I was wondering if there is a known 'trick' that would allow one to use an aircraft other than the default Cessna 172 for the flying lessons? In some lessons - when the 'instructor' flies the plane first and then hands it over to me - even swapping the flight model causes slight anomalies (at least that's what I though I did by replacing the c172 *.air file with one form Real Air's free Cessna 172.)But in certain lessons - the instructor never takes the stick. So I was wondering if I could use a plane other than the default C172 (what I had in mind is one of the payware add-ons I own).Alternately - if I can't easily modify the lessons and make them use a different plane - perhaps there is a way to replaces files and folder in the c172 directory to fool FS2004 into believing that it's loading the default C172 for me for a lesson where in fact it will load one of my planes because I put the right files into that directory that effectively replace the default C172 with an aircraft of my choice? BTW - I tried replacing contents of C172 folder with files from another plane but I'm afraid there is more to this... FS2004 gave me an error while loading. So this is at all possible - it will need to be something more subtle then simply deleting all C172 files and putting something else in their place...Any tips would be appreciated.Thank you,Michael

It's actually quite a simple process - you need to edit the relevant .FLT file within the various subfolders of the FS9/Lessons folder. I strongly recommend making a backup first in case it goes wrong.So for example if you wanted to change the plane for the first student pilot lesson, go to FS9/Lessons/student and right click on "Lesson 1.FLT" then select Open With and then choose Notepad.You now need to scroll down to find the line {Plane.0} section (but in square brackets not curly ones). The line after that should read "Aircraft=Cessna Skyhawk 172SP". The text after the equals sign refers to the title of the plane in its aircraft.cfg file (the line beginning title= in the {fltsim.x} entry) so it can be changed to whatever you want. For example changing the line to "Aircraft=Cessna Skylane 182S Paint1" would change the plane being used to the white with red & yellow version of the C182.Once you're done save the file, start FS9 and then fly the lesson. You will now be in the plane you selected.A word of warning - the .FLT file also sets up what the panel status is, which can cause all sorts of problems with displaying the instruments. From some initial experiments I think that flying in the VC should be OK, but I don't make any guarantees!I hope this helps.

Thanks! This was EXACTLY what I was hoping for. Making the change is SO simple - it didn't even occur to me too look inside the Lessons folder ;-)Virtual cockpit seems to be the only thing that works; but since I fly RealAir's planes - there is no need for 2D cockpit any way!Thanks again,Michael

Hmm... I may have been a little bit too excited too early.It appears that there may be a bit more to it than simply changing the airplane name in the lesson's .flt file. I tired this with RealAir's Scout (most recent RealAir's release) and while I am in the right plane, flight characteristics of the new plane are quite strange. I'm no expert on FS2004 (or any other for that matter) flight models. But when I create a regular flight using the Scout - it certainly does NOT shoot skywards from the runway - all by itself, hands off the stick - at 55 KIAS...I guess I will have too look some more at the .flt and perhaps other files associated with the lessons...Thx,Michael

Try changing the trim settings. That would cause what you describe and it's a parameter that's set in the .flt file. Since you changed airplanes the new one has different flight characteristics and if it uses the same trim setting as the default C172 then it will likely behave this way.

>Try changing the trim settings.Yep, that did the trick ;-) Thanks!MichaelPS I wish I had changed the plane earlier instead of fighting the yo-yo that the default C172 seems to be...