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FSX AI Aircraft Not Controlled in Flight

dickb

dickb

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unitedkingdom
This is a new one on me, and I haven't been able to find mention of it anywhere else.

I have about 30 WW2 airfields, each with three flights of (different) AI a/c. Using flight plans created on AIFP, these aircraft either take off for "air tests" (i.e. take off, do a circuit and land back at the same airfield), or go on "missions" (i.e. takeoff and land at a different "target" airport) and then return. This all works fine.

I recently added another a/c, an old FS9 model which I have converted to FSX using MCX (like many of the others I use). This one behaves just like the other a/c on the ground, but once in the air, irrespective of which flightplan or airfield I assign it to, all it does is climb to cruise height (as per flight plan) and then continue straight ahead on the runway heading, as far as I can tell for ever. The curious thing is that all communication with ATC is exactly as per the flight plan, and Traffic Explorer shows it as "In Pattern" for air test flights or "En Route" for missions, just as it should.

So it seems like this AI a/c is just not under the control of the AI engine when in the air, What could be causing that ? I even replaced my converted model with the original FS9 model, and that does exactly the same. I'm pretty sure there is nothing wrong with the airfields or the flightplans, since when I substitute the failing a/c with one of the others at the same airfield using the same flightplan, everything works as it should.

Thanks in advance for any help !
 
Just an update to say that I have fixed this problem (in a sledgehammer sort of way), still without understanding it !

I found another (native FSX) model of the same a/c which worked. So I tried swapping the aircraft.cfg and .air file with the problem aircraft. Swapping the aircraft.cfg alone had no effect, but swapping the .air files as well did the trick. I've still got some tweaking to do (a new anomaly is that the a/c no longer talks to ATC when in flight), but at least it flies where it's supposed to. I'm guessing the final solution will be to use the FSX .air file with a hybrid of the two aircraft.cfg files.

So the .air file looks to be they key. I am in no way an expert on .air files. I can see that the two are different format - presumably one is FSX and the other is FS9, but beyond that I can't see anything that jumps out at me. Perhaps someone with more knowledge can. I will attach both to this post.
 

Attachments

The AIR file is probably missing a section. It's section 1199 that has to be present for AI aircraft to turn.
 
tgibson said:
The AIR file is probably missing a section. It's section 1199 that has to be present for AI aircraft to turn.
Click to expand...
That seems to be the case Tom. Section 1199 is missing in the failing .air file. Is there any tool that I can use to copy/insert it ? AirEd doesn't seem to give me that capability.

EDIT: Found freeware tool AirDat/AirUpdate which seems to do the job.
 
Last edited:
Bingo. Adding Section 1199 to the .air file did the trick (thanks Tom !) With the original aircraft.cfg re-installed the a/c now flies the correct pattern AND communicates properly with ATC. It even does a half-decent landing :)
 
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