Hello gentlemenI downloaded the great aircraft carriers from Ian Thatcher on avsim (aircraft_carriers.zip) and I wondered if it was possible to put on a flight plan for it.For example by creating with afcad 2 fictious sea bases.In that case what would the parking radius value be in afcad?How large must be the runway? The taxis?Has anyone tried yet?I thank you in advance for your answers.Happy ChristmasFriendlyChristian, Paris

Download ai_ships.zip by Holger Sandmann and read all about AI ships.George

Thanks GeorgeI took a look at that. It is great! the ships are beautiful and I managed to build my own afcad.I read somewhere that it was possible to connect 2 sea bases with afcad; any idea?cheerschristian

Havent done it, but cant see any reason you cant create a seabase say in San Francisco, and another in San Diego. Then a flight plan between the two so the ship travels back and forth. It might even be that using the Naval Airfield on an Island in San Diego, you could put a parking area in the water next to it. Set up a flight to end or leave there. Might be worth a try, though it might use the airstrip before going to parking. LOL But, probably would be best to put a dummy seaplane base in the water, with its own runway, and parking. Think I'll try that myself now that Ive thought about it... Thanks for stimulating my imagination. Another thought, in GA-Traffic, you can click on "Amphibian" setting the ships up as aircraft, might mean it would create a flightplan for them to seaplane bases. Will have to ask the author. Maybe he would add that to an update, if it would not do it now. Bob

Hi BobHappy new yearthanks for your commentsI have tried to input traffic between 2 dummy sea bases but I noticed that the arrival runway must be exactly in the axis of the departure runway and even though my boat carried on and did not stop to park, but wen through the landMaybe in the future fs release we'll be able to do it betterlet's hopeBut if you manage to install traffic between 2 afcad please let me know. Thanks anywayChristian

Hi Christian,The way to stop your ship from taking off is to ensure that you have a hold-short node more than 240ft from the runway. You also need to have a Tower frequency so that the ship will require clearance but never get it.After staying at the hold-short node for about 5 minutes it will disappear but re-appear at the departure point for its next leg. If the hold-short node is near the destination parking spot, no-one will notice.George

Hi George,that's a clever method and sounds very useful for setting up ferry traffic and other AI ships that require stops and starts.I prevent my ships from taking off by clipping their wings and engine power. Since taxi speed is hard-coded (unfortunately) changes to the engine section don't have any influence on the AI's speed. Basically, I'm using two alternative versions, one with more or less zero power, which will make the ship stop dead on the runway (the advantage being that it won't disappear after five minutes) and the other with a very small amount of power, which will have the ship travel into the distance in the direction of the runway. Which version I use depends on the desired movement of the ship.Cheers, HolgerP.S.: There's a new website by Ian Thatcher dedicted to FS and AI ships: http://fs-shipyards.com/

Hi Holger,The reason I needed to do it this way was because I was using a boat on a very small lake. There was no exit from the lake so nowhere for the boat to go when it had finished its tour. It needs to disappear so that it can re-appear for its next round trip.George

holger and georgethanks for your clever comments both of youThis will help me a lotthanks againcheerschristian