Where oh where is my plane?

[migraywolf]

OK, you can call me stupid if you want, but I have read other posts on here and followed directions to what I thought was correct, but I still cannot find my downloaded FSX aircraft.  I put it into the "sim objects/airplanes" folder.  When I start FSX, the aircraft will not show.
Frustrating.  I didn't have this much problem with FS2004.
 :-/

[Daube]

Hi,

It would help us a lot if you could tell us what file you have downloaded.
Then, if a plane does not appear in the list after you have placed it in your simobjects\airplanes directory, it's usually because the panel is missing... and for FS, a plane without a panel is an AI plane that should not be selectable.

So, take a look inside the folder of your new plane, see if a "panel" subfolder is there:
- If not, you'll have to find a panel for that plane.
- If yes, then it is surely containing a very simple panel.cfg file that tells an alias to a plane that does not exist in FSX (typical case, a panel aliased to the 737-400... unfortunately, in FSX, it's a 737-800

[migraywolf]

I downloaded FS2004 Lockheed C-130J Hercules by Mike Stone.  I use to use it fine with FS2004.  It does have a "panel" folder. In the "panel" folder, I see a file cabinet icon labeled c130j, a "main" bitmap icon, a "panel" icon, a "trb4pmx.gua" file, and a "trb4thr.gua" file.
I do not see a "panel.cfg" file though.
In the aircraft main folder I have the following: base textures folder, model.clean folder, model.tanks folder, panel folder, sound folder, texture folder, texture.afres folder, aircraft (microsoft office outlook) icon, c130.air AIR file, and the readme file.
Thanks for your reply and I hope you can help me out with this.