice job with Fly! Legacy, though. If work ever slows down, I hope to help in small way by trying to help convert aircraft into the new sim.