USAF
Hickam AFB C-17 Globemaster III Package
Version: 1.0
For FS 2004 / FS9
Initial Release Date: 1 Nov 06
Integrated by Edith Black
This package includes everything needed to install the 535th Airlift Squadron, part of the 15th Wing as AI traffic for FS2004. The package includes all 8 C-17 aircraft currently assigned to this unit.
Table of Contents
(use hyperlinks to navigate)
1. Credits
2. Units Included in This Package
3. Installation
6. Permissions and Disclaimers
1. Credits
Models:
- C-17 by Rysiek Winawer courtesy of Project AI
Repaints:
- C-17s by Graham King
AFCADs:
-PHNL by Dan “Delta” Bourque
Flightplans:
-Edith Black
Voicepacks:
-Stewart Pearson
-Jeff Frey
Easy-to-install package by World of AI
2. Units Included in this Package
Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii
535th Airlift Squadron
Location: Hickam Air Force Base, Honolulu, Hawaii
Aircraft: C-17A Globemaster III
Callsigns: “Manu”, “Reach”, “Trek”, “Iris”
Step 1) Remove old files
1) Open your “Flight Simulator 9/Addon Scenery/scenery” folder and remove any previously installed AFCADs for Honolulu (ex. “AF2_PHNL.bgl,” “AF2_PHNL_DEFAULT_XX.bgl” or “PAI_AF2_PHNL_DEFAULT.bgl”):
Failure to remove these files may result in problems with AI aircraft parking and operation. It is recommended you move these to a temporary folder instead of deleting them, however, we do not think you will need them again as the AFCADs included in this package are thoroughly researched and highly detailed.
Step 2) Install this package
2a) Unzip the entire contents of this zip into a temporary folder
Step 3) Install callsign voicepacks
3a) If you don’t have the EditVoicepack 3.1 freeware installed, download it and install it by clicking here.
3b) Run EditVoicepack and import all .vcpmod files included in the Hickam C-17 package
3b1) Choose “Import” from the “File” menu
3b2) Find the folder “Flight Simulator 9/Military AI Works/USA/USAF – Hickam C-17/Voicepack Mods” in the “Look in:” window
3c) Click “open” for each file
3d) Update the Voicepack for FS9 by choosing “Update Voicepack” from the “File” menu--ensure the “Custom/Callsigns” box is checked in the left hand window. (note: the update may take a few minutes—do not attempt to start FS9 until the update is complete. Look for “Ready” in the lower left corner)
That’s it! You’ve successfully installed this package. Your AI traffic files will be automatically updated the next time you run FS9. Here’s a hint to see some of these aircraft in action: there’s a C-17 touch-and-go flight scheduled to depart PHNL airport at 22:10:00 GMT every day.
Problems addressed:
“I’ve installed the package, but there are no C-17 AI aircraft at the airports”
“I’ve been watching the AI aircraft for simulated hours, and I haven’t seen them move”
“When I go to an airport, there are AI planes parked on top of one another”
“When I go to an airport, the military planes are parked at the gates”
“When I go to an airport, there are general aviation aircraft on the military ramps”
“I can’t find the aircraft in the aircraft selection menu”
“When the C-17 AI planes talk to ATC, they use only numbers, not callsigns”
“I’m following the C-17 AI aircraft, and they won’t come back for touch-and-gos”
Problem: “I’ve installed the package, but there are no C-17 AI aircraft at the airports”
Potential issue: FS9 AI traffic density set too low
Fix action: In FS9, set the AI traffic density slider to at least 40%.
Problem: “I’ve been watching the AI aircraft for simulated hours, and I haven’t seen them move”
Potential issue: Watching at the wrong times
Fix action: Each of the first four aircraft fly worldwide missions and have a scheduled day off at PHNL, where they do not fly. There may be times when none of these first four aircraft are present at Hickam for the entire day. However the other four aircraft fly local flightplans so they will always overnight at Hickam and eventually start moving once their designated departure time arrives. They will generally fly a flight in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Problem: “When I go to an airport, there are AI planes parked on top of one another”
Potential issue: Multiple AFCADs active for the same airport
Fix action: Using Windows Explorer, open the folder “Flight Simulator 9/Addon scenery/scenery.” Look for duplicate entries for the following airport identifiers:
PHNL
Files may be named in several ways. The most common are “AF2_PXXX.bgl,” “AF2_PXXX_DEFAULT_XX.bgl” and “PAI_AF2_DEFAULT.bgl.” Keep the files named “AF2_PXXX_DEFAULT_DB.bgl” and remove all others with duplicate airport identifiers.
Problem: “When I go to an airport, the military planes are parked at the gates”
Potential issue: Old AFCAD still active for the airport
Fix action: Using Windows Explorer, open the folder “Flight Simulator 9/Addon scenery/scenery.” Look for duplicate entries for the following airport identifiers:
PHNL
Files may be named in several ways. The most common are “AF2_PXXX.bgl,” “AF2_PXXX_DEFAULT_XX.bgl” and “PAI_AF2_DEFAULT.bgl.” Keep the file named “MAIW_AF2_PHNL_DEFAULT_DB.bgl” and remove all others with duplicate airport identifiers.
Problem: “When I go to an airport, there are general aviation aircraft on the military ramps”
Potential issue: No parking type assigned to GA aircraft
Fix action: Add a “RAMP” parking type to all of your GA aircraft.cfg entries. Copy the following line into each [fltsim.x] entry for all GA aircraft used as AI.
atc_parking_types=RAMP
This entry can be anywhere, but needs to be placed in each individual [fltsim.x] section for each GA aircraft. If you are using the default GA aircraft, this includes the following aircraft folders within the “Flight Simulator 9/Aircraft” folder:
beech_baron_58
beech_king_air_350
c172
c182
c208B (c208 should be “DOCK”)
lear45
pa28_180
Piper_J3Cub
Problem: “I can’t find the aircraft in the aircraft selection menu”
Issue: These are AI aircraft and have been programmed to not show up in the flyable aircraft selection menu
Fix action: If you simply must select these aircraft, use an editing program such as AirEd and change the Aircraft type from “2” to “0”
Problem: “When the Air Force AI planes talk to ATC, they use only numbers, not callsigns”
Potential issue: Callsign Voicepacks were not installed correctly
Fix action: Run the EditVoicepack software. Look for the following callsigns in the “custom modifications/callsigns” section of the program:
MANU
IRIS
TREK
If any of these are missing, choose “File/import” and open the appropriate .vcpmod file in the folder “Flight Simulator 9/Military AI Works/MAIW_ Hickam_C-17/Voicepack Mods.”
Once this is complete, or if all callsigns are present, ensure the “Custom/Callsigns” box is checked in the left hand window and choose “File/Update Voicepack” to install them into FS9 (this may take a few minutes, do not open FS9 until the lower left of the EditVoicepack screen says “Ready.”)
Problem: “I’m following the Air Force AI aircraft, and they won’t come back for touch-and-gos”
Potential issue: You’re following your AI aircraft
Fix action: Stop following your AI aircraft. For some reason, a watched AI aircraft does not always behave the way it is programmed to. If you wait for the aircraft at the airport, it will arrive on schedule
Problem: “Do I need to install these flightplan.txt files”
NO, if you followed the instructions, you did everything you needed to do by moving the traffic_x.bgl files into the Scenery folder. The flighplan_x.txt and aircraft_x.txt files are included for advanced users who wish to modify the flightplans or aircraft assignments and recompile the traffic files using Lee Swordy’s TrafficTools.
Scenery Installation
There is no add on scenery to install/activate contained within the C-17 package.
Freeware Hawaiian Scenery
We highly recommend several freeware scenery packages to use with these flightplans. They can be found at the major FS2004 download sites. The first is the Honolulu airport scenery created by Bill Melichar It is a beautiful scenery package and really brings the airport to life. The other scenery for Honolulu that we recommend is the DBWsim Hickam Air Force Base scenery which is meant to work in conjunction with Bill Melichar’s scenery. Both files add much to the landscape of the island of Oahu. In addition Bill Melichar has created scenery for all the major Hawaiian airports and we recommend each one as an add on to your version of FS2004.
Modified PHNL AFCAD
We have included a modified AFCAD file for Honolulu (PHNL) to work with the scenery from Bill Mechilar and the DBWsim scenery for Hickam. Otherwise the automatically installed PHNL AFCAD file will only work with the default PHNL and Hickam scenery. To install this AFCAD file, locate it in the FS9/Military AI Works/MAIW_Hickam_C-17/MODIFIED PHNL AFCAD folder that was installed with the World of AI auto installer. The file name is MAIW_AF2_PHNL_MODIFIED_DB_MG.bgl. Move this .bgl file from the MAIW folder into your FS9/Addon Scenery/Scenery folder and make sure you delete the MAIW_AD2_PHNL_DB.bgl file to prevent any conflicts from happening.
Optional Files Included
There are two additional folders inside the MAIW_Hickam_C-17 folder for your use. One folder contains the raw text files version of the flightplans for use with TTools and the second contains a FS9 Splashscreen for optional installation. Please see the included readme for Splashscreen installation.
Ideas and Support:
Much of this package was built with the help, ideas and resources of the Military AI Works online community. If you are interested in making Fight Simulator Military AI traffic more realistic, visit our site.
Flightplans:
The flightplans are fictional, but are as realistic as current knowledge will allow. Most actual training sorties are out-and-backs, but these are not supported realistically in FS9. The included flightplans include touch-and-gos at the home base and nearby airports as well as cross-country flights. The first four aircraft fly AMC missions to air bases around the globe, while the last four aircraft fly local missions in the Hawaiian islands.
All flightplans were hand written and use the “//” comment feature to separate individual aircraft’s flightplans to make them easier to read. Flightplans were installed using Lee Swordy’s TrafficTools freeware traffic compiler.
Callsigns:
The callsigns used in this package are actual callsigns used by these units based on information found online here and elsewhere.
All callsigns were created using the ingenious EditVoicepack freeware. This program is extremely simple and fun to use—if you need a new AI callsign, give it a try!
AFCADs:
All AFCADs were created using free online resources including aerial imagery from Google Earth, Google Maps, Terraserver and FAA charts from airnav.com for each airport. In addition to charts and runway information, the airnav.com pages include links to each airport’s home page which were also useful for matching airlines to gates, identifying general aviation areas, etc. For the larger airports, photos from airliners.net were helpful in placing parking, taxiways and aprons.
We are reasonably confident that most airline and tenant aircraft parking slots are correct, but most transient parking is a best guess based on available space. Additionally, only tenant aircraft parking is assigned parking codes—all transient parking is left unassigned (not even an “M003”). We have found this yields the most realistic parking and is the most compatible with different parking assignment schemes.
All AFCADs were created using Lee Swordy’s AFCAD v2.21. This has got to be one of the finest freeware programs ever created. Want to add some AI parking to your local airport? AFCAD makes it fun!
6. Permissions and Disclaimers
Adverse Effects:
The contents of this package should not adversely affect your FS9 or computer operation if installed according to the instructions. The authors make no guarantee and bear no responsibility for adverse operation or lost/overwritten files on your computer.
Use of Contents:
This package is freeware. This package may not be uploaded to other download sites without the permission of the author or current MAIW staff. The package author has obtained permissions from all model and texture authors for use with this package (see credits). Redistribution of specific AI models and textures outside of this package is subject to the individual author’s permissions. All AFCADs included in this package may be freely modified or redistributed as freeware or part of any freeware package. Credit (or partial credit if you modify) for these AFCADs is appreciated. If you wish to use all or part of this package for any other purpose, please us at the MAIW site.
Sources:
All information used to create this package was obtained via online, open-source research. All flight plans and schedules, while reasonable for ANG units, are fictional.
We are always looking for feedback and constructive criticism to improve future packages. Please feel free to contact us via our website.