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Slopey View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Useful Info & Top Tips!
    Posted: 21 Mar 2009 at 8:46am

EDIT:  I'm hijacking Slopey's first post in this thread to add an index of the contents, which I'll edit as more things are added. I'm also editing the individual posts below to add the topic title in CAPS.

TOPICS ADDRESSED IN THIS THREAD
------------------------------------
IMPORTING AIRCRAFT
ACCEPTING MULTIPLE JOBS
USING THIRD PARTY AIRCRAFT
BONGS AND KLAXONS
FLIGHT PLANS IN AH
IF YOU PLAN TO SELL YOUR START-UP AC IMMEDIATELY
LANDINGS
BASE PLACEMENT
AI PILOTS/AIRCRAFT ID
CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR MULTI-JOB LOADS
MTOW vs. RUNWAY LENGTH
CARGO DAMAGE
LANDING CATEGORIES
AI ATTRIBUTES
REPUTATION LOSS FOR CLOSING BASES
BACKING UP AIRHAULER
DETERMINING FUEL CONSUMPTION
RECOVERING FROM A FS CRASH DURING AN AH FLIGHT

LANDING GEAR SYSTEM FAILURE IN FLIGHT
RANK STRUCTURE
PURPOSE & LIMITATIONS OF AI PILOTS
COMPANY LOGO SIZE
AVOIDING FSX CRASHES WHILE FLYING AH JOBS
REGISTRY FIX
 
John Allard
==================================================
I'll keep this top tips topic updated with useful info as we go along :)

Tips
 
IMPORTING AIRCRAFT

To import aircraft, go to the Options tab on the main Menu, then Aircraft Management, Import Aircraft.



Known Issues are listed in the sticky FAQ thread :)

AirHauler Developer
For AH2 queries - PLEASE USE THE EA Forums as the first port of call.
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Brian_ View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Mar 2009 at 4:00pm
ACCEPTING MULTIPLE JOBS
 
If you have your job generation slider set to the right for the maximum amount of jobs, keep in mind that you may have the opportunity to accept multiple jobs with one aircraft on one leg, depending pon the plane and the load size.
 
Don't feel like you have to take only one job from A to B.Smile
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mutley View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Mar 2009 at 8:13pm
USING THIRD PARTY AIRCRAFT
 
Q. "Can I use 3rd party aircraft"

A.  Yes, go to  Air Hauler Options | Manage Aircraft | Import Custom Aircraft.  It will then allow you to select from some aircraft it parsed from FSX, or select a specific aircraft.cfg file.

The last step of the import is to ask/verify some performance parameters (i.e. Vfe, Vle, max cruise, etc), so you may want to have those things handy before you start the import process.  Wink
Thanks to Brad

Another tip:
You can find a lot of performance info from wikipedia or possibly someone has already looked it up and posted the info here! http://forum.justflight.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=5705

Lots more aircraft data in this post!
Thanks to Herege


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allardjd View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Mar 2009 at 3:33am

BONGS AND KLAXONS

Just to clarify things a little.  AH makes a lot of sounds but two of them are important to understand.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 

Bong:

AH will play a single bong which sounds very much like the seat-belt warning in commercial passenger aircraft.  It occurs at four distinct times during a flight.

1) Within a few seconds of initially moving the aircraft, whether taxiing under power our using pushback.  A single bong is played and an AH message box appears for a short time.

2) Just after take-off, when passing through about 50 feet AGL. An AH message box will appear briefly.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you do not hear those two bongs, do not bother continuing with the flight.  AH is not monitoring your flight and will not know of it.  You will not get credit for delivering any cargo nor will the location of your AC in AH be updated.  Abort the flight, return to the My Jobs screen, shut down FS and re-start the flight.

3) At touchdown; An AH message box will appear briefly.

4) At engine shutdown.  An AH message box will appear briefly.

These bongs are normal.  They do not signify a problem and only serve to draw attention to the message box. Watching for the first two being played at the appropriate times can save you a wasted flight if AH has not connected properly to FS.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 

Klaxon:

The klaxon sound plays four times in quick succession when it plays.  It has been variously described as the sound of a submarine diving alarm or an alarm that Star Trek fans might be familiar with.  It is a two-note OoooH-Gaaa sound.

The klaxon indicates that the AH Flight Monitor has lost connection with FS.  It sometimes occurs when loading add-on programs after AH launches FS, e.g. weather engines, third-party flight planners, etc. that take a long time to load.

If the Flight Monitor loses connection it will attempt to reconnect and is usually successful.  You may click out of FS to the AH Flight Monitor screen to confirm that AH has succesfully reconnected to FS.  If it has not, attempt to manaully reconnect with the button on the Flight Monitor screen.  If that fails, abort the flight, return to the My Jobs screen, shut down FS and restart the flight.

John Allard

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allardjd View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Mar 2009 at 3:35am

FLIGHT PLANS IN AH

When you select a job or jobs to fly from the My Jobs screen and work your way through the Flight Planning screen to the Cargo Loading screen, AH creates a flight plan which it sends to FS when AH launches the simulator. When you arrive at the cockpit, the flight plan will already be loaded and will be available on the kneeboard and in the GPS, ready for you to use.

AH has no further interest in the route of your flight.  It only cares that the cargoes for the jobs you selected before leaving the My Jobs screen are delivered to the correct destinations prior to their respective job expiration times. You may delete, edit, replace or totally ignore the flight plan that AH created and loaded in FS - AH will not know or care.

You may use the FS Flight Planner or a third-party flight planner to edit the AH plan or create a different one.  The route of flight, speed, altitude or intermediate stops are a matter of complete indifference to AH.

MULTI-JOB FLIGHT PLANS

There is an important quirk of FS/AH in the use of flight plans for multi-leg, multi-job flights.

To give a simple example - If you accept two jobs which require flight legs...

A -> B
B -> C

...which require departing A, stopping at B, then proceeding to C. AH will create a single flight plan that reflects that. However, because of limitations to the FS flight planning engine, B will be treated simply as a waypoint.  FS will not understand that you plan to land at B.

There are several ways to deal with this, but they boil down to these.

1) Don't use a flight plan

2) Use the plan as is but land at B anyway.  The details of the plan will be incorrect, but the routing will be OK.

3) Create two separate plans, one from A -> B and a second from B -> C.  You can create all the required plans during your pre-flight planning and save them or do them at your intermediate stops as needed. Load the first flight plan and use it to fly A -> B.  Take care of your fuel and cargo business and return to the cockpit.  Load the second flight plan and fly from B -> C.

If you enjoy the realism of closely following the FS Flight Plans in AH, you will need to create and load individual flight plans for each flight leg.  It's not so terribly hard and mirrors real-world practice. 

John Allard

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Mar 2009 at 3:40am
IF YOU PLAN TO SELL YOUR START-UP AC IMMEDIATELY
 
During the screens you work through when starting a new company, you'll see one with four sliders.  Those are to set the job generation preferences to your liking so that the initial batch of jobs generated are what you want. 

IF - IF - IF -> IF you intend to immediately sell the default AC that you start up with and buy or lease something else, you may want to consider setting the "Number of Jobs" slider very low.  The initial batch of jobs will be generated to suit your start-up aircraft and you cannot just delete them.  They have to be flown or allowed to eventually fall off the list when they expire - up to 72 hours RW time.

Those same sliders are in the Options section of AH and you can reset them later.  By inhibiting the initial job generation, then selling your start-up AC and buying or leasing another, then re-setting the "Number of Jobs" slider to a higher setting, the new jobs that are generated after you raise the slider setting will be a match for your new AC.

John Allard

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ddavid View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Mar 2009 at 8:53am
LANDINGS
 
If, like me, you're not too clever at landing......
 
1. Select the option to Choose the Time of Flight - then you won't have night-time landings;
 
2. Move the Airfield Size option up a peg or two - you'll get wider runways and possibly a better surface to aim at - But Watch Those Chevrons!!
 
3. Try Shorter length Jobs - you'll get more Landing Practice!
 
I know many of you are Old Hands at the Sim game - but us Newbies need all the help we can get, eh?!? Wink
 
Cheers - Dai (EGFE). Cool
 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Mar 2009 at 4:18am
BASE PLACEMENT
 
Dunno if this actually works, but it would seem to make sense in theory at least...
 
What I did was open a base in a very northerly location, with few airports to the North or East of it (ULAA Archangel in Northern Russia to be precise). My theory being that since Air Hauler has to generate a certain number of jobs within range for your aircraft, it follows that it will generate them mainly in the other two cardinal directions, which means you're more likely to find several cargo jobs from your base in the same general direction.
 
I think that would be a sensible thing in the real world too, so I regard it as being business-savvy rather than any sort of exploit.
 
Al
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Mar 2009 at 4:23am
chock,
 
It sounds plausible for AH and just may work.  Let us know how it works out. 
 
As for the RW there's one significant difference that might be a fly in your ointment.  AH makes sure you always have plety of jobs.  If you put yourself in a RW location that has only desolation in two directions, you limit the number of potential customers, and you may whither on the vine if those customers don't generate enough work for you. 
 
Good analysis though and it's that kind of thinking that leads to success in AH.  Half the fun is trying to beat the game at it's own game.
 
John
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Apr 2009 at 6:57pm
AI PILOTS/AIRCRAFT ID
 
if you have a few pilots and a few planes then it's handy to add the Pilots initials to the end of the plane they fly. this makes it real easy to assign jobs without accidentally assigning the pilot to a plane that's 500 miles away!

;o)
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Apr 2009 at 10:51am
CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR MULTI-JOB LOADS
 
Good reputation is hard to get by.
So this is my tip:
 
1a) Use a starter aircraft like C152 - maybe C182 or similar. Anyway, just an aircraft with a small range and small cargo.
 
1b) In hte job board filter the jobs for that aircraft.
 
1c) Now use a bigger aircraft to collect multiple jobs and fly them all at once.
 
Eg.
I have a C182 - so there are jobs created for this aircraft.
On the job board I filter on the C182
I select all jobs preferably the same destination.
Then I use a grand caravan to fly it.
>> advantage : multiple jobs are completed at once = increase rep with 1 flight
Note similar effect can also be gained by tweaking the option sliders but unfortunately
this also reflect on other jobs created and maybe you don't want that.
 

If you can carry it, we can transport it.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 May 2009 at 9:02pm
Off track here but, how did you custom paint your plane ? It looks cool ! What software do you need ? Very interested ? if anyone can help. much appreciated. cheers. Clap
NO MATTER WHERE EVER YOU GO...THERE YOU ARE.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Jun 2009 at 3:08pm
MTOW vs. RUNWAY LENGTH
 
MTOW        Rwy Length Required (m/ft)
--------------------------------
<  10.000         Any 
   10-50.000       1000 / 3,281
   50-100.000     1500 / 4,921     
   100-200.000   1800 / 5,905           
   200-400.000   2500 / 8,202
   400-500.000   2800 / 9,186         
> 500.000          3000 / 9,843
John Allard
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Jun 2009 at 3:18pm
CARGO DAMAGE
 
Extreme flying can cause cargo damage...

NORMAL CARGOES

Pitch Angle Limits: +/- 20 degrees
Bank Angle Limits:  +/- 45 degrees

FRAGILE CARGOES

Half the values for normal cargoes

John Allard
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Jun 2009 at 4:22am
LANDING CATEGORIES
------------------
Greaser
Ok
Positive
Hard
Very Hard
Dangerous
Suicidal
Catastrophic
John Allard
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jun 2009 at 4:06pm

AI ATTRIBUTES

From Slopey...

The percentage is an average of 4 stats, which are weighted slightly differently. Without making it entirely transparent, the largest variables relate to timekeeping and "skill" (i.e. damage). As they're weighted averages, it's possible to have a 67% pilot who can't land for toffee, but is never late - or vice versa. At 100% they should be pretty good, but there's *always* random chance of them botching a landing.

AI ranking affects MTOW capability and, as the Rank increases, the previously mentioned stats increase (bit like an RPG, they "level up" and get a bonus). Also, as the rank increases the damage they can cause to an aircraft, and the likelyhood of damage occuring is reduced.

John Allard
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Sep 2009 at 4:15pm

REPUTATION LOSS FOR CLOSING BASES


It's dependant on how close the nearest base is to the one being closed, i.e. do the customers of the base being closed have a reasonably convenient alternative.


> 50nm = full penalty


< 50nm = 50% penalty


< 30nm = no penalty

John Allard
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Sep 2009 at 3:43pm

BACKING UP AIRHAULER (Updated - 01/27/11)

You need to copy 2 items

1) The ah9.mdb and/or ahX.mdb file in the AirHauler folder, depending upon whether you are using FS9, FSX or both, and the user_details.mdb file from the same locaton..

2) Your company file(s) in the Company folder which will be a .mdb file with the name you originally set the company up as.  There will be one file for each company.  If AH is open, you will also see ldb files there.  Those do not need to be backed up - AH deletes them on closing and will re-create them on start-up.

- - - - New Information, added in 01-11 - - - -

Before copying the company file(s) from the AH/Company folder, ensure all jobs are completed or not started/in-progress (i.e. AI are idle).

Note that when you reinstall, scenery references may have changed if you've modified or added scenery to FS.  Proceed as follows:

- Install AH but DON'T run it
- Install the most recent AH Service Pack (SP4 at this writing)
- Run AH, create a new test company
- Import scenery
- Quit AH
- Copy back your Company
- Run AH
- Go to Options -> Integrity Check

If the integrigy check does not indicate any problems you may safely resume company operations.

John Allard
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Sep 2009 at 9:53pm

DETERMINING FUEL CONSUMPTION

There are at least three ways to get fuel consumption info...

1) Look it up on line.  It's a statistic that's often difficult to find, but sometimes you get lucky.

2) If you know the range, cruise speed and fuel capacity you can work it out.

You divide range by cruise speed to get endurance, then divide fuel capacity by endurance.  That will get you there.  The result will probably be a little rough, but good enough for AH.

3) Fly the plane in FS in a non-AH flight.

Climb to a typical cruise altitude and set a typical cruise power setting.

Using the panel clock as a time reference...

Open the Fuel & Payload menu...  Top Line Menu -> Aircraft -> Fuel & Payload

Read the fuel quantity from the F & P menu

Return to the sim

When exactly 10 minutes has elapsed by the panel clock go back to the F & P menu and read the fuel quantity again.

Subtract the two to determine how much you burned in ten minutes.  Multiply that by six to determine how much you will burn in an hour.

Note that this will be in pounds and AH wants the fuel consumption in US gallons.  To convert pph to USG/hr...

If Jet A divide by 6.7

If 100LL divide by 6.0


Note that the fuel consumption value that you enter in AH does not affect the way it performs in FS.  AH uses that value for job generation, AH scheduling, etc - only things internal to AH.  Note also that fuel burn is NOT affected by AC weight, only by density altitude and power setting.  Speed will vary with AC weight, but fuel burn will not if the power setting remains constant.

 

John Allard
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Sep 2009 at 5:04pm

RECOVERING FROM A FS CRASH DURING AN AH FLIGHT

 

Credit for the concept behind this goes to AH user Pilot1.  His original post, contained in this thread…

 

http://forum.justflight.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=9416

 

…put me on to this solution.  His words, edited a bit:

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“When either FS9 or FSX crashes or exits normally it saves a flight called "Previous Flight.FLT" in…

My Documents -> Flight Simulator Files for FS9 or
My Documents -> Flight Simulator X Files for FSX

Create a shortcut to Previous Flight.FLT on your desktop or somewhere you can find it easy.  You must associate the .flt extension with either FSX or FS9. To do that right click on the shortcut and select 'open with' then select the exe file of your FS and make sure the 'always open with' box is ticked.  You only need to do this once, when creating the shortcut. 

If FS crashes during an AH flight, double click the short cut and FS will restart a few seconds before it crashed, in flight, where you left it.

Don't touch AH while you do this; when FS restarts you will hear the bongs as AH reconnects and you can carry on with your flight as if nothing has happened. You get paid and your cargo is still intact.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

When I used the above method it worked, after a fashion, but put me in the AC that was saved as my default flight, not the one I was flying.  Because of that, many other things were not correct either, however the basic objective was met -  I was placed at the correct location and altitude and AH was still alive and monitoring the flight.  I was able to restore/reset everything manually and continue to my destination and received full credit for the job completion.

 

One quirk is that AH records an extraneous landing when this occurs, sometimes at your last stop, sometimes somewhere else nearby.  You’ll be assessed the normal landing fee for it and it shows up in your Flight Log tables.  It’s a small price to pay for not losing an in-progress flight/job to a FS crash.

 

An enhancement I recommend for FS9 users is to install Autosave 1.501 from Pete Dowson, available at…


http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html

 

Instead of restoring from the saved Previous Flight file, restore from one of the ten rolling Autosave files, which are done at 1 minute intervals.  For me that did a much better job than Previous Flight of restoring things as they were before the crash. 

 

A tip of the hat to Pilot1 for coming up with a real life-saver for those who experience FS crashes while flying AH jobs.  It’s gone from catastrophe to a mere bump in the road thanks to his insight.

John Allard
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