RAF Brize Norten

[tgycgijoes]

Friday I downloaded the Ukmil C-17 Globemaster which is a really nice model. I had Virtavia's a few years ago and actually flew a lot of hours with the Virtual Air National Guard until they shut down to re-organize the VA. Since I have been so involved with the Buccaneer thread, (I also flew a bit with a VA in Cliffs Of Dover years ago when it first came out, a Yank in an Eagle Sqn.) I also flew a P51 from East Wretham in the 359th FG in a VA that I formed for awhile. That is my background in the UK and interest in RAF. So...... I started research where the RAF C17s were based and came up with Brize-Norten. Now to find the scenery for it. Nick Black's FS9 version may have worked in FS9 but it does not in FSX unlike RAF Honington which meshed so beautifully. All Nick's scenery is FS9 Black and flat and there was no flatten for the airfield as far as I can tell because the runway was in a ditch. Then I was so excited to find a beautiful version in MAIW except it is ONLY for P3DV4.5-5 and it crashes FSX when you try to fly from it. Finally, Duncan MacKellar did one for FSX which though using all default buildings nothing custom-made has an accurate AFCAD for 2011 when it was made. This thread is started because I have an up to date AFCAD for 2021 and populated the airfield with default buildings and Ted's RAF buildings though WWII its ok with me. I also made two photoreal textures for it which line up perfectly with the Google Earth that I used to lay it out. I finally just downloaded the A330M tankers, A400M Transports, C130 Transports and flight plans for them. Looking forward to setting it up in FSX and flying my C-17 from here all around. I am awaiting an answer on a message I sent out to share more.

[tgycgijoes]

I downloaded the A330 MRTT ai Airbus tanker/transport and 2 sets of textures for them at EGVN. I made two of the models as different squadrons since there were two sets of textures. Opened up the flightplans that were included for each one and the aircraft are all recognized as being in the sim. So far, so good. I first placed the traffic files into FSX Scenery World Scenery and they do not show up at the airport. So, then I relocated them to the RAF Brize-Norten scenery folder and tried again still nothing, no traffic. Other airports like Lossiemouth and Honington work fine. I checked each of the models in MDCx and they do not upload and and event is full of errors so I guess that I won't be able to have an Airbus A330 MRRT presence. Bummer! I may look around tomorrow and see if I can find a different aircraft and textures to see if that works.

[edakridge]

Check Fsdeveloper "New Posts". I saw that someone was working on one for P3D/FSX this morning.

[511Flyer]

It is actually RAF Brize Norton. Maybe your spelling is upsetting the search. I have it in FSX as part of the UK2000 scenery package, and it's very good.

Den.

[tgycgijoes]

Check Fsdeveloper "New Posts". I saw that someone was working on one for P3D/FSX this morning.

I just looked and did not see anything except the final development for P3DV5 that is at MAIW now. Back in August of 2018 he released a Beta V1.0 that did not have the custom buildings and I downloaded that which does work in FSX. then they quit developing for a while and came back to the new one at MAIW. I went to the MGSP Facebook page the guys who created it, and they emphatically said no FS9 or FSX version of it will be done. In the original FSDevelopers post for this, PM me the link to what you read please. I couldn't find it. Sorry I missed your call I was sleeping.

[tgycgijoes]

It is actually RAF Brize Norton. Maybe your spelling is upsetting the search. I have it in FSX as part of the UK2000 scenery package, and it's very good.

Den.

I have seen that over at UK2000 but that is overkill for me to purchase it just for Brize Norton.

[tgycgijoes]

Last night late I downloaded the MAIW A330 MRRT Package for P3D to see what's what with it. Then I went to sleep (0:130) I deleted the other MRRT that I had in Airplanes and installed this. The AI Flightplan in AIFP3 recognizes that they are there (in black) but when I open up the airport there STILL is no ai traffic MRRT at the airport. I check the models in MDCx and they are all good unlike the other downloads I did yesterday. Can't figure out what's going on. I HAVE the AI Traffic slider open in the Display which when I first started doing AI I had all shut. So I am at a loss now. Any suggestions are all welcome and I hope its not something I tried already.

Just tried one more thing to rewrite the flightplan days to 7 days of the week and deleted all the rest and it still didn't matter. Still no ai at EGVN.

I downloaded a day or two ago the beta1 for the MSPG/MAIW RAF Brize Norton which they completed as P3DV5. The beta1 is FSX which is what he started with but never completed as nice as the P3DV5 is. So...try that and no ai. There has got to be something wrong with the MGAI flight plans. I don't quit. Writing a brand new flight plan from scratch. Aircraft I know work. Will it or will it not show up at the Brize FSX. Stay tuned...

[delta_lima]

Last night late I downloaded the MAIW A330 MRRT Package for P3D to see what's what with it. Then I went to sleep (0:130) I deleted the other MRRT that I had in Airplanes and installed this. The AI Flightplan in AIFP3 recognizes that they are there (in black) but when I open up the airport there STILL is no ai traffic MRRT at the airport. I check the models in MDCx and they are all good unlike the other downloads I did yesterday. Can't figure out what's going on. I HAVE the AI Traffic slider open in the Display which when I first started doing AI I had all shut. So I am at a loss now. Any suggestions are all welcome and I hope its not something I tried already.

Just tried one more thing to rewrite the flightplan days to 7 days of the week and deleted all the rest and it still didn't matter. Still no ai at EGVN.

I prefer the period before the 2000s, personally, so this advice may not help, but here goes.

MAIW have a lovely VC10: https://militaryaiworks.com/download...c10-conversion

So it could be straight forward to modify an existing Brize Norton traffic file to based on a substituted VC10. I'll be doing this shortly myself, as I'm building up a 1990s era RAF environment with Jet Provosts, T.1 Hawks, F-4s, VC10s, Nimrods, etc..

I had good luck doing similar substitutions for building up 60s and 70s era classic military retro traffic for USN/USMC, basing the traffic on similar-oriented vehicles. For example, substituting MAIW F-8s and F-8s in lieu of MAIW F-18s, MAIW T-34s in lieu of T-6 IIs, MAIW C-118s in lieu of C-130 or C-17s that sort of thing. There's obviously issues around ceilings and other inaccuracies in such a coarse approach, but good enough for my needs, at least.

Hope that helps. As I work on my project, I'll share my findings.

dl

[tgycgijoes]

I prefer the period before the 2000s, personally, so this advice may not help, but here goes.

MAIW have a lovely VC10: https://militaryaiworks.com/download...c10-conversion

So it could be straight forward to modify an existing Brize Norton traffic file to based on a substituted VC10. I'll be doing this shortly myself, as I'm building up a 1990s era RAF environment with Jet Provosts, T.1 Hawks, F-4s, VC10s, Nimrods, etc..

I had good luck doing similar substitutions for building up 60s and 70s era classic military retro traffic for USN/USMC, basing the traffic on similar-oriented vehicles. For example, substituting MAIW F-8s and F-8s in lieu of MAIW F-18s, MAIW T-34s in lieu of T-6 IIs, MAIW C-118s in lieu of C-130 or C-17s that sort of thing. There's obviously issues around ceilings and other inaccuracies in such a coarse approach, but good enough for my needs, at least.

Hope that helps. As I work on my project, I'll share my findings.

dl

As I was just finishing up a flightplan from scratch to test I got your reply so I will post here in a few minutes if that works. If it does then I am deleting all the "junk" and make room for good ones I create. Thanks again for taking time to answer. Regardless of what I do, it is bewildering why ai will not appear at Brize Norton. I am going to open up the Airport Bgl in ADEx and see how the parking spots are classified. The last thing I can think of is no ai because they are not classified for the parking which I think is something I remember. The Buccaneers work fine at Lossiemouth and Honington so its not my FSX. Also all my U.S. ai work perfectly as well and I have quite a few AIG airliner flight plans installed.

[tgycgijoes]

I just opened up the airport bgl in ADEx and removed any specific airline codes in every parking space. Saved it. Compiled it. Uploaded to RAF Brize Norton in FSX. Went to the airport. There is STILL no traffic! I cannot think of any other explanation. I have a simple flightplan that I created with an ai Briton Norton Islander Cape Air from my KMBP Flightplan which works perfectly. It should be there but it's not. I am through trying for awhile until I get unfrustrated with it.

[tgycgijoes]

Just to see if the JYAI C130J was REALLY corrupt, I put a default DC3 2D panel into it because that will allow it to be selected from your aircraft menu in FSX. Ok so far; yes I can and I put it in a MIL CARGO spot at NAS Jacksonville. Works fine. NOW, I reset the time to just before it would take off from the AI flightplan in the JAX folder and lo and behold there it is in the AI Traffic and beautifully sitting on a parking spot. I am now going to see if it follow the flight plan. Pushback, taxi and takeoff on time. I did not follow the 55 minute flight just to see if it got to NAS Pensacola. Why does it need a panel to show up? Now I think that I will try this with the A330 MRRT and see what happens there with a default A330 panel in it. No other ai I have need that. The panel did not fix the MGAI A330 so to the trash they go. I found AIG has a package and I am going to download that and check it out.

[expat]

I have a lot of custom AI environments I manually put together - use the old "TTools" by Lee Swordy and don't use any packages - and often have these AI gremlins.

Did you check to see in ADEX if there are ANY parking spots? A surprising number of add on sceneries are missing these and you then can add them pretty easily in ADEX.

The other test is to try an AI aircraft that does work elsewhere to do a simple TNG or just a weekly flight (I do this for parked aircraft) at Brize. Also vice versa - see if you can get the MAIW Airbus to show up in a working flightplan at another working airport.

Sometimes I am sure I eventually fix no shows with new AI by restarting the sim and NOT using a saved flight. It's just like with other things going through a logical troubleshooting sequence.

Good luck I am sure you will sort it out.

[tgycgijoes]

I have a lot of custom AI environments I manually put together - use the old "TTools" by Lee Swordy and don't use any packages - and often have these AI gremlins.

Did you check to see in ADEX if there are ANY parking spots? A surprising number of add on sceneries are missing these and you then can add them pretty easily in ADEX.

The other test is to try an AI aircraft that does work elsewhere to do a simple TNG or just a weekly flight (I do this for parked aircraft) at Brize. Also vice versa - see if you can get the MAIW Airbus to show up in a working flightplan at another working airport.

Sometimes I am sure I eventually fix no shows with new AI by restarting the sim and NOT using a saved flight. It's just like with other things going through a logical troubleshooting sequence.

Good luck I am sure you will sort it out.

I have deleted the MGAI stuff because I found that just uploaded today to MAIW was textures for the AIG A330 MRRT in 6 different textures including the Multi-national texture and I have high hopes for this to work. I will post more here.

[tgycgijoes]

I uploaded the AIG A330 MRRT Tankers/Transporters but I just can't get them to work as ai traffic either. I would think that I was doing something wrong if I have not been so successful with AIFP3 and ai traffic at so many other airports. It would not even show at KNIP NAS Jacksonville which I got the JYAI C130J to. I saved them but removed off my desktop and am through with those AI tankers. Moving on to something else. 2 days on it is enough time to try in my opinion. So long from this thread.

[tgycgijoes]

I discovered with Tim Collin's help over at FSDeveloper and a lot of testing that something was going on between the flight plans that came with the different airbases so I took them all out (saved) of the scenery folders. Then I started to create them from scratch one by one. Brize Norton was first. I uploaded the MGAI RAAF KC-30 native FSX and installed it into the flightplan EGVN-EGXH. It worked perfectly. While it was taxiing to take off, the Buccaneer in another flight plan came in and landed. So cool! My only disappointment was I wanted to follow the whole flight of 38 minutes but 20 minutes into it FSX flipped over to the ai helicopter from RNAS Honington so I didn't get to see it landing at Honington. Here is a screenshot of the KC-30, how pretty.

[tgycgijoes]

Here is a screenshot that I just took of the Armstrong Whitworth AI Argosy that I added the squadron emblems and registration to here at EGVN in 1976. In 1983 they were replaced here by the Hawker Siddeley Andover which I am working on an ai for. Credit goes to John Young for the model and the basic texture I modified. I have had to create new flightplans in AIFP3 to get the ai to work because of some conflict even with help from FSDevelopers just couldn't be determined so it was easiest to start from scratch with each airfield and aircrafts and they all work even the SAR Helicopter.

[tgycgijoes]

Here is two of the ai aircraft I have assigned to Brize Norton: the Andover which is a custom repaint that I did (took hours with no paintkit) and the Argosy also a personal repaint again no paintkit to make life simpler. The Andover is a HS748 by Dee Waldron. This is an FSX native conversion from the original FS9 model. Unfortunately, it is impossible with MDCx to add the blur prop. All the experts confirmed this. So I went back with the FS9 model(not this photo) I can get a spinning blurred prop using that bmp. I watched both of them takeoff which is really cool in FSX: