First of all, let me say thanks to Markus Brunner for this great program. GA-Traffic is my #1 "desert island" add-on. I fly mostly GA around small airports, and GA-Traffic makes it all come alive. GA-Traffic is available in the library (ga-traffic_setup.zip)I've spent the weekend trying to find AI planes for GA-Traffic, and I thought it might help to share some of my findings. If you are not familiar with installing planes and repaints, you will want to either just stick with the default planes, or do some research and learn about it. The defaults will give you plenty of traffic, though you might get tired of seeing the same set of planes.With that caveat out of the way, here's what I recommend:First of all, you'll want to get repaints for the default GA planes, specifically the 172, 182, 208, 208B, Lear, Mooney Bravo, Piper cherokee 180, Beech Baron, King Air -- and perhaps some of the historical planes. You can generally search the library -- for example -- for "default repaint 172" and get lots of results. They vary in quality of course, so check out the screenshots before installing.Some of the default planes are fairly detailed, but they use LOD's that reduce the number of polygons when the plane is seen at a distance. In my experience, this makes them fairly efficient. However, if you want to maximize performance, stick with the old stand-bys such as the 172 and 208's and Bravo (less than 7,000 polygons at nearest LOD), and stay away from the historical planes (more than 15,000 polygons in some cases). For the most part, you will want to set the percentage of historical planes low anyway, so I wouldn't sweat it too much.I would recommend AGAINST using payware planes as AI, since they are usually very detailed. My RealAir Scout is 30,772 polygons. I haven't found any freeware add-on planes that use LOD, so I made 10,000 polygons my threshold for my research. There are several planes that claim to be suitable for AI that have VERY high polygon counts. I use the trial version of the "Aircraft Container Manager" (available at http://www.aircraftmanager.com) to view polygon counts. I also tried to find planes that, to be blunt, weren't ugly. Some of the planes I looked at just didn't suit my tastes, though they might be okay for others. Even with that, I tended to make some minor edits to the paint schemes on a couple of them (such as getting rid of the registration numbers).The first "must have" is the Cessna 182RG from FS2002. If you have FS2002 installed, just copy it over. If not, James Joblon has made it available in the library (182rg.2004.zip). This model has only 3,000 polygons at its nearest LOD, and there are lots of older repaints available.Next, I would recommend the following planes from Chuck Dome:Beechcraft Bonanza V35 (bon04moz.zip)- 6585 polygonsPiper Archer (piparch4.zip) - 6601 polygonsPiper Meridian (pipmer04.zip) - 8701 polygonsPiper Mirage (pipmir04.zip) - 8625 polygonsI prefer the models of the Bonanza and Archer over the Meridian and Mirage (I ended up removing the latter two from my stable).Next up is the Aeronca 11AC Chief (schief1.zip) from Mike Stone - 8516 polygons - you'll also want to get Chief Update V2 (chiefupdate2.zip)Lynn & Bill Lyons released their "Custom Classics I" as freeware, and there are a couple of great planes for AI. I recommend the following:Waco Classic Biplane (waco4free.zip) - 9467 polygonsPiper Cub Classic (cub4free.zip) - 8552 polygonsI couldn't find Bill's Globe Swift (7257 polygons) at AVSIM, but it is at "that other site".Bill's Classic Tiger Moth (tiger4free.zip) is another option, but it doesn't seem to behave properly as AI in FS2004 ... you can probably get away with it if you use GA-Traffic to utilize a flight model from one of the default biplanes.The Lynn & Bill Lyons planes come with a great selection of repaints, but there are several additional repaint sets in the library. Some of his planes come in float versions without wheels, and I deleted those from the AI.Finally, there is a Diamond Katana by Pavel Toman (da20czai.zip) that is optimized for AI, but at 10,206 polygons it is on the edge of my self-imposed criteria.Once you have the planes and repaints installed, you will want to use the GA-Traffic "Make AI" function. This will make GA-optimized versions of all of your planes with reduced texture sizes. Be sure to check the "reduce texture size" box. Also, check the selected air file ... I made several planes that used some arbitrary air file before I started remembering to make a new selection in this drop-down. For the add-on planes, you can try "use existing" or you can give it one of the "proofed" default air files if it seems a close match. I have looked at the planes I've discussed here, and they seem to fly well with their existing air files, but I may change my opinion after some more plane spotting time.Next, set the probability percentages for your planes. I'd suggest making all of the default "modern" planes 100%. The historicals should be less than 10%. I have set my add-on planes to 75%, except for the biplanes and such, which are at 40% or less.You will also want to check and uncheck the "usage" boxes as appropriate. You wouldn't necessarily want the Waco Classic to appear as a taxi plane for example.Finally, set your "Percent of GA Parking Spaces used for GA Traffic Generation" (under the settings tab). Putting this slider mid-way gives you a plane for every parking space (100%). I've got a fairly hefty system, so I've put this slider 3 notches below the top. This gives me a very lively environment, and makes up for the fact that a lot of the default airports have very few parking spaces.Now you can generate your flight plan. This will take a bit. Grab a cup of coffee.Once you flight plan has been built, start up FS9 and jump to your favorite airports. Take a look around. You will probably want to fiddle with your probability percentages until you get a nice mix of lots of common planes (cessna's, archers, etc.) with a few more interesting ones.Based on this guide, I currently have about 90 different GA planes in my collection (including repaints), and I am seeing a very nice mix. Here's a couple of screens:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/83829.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/83830.jpgI hope this guide will be helpful to someone! If you've found a good GA plane, let me know.

Fantastic guide!! Thank you for this :)

GA-Traffic is my #1 "desert island" add-onCouldn't agree more.As someone who just never got around to using AFCAD or TTOOLS, to have a program that does it automatically for worldwide airports with out having to know what you're doing was a huge leap in flightsim atmosphere.Thanks for you AC OLD info above and thank you Marcus.Ben

Thanks for this guide.Your observations are all right and most of the planes you have listed are used by me too.Problems with the air file are rar but I used a German motorglider (the plane I learned flying on) which was total unuseable without a proper airfile, so its right to stay with existing and only change if problems occure.Thanks again for the guide.

Jum,This is an excellent and well researched guide. I think more people should read this. The biggest issue with GA-Traffic has been finding the right aircraft. Your idea of using the various repaints of the default aircraft is clever as it still allows variation even if the same aircraft. The other observation on polygon count s also very useful as it was my misconception that quite a few of the freeware aircraft would be ideal for AI due to their small download size. However, this may not be the case as you have demonstrated.ThanksShez

Thanks for the feedback guys. I am glad this guide is useful.I plan on continuing my research and I will post a more comprehensive list of planes for GA-Traffic at some point in the next few weeks. If anyone has any suggestions beyond what I've discussed here, please let me know!

Jimmy, thanks for sharing your experimented results with us. I'm definitely going to use your guide while working with GA Traffic.And of course, BIG thanks to Marcus for this gem of a freeware.

>Thanks for the feedback guys. I am glad this guide is>useful.I agree!!! :) I think the BIG point in all this is that the default a/c seem to be the only ones that are made with multiple LODS.-- and it is realy this that makes them so suitable for AI a/c. I have actually given up trying to use other freeware or payware GA a/c as AI for now - because , even if they do have less than 10,000 polys , they are still frame rate hitters. Mostly, I want GA AI a/c to fly around my main flying areas to give me some excercise in watching out for them and the interaction that they have with both me and ATC . I'm not particularly interested in what type of GA a/c they are to do this - so the defaults are fine by me. What we really need is some GMAX modeller to produce some GA a/c using multiple LODS -- but without any need for fancy interiors or panels, sounds , etc. A little niche in the FS world that badly needs filling !! :)Barry

>I agree!!! :) I think the BIG point in all this is that the>default a/c seem to be the only ones that are made with>multiple LODS.-- and it is realy this that makes them so>suitable for AI a/c. I have actually given up trying to use>other freeware or payware GA a/c as AI for now - because ,>even if they do have less than 10,000 polys , they are still>frame rate hitters. Yes, that is a good point that I could have emphasized more. It all depends on your preferences and your system, of course. For someone who is worried about performance, getting a good collection of default repaints will give you a nice mix of planes without any worries about performance-hungry ADD-ons.The good news about defaults like the C172 is that there are repaints dating back to FS2002 (the model has not changed).Perhaps as I look at another version of this guide I can offer direct links to a good set of repaints for each default aircraft.With a high-power system, in my experience, you can use some of the freeware add-ons without a performance hit, as long as an airport is not filled with them. If you collect a lot of repaints for the defaults, then those defaults will tend to fill out the bulk of your AI traffic, and you can have a few interesting add-ons such as the Bill Lyons Globe Swift appearing now and then just to add some fun to plane-spotting.I do agree, however, that it would be great if we had some developers start to think about AI-friendly GA airplanes with LOD. We have AI-Aardvark and a few others for the commercial airliners. But, this is a reality of the audience -- the majority of FS2004 users fly the big commercial jets around the big airports.

Hi,Many thanks for this guide. I really need it!Just a (basic) question: I want to use only a few selected aircraft and not all that are in my Fs9 aircraft folder. How can I instruct the GA-Traffic program to use only those traffic-specific airplanes? I am sure there is an option to do this but couldn

Hi Edmundo,every plane and every livery has a checkbox called 'Use for GA:' if you uncheck this box the plane or the livery will not used. Simple one click.

Jimmy - thanks for this also. I was planning on installing GA Traffic tonight so it couldn't have come at a better time!Best RegardsBoone,[email protected]"Flying a plane is no different from riding a bicycle. It's just a lot harder to put baseball cards in the spokes."

Before reading your message here, I added the Eaglesoft Lite version of the Citation X to my GA Traffic planes. Wanted it there, even though 3000' runway is a bit short for it, have seen one land there, (Pilots used the last exit from the runway) and leave a couple of hours later. Converted it, and don't seem to have any problems, it looks good sitting there at dawn waiting to make its first flight.By the way, I use the file -Viewpoint- set at KFUL Tower to watch my flightplans. Set with the virtual panel, you can use the hat switch to move your view smoothly.Also, created a Flightplans_FUL.txt, etc for my favorite home field, KFUL. Added about 10 flight plans, and removed all from Flightplans.txt... This made sure that I had my choice of the best ten aircraft there. Your message has given me lots more good ideas, thanks.

When using GA-traffic and the make AI plane function, does it create a new AI plane from an exsting plane or does it just convert the existing plane into an AI one, making it so you can't really fly it anymore. Thanks for a great tutorial on adding GA traffic.

HI,it creates a new AI version, the orginal one isn't changed.