I tried to apply this livery to version 2.0 of the Citation X. Unfortunately, this isn't quite the same as what was seen on the 1.0 back in 2004, as I don't know what font got used for the title and logo and probably never will. In any case, this is as close to it as I could get sort of. Here's the 1.0 shot.

 

Here comes 2.0.

 

To winglet or not to winglet. That is the question.

Love the color scheme...what a fun airplane to fly!

 

HLJAMES

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten a chance to fly 2.0 yet, as I spent all of Thursday night trying to paint it, and Friday morning was spent fixing up winglet textures. Still don't know whether I want winglets or not.

i personally like non winglet better.

 

I normaly like winglets but they seem almost "cartoonish" in size on the citation x.

 

great pics btw.

I do not like over-sized winglets, such as the ones found on the B767, but they make the wing look better and more interesting from the passenger view, especially with an aircraft such as the A330 or B747.

 

Is there any significance behind the registration, besides the fact (I am guessing) that AK stands for Air Kevin?

Is there any significance behind the registration, besides the fact (I am guessing) that AK stands for Air Kevin?

Excellent question, and actually, yes.

 

N - United States registrations start with this letter.

8 - One of my favorite numbers. Other ones are more than one digit, so 8 will have to do. On other aircraft, as I do have my own AI, 8 is not used, so in that case, this number depends on the aircraft. I think the 747-400s use 4, 757s use 5, 777s use 9, and 737s use 2....or something like that. I don't remember off hand, I would have to check.

10 - Tenth aircraft in the fleet. In the case of the AI, 10 would indicate tenth of its type in the fleet. The number 13 doesn't get used, so starting with N814AK and on, it gets screwed up. For example, in the case of my Boeing 767-300ER, registration N821AK, would actually be the 20th aircraft in the fleet, not the 21st. 13 doesn't get used with AI, either.

AK - Air Kevin.

 

Hopefully that all made sense.

Excellent question, and actually, yes.

N - United States registrations start with this letter.

8 - One of my favorite numbers. Other ones are more than one digit, so 8 will have to do. On other aircraft, as I do have my own AI, 8 is not used, so in that case, this number depends on the aircraft. I think the 747-400s use 4, 757s use 5, 777s use 9, and 737s use 2....or something like that. I don't remember off hand, I would have to check.

10 - Tenth aircraft in the fleet. In the case of the AI, 10 would indicate tenth of its type in the fleet. The number 13 doesn't get used, so starting with N814AK and on, it gets screwed up. For example, in the case of my Boeing 767-300ER, registration N821AK, would actually be the 20th aircraft in the fleet, not the 21st. 13 doesn't get used with AI, either.

AK - Air Kevin.

Interesting. I have only painted one aircraft, the Level-D B767-300, in my personal livery, but no longer use this aircraft. I am not satisfied with the paint kits of most payware aircraft (I wish I could obtain something at the quality of McPhat Studios!), and even if a good paint kit exists, many times, the complexity of the aircraft model itself is not of high enough quality (e.g., QualityWings). Unfortunately, I do not own the PMDG B737, so I can not consider the paint kit of it, which I hear is quite good.

 

The way I chose a registration for the one aircraft I painted was much simpler than yours.

B1201

First digit: country code

Second and third digits: year manufactured (assuming in the 2000s)

Fourth and fifth digits: production number (e.g., first model produced, second model produced, etc.)

Lastly, I hope the registration has not been claimed by Air China, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, EVA Air, etc.

 

On a similar note, how do you determine flight numbers for fictional/private flights? I'll save describing my method for another day.

Interesting. I have only painted one aircraft, the Level-D B767-300, in my personal livery, but no longer use this aircraft. I am not satisfied with the paint kits of most payware aircraft (I wish I could obtain something at the quality of McPhat Studios!), and even if a good paint kit exists, many times, the complexity of the aircraft model itself is not of high enough quality (e.g., QualityWings). Unfortunately, I do not own the PMDG B737, so I can not consider the paint kit of it, which I hear is quite good.

Yeah, the Citation 2.0 paint kit was somewhat difficult to use because although the textures appeared to be aligned in the paint kit, in the simulator was a different story, and I had to shift things around multiple times before it would finally show up right in the simulator. That took nearly all of Thanksgiving day to sort out.

On a similar note, how do you determine flight numbers for fictional/private flights? I'll save describing my method for another day.

That's even easier. I'm always flying flight 124. Why 124, I've no idea, but I've been doing that since 2003, so I stuck with it. AI is a different story. 800 series would be flights heading to Asia, 900 series to Europe, 200 series to the northeast of the United States (or was it southeast), 500 series to the west coast, and I forgot the rest. Oh, and 7900 series I believe for cargo.

What's ironic about flight 124 is that this was one of my best friend's favorite number. Of course, I didn't know that, as I had been using that flight number five years before I actually met her. I only found out about the significance of that flight number number to her after I had made her the first officer of my Boeing 777 series aircraft and she'd asked me why I picked flight number 124. Turns out those numbers actually corresponded to her birthday, which I didn't realize until she pointed it out.

What's ironic about flight 124 is that this was one of my best friend's favorite number. Of course, I didn't know that, as I had been using that flight number five years before I actually met her. I only found out about the significance of that flight number number to her after I had made her the first officer of my Boeing 777 series aircraft and she'd asked me why I picked flight number 124. Turns out those numbers actually corresponded to her birthday, which I didn't realize until she pointed it out.

How coincidental! Whenever I see 124, I think of the Antonov aircraft. . . .

 

Your flight number rules caused me to alter mine. My previous technique involved a flight's domestic/international status and route distance, but now I realize that numbers based on geography and states are more reliable, as route distances may change over time.

 

Today, I spent a long time developing a new method, which is very difficult to understand, but more logical and reliable.

 

First, I used United Nations data to determine the largest metropolitan areas of the six major continents, which turned out to be Sydney, Tokyo, Moscow, Cairo, São Paulo, and Mexico City, in order from earliest to latest time zone in relation to the International Date Line. Thus, continent codes were distributed with Oceania as 1, Asia as 2, Europe as 3, and so on.

 

Then, I specified that a flight number will always be four digits. If the origin and destination of a flight are on different continents, numbers will occupy all four digits. If not, the flight number will contain three numbers preceded by a zero.

 

Because a single route has two directions, I developed a consistent method to determine which direction to use as the "base" flight. Consider the third letters of the ICAO codes of the origin and destination airports. Then consider the airport with the third letter that comes first alphabetically. This will be the origin airport of the base flight number, and the flight in the opposite direction will possess this base flight number + 1. (The third letters of the ICAO codes are considered because the first two often describe the general geographical region of the airport, not the specific airport cities or properties.)

 

Regardless of international status, the first non-zero value of any flight number will be the continent code of its origin airport. The second non-zero value will be the number that corresponds to the second digit of the number that corresponds to the third letter of the ICAO code of the origin airport. The third non-zero value will be the same, except that it involves the third letter of the ICAO code of the destination airport. For intercontinental flights, the fourth digit will be the continent code of the destination airport.

 

Whew! Here's an example:

I want to fly from Taipei (RCTP) to Hong Kong (VHHH). Because H comes before T, the base flight number will represent the flight from Hong Kong to Taipei.

1. Begin with my ICAO airline code and blank digits: ZWN????.

2. The flight will takeoff and land in Asia, so the first blank will be occupied by a zero and the second digit will represent Asia (continent code 2): ZWN02??

3. The third letter of VHHH is H, which is the 08th letter of the alphabet, while the third letter of RCTP is T, which is the 20th letter of the alphabet. Only consider the second digits of these new numbers, which are 8 and 0 for H and T, respectively, because there only exists three possibilities (0, 1, and 2) for the first digit.

4. Insert all numbers into the flight number template, and you receive ZWN0280. The flight I wish to perform, Taipei–Hong Kong, will have a flight number of ZWN0281.

 

Not too complicated, is it?

Interesting. As far as my AI scheduled traffic is concerned, eastbound flights are always even numbered and westbound flights are always odd numbered. The flight numbers 124/125 pair never get used for obvious reasons (can't have duplicate flight numbers flying around at the same time), and the XX12/XX13 pair never get used, either, X being any digit.

 

Now question for you. If RCTP-VHHH is 280/281, what happens if you want to fly, say, Tokyo-Haneda to Hong Kong. Also, you mentioned your airline ICAO code being ZWN, what airline do you have.

As far as my AI scheduled traffic is concerned, eastbound flights are always even numbered and westbound flights are always odd numbered.

Interesting. I should incorporate that system into mine. I was hoping that there wouldn't be significant duplicates, but there will probably always be, and you have found a flight that could quite possibly be flown by me (although I would more than likely fly to Narita, because Narita has more international options). Using my previous system, I also encountered duplicates with VHHH–RCTP and ZSPD–RCTP (I believe). I then just added an A to the end of the second flight number, although this was not a very pleasant solution.

 

I'll have to think about developing the best solution for duplicates. I like to stick with three-digit flight numbers, and I generally do not find duplicates because I only conduct very few flights under my personal colors, Air ZOWEN (ZWN). Perhaps I could use country codes instead of continent codes.

Well, at that point, it really depends on the airline. Most airlines I know use westbound as odd numbers and eastbound as even numbers, although I think Lufthansa does flights going out of a hub as even numbers and flights going into a hub as odd numbers. Then again, I've also seen some oddball ones as well, so I guess as long as it gets the job done, it doesn't matter how.

 

I guess if you don't fly your airline much and don't have your own AI, you don't have to worry about much in regards to duplicates.

To be more specific, I eliminated all areas I would never fly to, and categorized the remaining areas into ten regions:

 

1: Oceania (Australia, New Zealand)

2: Asia—N (Japan, Korea, Russia)

3: Asia—E (China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan)

4: Europe—N (Denmark, Scandinavia)

5: Europe—S (Greece, Italy)

6: Europe—E (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland)

7: Europe—Central (Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland)

8: Europe—W (France, Iberia)

9: Europe—UK (Ireland, United Kingdom)

0: Americas—N (Canada, United States)

 

This should eliminate some duplicates, and I think it will be satisfactory for my purposes. I still haven't thought of a good way to implement the even–odd system while keeping the other properties of my flight numbers. I now use the west-bound flight's flight number as the base flight number, regardless of alphabetical order.

I suppose that works, too.