Can I start in free flight on a carrier?

[abh_jc_03 0]

I have Ai carriers2 and Ike v2. I landed on the nimitz configuration 1 and was wondering if I'm able to start on one of the carriers. I have acceleration pack installed as well. I tried saving a flight while I was parked in the six pack by the foul line, but when I loaded it up the plane was in the ocean. Anybody know a way to start on the carrier?

[Slayer 190]

Best way is to load up the Acceleration mission were it starts you on a carrier then save the flight. Then you can substitute any aircraft you want and save it again etc.

[NikkiA 7]

Best way is to load up the Acceleration mission were it starts you on a carrier then save the flight. Then you can substitute any aircraft you want and save it again etc.

 

Will that work with moving scenery carriers (or worse, "AI carriers" like the OP is asking - which shouldn't really be called AI carriers since they're not part of the AI system)

 

I can imagine saving on-deck works fine for Kittyhawk and the static carriers that Acceleration adds, but I'd be surprised if it works for the Accel Nimitz or the AI carriers ships (which don't even exist in FSX's world until AI Carriers tells it to add them).

[CFIJose 5,485]

Pause the sim. Then save it.

[FloG 148]

I agree with NikkiA: AI Carriers are not really part of the scenery, hence saving and loading a plane to a ship "injected" by AI Carriers will most likely never work. But there are a few static carriers around, e.g. just off the shore of San Francisco. It should be possible to save a flight at such carriers, because they are really part of the scenery (but of course they are not as funcitonal as the "AI" ones).

The ony other thing that might work (and I can think of) is that one could perhaps place e.g. the Nimitz somewhere as a scenery object (for eample using the Object Placement Tool), and then go there in the sim. That should also work, but the question is, whether the animations are still availble...

[Ircghost 1]

I think DJJose proposal is interesting, I'm interested to see if that would work.

[freeware FDE designer 1]

I always use the default fully working default carriers when they are static in the harbor. Saving such a situation is working in any case. 

That way I can watch replays of my cat shots and traps without any problems. (Don't forget to adjust the wind so you have at least 20kts WOD)

[Jimmy RFR 406]

There's a few other methods as well.

 

As mentioned, you can't just save a flight while on a carrier spawned by either AI Carriers or Tacpac. When you load the flight, your plane will be there, but not the carrier.

 

What you can do however, is save a flight on a carrier which is on an AI route. To get to such a carrier, you have a few options - there's a download in the library called 'Carrier Tracks' (sorry, no link, I'm on a cell phone), it has a few AI carrier routes set up and even comes complete with some saved flights that you can load up and start on the carrier.

 

The other option is to make your own AI shipping route using a carrier. There's a few different methods to do this, but it does require a bit of learning. Then you find the carrier in game, land or slew onto it, save your flight.

 

Probably the most common method used however, is probably that of starting on a land airport and dragging your plane to the ocean via the map; then spawning a carrier via AI carriers or TacPac.

 

I was in the process of programming an application that could be used like AI Carriers but would let you load a carrier group anywhere else in the world and then move your plane to it. However, a combination of feature creep and real life means it's rather rough and thus resides on my hard drive.

[Jimmy RFR 406]

Just to update my post with some links:

 

Carrier Tracks: http://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=carriertracks1and2.zip&CatID=root&Go=Search

This is pretty much just install and go as long as you have the models required, very easy to use.

 

AI Boat Traffic Compiler: http://lc0277.gratisim.fr/boat/

This is what lets you build your own carrier routes like the above.

 

Also of interest may be three other downloads available in the library:

http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxscen&DLID=117825

http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxscen&DLID=117831

http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxscen&DLID=117832

All three add the default FSX:A carrier as either a static or a moving carrier in different spots, and in the case of the static, let you start on it using the free flight menu & an airport code.

 

There was another scenery package that I was going to link; it offered a carrier package in the Persian Gulf complete with AI airplane traffic and refueling tankers, but I can't seem to find it..

[Gypsy Baron 10]

Here is a very old post I made over at Sim Outhouse describing how to start on a carrier deck. The original

posting had 6 JPG's that illustrated the use of the SDK Traffic Toolbox to implement the procedure but

those seem to have gone missing.

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

Here is how you can put yourself on the deck of a moving CVN
in FSX Acelleration that has been placed with Lamont Clark's aicarriers2
or with ships placed using his AI Boat Utility.
EDIT: Or the default Acceleration AI CV's

You must have the SDK Traffic Toolbox installed!

Get your aircraft to the nearest airport to the desired carrier.
Pause the sim once you are on the ramp or runway, stopped.

Open the Explorer window and UN-check the "Aircraft only" box.
Look down the list for the "veh_car01_high_detail_sm" entries.

Highlight a CV entry. Right-click on the entry and select
"Set Position...".
You then see the current Lat/Lon and heading of the carrier.
Copy and paste the lat/lon/hdg values to a temporary text file with notepad.

Next,locate your aircraft in the Explorer list and right-click on your aircraft.
Select "Set Position..." and then simply copy and paste
the lat/lon/hdg data from the text file into the appropriate
boxes and set the ALT to approximately 67.2'.

Click "OK" and you should find yourself on deck.

After getting the aircraft on the CVN deck and BEFORE exiting PAUSE mode,
you need to enter SLEW mode ( Y key ).

Note: if your setup is like mine and slew mode sends you flying in
some direction at high speed, then go to the "Controls" menu and temporarily
un-check the "Enable Controler(s)" box. (or better yet, disable the joystick in

the Slew Mode Controls menu and use the NumPad keys to slew)

When in SLEW mode, now UN-PAUSE the sim. You should hopefully remain on the deck.
Now you can exit SLEW mode ( re-enable controllers if necessary )
and taxi to the catapult!

Another method I have used when inflight...
Pause the sim and open the FSX "Map".
Move your aircraft icon to the lat/lon of the CV...
be sure to set the correct heading and altitude and
speed. The ALT should be set to about 67.2' for own aircraft. Set speed to "0" or 25kts if CV is moving.

You will need to use the "Enter SLEW mode, exit PAUSE, then exit SLEW mode" as above.

This is less precise than my first method but should get you there.

For some reason that only ACES knows, using the "Set position" for this method causes
the aircraft to immediately takeoff at 170 kts or so if you do not use the above SLEW mode
entry procedure first.

As for saving the flight for later use:

If the carrier you move to is one that has been programmed using the AI Boat Utility
( on a scheduled, defined route ) then you can SAVE the flight once on deck and then
load it again in the future. be SURE to enter PAUSE before saving the flight and when
you re-load it, go through the "enter SLEW, un-pause, exit SLEW" procedure.
EDIT: Should also work with the default Acceleration AI CV's

You can't successfuly save and re-load a flight that uses a CVN placed using the
aicarriers2 utility, however you CAN use the above "Set Position" procedure to place
yourself on the deck of those CVN's from inflight.
 

  Paul

[Jimmy RFR 406]

Paul, that's a great tutorial, thanks for posting it.

 

 

 

For some reason that only ACES knows, using the "Set position" for this method causes
the aircraft to immediately takeoff at 170 kts or so if you do not use the above SLEW mode
entry procedure first.

 

There's a lot of funny things that happen for reasons that only ACES knows... In my messing around with simconnect, creating carrier groups and trying to have the users plane moved to an exact location on a carrier deck, there's certain steps that will cause either an instant crash, or dropping through the carrier to the ocean, or simply start the plane engines running and in flight, even if the user was previously sitting cold and dark beforehand!

[DeskPilot518 15]

Thanks for posting this! I would love to try and land ANTS T28D on a carrier!

[rfrizz 0]

My solution is a short quick-n-dirty. Using slew (or just the maps, but I think you WILL need the map) pause the sim. Move the A/C over the carrier, point it in the jeneral direction of the carrier's bow, and adjust the speed of the plane using the map to about that of the carrier. The parking breaks need to be on.

 

Here's the tricky part. If you set the A/C to be at 70ft, it will hit the ocean every time. I think the minimum height to stop that is 78 feet. If you try, say, 74 feet, it falls into the drink.

 

It seems that an 8-foot, free-fall drop would smash the gear because that is around 1200 fps, but it doesn't. But I don't know what part of the plane is at 8 feet.

 

I have set up a couple of flights doing this, and my F18 drops and makes a skid noise, but other than that, no problem.

[Boomer 1,619]

It's just too much hassle, waiting on FSX@War whereby they say you can start on a CV.