AAA Tips+Tricks

[horst18519 231]

Question: Can I use my favourite aircraft in the ASC career mode?

Answer: Yes, you can!

Let me explain how the aircraft management works in the ASC career:

There are 4 different aircraft used in the ASC career:

5Y-ASB = Maule / Bush Hawk

5Y-ASC = C208 Caravan

5Y-ASR = Robinson R22 helicopter

5Y-AST = King Air / Twin Otter

and additional:

5Y-ASA = duplicate C208 (do not change this!)

5Y-ASD = Dash 8 (only used as AI traffic)

The full names of those aircraft are African Safari Charter - 5Y-AS?. (you can find those in the aircraft.cfg files)

The installer makes sure that each of them is only used once, so if you own the Twotter you won't have an 5Y-AST King Air.

This is important, because if you have duplicate names the mission will crash!

Now, if you want to exchange aircraft you will have to exchange their names. Let's give an example for this:

WARNING: Those changes should only be done by experienced users, who have worked with aircraft.cfg files before!

Say, you want to use the 6-seat Bell JetRanger instead of the 2-seat Robinson, you do this:

Find the sim.cfg in the Simobjects/Rotorcraft/Robinson_R22 folder and find this entry created by the installer:

[fltsim.3]

title=African Safari Charter - 5Y-ASR

sim=Robinson_R22

texture=ASR

kb_checklists=Robinson_R22_check

kb_reference=Robinson_R22_ref

prop_anim_ratio=-1.76

atc_id=5Y-ASR

ui_manufacturer=Robinson

ui_type=R22 Beta II

ui_variation=African Safari Charter

ui_typerole=Rotorcraft

ui_createdby=Microsoft Corporation

description=Performance, price, and low operating cost have made the two-seat Robinson R22 Beta II among the most popular helicopters in the world.

Now all you have to do is renaming the title to (for example) "title=African Safari Charter - 5Y-ASR - unused" and create a new entry in the JetRanger's sim.cfg:

[fltsim.13]

title=African Safari Charter - 5Y-ASR

sim=Bell_206B_JetRanger

model=

panel=

sound=

texture=

kb_checklists=Bell_206B_JetRanger_check

kb_reference=Bell_206B_JetRanger_ref

prop_anim_ratio=-1.76

atc_id_color=0xc6eff7ff

atc_id=N834JR

ui_manufacturer="Bell"

ui_type="206B JetRanger"

ui_variation="White"

ui_typerole="Rotorcraft"

ui_createdby="Microsoft Corporation"

description="The Bell 206 series has accumulated an astounding array of impressive statistics. More than 6,000 JetRangers are flying worldwide in roles as diverse as corporate transportation, police surveillance, and United States Army aviation training."

Make sure the ref number "[fltsim.13]" is unique.

Now you have replaced the R22 with the default paint scheme of the JetRanger. You can always replace paint schemes by simply changing the texture path: texture=.

Changing other aircraft is just as simple by renaming the "title" names in the aircraft.cfg files.

Keep in mind that not every aircraft is suitable for the challenging airstrips!

Now have fun - if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

[horst18519 231]

Question: I am unable to select most of the airstrips in the airports menu. On those I can select, there are no parking positions and my aircraft is placed some hundred feet away from the airstrip. Is this normal?

Answer: Most airstrips have no ICAO code. In FSX an airport needs an ICAO code to appear in the airport menu. Additional to that, FSX cannot handle non-flat airports. So we decided not to use the airport menu. If you want to place your aircraft at a certain airstrip, simply load one of the Free Flights (there's at least one for each strip) and change aircraft, time, weather,... afterwards.

[horst18519 231]

Question: How do I find the airstrips?

Answer: For maybe the first time in FSX, we created airstrips that blend with the terrain so well, that some of them are indeed really tough to spot.

In career mode you can use the airstrip markers (mission compass) to easily find them.

In free flight mode you can use the NDBs that most of the airstrips are equipped with. The manual also includes notes how to find and to land on each strip, together with an aerial photo of the airstrip.

After some 4 or 5 landings you will be proud to spot an airstrip without any additional help - and after some more tries you will even be able to land there safely - so finding and learning the airstrips is part of the fun in this addon.

[horst18519 231]

Question: I seem to be lost in the career mission. No mission compass, nobody who tells me what to do, this is not what I'm used to flying missions in FSX. Is this correct?

Answer: The idea of the career mode is to give you a new kind of challenge. Unlike 99% of the FSX missions we know yet, in the AAA career you have to organize your schedule by yourself. Ask for new jobs (use main menu), find the airstrips (use map, kneeboard and airstrip markers via menu), maintain your aircraft, choose the perfect aircraft for your next jobs, keep track of time and load limits,...

Whenever you seem lost, look into the kneeboard to find pending jobs and read the latest radio messages.

You will find further information in the manual.

[DatGuyZA 0]

Hi Guys,

Firstly I want to thank-you for a fantastic product!!! I am thoroughly enjoying it being a South-African, it is really nice to be able to have some good flying fun in conditions very similar to my home country and where I grew up in the bush near the Kruger National Park!!!

Unfortunately I have just had to do a full re-install of my machine due to an irrecoverable OS crash, and now when running the software on a clean install of FSX incl. Acceleration, I do not get the pop-up window that shows you the current conversation on the go. Previously it was a little grey window in the lower left corner that showed what the person was currently saying in a text format... I now have to go to the kneeboard to make sure I heard correctly what has been said. Is there an easy fix to this?

A few things to note about the previous FSX installation and configuration on my machine before the crash(This is in installation order as well):

• FSX Deluxe + Accell
• Just Flight - Cargo Pilot for FSX
• Radar Contact V4.3 - Could be this as it installs FSUIPC as well??
• Perfect Flight - FSX Missions Airbus 321 Lufthansa (Which showed the same grey "speech" box) - I suspect that having not re-installed this that the little grey box is not appearing??
• AAA add on

Take note that I have not installed any of these other add-ons on the new installation apart from AAA and then I tried to install FSUIPC afterwards to see if the grey "speech" window returns, but to no avail.

Your help will be much appreciated!

Thanks again for a great add-on to this great sim!

Regards

Rob

P.S. The forum all appears in German(I think?) to me and I have not bee able to find where to change it back to English, is this possible?

[horst18519 231]

Thanks for your feedback, Rob. I guess Shaun has installed the language set now.

All you need to do to get the dialogs in popup windows is activate the text captioning in FSX' general settings. This is not a bug, it's an option you can choose in FSX. So I'm sure everything else is just fine.

[DatGuyZA 0]

Thanks for your feedback, Rob. I guess Shaun has installed the language set now.

All you need to do to get the dialogs in popup windows is activate the text captioning in FSX' general settings. This is not a bug, it's an option you can choose in FSX. So I'm sure everything else is just fine.

Thanks mate, works like a charm!

[Just Fly 56]

Question: It's the end of the first day in the career mission. It's very dark and it's almost impossible to spot the airstrips. The problem is that I have open jobs and I'm not in the 5Y-ASC. Can I save current progress and load day 2?

Answer:

[horst18519 231]

Q: Now why is this question not in the FAQ?

A: Because no pilot would take on jobs when it's too dark to fly an airplane.

I'ts not a good idea to save and reload the mission while you've got open jobs. you should try to finish them just like you would in real life.

Technically it should be ok, but maybe you get issues with payload settings or mission triggers.

[Just Fly 56]

Q: Now why is this question not in the FAQ?

A: Because no pilot would take on jobs when it's too dark to fly an airplane.

Well, in fact I had no choice. The dispatcher told me to fly the balloon SAR job again at 7PM. Otherwise I could finish open jobs just after sunset (HQ - Naivasha: about 30 minutes).

So now I've got the confirmation about open jobs, thanks ! What about other aircrafts or locations other than HQ?

[horst18519 231]

If you save the career and load another day you will be placed at HQ in the ASC, while the other aircraft are at their original spots, too.

[CPDST 2]

Hi Thorsten,

I have a question about AAA. Would the Digital Aviation Do27 (which Aerosoft sells!) be a good choice of aircraft to replace the default Maule?

I am thinking about getting both the Do27 and African airstrip adventures.

Also, one off topic question - will you be publishing the Bush Hawk XP as a boxed edition in the future?

Cheers,

Craig Tatley

[horst18519 231]

There will be no Bush Hawk Box, only Download.

The Do27 is a very good Africa aircraft (we all know about the D-ENTE of course), but it would not be ideal for the career mode, as distances between the airstrips are quite big sometimes.

[tomneale 0]

Hi !

I bought AAA today.

How can I have access to the "Free Flights", the only reference to AAA being "African Airstrip Adventure-career" in the "missions" list.

I have Windows 7/64 on my computer.

Thank you for your answer.

[Matt_Smith 1116]

Hi !

I bought AAA today.

How can I have access to the "Free Flights", the only reference to AAA being "African Airstrip Adventure-career" in the "missions" list.

I have Windows 7/64 on my computer.

Thank you for your answer.

That would be:

Question: I am unable to select most of the airstrips in the airports menu. On those I can select, there are no parking positions and my aircraft is placed some hundred feet away from the airstrip. Is this normal?

Answer: Most airstrips have no ICAO code. In FSX an airport needs an ICAO code to appear in the airport menu. Additional to that, FSX cannot handle non-flat airports. So we decided not to use the airport menu. If you want to place your aircraft at a certain airstrip, simply load one of the Free Flights (there's at least one for each strip) and change aircraft, time, weather,... afterwards.

[horst18519 231]

You should be able to find those flights in the free flight menu (select "load" and you'll find all AAA flights there), not in the mission menu.

[tomneale 0]

Got it !

Thanks a lot!

[tomneale 0]

............................ Ask for new jobs (use main menu)..........................

Awfully sorry to bother you again, but what do you mean by "main menu" ?

I am using a FSX in french and I have to figure out how some words have been translated.

For the time being, I have not been able to answer the lovely lady's ..."call me when you are ready.."

But I do love this addon

[horst18519 231]

It's described in the manual: In order to get to the career main menu activate the parking brake.

[tomneale 0]

OK !

Thank you.

I apologise . I usually don't read manuals. I'll do it for this one.

[tomneale 0]

I tried swapping the R22 with the 206B as explained by Thorsten above and was not successful.

I made the R22 ASR inactive as explained (that is working)

Then I opened 206B cfg and added what's following, using Visual C++Express (the only program I have working with Windows 7/64)

(copy and paste from part of the cfg) :

[fltsim.13]

title=African Safari Charter-5Y-ASR

sim=Bell_206B_JetRanger

model=

panel=

sound=

texture=

kb_checklists=Bell_206B_JetRanger_check

kb_reference=Bell_206B_JetRanger_ref

prop_anim_ratio=-1.76

atc_id_color=0xc6eff7ff

atc_id=N834JR

ui_manufacturer="Bell"

ui_type="206BJetRanger"

ui_variation="White"

ui_typerole="Rotorcraft"

ui_createdby="Microsoft Corporation"

description="The Bell 206 series has accumulated an astounding array of impressive statistics. More than 6,000 JetRangers are flying worldwide in roles as diverse as corporate transportation, police surveillance, and United States Army aviation training."

As it is, there is nothing on the helipad and AAA is not working properly (no "main menu")

If I cancel the modifications AAA works again as before.

If somebody could tell me where I made a mistake I'll really appreciate.

Thank you

[horst18519 231]

Looks like you forgot some blanks. The title should read:

title=African Safari Charter - 5Y-ASR

[tomneale 0]

RIGHT !

And it works !

Thanks again Thorsten. One learn from one mistakes . Hope it will help others too.

[Budbud 4]

Hi,

Here is a small question. I tried to swap the R22 with the Huey X or the Seahawk (both Aerosoft products) but none of them are working properly:

_ For the bell huey, all works except I can't call the menu by pushing on the right pedal. I have completed a couple of missions, but I can't ask for fuel or maintenance or even other jobs which is quite a problem.

_ For the Seahawk, it is seems that this model is not compatible with AAA, as the PFD doesn't display properly, and the chopper is loaded in AAA with no fuel and no way to refuel it even close to the fuel station.

Has somebody got a solution, at least for the huey? That's a pity, I love that chopper and can't use it in AAA.

Thanks in advance,

Budbud

[horst18519 231]

The Huey does not use default control variables so the pedal trigger won't work with it. I guess you'll have to use another heli or just wait until you get a call from HQ or land at one of the helipads.

Not sure about the Seahawk, the PFD should not interfere with AAA. If you run into fuel problems save the flight and edit the FLT file to adjust the fuel amount.