Page 1 of 1

can you change the plane you fly in lessons???

PostPosted: Sat Aug 14, 2004 5:29 am
by maverickr62
the reason i ask is it looks like i'll be learing in a cessna 152 and i want to brush up while at home but not fly a 182....

any thoughts or advice??? thank you

Re: can you change the plane you fly in lessons???

PostPosted: Sat Aug 14, 2004 6:25 am
by ozzy72
Not sure, but try the following. Start the lesson, press ALT. At the top of the screen there will be a menu bar. Click on AIRCRAFT and go to SELECT AIRCRAFT. Then choose as normal ;)

Ozzy

Re: can you change the plane you fly in lessons???

PostPosted: Sat Aug 14, 2004 6:44 am
by Fozzer
...very interesting enquiry that... ;)..!

I think the default trainer aircraft in the sim is a Cessna 172, (expensive), but most pilots train on the Cessna 150/152...somewhat different handling... 8)...!
So...
I would find an explanation very interesting... ;D...!

Cheers all... ;)...!

Paul.

Re: can you change the plane you fly in lessons???

PostPosted: Sat Aug 14, 2004 7:39 pm
by MattNW
the reason i ask is it looks like i'll be learing in a cessna 152 and i want to brush up while at home but not fly a 182....

any thoughts or advice??? thank you


Never tried changing airplanes in a lesson. Be worth giving it a go however. If you want a good Cessna 152 to practice with try the Flight1 Cessna 152. It's payware but a nice little airplane nevertheless. Even if you can't fly FS2004 lessons in it you can log some solo time. It seems to handle pretty close to the real thing.

Re: can you change the plane you fly in lessons???

PostPosted: Sun Aug 15, 2004 1:50 am
by gw
The student lessons are stored in the directory "Flight Simulator 9\Lessons\student."  Each lesson has a FLT file  that is a saved flight for the opening conditions.  There is also an ABL file that contains the main programming for the lesson.  This is a text file so it's easy to look at.

The C172 is specified in the FLT file just as though someone took off and flew to 5000 feet just south of Bremerton and then saved the flight.  The ABL file doesn't specifically say 172 but it may as well.  There are about a dozen lines in it that resemble a cfg file that specify the flight characteristics of the 172.  Things like v1 = 45 kts, etc.

So it looks like the place to start if you want to change the plane is to first save the original flt and abl files.

Then set up a flight in the 152 at 5000 feet south of Bremerton just like the original lesson.  Save it somewhere as "Lesson 1.flt."

In "Lesson 1.ABL" change lines 45 through 61 to the characteristics of the 152.

Copy your new flt and abl files to the Lessons\student directory.

Try it and see what happens.

Where you might run into trouble first, I think, is in the flt file getting everything set up correctly there.  And as I think about it the files don't have to go back into the Lessons\student directory.  They can stay in your "My Documents\Flight Simulator Files" folder.  That way you don't overwrite your originals.

gw