Messages

1

Development / Re: Possible C172 repaint template for new livery

« on: September 09, 2024, 09:08:04 AM »

I might have mentioned that I would revise the first template, and I have. It is attached. G-BNYM seems to wear a one-off version of this pattern. The one attached here as a revision is far more common.

It normally comes in just two colours, with the bottom fuselage stripe and the top tail stripe being on the second colour.

There are also quite a few 172s with a third color. This sits between the primary colour's main part and the secondary colour, as on OH-CAM. Using my terminology on OH-CAM, the red is primary, the silver is secondary, and the black is the third colour. Normally there are two colours used, and the black on OH-CAM would be red on aircraft like those.

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/11406128

2

Forum members' repaints / 2x ANAI Piper Warriors for FFH Flight Training - D-EELY and D-EEXL

« on: September 07, 2024, 02:44:29 PM »

I intend to paint the rest of this fleet, even the Seminoles, or "Piper Semolinas" as I call them because of the way they handle, like a wet pudding. There is a UI model that can be stripped back for AI use. I ought to make one but I'm way too lazy.

They use Piper Seminoles, Arrows, Archers, Warriors (these two), Cessna 150s and a pair of Grob 115s that will be painted on Nick Black's Grob Tutor model. It will all take time.

I created 52-week plans for these 2 years ago on an early version of my modified-from-RPP planner, but with some really good updates to that software, I'm now able to make better sets for training operations, so those will also appear, probably before most of the repaints.

For now, here are the Warriors, which both seem to be based at Stuttgart. If anyone knows the real bases for the fleet members (I know some live elsewhere) just let me know before it's too late.

3

Forum members' repaints / HTAI C172 Aeropartner OK-BZF

« on: September 05, 2024, 11:03:23 PM »

Cessna 172 operated by Aeropartner, whose base is Prague Ruzyne, LKPR.

The image and the zip say Aerorent, because I mixed up the two actual companies in that part of the world with similar names! It's also why I initially thought the base was elsewhere - at Brno.

4

Forum members' repaints / HTAI C172 Aero Club Coleman N884CA

« on: September 05, 2024, 10:59:33 PM »

Cessna 172 based at Worms (EDFV) made while making another C172 template for the One Click Repaint utility.

5

Forum members' repaints / Re: HTAI C172 Aeroclub de Guatemala fleet

« on: August 30, 2024, 08:17:24 AM »

Hi Doug!

I'm sorry to hear about the health problems getting in the way of painting for a sim you obviously care about. It's never an easy decision to come to, to quit something that was important to us, for any reason at any age.

I hope it's some comfort to know that your work is out there in other peoples' setups, mine included, plying the virtual airways!

I made a few Guatemalan Cessnas in the One Click repainter that I've also flightplanned, so Guatemala City at least looks like it might be in Guatemala now, with a few local registrations floating about. Just about enough to give some sense of place. Looking at aerial images of airfields it is evident that aviation is vital to Guatemala, even if some of those airframes are no longer active.

6

Forum members' repaints / Re: HTAI C172 Aeroclub de Guatemala fleet

« on: August 25, 2024, 10:20:37 PM »

The Duchess was in the revision zip in a later post. It was the color of that which alerted me to the color difference in half of the Cessna fleet, and the revision also has three recolored 172s in it as well as the other three in a different shade of red.

Some AFDs will be necessary to see them on the ground elsewhere, since I have them visiting almost 30 airfields in Guatemala. At MGGT they will come and go as usual.

I just generate 52 weeks without thinking these days, especially for small fleets. I don't visit FS Guatemala often enough to notice a pattern as I might in Europe, so I could really get away with just using one week as well.

Since large batches take a long time, it's probably better away from my home patch to make just single week plans. I created some generic Cessna 172 plans for Europe (minus the UK) that has a fleet of about 3500 Cessna 172s, and 52 weeks took about 18 hours to create. Then I discovered how many parking spots the AFDs across Europe would need, and quickly gave up the idea of making grand sets of plans.

I'm surprised that such small textures are even viable in later sims, definition-wise.

I'm also surprised that any old AI can be put into MSFS now, or does it still mean using some third-party package?

7

Forum members' repaints / Re: HTAI C172 Aeroclub de Guatemala fleet

« on: August 25, 2024, 11:02:41 AM »

The FS9 AFDs are proving to be a problem, a few were made by other people and there's no point replicating those, but the rest are going to take too much time for the time I have available and will only be looked at should it become necessary, so they may never be done, by me at least.

But the plans are attached. If an AI flies to a missing airport (one that doesn't exist even as a simple runway and needs to be created new) it will fly through the coordinates assigned and then continue on into oblivion.

FS9 plans point the aircraft at the coordinates assigned for the destination and expect the AI aircraft to "find" the runway at the far end when it comes into range. At that point the AI engine puts the aircraft in what I guess I will call "pattern mode" and a different part of the AI coding will fly the AI around the pattern or get it vectored to the ILS for a landing. AI aircraft also "scent" the centerline and line up for themselves, so its a set of discrete and simple operations by the AI engine that broadly mimic the behavior of aircraft in the real world.

If a piece is missing, such as an entire airport, the AI will still set off in the hope of finding it. If an AI is returning from a missing airport it will still arrive at the destination having spawned into position enroute when you get it within your AI range of about 100 miles or so (not the AI visual range from your eyepoint).

That's my longhand way to say that these plans will have the ACdG fleet operating just fine out of MGGT.

I can't imagine many (if any) people do the 52-week thing, but any week of these will do the job just fine, but the schedule will remain fixed.

8

Development / Re: Possible C172 repaint template for new livery

« on: August 23, 2024, 10:26:26 PM »

Template #4 for the C172, derived from the Cessna livery used to create the Aeroclub de Guatemala Cessna fleet elsewhere on OCH.

9

Forum members' repaints / Re: HTAI C172 Aeroclub de Guatemala fleet

« on: August 23, 2024, 08:27:24 AM »

Doug Roth has created 2 AFDs for Puerto Barrios and Retalhuleu as part of his TG-ATE package on flightsim, there's a package for Iztapa (a fairly recent airfield that hosts annual air displays) and also for Mundo Maya (formerly Flores Airport) that are for FSX and might be possible to convert.

I've already seeded 23 AFDs around Guatemala (I create basic airfields using MS Excel to spit out compilable XML at the correct geocoordinates and official elevations) and the 52-week plans (also created by Excel) visit all of these. The basic airfields need to be improved (most do not exist in FS9 at all - the FS9 airports list has only 2 Guatemalan airports/airfields).

There are many more airfields in the country, perhaps in the region of 150-200 private airfields with legitimate use, and upward of 600 illegal airfields used for smuggling. One official airfield, I forget which, has a runway that's also a main road the rest of the time.

After my 23 strips are added to the official airports, it (25) is still well short of what is actually going on in Guatemala but will at least wake the place up a little. With more airfields the 52-week planner would scatter flights more broadly and the AI at any particular place would thin out unless aircraft are based there, so it's probably as well that the airfields are carefully chosen.

My AFDs will be quick'n'dirty affairs just to get the AI moving. Runway, parking, scrub clearance and maybe a default building or two. there's a limit to what can be added before the airfields start suppressing autogen (eg fuel storage tanks - a default object - etc).

10

Forum members' repaints / Re: HTAI C172 Aeroclub de Guatemala fleet

« on: August 22, 2024, 09:57:19 PM »

Here's a revision.

I added their Beech 76 Duchess TG-ACT on the GAI model.

While I did this I noticed that three of their 6 172s actually wore a darker livery to match the Beech, so I recoloured the Cessnas EAA, EAG and KOZ to match the Beech's darker more glossy red.

I intend to put out set of 52-week flightplans for this club and there will be some accompanying AFCADs for the airfields across Guatemala that these visit, since I could find very few airports for Guatemala online apart from their base, La Aurora, MGGT.