Can FSX fly FOR ME from gate to gate?

[Guest proszak]

Hello Flight Sim Experts,I have an issue that I can't seem to figure out. I'm not too good at flight sims even after about 7 years of on and off playing, so I'm not too good at flying in one.I basically want to record numerous scenes in Flight Sim X such as landing and other camera locations in actual flight, I know how to record and do everything like that.1. I was wondering if there is some kind of feature in Flight Sim X (I can't figure out the auto-pilot to well for this) that can land a plane for me or simply fly it along a flight path that I set-up in the flight planner or something like that. Basically something that can take a plane from the gate, take it off perfectly, fly it perfectly and land it without any of my intervention except my ability to change camera locations.2. Is there a way to set-up custom camera locations, and set-up stationary cameras that can show as a plane is passing by etc?I know all of this might sound a little confusing, but any help in this would be appreciated, its all for an important school project.

[Highmike 68]

The simple answer to your question is no, you cannot get the autopilot to fly you from gate to gate. The autopilot can do some amazing things but this is not one of them.Probably the best way to record your flight from gate to gate would be to make extensive use of the instant replay feature available from the in-game menu under Options/Instant Replay. The only problem with doing it this way is that you get a little red line of text at the bottom left corner of the screen which tells you that the sim is in replay.A better solution to the problem maybe to organise a Multiplayer session with a friend who flies the plane while you record video from another plane. At least you'll get rid of that little line of text.Good luck.Mike.

[RFields5421 1]

I assume you're not happy with the flyby external view option.It's very simple to create an AI flight plan for your aircraft. This will be a second aircraft - not the one you are flying.You need to use Traffic Database Builder to keep the default AI traffic, or use Traffic Tools if you are using FS9 AI.If your whole flight is less than 100 nm, you can follow and pan around the aircraft during the flight. If it is long, you will need to either - skip the inflight and go to the destination airport near arrival time, or try to fly along near the AI aircraft.

[Guest Stoopy]

Highly recommend you take a look at a free add-on tool for FSX called FSRecorder. Many people use it to do exactly what you are describing, and many excellent videos list this tool in their credits.FSRecorder records and plays back "Simulator" data (not video) that it can capture during a flight. Think of it as a long event recorder file, and it allows you to replay, fast forward, rewind, etc the data in the simulator (imagine the aircraft stepping backwards during rewind, or forward during fast forward, or being placed back on the runway when restarting the playback).It does mean that someone has to record the required perfect takeoff, flight, and landing, but being as the actual amount of event data is relatively small (nothing like a video recording) it means that someone can fly the flight for you and send you the file so you can play it back on your PC with FSX and do the video recording with the camera views etc. Do it all the time.Matter of fact some of us record flights, send it to others, who record a second flight flying along in formation, then send it to a third person, who adds his plane to the recording, etc. The possibilities are endless. Formation aerobatics recorded incrementally one plane at a time, mock dogfights, formation work, settig up "stunts" and scenes for videos, etc. Total blast to use. Do you need a volunteer to fly your flight (as long as it's not a tubeliner)?FSRecorder has been around for quite a while as BETA and now that it's been polished and finalized, it was "officially" released as production freeware sometime around last week. It was on the news here at AvSim and is in the download library.Custom camera views are another subject but FSX does have some good options here, although implementing/creating custom views is not exactly for the novice but isn't impossible either. Good luck!Erich

[Guest Stoopy]

proszack:I should have probably also mentioned there is a fairly comprehensive tutorial (if I do say so myself) on FS-Recorder at the link below....this way you can go read it to see what it does and if it fits your application concept. The tutorial is lengthy just so it can be complete as far as showing people of all skill levels how it's done. (hopefully the off-site link is OK with the AvSim mods since the site it's at is very community-based).http://com-central.net/index.php?name=Foru...iewtopic&t=7761(This tutorial is also linked from the FS Recorder support forum, where there is a lot more information and even a discussion of how some really smart folks have it working with helicopters).You might also want to go to YouTube and look for an FSX movie call "Vectors"...it's not only a classic and you'll get a huge laugh out of it, but it highlights the implementation possibilities of FS Recorder. Many other videos do a fine job of that as well. Again, g'luck on your project.

[Guest jshyluk]

You can fly your aircraft using pre-programmed or "remote controlled" commands using FSXPilot. It can fly you from gate to gate, and you are sitting in the passenger seat, if you like. FSXPilot is payware/shareware, but it does have a very generous trial version that you can check out. http://www.fsxpilot.com/I wrote a review on this some time ago; since then there have been many revisions:http://www.avsim.com/pages/1106/FSPilot/FSPilot.htm