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Topic ClosedFlight Plans in AH

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allardjd View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Flight Plans in AH
    Posted: 22 Mar 2009 at 5:20am

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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jbuzza View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Mar 2009 at 8:31am
Ok that helps my understanding
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Mar 2009 at 11:14am
One thing to note (assuming that it didn't just happen to me through an error) is that if you choose jobs delivering A>B then B>A, and take AH's advice to merge legs together in the flight plan (sorry if that sounds vague, I'm at work so I can't recall the exact wording) then you get a flight plan from A>A with no waypoints. I haven't had chance to look this up in the docs so I may have just made a mistake somewhere.
 
I DL'd AH yesterday and just had a couple of hours free to have a tinker, so I took an outbound job from my base, a small connecting flight (ok, so it was A>B, B>C then C>A) then a return job (seems a sensible way to make moneyWink). At the flightplan stage it suggests something about merging  flight plans within a sector, which sounded good, and of course I got into the cockpit to see a Flightplan from A>A with no other waypoints (and with zero expected fuel consumption - if only!). The good news is that, as noted above, AH didn't care one whit what I did then. So I completed my flights as intended, AH gave me trhe proper prompts to unload and load cargo, and I got paid for my trouble.
 
In future I guess I won't bother merging legs, but it's good to know that whatever happens I can still complete the jobs...
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Mar 2009 at 11:20am
Don't merge the legs unless you really want to! :) The merge button is there in case you were taking 3 loads afrom A -> B and AH have you a back and fore flight plan when you could do it in one go.

Remember that regardless of what AH sends over to Flight Sim, once flight sim is running you can use the flight planner as normal and build any route you want. :)
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dree View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Mar 2009 at 11:28am
Sometimes the flightplanner does not make the shortest or best route, you will see emediatly on the map.
Merging is seldom used (by me) Sometimes I put an extra stop into the plan if I need fuel on the way, or re-route if AH doesn't make the shortest route.
 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Mar 2009 at 2:25pm
Originally posted by allardjd allardjd wrote:

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.


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. 


Hi John,
   Thanks for the good advice.  I use option 3 above for my flights.  It keeps the flight logs organized and makes it easier to track metrics for each leg. 

When I accept job(s), I know the routing I will take to deliver the goods, and the order in which i want/need to do them.  I then pop into FSBuild and create flight plan(s) for each airport pair (if I don't already have them), adding some waypoints on the inbound portion in case I run into IFR conditions (which I have using real weather conditions). I then load the FP for each segment, fly in, load the next segment, etc.  Its a bit more work in preparation but pays off during the flying.


--------------------------------
Brad   
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Apr 2009 at 9:20pm
Does anyone know if the 3rd party Flight Planners allow you to schedule landings at intermitten locations or would you still have to create multiple flight plans?
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allardjd View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Apr 2009 at 9:26pm

The problem is with FS, not the planners.  No matter what you use to create the plan, it has to be exported to FS and loaded in the FS flight planner, GPS, Kneeeboard, etc.  Those are where the limitation is.

It's not such a terrible thing.  The guys who fly in the real world have to do the same thing.  There is something called a "Through Clearance" (I think that's the term), but it's seldom used and universally hated by ATC.

John

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Apr 2009 at 11:07pm
FS Commander will not allow you to use airports as "waypoints" - but you can cheat by using the NDB or VOR at the airpot as a waypoint. At least then, any GPS automation you use, will head you in the right direction more or less !

Or for more accuracy, use a fix on the localiser of each airport as a waypoint. Of course, if you are using Radar Contact you will be stuffed......
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Apr 2009 at 2:55am
Gabe,
 
That doesn't solve his problem.  He wants a multi-leg flight plan that recognizes an intermediate stop.  As far as I know, FS won't play that game.  If all you're worried about is routing then  setting an airport (or a navaid at an airport) takes you there, but all the altitude, fuel consumption and timing as shown on the kneeboard will be totally FUBAR. 
 
To the best of my knowledge the only way to have an accurate flight plan for a two leg flight is with two separate flight plans.
 
John
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Apr 2009 at 12:13am
Thanks guys .. guess I'll just have to create multiple flight plans.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Apr 2009 at 10:47am
Originally posted by allardjd allardjd wrote:

Gabe,
 
That doesn't solve his problem.  He wants a multi-leg flight plan that recognizes an intermediate stop.  As far as I know, FS won't play that game.  If all you're worried about is routing then  setting an airport (or a navaid at an airport) takes you there, but all the altitude, fuel consumption and timing as shown on the kneeboard will be totally FUBAR. 
 
To the best of my knowledge the only way to have an accurate flight plan for a two leg flight is with two separate flight plans.
 
John


I realise it's far from ideal, but it's the only workaround to ensure that the full "plan" for a multi-leg flight is shown in your GPS/FS Commander flightplan.

It is an alternative to multiple flightplans and arguably, more appropriate, accurate and useful than the simple leg-leg plan created and loaded by AH.

I agree FSX limitations are a shame....that's where workarounds come in.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Apr 2009 at 9:10pm
Bear in mind that in the RW, with a few relatively uncommon exceptions, 1 flight leg = 1 flight plan.
 
John
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 May 2009 at 10:39am
Hi Everyone,
 
When I used the AH flight plans  a couple of times it took me to trhe wrong spot
the plan as loaded into the gps was supposed to take me from KAPV to 10AZ which has an asphalt runway. When I got there the airport did not show on the GPS it showed the red path  but no airport at the end of the path. So I made a direct to 10AZ flight on the GPS and then it showed a path to the 10AZ airport was 23 miles away. I followed it and low and behold there was the airport.  I just programed the GPS with direct to plans for the rest of the legs of the flight.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 May 2009 at 2:26pm
It's hard to say for sure but it sounds like you need to run the scenery import routine.
 
John
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2009 at 6:55am
Thanks John  I will give that a try.  I will let you know what happens.Smile
sometimes I sit and think, sometimes I just sit, and I highly recomend retirement
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