AI flights to Aircraft Carriers

[texspark]

Does anyone know if it is possible to fly AI military jets out to the US Aircraft Carriers located in the various oceans and if so how do you set it up. Have had not had any luck even finding the Carriers in the "Search Airport" directory. Just wondering if anyone else had any luck.

Steve

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi Steve:

I just finished setting up a 4-gate AFCAD file for the CVN-74 Stennis in the Juan de Fuca Strait, Washington State. The file is actually a "side product" of a helicopter AI package that Doug and I have been working on and will upload soon.

It's very tricky to set up AFCAD files for small places because of a number of limitations regarding mimimum distances. Also, you'll need a special aircraft configuration files that allow for very short landings and takeoffs. I used our helicopter files with GMax models of a F-18, Hawk 51, and A-6 (don't know whether the former two actually do carrier ops but it's all I had) and it looks pretty neat the way they line up at the catapult, take off, and return to the deck a little while later.

I'm not sure whether we'll include the carrier files with the chopper package but I'll probably make them available as a "tech demo" separately.

Cheers, Holger

P.S. I have some screen shots but don't know how to include them here...

[texspark]

Thats awesome, I would definately look forward to seeing that. What are the airport ID's for the carriers though, I was never able to find them in FS2k3 to add them to my flightplans.txt. You talked about some of the aircraft needing special config files to work properly. Would that explain why some of the hornets I use as AI aircraft tend to start to taxi and then go nose down into the concrete and disappear? Thanks and I look forward to you uploading more information on Carrier AI traffic.

Steve

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi Steve:

The carrier codes I just made up when I set up the AFCAD files - e.g., CV74 for CVN-74 Stennis.

It's possible that the poor performance of your Hornets is related to the .cfg/.air files but it could also be that the carrier decks' hardened surface don't extend to the visual boundaries in all cases - nasty ;-) I've watched many AI tumble off the deck or into invisible holes.

If you're interesting in beta testing the carrier files I have drop me a line at hsandman@sfu.ca

Cheers, Holger