SurClaro Flight Simulator Resources

[michaelskylab]

Hi all, I'm totally new to this stuff but basically, Kalymnos GREECE which I'm originally from has had an airport since last year 2006. I'm just wondering how I would go about adding an airport to fs2002 , the other thing is that the Island on my fs2002 is only half their so there has been a stuff up in the file of the island, how would I go about fixing this problem.
cheers to all
michael

[harkonnen]

Hiya Michaelskylab, nice to have you here...with a handle like that maybe you should check out 'Orbiter' - a wicked, quite realistic spaceflight sim that's very popular. (If you haven't already. :wink: ) http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/

As to your question...are you looking to find that particular airport as an add-on and install it...or are you hoping to create it yourself and get it into the sim?
If you have a good look around here, Simviation, Avsim, Simnetwork, etc...there's a good chance someone's done it and you can scoop it and put it in to see if it suits you. Try out the different larger flightsim download site's 'Search' function and best of luck. (Instructions on general scenery installation in a moment.)

If you want to design the airport yourself there are a number of options. Too many to start listing on a lazy Monday actually...how about I link you up to the 'Scenery Hall Of Fame' - 'SHOF' for short. Great site to dive into scenery design with. Have a long, close relationship with their 'Tutorials' page, their 'Graphical Editors' pages, and their 'Design Utilities' pages and you are on your way to becoming the master of your own cool scenery!

http://www.scenery.org/

Don't be discouraged if it's all a bit much...I'll try and provide a few links to the easier Freeware and Payware sites that allow object placement without too much tinkering and 'self design'.

O.K., - say you find your airport as a download somewhere and grab it...let's get it into FS2002 for you.

When you open the FS2002 'Settings' page you should see a button somewhere on the lower left of the page called 'Scenery Library'.
The airport folder that you grabbed should have two basic folders inside it - 'Scenery' and 'Texture'...don't worry if there are other files in there, but read the 'Readme' if one is included. 8O :wink:

I believe in the Scenery Library page there is a button called 'Add New Scenery', or something to that effect. Click it and a little window will open up where you browse to the folder that you downloaded and unzipped, right? Click the folder ONCE, not twice, as twice opens up the folder. You just want to select the folder by one click...immediately you should see the folder title appear at the top of that list of sceneries. Once it's there, a button appears asking you to click it to activate the scenery in the library. Do this and then you want to click 'O.K' and close up the page. No sense going right to the sim to check on your scenery...you must close FS2002 and open up the program again in order for it to activate. One early hint of a successful scenery addition and activation in FS is if upon selecting and starting a flight you see a box pop up just before the flight loads saying - 'Creating new scenery indices, this may take a few moments', or something to that effect. Oh, God, I hope I got all this info correct! :oops: :roll:

Anyway...here's some links to fun stuff, and best of luck in all your endeavors. :)

Payware... http://www.lagosim.com/default.asp?act=scheda&p=100000&lang=eng

Freeware... http://www.rwy12.com/rwy12/ (Oops, only for FS2004.)

Crap, forgot that Runway 12 doesn't work for FS2002..oh well, your best bet is some self-education at the SHOF anyway.

Also, Google 'AFCAD', 'Airport Fs2002 scenery design', 'FSSC' (Flight Sim Scenery Creator.) ...and go nuts with links from The 'SHOF'!

EDIT: Oh yeah...if you get into the 'SHOF' Graphic Editors and Design Utilities pages you'll find all sorts of terrain altering or building utilities as well...a bit of a learning curve here and there but you may also have a good chance at fixing up the crappy island MS gave you as default. Look into different freeware and Payware 'Terrain Mesh' add-ons out there, might be your simpler answer for the actual geography. Just make sure with all these programs that you don't get wrapped up with stuff that's only good for FS2004.

'nother edit...Beware if you go for Lago's FSSE for FS2002 (this sort of program does not, as far as I know, provide a proper RUNWAY...that's best done with the appropriate version of 'AFCAD', I believe. FSSE will give you everything else...but for runways you need 'AFCAD' for FS2002. You can always play around with Chuck Dome's 'Runway 3' for some fun too.
http://forums.surclaro.com/sutra62267.html&highlight=#62267

(Maybe the default runway from microsoft for your airport is sufficient, forgot about that possibility...anyway, have fun.)

Oh, and just to save you some grief...not much chance that FS2004 sceneries will work in FS2002..if you see your airport as a FS2004 add-on available somewhere...FS2004 developers use .XML files mostly for scenery, and this wasn't implemented for FS back in FS2002.

EDIT: Hey, cool! Have a look... http://www.avsim.com/greece/hvacc/scenery/fs200x/grmesh.htm

...OOh baby! - (Looks like this one's good for FS2002/4 if you read closely, woohoo!) http://www.fsimzone.com/new/downloadview-details-335-Greek_Airfields_addon.html

...Alrighty then... http://www.aegeanseagull.150m.com/Scenery/Scenery_fs2k2.htm

[michaelskylab]

thanks harkonnen,
I must say I greatly appeciate your response & in giving me a variety of choices and places to begin, I can't wait till tonight when I should have the time to begin, as for my user name, skylas is my surname and from the time that skylab crashed to earth in the 70's well it became my nickname. thanks again

[harkonnen]

My pleasure bud, happy simming! 8)

[michaelskylab]

guess what, followed one of the links you sent & downloaded file graf2k2
into fs2002 as you stated and now I can land at LGKX 'Kalymnos Airport', could n't have done it without you, now just got to complete the other half of the island, it's 12:50 am so I'm going to crash out, cheers

I'm going to muck around with runway three tomorrow.

can't wait till morning to show the oldies

thanks harkonnen

[harkonnen]

Excellent to hear that it's gone well so far, good for you!
8) There's probably more cool flightsim stuff out there than you ever imagined. Just when I think I've found all the great sites for all my sim needs and desires I find something else that gets me going, either another 200 pages of free downloads somewhere, or another whack of priceless developer info. It can be a bit boggling sometimes but what a great way to keep you from vegging in front of the tube, or being bored in any manner.
The best site you'll find is right here though, this forum absolutely rules in my mind...so you got a great start! Have tons of fun with FS2004 and hope to see you around here now....I've got a feeling you'll have twenty excellent questions in no time, and bet that before you know it you'll be helping others. :wink:

[rd]

We not only have the best forums, we have the BEST MEMBERS.

RD