Old hat to the FS9 gurus but for the benefit of relative newbies - like me http://instagiber.net/smiliesdotcom/contri.../bluetongue.gifI've read a lot of comments from fellow Avsimmers on the benefits of removing aircraft that you don't fly and putting them in another folder - a virtual hangar.Well...I tried it and the difference is huge.My FS9 loads in about 20 seconds (it used to take 90secs). The aircraft menu within the program loads in 2secs (used to take about 12secs) and flights load faster as well.And thats just by removing less than half the planes I have.To those that have not tried it...you should! You will be surprised to see the number of planes you *do not* fly (well...at least I was http://instagiber.net/smiliesdotcom/contri.../corkysm20.gif).Just stick those planes in another folder and move em back when you wanna fly em!If you are encountering long load-times in FS2004 then this works :)

You can take that even further by archiving your aircraft off onto a CD. For each aircraft, put the gauges in the panel folder and be sure you include any other files it came with such as effects in their own folders. Then zip the whole thing up. When you have enough aircraft to fill a CD, burn it. I've got 4 CDs now and all I need to do is peruse the list I have printed on the case to find whatever I feel like flying. And they aren't taking up one bit (byte?) of hard drive space. Oh, and you don't need to move the gauges to the gauges folder, since they can be read right from the panel folder. Of course if you have a 200g hard drive, that's probably not an issue :) But it does allow you to backup your favorite aircraft, along with your favorite panel and sounds.Todd

Is that true for all aircraft? Can you just leave the guages in their folder but within the Panel folder? Or do you load all the guages as individual files into the Panel folder?Kev

Unfortunately almost my airplanes are AI and it takes 20-30 seconds to load the menu. But I do have hundreds of AI planes so that explains it.

You could even speed up your load times faster by "hiding" all AI aircraft from view in the aircraft selection menu. There's a couple of applets out there that will chnage the .air file to "hide" them. Don't worry, your AI will still fly but they won't be loaded into the menu. And if you have hundreds of AI this can save many of the precious load up seconds. ;)

Does anyone have a step by step procedure for doing what the original poster suggests?I just want to customoze my plane selection so that all I see are the payware planes that I fly (about 3-4)...Help...

How do you hide the AI traffic planes? I would like to do this. I already have a virtual hangar on a seperate drive from the one my game is on. I have to admit it is well worth doing, and improves the performance of the game. If I could hide the AI planes, that would be huge.Thank you,Kev

Hiding AI traffic is done by changing a setting in the air. file. Use 'Aired' or 'BBQhide'. The latter will do lots of aircraft at once......both excellent little programs. Try Rana Hossain's Flightsim Manager for a great freeware (but very professionl) hangar plus a multitude of other very useful tools for FS. http://www.ranainside.com/.

Get Flightsim Manager from the library here at avsim.You can create fleets to store your aircraft in and then enable/disable them whenever you want.So you can arrange your fleet by payware author or by aircraft type.You can hide all the default aircraft as well apart from the cessna as you may need this if you have to load the default flight in case of problems in the sim.You can also send them zipped to another folder or drive complete with all the gauges,effects ect.

I use ACMan from Martin Wright (DXTBMp). It is a very simple tool that creates "hanger" folders and allows you to switch aircraft between the aircraft folder and any of the hangers you create in seconds.http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/mcdcvabanner.jpgCalVirAir International

------------------------------------------------------------------------Does anyone have a step by step procedure for doing what the original poster suggests?------------------------------------------------------------------------Yes its very simple.1. Create a folder and name it FS9 Hangar2. Within that folder create category folders to put different planes into. I created these:-AI Aircraft-AddOn Aircraft-Default Aircraft3. Now just move planes from the FS9Aircraft folder to its respective folder in your FS9 Hangar.4.Leave the Cessna 172 alone. I suggest you dont move that because its the "default" plane and sets the "default flight" as another poster mentioned...you might need it when you have a problem. But I have moved all the other default planes out! Remember you are just moving them...so theres no need to worry! You can move them right back anytime!I have moved all my AI planes (low FPS probs), all default planes (except C172) and a host of others!Thats it. Go fly.------------------------------------------------------------------------How do you hide the AI traffic planes? I would like to do this. I already have a virtual hangar on a seperate drive from the one my game is on. I have to admit it is well worth doing, and improves the performance of the game. If I could hide the AI planes, that would be huge.-----------------------------------------------------------------------1. Download a small program called AirEd from here:http://www.simradar.com/File/2363/AirEd_Version_1_51.html2. Open the *.air file for the plane you want to disappear 3. Change the "Aircraft Type" to 2 and save the file. This action makes it invisible in the aircraft drop-down menu.4. Do this for each plane you dont want to see in the menu.Your AI planes will be fully functional...you just wont see them!:)

Howdy,Much, much, simpler to download and use FS Typer, available from Flightsim.com or here: http://www.tradewind.org/TCA/website/store.htm

Hey that looks a neat prog!Thanx Capn' Havoc :)

I grabbed FS typer, looks like just what I want.But, tried installing, the installer is German only, oddly all the DOCs are in English. I didn't really want to push a button without knowing what it said.Maybe I'll grab the Google translater.* Orest-~~~~~~~~~Orest Skrypuchwww.united-virtual.comUAL1445 Staff ORDFO