I'm beginning to get the AI traffic bug, and am toying with the idea of trying out some PAI packages or UT. I'm not all that interested in spending lots of time customizing the world for realism down to every last obscure airline and flight plan. Mostly I'd like to see reasonably accurate populations of the airlines that fly in my local area, and at least plausible numbers and identities of airlines at major airports in the U.S. At least for the time being.I've read how UT saves so much time over the customization necessary with freeware AI traffic. But it seems to me that I should be able to accomplish the above by installing PAI packages for six or seven major airlines, and not have to customize anything. However, since my local airport is exclusively a commuter airport, it's important to me to have CRJs and ATRs and Embraers in commuter liveries (Delta Connection/Comair & ASA, USAirways Express, American Eagle, and NW Airlink) flying into this commuter-only airport (KTRI). And I haven't been able to determine conclusively whether PAI packages or even UT include such aircraft/flights/airports. For instance, if I install PAI's deluxe Delta package, do I also get Comair, ASA, and the other Delta commuters, or only the Delta-owned aircraft and flights? And if PAI doesn't include this, does UT?TIA

Hi,Yeah, its a great, and time consuming, bug to get :-lolI would suggest that you "get your hands dirty" a bit, I like using the flightplans by MRAI, www.mostrealisticai.com , and the repaints and models at PAI.That way you know exactly what and where you will have your AI.It does not take long to do as MRAI have a special installer for their flightplans, and there is also a "texture manager" available that automatically installs textures for you.I suggest you vist the PAI forums, you will find a whole heap of information there.CheersDan.

Many commuter airlines are included in UT2 especially with their latest add-on. However they do not have all of the textures even though the routes are there and you have the option of using UTs default paints or not including those routes in the compilation.You should note that UT2 includes many AFCAD2s, but does not designate gates by airline codes, just increases the quantity compared to the defaults.Before I had UT2 I dl'd about seven airlines including commuters from PAI and independent libraries of AI traffic. I then dl'd appropriate models from PAI and AI Aardvark using AITMv2 for compilation. UT is weak on cargo routes (because there are not normally published schedules that they convert) but I located some. I also downloaded some AFCAD2s with designated parking including some specific to airport scenery objects I had.When I got UT2, I removed the cargo lines I had from their compilation.I also use AITM with the v2 patch and decompiled the UT traffic.bgl to get more details. It can take quite some time for AITM2 to open such a large flightplan and database, but its sorting and extractions are worth it to me. I used AITM2 with the gathered resources to create additional trafficxxx.bgl sets to compliment UT2 such as the cargo sets I replaced.By avoiding AFCAD2 conflicts (there are quite a few AFCAD2s on PAI as well as here and flightsim), you can really detail your most frequently used airports with proper parking codes and ramps/gates. Just insure when firing up AFCAD221 that only the default base and one additional afcad bgl show up on the open airport search since more will confuse AI (scenery priorities do not count for afcad bgls.).You can do it on your own, but UT2 can make an excellent starting point sdaving loads of time as well as create traffic of interest at other airports you do not wish to detail. UT2 can also generate various reports including graphical route representations of what you have included in its compilation. There are also tools to add additional AI and textures to fill out what models it is missing.Now, if you tell us what airport you are interested in, someone can look at it and give you a response.

OK, I reread and saw the airport. I decompiled the latest traffic bgl I made with UT2 and ordered it up with AITM.I see Blue Streak, Mesaba, Candler, Piedmont with SF340Bs, Dash 8s, Atr 72s, Canadier Regional Jet. Now possibly you need additional paints to get American Eagle, etc. or modified flightplans, but those commuter airlines you mentioned are listed in the UT2 compiling options. Why they are not specificly at this airport I do not know, but I do see them at LaGuardia, KBOS, etc.

Thanks, ronzie. Never heard of Blue Streak or Candler, and Piedmont was long ago merged into USAirways, though I think there's still a charter or cargo operation or something similar that retains the Piedmont name. Still, as I understand it, the critical information is that UT does include Comair, ASA, etc., and so it seems it would be relatively simple to replace the apocryphal airlines at KTRI by what I assume would be a relatively simple editing job. For other airports, I probably wouldn't mind so much if the airlines represented are off a bit, so I think I'd only have to do just the one edit job. This makes me wonder if I couldn't fix KTRI by simply dropping in MRAI flight plans into UT2 for Delta, USAirways, Northwest, and American. Since MRAI plans are compiled from published schedules, and since the major airlines publish their commuter schedules as indistinguishable from those of company-owned routes, I'm assuming that the MRAI plans would send the right commuter flights to KTRI. Anyone know if this thinking is on track, or if I'm missing something important?Also, it's still not clear to me if PAI packages for the major airlines (Delta in particular) include the associated commuter routes or not. I think I'll take danowat's advice and ask about this on the PAI message boards, unless someone here has the answer.

As a followup, I'd like to retract my use in the original post of the word "obscure." I merely meant to refer to airlines not often seen in the areas where I'd like to fly. But thinking about my choice of words later, I realized that for every airline I or anyone rarely sees, there are many people for whom it is anything but obscure. Sorry about that.

Hi,I found that UT provides an excellent base for getting hundreds of airlines into the sim quickly. And the interface makes it easy to add/change models and repaints. UT does include commuter aircraft such as CRJs, ATRs, Saabs, Dash 8s and B1900s. It doesn't have EMB120s or ERJs, but those are easily installed using the Aardvark, PAI, or CDAI models. It does include flight plans for those commuters you mentioned.Todd

can somebody tell me what this bug exactly is? I enjoy UT but am spending so much time installing the missing aircraft manually.

In UT, make sure to run the update feature to insure the program and resources are current. Updated flightplans are available for a small fee by downloading from Flight 1, or you can try to add your own with adjusted aircraft numbers if necessary to avoid conflicts.Only so much could have been produced to get the product delivered within a reasonable production time. The data entry and research involved a lot of work by the assembled team including that complement of folks at PAI that assisted.

Well I just feel they released this as an incomplete product. Thats like PMDG selling their 737s but the only way you can see the whole airplane is if you go out and download 100 add-on files yourself! Sure if the excuse was I wanted to replace the models with more framerate friendly models, then OK no complaints. But they have literally left over a hundred repaints completely missing. This is after downloading all the updates including buying the 6 dollar spring update! The program is amazing in that it lets me complete the package, but the whole point of paying 30 dollars was that I didn't want to have to do things myself!

I seriously doubt there is a traffic program out there that gives you every commercial aircraft known to man. If UT did have it all, chances are they would still be working on it, and we would be paying considerably more than it costs now. Besides, they have made it very easy to add repaints. Try replacing all the aircraft with Aardvark, FSPainter, etc. Adding a few liveries won't seem so bad. :-)

actually thats what I've been doing, and it takes me hours on end just to complete a few airlines. I'm not doubting UTs abilities, I just feel its more false advertising and not an actual finished product. Its taking time out of my schedule when the whole point was that I don't really have the time to do all that.

False advertising? Where did they lead you to believe that every airline in the world was included? They say right up front over 700 airline repaints are used. If you feel somehow misled, maybe you should take it up with UT.

In case anyone's interested, I've just discovered that "Candler" is evidently a callsign or other identifier for Comair, and "Blue Streak" similarly identifies USAirways Express. Both of these are evidently correctly placed at KTRI. I'm still not sure about Piedmont.I wanted to clarify that because my earlier remarks might've made it seem that UT was way off base with regard to my local airport, whereas in fact they're probably pretty close.I've also found that the PAI Delta package does not include Delta Connection commuters (it has something to do with the complexity of separating commuter operators' schedules when they fly for different majors, I think), but PAI does have packages for several other commuters. From what I read, it seems a reasonable enough proposition to install some PAI packages, add MRAI flight plans for Delta, and add a few Delta Connection repaints.If I get a chance this weekend, I'll try this and report back for anyone who might be following this thread or interested in the future.

While your at PAI getting their installer, also get some AFCAD2s that install with it if your airport is listed. Do a dummy install, then move the AF2_xxx.bgl to where you want it and rename and Ut or other afcad2 other than the default. It seems that any more than the one default afd.bgl and one add-on afd.bgl confuses the AI system.