Is there any way to have the ATC recognize my tail number,
but not have the actual number appear the tail of the aircraft.

I know that, but what I want is the ATC to still call me something like De Havilland H7-295, but without the ugly numbers on my tail that M$ put in the game.

Easy!

Just edit the aircraft.cfg file. Here's my 'standard' posting on this.

Every FS2002 aircraft has an aircraft.cfg file and there are two sections that you need to look at. Look at the following examples that are taken from one of my POSKY 767s.

Firstly the [fsim.n] section. If you only have one aircraft in the folder (ie one texture folder) this will be fsim.0. If you have several (like the various default 737s, you will have [fsim.0], [fsim.1] etc. Each will have section similar to the following.

[fltsim.0]
title=British Airways 767-336ER - China
sim=767300ER
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=
checklists=




visual_damage=1

description=Project Opensky Boeing 767-300ER\n....etc blah..blah

To get proper ATC for BA you need a bit like the part shown in red.

The part shown in green incidentally controls how the plane is shown in your list of aircraft.

Now the [general] section. This applies to all aircraft in the folder however many there are. It will look something like this.

[General]
performance=Passengers\n3-class conf...etc..blah..blah



You must have two lines like the ones in blue above for correct ATC plus you can't just type in anything - only certain descriptions are recognised. Someone listed them somewhere eg you can't get Concorde to come up, only Britishaerospace. (Actually Concorde is available and I use it).

Try experimenting. If you leave flight number blank ATC will revert to tail number so 'Speed Bird 1969' will become 'Speed Bird Golf minus Bravo November Whisky Charlie' the minus is pathetic I think - I don't know why M$ couldn't have corrected it in the final release and leaving it out in the atc_id part gives false call outs.

If you leave airline out assuming the type in general is correct, ATC will use type and tail number.

Hope that helps.

Sorry, Steve, you can't be doing it right because what I've said is correct.


If a tail number is visible at the 'select aircraft' screen delete it and select the aircraft to fly then no weird white or whatever colour letters will appear on the plane.

Put the atc_id into the aircraft.cfg as I've said and I can assure you it will work.

Try again

Quote:

I think what he wants is to not have the number on the plane visually, yet have ATC still identify him.
Just take it out of the texture, that will eliminate it visually. But make sure you've got the author's permission to mess with textures...

Exactly!
However, it's not addon planes; it's the default planes I want.

Probably even more confusing

Steve-O was saying he tried things and they didn't work.

I will have to back him on this as I have had the same experience with FS. We all know the system should work but for some of us it just plain DON'T. It may be a very simple thing but if it does not work then when you read of everyone else having a great time it can be very frustrating!

I do not want to start a war here but when some of us say "it don't work" we mean exactly that. I'd love my FSedit to work--it don't,I'd love all my gauge files to copy--they don't. All the 'send error' reports result in nothing I've seen.

Regardless of that I really enjoy the Sim,I work within it and my limitations and appreciate this forum and all the help you guys offer but please remember that some of us do have problems other than basic human failures

Cheers