Downloading planes

[ysteinbuch]

Greetings,

Ever since my Flight Editor fizzled I've had problems downloading aircraft. To be more precise, I can download them, unzip 'em and put the right folder into the program's aircraft folder -- but, alas, the plane doesn't show up in Fs2002. Why? Previously, I'd fire up the Aircraft Editor, find the downloaded plane in the list and click it. Then I'd find it in the list of planes in Fs2002. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[microlight]

Hi there.

I don't quite understand why you've needed to use Flight Editor (I assume that this is the M$ program supplied with FS2002) when you're downloading planes. I've downloaded many, just doing this:
- unzip to a temporary folder
- copy to the FS2002 aircraft folder

All I can think of is that there may be a name mismatch somewhere - for example, the model name in the .cfg file must be same as the model name in the model folder - that kind of thing. I've had planes not show up when there's been a problem here. You can rename the plane folder containing the model, panel, sound and texture folders, but the naming within those folders must be dead right, or the plane doesn't show up.

Hope this helps

[Hagar]

The most common cause of installation problems is when the "Aircraft Container" folder - the folder directly containing Model, Panel Sound & Texture subfolders - is hidden inside another folder. If you read this tute carefully & follow the instructions you should have no problems. http://www.simviation.com/acinstall.htm

All I can think of is that there may be a name mismatch somewhere - for example, the model name in the .cfg file must be same as the model name in the model folder

Microlight. This is a fallacy. The sim= name in Aircraft.cfg defines the AIR file in use. The model= entry defines the Model folder - model= defines the usual Model folder, model=0 defines Model.0 etc. Some complex aircraft use more than one AIR file & different MDL files as well as panels & textures. The file prefixes do not need to match the "Aircraft Container" folder name. This can be renamed to anything you wish providing no other aircraft are aliaised to it. It's not a good idea to rename the defaults.

PS. If you're convinced you installed everything correctly look under Unspecified on the FS2002 selection menu. Some older aircraft will not have the extra Aircraft.cfg entries to list them by manufacturer. These entries can be added manually later.

[microlight]

Oops, sorry - my mistake - sim, not model! Typnig too fast.

[Hagar]

Oops, sorry - my mistake - sim, not model! Typnig too fast.

You missed my point. The sim= name defines the file prefix of the AIR file in use. It bears no relation to the folder name. This is a common misconception & what I was trying to point out.