AI Timetables

[finlay]

Hello Tom,  I have said it before, but I remain amazed by AI adherence to timetables. Dhahran 19/4/56 1800 and there is TWA flight 909 departing for Basra and all points West for New York as per the timetable. How you went about installing all of these flights is a question that leaves me scratching my head, did you create some sort of App to assist in the process? You must have burned a lot of midnight oil. 

Whatever, thank you for your effort.

Fin Fraser 

[Tom/CalClassic]

Hi Fin,

Well thank you for the nice words! I really appreciate it when people realize the work that went into these projects. I am not aware of any other freeware world-wide AI package that includes all relevant airlines (that I am aware of), and we did it for four different years. I did have a lot of help over the years, and I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart.

As for the method, we do have an app that helps us a lot, the MRAI Flight Plan Compiler. You create a text file listing each leg of a flight in a single line, and add the lines for an entire airline and year. The compiler then creates a flight plan from that file. A text file for a large airline is hundreds and hundreds of lines long, and has to be debugged until perfect. The format of each line is (from memory):

airline code; flight number; departure airport; arrival airport; departure time; arrival time; days of the week; aircraft code

AA;175;KLAX;KPHX;0945;1105;123456;DC7

Again,, thanks!

[Tom/CalClassic]

BTW,, the program AIFP can also compile these files, usually with the same results. But we started with the MRAI Compiler so stuck with it.

[Pixel Pilot]

As a part time airport builder I can say that one of the most fun things about building an airport is when you get to the point that the airport has everything that AI aircraft need. Like magic the airport comes alive with all the correct aircraft and airline liveries. Proving it's true that "if you build it they will come". Thanks from me also Tom to you and all the others for all the work on the AI packages.

Ed

[Al]

I agree with Ed as a builder of airports all over the world it is very interesting to see what will show up at your airport once it is to the point of excepting aircraft. As I mostly do airports that are either fully or shared military and civil facilities, I have to build extensive traffic files to go with them and I like them to reflect true to life aircraft types for each traffic year. So I can appreciate the effort and time (and research) Tom and team put in to getting all these accurate times and types into a world wide traffic system. Can’t say enough about the effort it must have taken along with the “stick to it” that it took to complete this massive project. Many thanks!!!!

[Deleted]

I fully share the views expressed here. Once more, we can only thank Tom, Mike and so many others for creating such an extensive retro world. It's just a pity that this is actually supported by very few. When I see how many members are online, it shows a special interest. But in the end CalClassic doesn't live on that alone. More commitment would make a lot of sense to compensate the loss of many former and active members and contributors. I have already expressed myself in this sense in connection with 'Vintage Flying'.

So much for this topic. In the meantime I have tested MRAI Compiler and it has convinced me. By far more then AIFP. The only thing I can't manage is the automatic numbering of the entries (AC#). Does this have to be done afterwards and manually?

Bernard

[Tom/CalClassic]

Yes, that is a manual process (and a bit of a pain...). To get a good result you have to make sure that every flight has another flight in the other direction (or the compiler will complain). Some times the compiler messes up and does not properly compile flights for a certain aircraft type (common when compiling long flights like Pan American, etc.). In that case I work out on paper a logical flight plan for each aircraft in the fleet, and then compile each plane's flight legs as a separate flight plan file. Then I combine them back together. Another thing you have to watch out for is a flight plan with more than 100 legs. These will not appear in FS2004, and must be broken into two or more parts. Common when compiling Local Service airlines (like Pacific, Ozark, Allegheny, etc.) but rare otherwise.

[Deleted]

Tom, tnanks for your additional informations. I especially appreciate the automatic time adjustments from local to GMT time. It makes edditing flightplans very easier. For simple pattern flights I think using TTools is still the faster way. For those exact times aren't really important. 

Bernard

[Tom/CalClassic]

I agree, I do it that way for simple plans. The only thing you have to watch out for when converting from local time to GMT is the quite different daylight saving time use in the various cities - quite different from the modern era set up in the airport INI file used by the compiler. I have edited mine to include many of those, but there were so many changes between 1955 and 1962 that I often just have to change the timetable times by an hour “on the fly” as I’m typing the data file. A pain.

I’ve also edited the aircraft INI file to include most of the classic era aircraft, so they are output properly by the compiler and use proper altitudes, etc.

Hope this helps,