Hi JD and Rick,I was wondering if in the new RC-4 we could have something to help us Helo pilots.Right now I have to hover out to the runway given to get a take off clearance . Is there a way to have the ATC clear us from the pad to take off and give a heading for departure without going to the runway? This would solve the problem for helo

yeah, let's get together in atlanta again. i need another mellow mushroom pizza :-)helicopter procedures won't be in v4, but i will add it to the things that we'll do for 4.1 or 5anyone else in atlanta want to get together for pizza?jd

I'm not either of those people but how about this kludge:In AFCAD2 (for FS9) add a small virtual runway with a start point and may be a nearby hold short node right on top of your helipad. You still will get the taxi into position and hold but maybe at least you will be able to lift off from there.The vectors might be unrealistic so you would pick your first waypoint within the 30 nm radius to fly as filed or you can choose a small aircraft in RC's options dialog, if that might make a difference.JD:For departure only, does this virtual tiny runway need to be in the runways database (r.txt)?

yep. you could also choose that runway on the controllers page, so you would always have that "runway" assigned to youjd

Thanks for the info Ronzie,I have worked with AFCAD2 I never thought of that....Not sure about the Runways Database(r.txt) Might sound dumb but I have never seen that file. I take it I would have enter the new runway into that?JD,Let me know anytime after the 30th and I will be there.Eddie

I got the idea of the tiny virtual runway from the PAI guys who developed the "star" approach of placing in a close pointed star configuration all of these tiny things to fool FS9 into thinking all runways at a location were parallel. This way it would respect the runway properties assigned all of the "real ones" thinking they are parallel also. It is called the cross-runway method and you'll see downloads with that description. A good example of this is KLGA where when weather allows one runway is used for take-off and the other for arrival. Without this technique FS9 will not allow it for AI. While RC lets you choose your departure runway AI depends on AFCAD.According to my interpretation of JD answering my question about requiring it in the r.txt (in your rc folder) database it appears he said yes. It may be necessary to you can choose that runway/pad name for takeoff in the options box and that file is what RC pays attention to. It is a comma delimited file that can be edited wordpad as long as you save it in text mode.Here's an extract of r.txt for KMSP:KMSP,8200,150,12L,121,110.7KMSP,10000,200,12R,121,110.3KMSP,11006,150,22,224,110.5KMSP,10000,200,30L,301,110.3KMSP,8200,150,30R,301,110.7KMSP,11006,150,4,44,109.3It looks like we got ICAO, length, width, runway ID, runway mag heading, and localizer (0 for no localizer). I suppose a pad could be 12H. The heading I suspect is used to help pick the best runway and the math for vectoring. The airport file a.txt contains location info, elevation, etc., which unless you are adding a new airport you do not worry about. Just to be complete here's the line for KMSP:KMSP,Minneapolis-St Paul Intl,n44:52:49.965,w093:13:00.920,-3,839,11006I forgot what the -3 is but in order:ICAO, name, lat, long, ??, elevation, longest runway.So you can try the AFCAD fake method including giving your pad an apron texture, then add the pad to RC r.txt so you can choose it for arrival. Give it a few feet length to make RC happy, maybe making length and width equal in r.txt, and choose the heading appropriate for the nearest runway in both directions. I'd mark it closed so AI won't use it. RC doesn't use the AFCAD compiles.Let us know how it works - I'm curious.