Relocating airports with AFCAD

[Guest aeroncapilot]

Hello,The SFS Airpark on the Olympic Peninsula is located about 50 miles too far west in flight simulator. I relocated the runway to its proper position in AFCAD by dragging the runway and starting points to the correct location and saving the file. The airport reference point was also moved with the runway. The new runway in its proper location works fine with a small flatten area around it.My problem is that the old runway is not gone. Furthermore, creating a flight in the FS menu that is supposed to start at the airport results in the aircraft loading at the old location, not the new one.I have moved runways up to a thousand feet in the past, but never as far as this move (like I mentioned, in the order of tens of miles). In the past, my saved AFCADs have completely overridden the default layout. In this case, there seems to be incomplete dominance of the new file over the old one. Is there something wrong with this method of relocating a simple airport? (This airport is made up of a single grass runway and no taxiways)Thank you,Luke JensenBainbridge Island,WA

[Guest Bell206freak]

FYI, SFS Airpark was more than 50 miles away from its true spot. it was actually around eighty miles.As for SFS Airpark, I am currently working on a scenery package that will totally overhaul most of Washington State's Puget Sound/Olympic Peninsula region. In addition to relandclassing, LWM/VTP adjustment, and enhanced scenery, I am also revamping at least a half dozen or more airports in Washington State. SFS Airpark is one of those airports included. In my package, everything has been removed and relocated, from the AFCAD data, VTP background polygon and flattening polygon as well. When you select SFS Airpark with these changes, you are taken to its new spot, which is just a few miles southeast of Jefferson County Airport.SFS Airpark was relocated using somewhat controversial methods including editing the default AB914140, FL914140, and AP914140 scenery files. After editing, I thoroughly tested each airport within the AFCAD to see if any erroneous instances occurred, and none did.This package started with just one airport - Sanderson Field in Shelton, WA, and quickly grew to include Tacoma Narrows, and at least a half dozen or more airports in Western Washington, which includes:KSHN Sanderson FieldKTIW Tacoma Narrows WN42 Flying H Ranch (Buckley; this was a request revamp)4WA9 Port Orchard Airport80WA SFS Airpark (I've actually found its exact spot - some 80 miles west of its default location)WN13 Vaughan RanchS18 Forks Airport (added as the result of a visit to my aunt's house there) And an abandoned gravel strip in Lilliwaup, WA that is clearly evident in satellite imagery. And the pool of prospective airports include: KOLM Olympia Regional (the only one in the pool as of yet)Each airport will be totally accurate, featuring photoreal gMax-created buildings and scenery objects (with the exception of Tacoma Narrows, which is a reworked, heavily revised version of Bob Bernstein's package; he lent his generous approval for me to modify it), and reworked, modified, and enhanced AB background polygons and AFCAAD files.The entire package has now been titled "Project Washington Overhaul" and is scheduled for release sometime in the spring.And one more thing: this package is totally freeware, and when I release the package roughly ten months of work will have gone into it._Steve

[Guest aeroncapilot]

Steve,Thank you for the information. I am most excited about your efforts, and wish you luck on what seems to be a momentous task!I asked about SFS Airpark because I fly out of Jefferson County Intl Airport (0S9) in real life and fly over this little runway all the time. The runway area is visible in Megascenery PNW, but there is no landable area there. I assumed it had been left out of the FS directory (not too surprising, the airport apparently hasn't been used in quite some time). I was quite shocked when I typed the code into FS and, what do you know, I ended up in the middle of a huge pit by Lake Crescent!I'll settle for my early attempts for now. At least I have somewhere to land. I aligned the runway with the PNW textures and satellite photos from NASA. According to what I found, the runway is only 1482 feet long, not 1600.I'm up around the Port Hadlock area quite a bit. Let me know if you need any photos of the area.Good luck, and thanks for your work.Luke Jensen

[Guest Bell206freak]

Photos? You'll take photos for me? Sweet! :(Sure.. I'll take as many photos as I can get. If you can, I'll even accept pix of Jefferson County Intl. and I'll add it to my list. (I'll need pix of every hangar from almost every angle and same goes for the other buildings and other pertinent scenery objects):)I got started on SFS Airpark because my aunt lives in Forks. And well, I never really recalled any signs of an airport near Lake Crescent in the umpteen million times I've taken the drive from Shelton, WA to go visit her. I decided to do a little investigating and with the use of USAPhotoMaps and the coordinates from Airnav.com, I located it where it *really* is and I decided to relocate it in FS as well.Sanderson was much the same way... I decided to revamp it (and the revamp of Sanderson is 98% complete, as I type this) because the default was so shoddy. Anyways...I'll take as many photos as I can get. The more the better!

[Guest aeroncapilot]

Hello,I have a couple photos of SFS airpark if you would like them. Because it is private property, I couldn't poke around much. Sadly, I couldn't get the hangar from all angles but there are a few aerial shots.I tried a PM a while ago (it didn't appear to work)... sorry about the public message for this.Let me know if you would like to see these photos. Once again, I'm looking forward to seeing your work!Lukeluke.jensen[at]gmail.com

[FlyingsCool 3]

Back to your original question. It sounds like you did not move the "Start Points". AFCAD normally turns these off. When moving an airport, make sure to turn the start points on and the lights on, then hit Ctrl-A to select them all and move them while holding down the ctrl or shift key (I forget which).Also, I'm confused by what you mean that "The old runway isn't gone". Are the old runways still there? Did you move the old runways, or create new ones in the correct location? If you created new ones, make sure to delete the old ones from the AFCAD file.You should have been able to just select all the original stuff, move them all to the new location, and edit them to be more correct.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com/FC_StartJava.html] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)

[scott967 62]

Not a guru by any stretch, but I think if you move the reference point it can cause some problems. You might try putting your reworked AP into the namwscenery folder rather than addon sceneryscenery (or other "user" folder). Make sure you delete all runways and all starts in your AFCAD. scott s..

[FlyingsCool 3]

I believe the moving of the reference point issue (and anything else runway related) has to do with airports with published approaches and departures. These will need to be updated. Chances are, however, this airport doesn't have this problem. I've never noticed any issues moving the reference point of any of the airports I have moved. Perhaps I have missed something, though.You don't want to put the new AFCAD in the NAMW scenery folder, unless it has a name that starts with letters after AP (AF won't work if you put it there). The AFCAD needs to be read after the default airport.There is an issue if you are changing the altitude of the airport. But he didn't say this was necessary. If you need to change the altitude, I suggest you read the following tutorial. You'll need to create a small AFCAD with just the header data and the new altitude. Then you'll need to place this in a library that is read BEFORE the default airport data is read (NAMW). Then add your other AFCAD as before. For any given airport, FS uses the first altitude it reads, then ignores all other altitude references.http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_post...?TID=14884&PN=1You don't have to delete all the original data if you just move it all to the new location.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com/FC_StartJava.html] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)