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arms twisted; SIMPLE AI Flight Planner -STEP by STEP

nigel richards

nigel richards

Charter Member
Okay Falcon, I hear you!


Please understand that this walkthrough is NOT written by an expert.

I just use it for personal traffic - and its a year since I last used it.
Anyone wishing to correct me or add suggestions;
Jump in! You'll be doing me and everyone else a big favour...and maybe we can finally get the AI traffic flowing.

Let us begin;

Download and install the latest version of 'AI Flight Planner'

Install on to your computer and read the installation notes - its simple and its the only part I will not touch.

Step1

​
View attachment 55890

Find your desktop icon for AI Flight Planner. Enter, double-click!

View attachment 55891

All boxes empty? We'll take care of that...

View attachment 55892

The first thing to do is get some planes - click the box named aircraft; you'll be given a choice of actions.
Forget the choice!...

View attachment 55893

Select: 'create new aircraft list'...

View attachment 55894

Dang! You'll probably get a message like this (if you have your headphones on as always like me :icon_lol: you'll hear the dang!)
Beginning problems? did I do something wrong?
Nope! Just press ok and continue...




Edit: however I did press something wrong on the thread here.
Disregard the 3 pics below.
​

 
lol, there ya go!! Well done Nigel, lol. You'd think that after reading Job Guides and Tech Manuals in the Air Force for 26 years, just to turn a screw or tighten a "B" nut, a short Tech Manual would be a breeze, but I think my head just finally said "Enough Already", lol. Thanks for the Tutorial. I'll bookmark it to come back to when necessary (which will probably be constantly for a few weeks at least).:salute:
 
Sorry! (I did warn you all that this was written by A. Simpleton)

lets continue;

View attachment 55905

so you're in the 'create new aircraft list' dialog box. Good.
1. select your fs version or both.

2. Press the 'scan folders' box and direct 'AI Flight Planner' to your fs main 'aircraft' folder.
It may take a few moments loading all your aircraft, but you should eventially see a list of all your aircraft as here.

3. For simplicity, press the 'use all' button; I'm telling you to do this because you might want to choose a different aircraft
halfway through your flightplan. That's nearly what you're ready to do!

Look in the righthand corner of the 'AI Flight Planner' main screen;
you'll see you now have a #.

Yes? That's good!

View attachment 55903

scroll down the list (yeah! your mouth's already watering)...

View attachment 55904

Choose a fairly reliable aircraft to begin with;
I chose the Avia 156 (I'm trafficking in my sound testing sim)
Go for something fairly 'normal' for now. (you'll probably give it the chase, if you're doing traffic for the first time)​
 
step 2: Let's go a trafficking...

Not long now,gentlemen...we'll soon be seeing traffic.

I now want you to consider where your traffic will be flying from, and a very nearby destination.

Make sure they both have parking areas!
(most medium to large airports have plenty of room - keep it simple for now)

here we go...

View attachment 55909

we've chosen our aircraft? Good!...

View attachment 55910

1. Press 'start new FP'

2.You're selected aircraft may not show now, if not, just scroll the 'aircraft list:
you can even still select a different one if you like!

View attachment 55911

1.Time zone.
Don't touch anything for now, just leave it alone.

2. Active level
This will determine the traffic density level where your traffic file will be active!
Remember! If you put 100%, the traffic slider in your fs must be to this level.
If you put 1% then your traffic, even set at a low level on your fs traffic slider will always show.

View attachment 55912

Traffic frequency
If you're a beginner at traffic, choose the 1 or two hour option.
There's nothing more complicated with the others except that you'll have to start choosing days etc.
And for your first traffic, you're going to be sitting around the airport to see your pride and joy!
The choice is yours, we want fast, easy results for now....

Note: if you look further down on the viewer, its still impossible to check destinations etc...

View attachment 55913

press the IFR button and Bingo!
Don't bother with VFR, as far as I know fs doesn't do it...
I could be wrong though. Press IFR!


View attachment 55914

1. Oh look, A. Simpleton forgot to choose an aircraft...just testing! Choose!
2. As I said: IFR!​
 
Got it, tried it, got the first half leg in, but no buttons light up to do the return leg, so ...

I guess I'll ****. :)
 
Step 3 Pulling your legs

Phew!

Writing this guide is a darn sight harder than using the program.

legs:

View attachment 55922

now's the time to choose your airports.
Either use the 'airports' dialog box - select 'Get Airport information'
or
If you're familiar with their codes, type the codes directly as shown below...


View attachment 55923

1. Type out a 3 digit flight number - 007 is a good start.

2.Type the airport code of the airport from where our aircraft begins the flight.
You don't type its full name; as soon as you type the code, ai Flight Planner does it for you.

3. Type the departure time (24:00 clock) For now type 0900 (I'll explain further down when we go to watch our first traffic).
If you're lazy, like me, when you type 0900, as soon as you get to the next step, you'll receive a warning! Just ignore this and place your pointer in the 'To' box. Look again at the time, and you'll see the program has corrected - it now reads: 09:00.

4. Type the destination To airport code.
Remember!!! With the 1 or 2 hour flight this must be a placed near to your point of departure.
I'm flying from LGTS (Thessaloniki) to LGSD (Sedes) its only a mile away. If you wish to use these airports you'll have to create parking space at Sedes. Not recommended for this exercise.

5. Height

Anything you like, but you'll cause delay problems if your Cessna has to climb to 20,000ft just to land a mile or two away!
Try and avoid a mountainous area too for now for obvious reasons.
I typed in 30, which gives me 3,000ft. Plenty.

That's it - You have your first leg....

okay, so why can't I save?

View attachment 55924
Because you need a callsign

Either simply press the FN (flight number) button (arrow 2 above reg)
or
1. invent a reg. number, as I did here.
2. Press the Reg button

As soon as you complete this, you'll be given the option to save.
Save! (but don't exit the program yet or you'll lose the 'save'!

Under the 'save' button' you'll now see the 'Add leg' button.

Press! :icon_lol:

View attachment 55925

Do the second leg and we're done, patience! :)

1. Create a flight number for this leg...any 3 digits.

2. ai Flight Planner knows where you are! YOU dont write anything.

3. ai Flight Planner has done some math and provides the 'ideal' time.

4. Destination; for this exercise put the same airport name as your departure airport in the first leg.
Mine was LGTS.

5. Height
keep it simple again (see first leg) I'll stick to 30.

Well thats just about your flightplan...

View attachment 55926

Press 'save' again...

View attachment 55927

Dang! Oops! What's this?
Well I told you its a pretty smart program...

its warning me that my arrival time back at LGTS is cutting it too close!

View attachment 55928

1. So i do a little thinking, correct my departure in the second leg from 09:39 to 09:30.
This doesn't often happen, I just don't want anyone panicking if it does on your first go.

2. With the time now adjusted, I try for another 'save'.


View attachment 55929

Bingo! This time its accepted.
So now we press the 'Add FP To List' button, and see it appear on 'FLIGHT PLAN LIST'

Congratulations Gentlemen:
we now have a viable flightplan ready for Bgl compilation!

But before patting one another on the backs, we want to make a permanent save!

Dont exit the program yet, or you'll lose your flightplan.

​
 
Step4 Saving and Compiling your hard work

We have the flightplan in the 'FLIGHT PLAN LIST'

just before saving, quickly open the properties option of the desk icon as you do when adding something to fs.
There are four folders. The 2 we are interested in are;

1. Flightplans
2. TrafficFiles

View attachment 55964

This is a good place to store all your work.
By saving flightplans you can open them up in the program, change times, places, aircraft or even dupes.
For now we're just saving.

Back in the program, ready to save...
so we now click on the top lefthand corner 'Files'


View attachment 55957

Go to 'Save as' and press!

View attachment 55958

direct the 'save in' browser to the flightplans folder we just took a look at.
When open, name your work - by default, the names should always begin with:Flightplans_l

View attachment 55959

We're ready to compile the flightplan into a traffic bgl.

View attachment 55960

Top left, Files again, this time: 'Compile Traffic bgl'. select!

View attachment 55961

1. Select your target fs9, fsx or both.

2. Guide the browser to the TrafficFiles folder mentioned above.
If you know what you're doing in scenery, you can guide it to a specific ADDON folder.
TrafficFiles is safer for now.

View attachment 55962

1. TrafficFiles as above

2. Name the file with a relevant name (remember it), save and we're done!

If you have followed these steps, you have just created you very first traffic with AI Flight Planner.

And now deserve some fun!

To use the traffic file you've just made, open the TrafficFiles folder
find the traffic bgl file - mine was: Traffic_sedesavia1

View attachment 55963


Copy/Paste the bgl file into an active addon scenery/scenery file.

So let's load up fs, for the pleasure of seeing our first traffic.


If its your first time, I'll now walk you through with some hints 'n pics on seeing you own traffic.​
 
Naismith, that'll be of great assistance because the basic use and logic of the program hasn't changed.

Many thanks Sir.
 
Step 5 Savouring that first, unforgetable 'traffic' wow!

Its all your own work, and you are now truly in command of your own airspace.

Go on then...Fire up your sim! You deserve it.

Go to your departure airport

Check you have your traffic setting at or above that which you made the flightplan.

What's the time? Remember we said 09:00hrs. If its 1 hour traffic, the actual hour doesn't matter.
What does, is to be there a little early...say 08:56. This will give you time to search around for where fs has parked your traffic.
If your airport is large, you may have to slew around a little till you find it.

Pick yourself a chase-aircraft a good measure faster than your traffic. Good!

View attachment 55967

Aha! There she is! Sitting there motionless. Good!


View attachment 55968

Now tune into 'Ground', book yourself a flight, then sit and watch. Enjoy!
What's this? Your traffic talking to 'Control'? Excellent!

View attachment 55969

She's doing push-back and taxi!

View attachment 55971

Oh my! Will you look at that pretty plane taxying.

View attachment 55972

Can't resist it...follow m'leader. Tune into tower!

View attachment 55973

Great! She's cleared for take-off.

View attachment 55974

Let the gal get a headstart...

View attachment 55975

There's my baby!
​
 
Nigel, What Time Zone are you in, or is it really 2:30AM??????

A picture is worth a thousand words.30 pictures = 30,000 words.
This was too simple... Nigel please can you give us the Comprehensive Walk-through? ;)

OK I am yanking your chain... still, I prefer to work in Traffic Tools as it is very direct.
For example, a cut 'n paste of an aircraft name in each of 2 text files, followed by a quick compile, produces 787's instead of 767's for existing ANA and JAL WOAI files:

B787.jpg


Can AIFP do this too?
 
LOL!

2:30 a.m.? Phew!, You re telling me Wing Zulu...all this tutoral stuff set me back flight sets for about 200 major airports.

All that writing reminded me of hand editing traffic :icon_lol: Nobody will ever read it!
 
Nigel, thanks a billion for this excellent little tutorial.
Now I can start my own tests and investigations, I never found the courage to do this before.

For information, for any FSX'ers reading this => AIFP also allows you to automatically look for FS9-format AI Flight plans in your FSX folder, and then proposes you to convert them to FSX format.
(FS9-format flight plans will prevent any other FSX-format traffic to work, including the boats and aircraft carriers. Once you convert the FS9 ones to FSX, all the traffic comes back.)

PS: I believe this topic desserves to be a permanent sticky, because it's usefull.
 
...and then there were three!

After finishing this tutorial late last night, it suddenly dawned on me that the whole thing would probably be heading due-south at lightning speed.

My only consolation was that maybe, before taking a nosedive, it would help at least 1 person with traffic.

I am therefore thrilled, to see it may now be three!


Milton Shupe said:
Nicely done Nigel! Now I can try it. :)
Click to expand...

Thankyou so much Milton.
It would be nice to think that for once, you would be at the receiving end, after so much giving.


Daube said:
Nigel, thanks a billion for this excellent little tutorial.
Now I can start my own tests and investigations, I never found the courage to do this before.

For information, for any FSX'ers reading this => AIFP also allows you to automatically look for FS9-format AI Flight plans in your FSX folder, and then proposes you to convert them to FSX format.
(FS9-format flight plans will prevent any other FSX-format traffic to work, including the boats and aircraft carriers. Once you convert the FS9 ones to FSX, all the traffic comes back.)

PS: I believe this topic desserves to be a permanent sticky, because it's usefull.
Click to expand...

Thankyou Daube!
Its worth a billion to hear it may be useful.


rich12545 said:
Does this work very well with marine traffic?
Click to expand...

Yes, Rich!
You will be able to handle all your traffic. Ships, cars, buses, trucks...even motorbikes! Yep, I pinched 'Maverick' from the excellent MAIW 'Miramar' pack, and have him shooting around a fair few airports.

You can install a whole fleet of battleships in one file. I'll later be covering something similar.



Gentlemen, my greatest reward, would be to see some pics up here from what you have picked up.
 
Hey Nigel, thank you so much for taking the time to put this down on "paper" for us AI challenged folks. I will certainly give it a try once my easel is sufficiently cleared to the point where I won’t feel guilty actually getting in a little stick time! :icon_lol:

:applause::applause:
 
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