Creating real world flightplans

[777JAFO 0]

Hello,

 

i'm trying to create flightplans from airline timetables, from the early 80's...how do i make the flightplan?...i have for example..a twa flight leaving kstl to kcle. now what??...does it go back to kstl??...same flight number??...and where does it spend the night per say??....i have the knowledge of reading these timetables...but turing into a flightplan i come up very very short on knowledge...please help me understand this........scott

[tgibson 11]

Hi,

 

The simplest way is to download the MRAI Compiler. You create a text file containing all of the schedule's flights, and the compiler will convert them into flight plans that make good use of each plane. It takes some effort to get a working flight plan (especially with a large airline), but it is still much faster than doing it by hand.

 

Here are some tips.

 

The simplest way to create schedules these days is to use the MRAI Compiler. It's available at various places. Be sure to read the PDF help file thoroughly before starting.

 

First, you code each leg of the timetable in either Excel or Wordpad. I use the latter, and you code a flight as follows:

 

FFT;17;KABQ;KGUP;1616;1714;123457;DC3

 

This is a line from a 1964 Frontier timetable I did.

 

The meaning of each one from left to right:

 

1. The Airline name, in case you are coding more than one airline in a single flight plan file. FFT is Frontier's parking code.

2. The flight number

3. The departure airport

4. The arrival airport

5. The departure time. Times can be typed either as 7:14 or 0714. This is 24 hour time. You can use either local time or convert everything to GMT yourself first.

6. The arrival time. The compiler will use the @ symbol to force the arrival time, so your speed numbers in the aircraft.txt file should be in the 100-300 kts range.

7. Days of operation. 1 is Monday, 7 is Sunday

8. Equipment. This code should also be listed in the aircraft database in the compiler's Database folder.

 

Continue adding lines for each leg of each flight in the timetable. Do a search of the file for commas,colons, and periods (common mistakes). They should all be semicolons.

 

When done, load into the compiler using the Open Timetable button. BEFORE THIS, use the DST and/or GMT boxes as desired. If a summer schedule use the DST box (if desired; I don't), if you converted all times to GMT use the GMT box.

 

The first things that may come up are:

 

1. A warning that an airport isn't in the database. Do a search of the AirportDB.txt file in the Database folder. If the airport is not there, add it. Refer to the readme file in the Documentation folder for details of what each item is. If it *is* there, there is probably no time zone information - add it.

2. One leg takes over 20 hours (if not true, you probably have a typo or a problem with time zones or DST between those airports; again fix the flight plan or the airports database)

3. You may have duplicate flights (identical times and airports used for a leg). Fix those too. If two planes really leave and arrive at the exact same time change one of them by one minute.

 

If you edit the AirportsDB.txt or AircraftDB.txt file you must quit and restart the Compiler to reload them.

 

Once it loads without errors, take a good look at the list of flights, to make sure they are correct and that you have made no typing errors (i.e. there isn't a 1234567 in the AC Type column, etc.). Reload the text file after you fix them. Once those are fixed, then you can press the Compile AI Flight Plans button with the Check for Timetable Inconsistencies box checked. Be sure to enter the minimum wait time for any flight in your schedule first. I usually set it to one minute less than that.

 

This will (hopefully not) bring up an error box containing the following error:

 

One airport has more arrivals than departures or visa versa. This should be fixed unless you want an ugly flight plan file. First look at these flight plans, sometimes there will be typos in them that will cause this error. If it still is present then either add a ferry flight back the other way (I add mine late at night) or change the frequency of a flight to make them match.

 

OK, now when you press the Compile button it comes up with a Save box. You can now save your new flight plan file where you like with any name you like. I save it to the same folder I have my text file in, with the default name. The compiler might give the following error:

 

"Aircraft does not exist". Add this aircraft code (and info) to the aircraft database (AircraftDB.txt) or correct your plans text file to match the existing code in that file. Restart the Compiler, reload the plans, and recompile.

 

Open the resulting compiled file in Wordpad or Notepad. You will find a list of airports at the top; File/Save As an airports_ual63.txt file (for example), and remove all the flight plans from this file.

 

Then open the original compiled file again, and use File/Save As a flightplans_ual63.txt file (for example). Delete the airport listing from this file.

 

Now look at the flight plans. Are there any flights that are very short? (i.e. don't have many legs, compared to the majority of the plans). I look at any that are shorter than 1/2 the legs of the plan with the most legs for that plane. I.e. if the longest plan has 26 legs, I look at any that have less than 13 legs. I estimate this by turning off word wrap and using the scroll bar at the bottom. Move it to the end of the longest plan, put your finger half way to the left edge, and scroll to your finger. Any plans that end to the left of your finger are suspect.

 

Check them out and see if the plane waits for long periods of time, especially at big busy airports. If it does, consider deleting this plan, for it will lead to many aircraft sitting on the ground at that busy airport. If it has very important plans (to you), then leave it, but you will pay the price. I delete any that don't fly at least once a day or so.

 

Below these short plans are plans that don't begin and end at the same place - they will have the starting and ending airports listed first. I usually delete these unless they contain critical flights. If they do, you need to repair them by adding/subtracting legs until they begin and end at the same place. Then remove the airport codes at the beginning to make it a valid flight plan.

 

Finally, you may see some plans with an asterisk (*) at the beginning. This may mean that the flight plan takes more than a full WEEK (and won't show up in FS). You need to repair these to shorten them to less than a full week. Sometimes it's nothing more than a close connection between the end and beginning of the flight, which is fine. Delete the asterisk.

 

After that, you will see that there are no aircraft numbers (AC#). You will need to add these (Search and Replace works well). Each aircraft type should have it's own number. For example, replace AC#,FFTDC3 with AC#1,FFTDC3 for the first aircraft type.

 

One more thing - you will see that the aircraft reg number section of each flight plan is listed as airline/aircraft (FFTDC3 for example). If you have the registration number information for this airline's fleet, you can replace these with the real reg no's. Aeromoe's Airline Fleets page has a lot of these for US Retro aircraft (http://www.geocities.com/~aeromoe/fleets/airlines.html).

 

Finally, create an aircraft_ual63.txt file from a copy of one for another airline or year; the line for my Frontier DC-3 looks like:

 

AC#1,110,"AI DC-3 Frontier"

 

The name (in quotes) should be exactly what is to the right of title= in the desired plane's aircraft.cfg file. The speed should be slow (remember it's using the @ symbol). DC-6B's should be around 150, DC-7's around 170, and jets around 200. Make each plane a slightly different speed (helps stagger arrivals).

 

At last, you should be able to compile the three files with TTools and if it compiles without errors, check out each plane in FS and make sure they appear at the expected times. If a given flight has more than 100 legs, the plane will not show up in FS. Split these into two flights, if required, or delete legs down under 100.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Tom

[777JAFO 0]

yes tom, it does help..thanks for your time explaining it to me....just one question..i hope...the example you gave with the frontier..it went from kabq to i think that's gallup...now do i create a new line below it to return that flight back to kabq....each line like the one you gave should just have dep airport and arrival airport..no multiple airports??

[flyerguy7773 6]

Man I am gonna have to try this too! Could take a while

 

 

Remy Mermelstein

Remymerm@aol.com

777-300 FS Pilot

[tgibson 11]

Hi,

 

You create ALL the lines by looking at their schedule. For the Frontier example, if I wanted the matching flights next to the original flight listed, I would look for flights that flew from Gallup to Albuquerque and enter those. In practice I enter the flights in the order listed in the schedule -you do not have to "match up" flights from A to B with B to A - the MRAI Compiler does that automatically.

 

Note that you must enter EACH LEG of a multistop flight. Each line is a Nonstop flight. This can sometimes be hard to determine with a typical quick reference timetable, but it must be done.

[GHD 21]

It is almost impossible to create real-world schedules. AI in FS rarely fly at more than 250kts.

[tgibson 11]

My jets certainly do...