Classic British Flight Sim

That's a BIG AFFIRMATIVE Tim ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

Me too

Right then - Ill get back to you hopefully later tonight

...Have to download the dove first (need it anyway for CBFS)!

Tim

OK boys..listen carefully...I shall say zis only wunce....

I use an equivalent default aircraft 'Aircraft.cfg' and 'Air' files in all of the 'non-dedicated' AI aircraft I have on my system. It seems to work very well whatever you want to use as AI - from DH82's to Tridents to Tonkas.

In this case you have to make a dedicated AI Dove aircraft folder - one in addition to the dove folder you use for the flyable aircraft. Once done, you can dispense with the panel and sound folders within your AI dove folder as these are useless.

You must then rename the exisiting Aircraft.cfg and Air files - simply give them a BAK or OLD suffix.

Copy the Aircraft.cfg and Air Files from the default King Air 350 (the nearest equivalent to a Dove) in to your AI Dove folder. Rename the Air file from Beech_king_air_350,air to DH104_BW6_2.air

You then have to copy a number of items from your old aircraft.cfg to the new one...

First, completely replace the [fltsim.X] and [general] sections with those from your old Dove aircraft.cfg.

Next, replace the entire [Lights] section with that from the Dove aircraft.cfg.

The next bit is slightly more complicated:

Move on to the [contact points] section in your new aircraft.cfg. You will see there the following:

[contact_points]
point.0=1, 13.00, 0.00, -4.2, 1181, 0, 0.596, 39.9, 0.296, 2.5, 0.9516, 4.8, 4.8, 0, 184.0, 184.0
point.1=1, -1.67, -8.58, -4.9, 1574, 1, 0.596, 0.0, 0.642, 2.5, 0.8152, 4.5, 5.2, 2, 184.0, 184.0
point.2=1, -1.67, 8.58, -4.9, 1574, 2, 0.596, 0.0, 0.642, 2.5, 0.8152, 4.8, 4.9, 3, 184.0, 184.0
point.3=2, -3.33, -23.92, -3.00, 787, 0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.0000, 0.0, 0.0, 5, 0.0, 0.0
point.4=2, -3.33, 23.92, -3.00, 787, 0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.0000, 0.0, 0.0, 6, 0.0, 0.0
point.5=2, -22.67, 0.00, 0.00, 787, 0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.0000, 0.0, 0.0, 9, 0.0, 0.0
point.6=2, 23.08, 0.00, -1.50, 787, 0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.0000, 0.0, 0.0, 4, 0.0, 0.0

static_pitch = -1.0
static_cg_height = 4.3
gear_system_type=1 //Hydraulic

Those figures highlighted in blue and those alone are what you need to change. The new contact points etc are shown in red below. When done, your [contact points] section should read like this:

[contact_points]
point.0=1, 13.00, 0.00, -5.15, 1181, 0, 0.596, 39.9, 0.296, 2.5, 0.9516, 4.8, 4.8, 0, 184.0, 184.0
point.1=1, -1.67, -8.58, -4.98, 1574, 1, 0.596, 0.0, 0.642, 2.5, 0.8152, 4.5, 5.2, 2, 184.0, 184.0
point.2=1, -1.67, 8.58, -4.98, 1574, 2, 0.596, 0.0, 0.642, 2.5, 0.8152, 4.8, 4.9, 3, 184.0, 184.0
point.3=2, -3.33, -23.92, -3.00, 787, 0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.0000, 0.0, 0.0, 5, 0.0, 0.0
point.4=2, -3.33, 23.92, -3.00, 787, 0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.0000, 0.0, 0.0, 6, 0.0, 0.0
point.5=2, -22.67, 0.00, 0.00, 787, 0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.0000, 0.0, 0.0, 9, 0.0, 0.0
point.6=2, 23.08, 0.00, -1.50, 787, 0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.0000, 0.0, 0.0, 4, 0.0, 0.0

static_pitch = 0.99
static_cg_height = 5.01
gear_system_type=1 //Hydraulic

Finally, you should change the cruise speed in the [reference speeds] section from 300 to 160

That's it

If when you look at the aircraft in FS9 you think that the wheels are not in contact with the ground, simply adjust the new contact points at 0=1 (for the nosewheel) and 1=1 and 2=1 (for the main gear) and observe what effect this has when you go back into FS9. The THIRD set of numbers only in the top three groups should be adjusted - DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING ELSE ! And remember to adjust 1=1 and 2=1 together otherwise you will have a lopsided aircraft!! It is rather fiddly! Start by changing the number up or down as required by a unit of 1. See what it looks like and then fine-tune to what is required. You may not even have to do this.

Be aware of minus signs when making your changes - you will notice that the Static Pitch for the KA is (minus) 1.0 whereas that for the dove is (plus) 0.99. Make sure you remove the minus sign when replacing it - you can guess what will happpen if you don't

Your AI Dove should now be more stable. As I said before, this works with anything for me - even microlights!

Any problems - I'm sure you'll be back at me!!

I need a :drinkers: after that little lot!

Tim

PS If it works for you please don't thank me - a certain Mike McIntyre - now of MAIW fame - shared this little trick with me several years ago and all credit must go to him!

Thanks very much for this Tim

Garry

One thing I forgot :doho:

Rename your aircraft entries in the new cfg file - you can do this by merely adding AI - or something - in front of the existing one so that it is different from those in the flyable model.

Then, ensure your AI flightplan Aircraft file entry matches your cfg entry exactly.

Tim

Tim,

I used the method you described in FS2002 as I found that all 3rd party aircraft behaved very weirdly (is that a real word ?) when set up as AI. When I converted to FS9 I found apart from the porpoising on finals, most planes behave OK.

I think your method is good if there are big problems and you can find a comparable default aircraft. Some people are still scared of fiddling with the cfg file so I would suggest trying the aircraft "as is" first as many will work fine.

Anyway, one wheeley in 12 AI aircraft conversions isn't bad.