How to install aircraft

http://www.simviation.com/acinstall.htm

I am not familiar with creating folders and moving files...

For help on creating folders and moving files try this page.  You can jump in at whatever level you're comfortable with.

http://www.helpwithpcs.com/courses/Course.htm

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That looks excellent but you might like to read my Windows Basics & Working with Windows articles first. http://www.simviation.com/lair/Windows%20Basics.htm

I wrote them specially for complete beginners like rootbeer starting out in this hobby. From the amount of feedback I've had they've helped a lot of people over the years. From some comments I see on these forums it wouldn't hurt a few of the more experienced people to read them either.

I was advised to install WinRAR in another Forum and did so. I was fooling around with it had a concise, specific description of what I was seeing in WinRAR and what I was doing, but I must have hit a wrong key because my post is gone and I don't have the heart to retype it again. Maybe tomorrow...

Now you need to unzip the files to a temporary location before cutting and pasting them into FS as explained in the tutorials.

For convenience (and a matter or personal preference) I download all files to C:\My Download Files and I unzip them to the temporary location C:\My Download Files\Unzipped.

The Winzip C clamp icon means that .zip files are associated with Winzip and you just need to click or double click on the file to open it.  You will then see a Winzip box with several files in it.

Click on "Extract" and set a location to Extract to (in my case it's always C:\My Download Files\Unzipped.

Files - check All files

Use folder names - always check this so the unzipped files will retain ther structure as described in the installation tutorial.

Click Extract in the little popup box and the files will be extracted to the temporary folder.

Follow the tutorial instructions to cut and paste the extracted files into the FS2002/aircraft/name of your new aircraft folder.  If there are special instructions follow them (commonly used for effects and the like).

AVOID THIS LIKE THE PLAGUE!  When cutting and pasting gauges (.gau or .cab files or even folders - and note that these usually need to go into the FS2002/gauges folder and not in the new aircraft folder) from your temporary folder to your FS folder DO NOT overwrite files.  If Windows tells you that "Gps.gau already exists.  Do you want to replace it?", say NO.  If you overwrite a "good" file with an unknown one you risk losing the "good" one forever - or at least until someone tells you how to restore it.

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Don't do that.  Unzip one airplane at a time or it will create a raft of confusion.

Oka-a-a-ay......

Well, that did nothing. I did not see the word "Extract" anywhere in the drop-down once I right-clicked on the folder for that particular unzipped airplane. I saw three instances of Add, two of Zip and one of Configure. I am using WinXP Home with SP2. Hagar, you look to be using Win98 or something a little earlier, like Win2000 or Me.

It was pain like unto being eaten by a shark to get those .zips into the Unzipped folder and it hurts me to do it, but you are the Master. Deleting five or six unzipped airplanes now...

Now you have a folder we'll call "Downloads" with a subfolder we'll call "Unzipped".  The Downloads folder has a file in it we'll call Aircraft.zip.

Open aircraft.zip by double clicking on it.  A box should pop up that says WinZip - aircraft.zip, and it will have several files in it.  If you see a box that says WinZip Wizard you are in the wrong interface.  Click the box that says WinZip Classic.

What we now want to do is Extract all files to Downloads/Unzipped so they will be all by themselves in a separate folder (the Unzipped folder should be empty before we extract).

There should be a button at the top of the box that says Extract.  Click it.  If you don't see the Extract button click on Actions and a drop down menu will appear.  One of the options will be Extract.  Click it.

A second box will pop up.  Now you need to tell WinZip where to extract the files to.  Make sure the All Files and Use Folder Names boxes are checked and use the Extract To box to extract the files to Downloads/Unzipped and click on the Extract button in the second box.

The second box will close after your files have been extracted (a few seconds at most) and you can now close WinZip.  You might want to tell it to open in Classic mode next time.

Now you can navigate to your Unzipped folder, which should look look something like the pictures in the tutorials.

Hagar,

I don't know whether WinZip integrates iteslf into the shell by default or whether shell integration has to be manually activated.  It dawned on me that WinZip starts in Wizard (useless) mode until the user affirmatively activates Classic mode - that may be why rootbeer couldn't see any of the options.

I don't have the right click options that you have because I use WinRar's shell integration instead.  It has an "extract" option but it's "extract with WinRar", not "extract with WinZip".  I didn't want to confuse rb by talking about things I couldn't do myself.  Either way should work - right click, extract or open the file, extract.

Yes; I am using WinZip 9.0-SR1. Maybe this is why we are not communicating.

I had along, tiring, miserable day. I will most likely not want to fight these .zip files much tonight.

As an aside, I got abacus' Extreme Warbirds in the mail yesterday and installed it. WOW!!! The F-15 and F-16 are so much fun to fly. They make the Extra 300 look like a Radio Flyer wagon with flat tires. Combine these two jets with the abacus terrain package and it's fun, fun, fun! I had to dumb-down the controls almost to the maximum just to keep it in the air. Not for noobs...

Ping soonest. Thank you, gentlemen.

Webb, I have two discrete folders. One is FS Downloads and contains .zip files. The other is Unzipped Downloads and is empty. UD is not a sub-folder of FSD (to my knowledge). I created each one separately; I have to assume they are not inter-related.

Just looked in the FS Downloads folder. All the files that had the little C-clamp by them do not have the clamp anymore; they are denoted just by text with file size.  They look just like they did when I first downloaded them: little manila folders with zipped-up zippers on them. What happened; have we lost ground now?

This is what frustrates me so; I take a step forward, one back-- over and over, and get nowhere.

OK. Let's try & make this easy. This is all I was trying to do but I seem to have complicated matters by interfering.

First, I assume you downloaded winzip70.exe from my link. This file should be in your usual download folder wherever that might be. I download files to a folder named C:\Downloads. To install WinZip 7.0, find winzip70.exe , double-click on it & follow the instructions just like installing any other program. This should only take a few moments. Select the Classic option if & when prompted during the install process.

When WinZip 7.0 is installed all those zipfiles you downloaded should have the WinZip clamp icon. To extract them use the right-click option from my earlier reply. The files will be automatically extracted into new folders in your download folder alongside the zipfiles. They should appear in front of your eyes. There's no need to create multiple folders for unzipped files or to go searching for them. The whole process is automatic & it should take a few seconds to extract/unzip each file.

Please tell me this worked. Extracting zipfiles should be a piece of cake. This is when your problems are likely to start.

WinZip 7.0 installed and run; all downloaded files once again have the little C-clamp putting the pressure on the little two-drawer file cabinet. I assume I am ready to do something now?

I did that. I now have the .zip files and what I assume to be unzipped files within the same FS Downloads folder. What I assume to be the unzipped ones show as manila folders, partially open, with the file name next to it (no file size shown). Did I do it right?

I have clicked on a few of them. I see multiple files: .air, .cfg, et cetera. I clicked on a .cfg file and it gave me the "Windows cannot open..." screen. I trust we don't need to go that far?

Some of them have zipped files within them. I guess that's where the real meat and potatoes is?

You edited your post.  Copy everything as I just said and we'll deal with the other .zip files later.

The same way you navigate to your downloads folder.  You can start at C:\ and work your way down by clicking on other folders, Program Files, Microsoft games, etc.

Go to My Computer and from there to C (Local Drive), then tp Program Files, etc.

OK.  Now create the new folder and rename it.  Click on it to get inside it.

Then go back to your unzipped folder - you will have 2 instances of explorer open at this point but it will be a little easier - and cut & paste everything into your new aircraft folder.  Leave any subfolders intact - model, panel, sound, etc.

Yes, but there are probably some gauges and things in the other .zip files you will need to deal with.  Read the documentation (readme.txt or something).

To look at the .cfg files just tell Windows to open them with notepad every time.  They are just text files.  Don't go changing anything until you're sure you know what you're doing.

Make sure your new aircraft folder is in the right place: FS2002/aircraft/NewAircraftFolder.

Now that you know how to look at .cfg files open aircraft.cfg and look for something like this:

ui_manufacturer=Boeing
ui_type=737-400

This would show up as Boeing 737-400 in my Create a Flight menu.

Click "Select the program from a list", then OK, then choose notepad.

When you click on aircraft.cfg and see "Windows cannot open this file" read down to where it says "What do you want to do?"

Using the second option, scroll down the list until you see Notepad and click on it.  Leave the "Always use this program" box checked.  Click OK.

Look for the UI manufacturer and UI model.  That's where you will expect to see it in "Create a Flight".

And make sure your new aircraft folder is in the FS2002/aircraft folder or you will never see it.

No, just start the sim and create a flight.  Look for manufacturer Grumman.  If you still can't see it scroll down to "Unspecified".

Nope; not there. I have "Any" instead of Unspecified and it still ain't there.

I have model, sound, panel and texture files in Black-F-14, along with a bunch of other ones, to include .cfg  and .air and several others.

It is getting late. I have to get stuff ready for tomorrow. It's time we hung it up for tonight. I'm sorry I was not able to get it right sooner and quickly, but I'm a noob and noobs are not too swift.

We can keep trying tomorrow if you're up to it.  Thanks for all your help. I feel we are close to success.

I think I'm correct. It's My Computer, Local Disk C, Program Files, Microsoft Games, FS2002, aircraft, Black-F-14 and if I click on Black-F-14 about 5 times, I see all the files for Black-F-14. I have to click on it so many times because it goes by multiple names, one of which is F-14 Tomcat OAQM. It goes through these several iterations, but finally does come out showing the files. But I never see it in the listing of available airplanes under Create a Flight. I see only the ones that came OEM and the abacus Warbirds Extreme add-on.

Until tomorrow, when I don't have to go to bed so early. Thanks again.

My this thread has grown since I left it. I can feel your frustration from here. Pity I had to go when I did. Let's try it my way & see if we can fix this.

rootbeer said: Quote:

Here's the answer. The Tomcat is hidden inside all those other folders so FS can't find it. Go to the last one of those multiple folders, the one immediately containing the model, panel, sound and texture subfolders. Right-click on it & select Cut. Go back to your FS2002\Aircraft folder & select Paste. Now go & try it in FS2002.

If this worked as it should if you did it correctly you can delete the Black-F-14 folder. Right-click on the folder & select Delete. Click Yes if prompted.

PS. This is how I install all my aircraft to all my M$ sims. Most aircraft are configured ready to install with their correct folder names. Extract the zipfile, find the folder containing those Model, Panel, Sound & Texture subfolders & paste it straight into the sim. There's no need to mess around creating new folders in FS2002\Aircraft.

Well, now we have a multitude of problems. First, the scenery froze at 26%. I ran it again as I described; then it froze at 10%.  I got a message (three times now this morning) that Flight Simulator has encountered a problem and must shut down. My computer is freezing, FS is starting of its own accord, and the one time I actually got the black F-14 to show up, it spontaneously went into its take-roll, then froze. I am so tempted to reach for my .357 right now and teach this thing a lesson...

The aircraft is shown in the availables as Grumman manufacture, model is F-14A Tomcat OAQM and variation is OAQM. Does this mean anything? Is the computer searching/deciding between two definitions of the same thing?

It's time to go to work. I'll give it one more shot before I head off to my day of doing my Ned Beatty impression. "Now let's you just drop them pants."

I had mega-problems this morning with this airplane. It automatiucally goes into take-off roll, I have no throttle control (wide open only) and when I switch to VC or maybe it's Spot view, I find myself as if hanging upside down by my feet, directly over the nose probe. The terrain is in the right place, but the airplane is upside down. I have to essentially look down from my hanging upside down position to see it.

I am loathe to dump this airplane, considering the work that Webb, you and I have put into figuring it out. Especially Webb; he really hung in there...

I found it in FS2002 Military; Earliest Files-- it's quite a few pages back.

Here it is, on Page 16.

Page 16, Hagar. VX-9 or something... It's the only Tomcat on that page. It's the only black Tomcat I've seen in the downloads.

OK, Boss. Are you out there, Webb? Time to butt my head against the digital wall again...

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "Did he download six airplanes or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this frustraion, I kind of lost track myself. But seeing as how this is an emachines T6212, the slowest computer at simviation.com, you gotta ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky?

I say "Go for it," Hagar...

You have been a great help. I am grateful for what both Webb and you have done. I would have just given up a long time ago and flown the OEM stuff, always wondering what it would be like to have a shot at all those airplanes in the Downloads.

But I have even more problems now. Up until today, the F-15 in Warbirds Extreme would do a snap roll so fast it would pull your teeth out. Now, with full aileron, I get no roll at all. I have maxed up the sensitivities, yet no change. Elevator and throttle work A-OK; rudder is ineffective-- will only direct airplane when I twist it to do so. When I let go, it snaps back to its original course. I don't know for sure, but that Tomcat really bollocksed things up! I deleted its folder and the folder for Black-F-14 just to be safe. I am also seeing slowdowns. Prior this excursion to download hell, my screens would paint super-fast. Now, I see the white model when the screen comes on and it paints in totally after one or two seconds. This is new just today. I am so frustrated and hosed-off, I haven't polite words to describe the depth of how I feel.

I've been away for a wild flight of no particular construction. Sorry...

I have downloaded quite a few airplanes and have them in the FS Downloads folder. FS seems to be working fine now; maybe I was just overloading my chip and being impatient with it.

So... I have a folder of an airplane and it has all the files: sound, texture, et cetera along with a few extra ones in which we seem to have no interest yet, like .air and .cfg.  The page on which all these files show will have a name; the same name as the airplane, yes? Do I just right-click somewhere out in the white, see Cut, click on Cut, then open aircraft under FS2002 and click Paste? We did something like this this morning and it worked, but I have tried it since and must be missing a step because it ain't showing up in the availables.

My eyes are bad and reading alot of text is an exercise in futility. It is also nearly 0100 here and I should get to bed. What I need to do is get a printer and print the instructions so I can refer to them. I can't rememebr what it says from one second to the next...

What would you prefer: a simple download for us to wrestle with or a difficult one? I have them from just a few hundred KB up to several tens of thousands.

The guilty Tomcat is history. I'll pick one now; be right back...

FS 2002 Military, Newest Files, Page 53: FS 2002 Boeing 747-400 Airborne Laser YAL-1A. Just 1.2 Mb; took just 25 seconds to download. It is in My Documents in .zip form; I'll just leave it that way until further notice.

Looking good, guys.  I remember printing the tutorial (a couple of years ago) and thinking, "WTF! This is waaaay too complicated".

Not there...

I downloaded 2k2yal1a, renamed it 747-Laser-Plane and .zipped it into My Documents. I followed your instructions and I don't see it. I'm lost...

NO-- wait!! There it is! Excuse me for having head firmly and deeply inserted into rectum.  So this was an easy one (yeah, right...). I have some with updates and others that require downloads from the past and some with .zipped folders within the primary .zip folder.

I have been doing what you told me (I think); why have they all failed prior to this?

I see it has no VC; just a 360-degree panoramic view, which is kind of cool. I also cannot get it into the air to stay. It gets off the ground, then belly-flops in just after lift-off. The default 747 flies just fine. I assume the Laser Plane designer used the same flight dynamics-- I would have.

It worked; see above. I am tasting a small bit of victory, here. I am emboldened to try another...

Tried the Firefox (my brother digs this pane); got to where I select it to fly and "Can't find this aircraft in the library" yet it is in the list of availables.

NO-- wait!! There it is, setting on the runway at Reno/Tahoe. I must be going to the runway before my chip gets eveything in its place. I saw MIG MIG in the Current Aircraft list, click OK and then the 747 freighter pops up. I assumed it didn't work. I tried it again and there it is.

OK; let's take a break for the day. It's a warm, sunny day here and the Reno Air Races are going on just 35 miles away. I arrived here last year, missing them by two weeks. I'd like to go; I may be back in Virginia a year from now and never get another chance to see it.

Thanks for all your help. I am going to transfer a passel of them from FS Downloads into the sim. I think I know what I'm almost doing.

Until later tonight, but don't wait up on me. I usually get totally s-faced and go out with my "deadly assault weapons" on Saturday afternoons. Booze and bullets do mix in northern Nevada...

Thanks for your help, Hagar. I have put a few from the folder into the sim. I find that after I do so, I have to kind of jump in and out of the sim once or twice before the airplane shows up.  I have an XB-70 and a B-1 that didn't show up at first, I clicked out, then back in and they were in the availables under Any.

I shall not bother you any further. You have been of great assistance. It is up to me to do this now. Thank you again for your time and effort.

Well, Hagar... I am back.  I am still fiddling around with the downloads from two weeks ago. I just now tried to insert the Diamond Kitana from Civil Props Newest Files (Page 59) into FS2002 and it doesn't show up. I see it in my FS aircraft folder, but it isn't in the list of the availables. I have managed to get one or two in, but most disappear into the digital dungeon of my computer, never to be flown or seen again. I have the Hummelbird (Hummel manufacturer) and the B1-B Lancer (unspecified manufacturer). Nothing else has successfully been inserted.

Here's what I do. I download and unzip; this gives me a folder for that aircraft in My Documents. I Move that folder into my FS Downloads folder. I right-click on it to get the Cut box to show up, click Cut, then navigate my way via the Start button to the aircraft folder in FS2002. Once there, I click on Paste and I see the folder in FS. I assume I can now fly it? I see the other airplanes I have available, but the ones I cut/paste don't show up when I enter FS and desire to fly my latest acquisition. Very frustrating!! I am loathe to bother you again after we spent so much time on this, but what's a noob to do?

I have to go over the mountain tonight at 8:00 from near Reno, Nevada where I live to near San Francisco, so I won't be able to see any reply until tomorrow afternoon. Thanks in advance.

Right. I've dowloaded the Katana (kat_cz22.zip) from the page you mentioned. It's not likely to happen but this is a perfect example of how I would like to see all downloads configured. This would save a lot of problems & I would have to find something else to do in my spare time. (FS developers please note. )

On extracting the zipfile into your Downloads folder, open the extracted folder to see what you've got. You should see 3 folders named aircraft, effects & gauges. These folders have identical names to the folders in the FS2002 root directory. Installing the aircraft or any other addon is a simple matter of moving the complete contents of these folders into the corresponding folders in FS2002.

First open the aircraft folder in the download. Inside it you will find 2 subfolders named da20_katana_OK-BLB_ZLA_OM-HLJ_2002 & fsfsconv. Select both folders & paste them into FS2002\Aircraft. The aircraft is now installed. (If you don't install the fsfsconv folder it won't display on the menu. To understand why, please read my Aliasing article. http://www.simviation.com/lair/aliasing1.htm)

Now go back to your download & open the effects folder. Repeat the above procedure but this time select & paste the complete contents including the Texture subfolder into FS2002\effects. (Overwrite files/folders when prompted. This will automatically install the included texture - fx_red.bmp.)

Now for the gauges. Go back to the downloaded folder & open the gauges subfolder. Click Edit/Select All & paste the complete contents (26 GAU files & 1 CAB file) into FS2002\GAUGES. This time do NOT overwrite files/folders if prompted. (This will avoid a common problem caused by some 3rd party gauges overwriting default ones. If the people creating or modifying gauges know what they're doing they will rename their files to avoid this problem.)

The aircraft, panel, effects & gauges are now installed. Open the BLB_ZLA_OM-HLJ_2002 folder you just installed to FS2002\Aircraft & find Aircraft.cfg. Open this in Notepad to find out how it will be listed on the FS2002 aircraft selection menu.

[fltsim.0]
title=Katana DA20-A1_ACH_FS8_VER1.2  
sim=Katana_FS8
model=NP
panel=
sound=
texture=BLB
kb_checklists=Katana_check
kb_reference=Katana_A1_ref
ui_manufacturer=Diamond Aircraft
ui_type=Katana
ui_variation=Aeroclub Hosin OK-BLB
description=Diamond Katana DA20-A1\nAeroclub Hosin OK-BLB - Czech Republic\n2 place General Aviation Aircraft

Now go & try it in FS2002. There are 3 variations of the Katana whch can be selected from Variation on the menu. It's a very nice little plane with a full 2D panel & DVC. I hope this explains it.

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The Diamond Katana is a popular two-seat trainer & sports aircraft. http://www.avweb.com/news/reviews/182565-1.html
The FS2002 version is by the guys at Premier Aircraft Design so should be fine. No need to ask for my opinion which might be different to yours. It's a relatively small download so why not try it yourself? http://www.simviation.com/fs2002props59.htm

OK, well done for figuring that out. Nothing's lost anyway & you can start again hopefully with a better idea of what this is all about. This is one reason I recommend using the right-click "Extract to folder ........" option (if you have it) for extracting zipfiles. This might depend on which utility you use for doing it.