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New AI Flight Planning Tool

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Martin, from your examples and questions, I think that the issue is not whether or not the Leg List should be sorted on departure time, but rather, should the soring be daily- or weekly-based. Daily flight plans would sort the same way on either basis.
This is a weekly schedule.

Start Monday at 12:00 at AP1 and go to AP2
Start Tuesday at 11:00 at AP2 and go to AP3
Start Thursday at 09:00 at AP3 and go to AP4
Start Saturday at AP4 at 07:00 and go to AP1

In the leg list the flights would be sorted exactly the other way round like they are taking place, right?
Click to expand...
Yes, if the sorting is daily-based. However, your example is actually sorted on a weekly basis.
Regarding your departure airport comment: It is always the current list entry -1, isn't it?
Click to expand...
Yes, for a daily flight plan or a weekly flight plan sorted on a week-basis (such as your example). But, because AI Flight Planner consolidates legs in a weekly flight plan that operate on more than one day, it sorts a daily basis. With daily sorting, the departure airport often is the destination of a leg several places back in the Leg List. Please see Section 6.2 for a discussion of this.

The ability to consolidate legs is a major "selling-point" for AI Flight Planner. However, (with your help:o) I now appreciate that there are situations where consolidation is not desirable. If AI Flight Planner allowed the user to decide on a per flight plan basis whether or not to consolidate, we'd have the best of both worlds.

Let me see if I can make that a user option.

Don
 
Don,

Thank you for the nice words :). It is a pleasure to see that this tool is going up all the way to what it has promised right from the start.

I know that you had planned a release already, but I am absolutely sure that this further development time will pay off.

Looking forward to the coming release.
 
Please "have a go" at Version 0.66. It's behaving pretty well for me (but, I'm so close to it I'm not sure my testing accomplishes much). Everything I planned to do to it (and more) is now done. Now it needs some serious exercising by you guys.

Colin, the Notes to Beta Testers should make you aware of most of the major changes since your last upload. Please be sure to install the new AirportList.dat, the format of which changed while you were away.

Martin, I'll be very interested in your feedback on the non-consolidated mode, the handling of the sub-daily repeat periods and the error checking on both "save leg" and "save fp". (Colin, please feel free to comment as well. I've singled-out Martin because he's found some deficiencies in these areas recently.

Thanks, guys,
Don
 
Don,

I will post some unstructured comments whenever they come to my mind (like right now ).

You can select an aircraft and enter a tail-no. before you have clicked on 'Start New FP'. Since you can not enter any other data, and the Aircraft and tail-no are reseted when you click on 'Start New FP', I would disable those two fields as well for startup.
 
If you delete a flight plan from the 'Flight Plan File' listbox which is currently open or edit on the right side, the details on the right side stay.

It's more a question than a comment: would it be consequent to clear the right side to a pre-flightplan state (so that you have to begin with 'Start New FP'?
 
The error checking for the repeat period work very well. But you only check on 'Save Edited Leg Data', right?

I suggest to check whenever a 'Repeat Period' radio button is clicked, this stop the error on an earlier stage and is more educational.
 
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Don,

This is about the unconsolidated flight plan mode (I WILL figure out the concept of the consolidated one :o)

I have made tests based on weekly and daily operations and everything works very well and as I expect it to do.

One thing though:

I can add an invalid flight plan ('Add FP To List') on daily operation which leads from airport 1 to airport 2 to airport 3. So I guess the basic error checking looks if there are at least two legs, but not more.

What I suggest is this error checking scheme on the leg list:

  • the first departure airport is your airport of origin
  • scan the list, if you return to airport of origin and it is the last list entry then flight plan is ok
  • if you return to airport of origin and it is not the last list entry then continue scan
  • no matter how often you start from this airport, the airport of origin will always stay the same and you have to find it as the target airport of the last leg entry, otherwise the flight plan is invalid
  • if you are on the last list entry and the target is not the airport of origin, then the flight plan is invalid

Is there any error in my logic? If not so, then this would be a good flight plan validity check for the unconsolidated mode.
 
When I open this saved flight plan list, and do the following:

  • double-click on flight plan first list entry
  • double-click on second flight plan list entry
  • double-click on first flight plan list entry again

I get this error message:

'You are currently editing a weekly flight plan. Daily or sub-daily repeat periods are not applicable.'

I changed nothing, and never clicked somewhere on the right side.
 
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Hi Don,

I've given the latest beta a quick run through using Air Berlin flight data covering a weeks flights to fifteen different airports.
It's nice to be able to alter all leg data at will without problems and the ETA was available at all times whenever I altered the departure time. When I saved the leg data for the eleventh leg the columns didn't line up and some of the leg data couldn't be seen. As the flightplan compiled ok my assumption that the leg data was saved correctly seemed to bear out. All other saved leg data lined up as expected. I deleted one or two legs to check out the result and all was well. Re-instating the legs was no problem. The flight plan I was using had put the day 0 departures at the end and when the legs were entered they logically moved to the top of the list. This might be a problem for anyone using this method of day entry because the departure airport for the next added leg follows from the leg data at the bottom of the list. As I was aware of what had happened it was no problem since the departure airport can now be altered if necessary.
Having finished the entire weeks worth of data there was no problem in adding the flightplan to the list and compiling.
When I tried the 'Save File Set' option I got the following error message:

Could not complete writing of flight plan file. Argument 'Start' must be greater than zero.

I was able to save the flightplan and the aircraft file so anything I may have needed was saved and the airports are already available within the program so I didn't feel I had lost anything. All in all the first run through was relatively untroubled with everything coming together as expected at the end. I'll be going for more extensive testing later and will report any problems encountered.

Colin
 
colin_d said:
When I tried the 'Save File Set' option I got the following error message:

Could not complete writing of flight plan file. Argument 'Start' must be greater than zero.
...
Colin
Click to expand...

I can confirm this, Colin. It happens with 'Save File Set', while I could use the 'Save As...' command.
 
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Thanks, guys. Looks like were making progress. I'm going to be out for much of the day so may not get these all fixed. But, I'll try to release fixes for any critical errors tonight.

I can add an invalid flight plan ('Add FP To List') on daily operation which leads from airport 1 to airport 2 to airport 3.
Click to expand...
Martin, why do you think this is invalid? All legs are now checked at time of FP save.

I'll respond to other commnets later.

Don
 
A question I meant to ask in my earlier post.

Currently, if you leave the arrival time field blank, the time will remain blank until computed by the compiler (TTools sytle). Since AI Flight Planner uses the same algorithm as the compiler (which I hope to improve), should I automatically insert arrival time when the FP is saved?

The advantage of doing this over using the ETA button is that, if the departure time is later changed, a new arrival time will be calclated automatically whereas if the user entered a arrival time using the ETA button or otherwise, the arrival time will remain unchanged until the user decides otherwise.

Your thoughts, please.
Don
 
I'm back. Now some responses:
You can select an aircraft and enter a tail-no. before you have clicked on 'Start New FP'. Since you can not enter any other data, and the Aircraft and tail-no are reseted when you click on 'Start New FP', I would disable those two fields as well for startup.
Click to expand...
The aircraft list is left enabled so that it can be worked on in the absence of a flight plan. This is especially desirable when starting from scratch, since it's nice to have the aircraft list set up before you start entering flight plans. The tail number, however, should be disabled as you suggest. (Despite its position, it is not related to the editing of the Aircraft List.)
If you delete a flight plan from the 'Flight Plan File' listbox which is currently open or edit on the right side, the details on the right side stay.

It's more a question than a comment: would it be consequent to clear the right side to a pre-flightplan state (so that you have to begin with 'Start New FP'?
Click to expand...
Yes, what you suggest should happen.
The error checking for the repeat period work very well. But you only check on 'Save Edited Leg Data', right?
Click to expand...
No. Items in the editor that are affected by the new repeat period are checked when the new period is selected. The whole leg is checked on "Save Leg". All legs are checked on "Save FP". What condition is is that you think should be caught but isn't?
What I suggest is this error checking scheme on the leg list:

the first departure airport is your airport of origin
scan the list, if you return to airport of origin and it is the last list entry then flight plan is ok
if you return to airport of origin and it is not the last list entry then continue scan
no matter how often you start from this airport, the airport of origin will always stay the same and you have to find it as the target airport of the last leg entry, otherwise the flight plan is invalid
if you are on the last list entry and the target is not the airport of origin, then the flight plan is invalid
Click to expand...
In the non-consolidated mode, the departure airport is always the destination airport of the previous leg - except for the first leg, of course, when it is the destination airport of the last leg (i.e, the flight plan wraps around). As I noted earlier, I don't see any problem with your A->B->C flight plan. Perhaps its the fact that you entered A as the departure airport for the first leg and the system didn't object when A wasn't the destination of the last leg. As I point out in the manual, the "From" entry is used only to calculate dist/duration/ETA. As soon as the second leg is entered, if you return to the first leg, you'll see that the system will show the "from" airport as the destination of the second leg. Add a third leg, and the destination of the first leg changes again. What I can do is save the entered start airport and issue a warning if the user attempts to save the flight plan when it does not match the destination of the last leg.

When I open this saved flight plan list, and do the following:

double-click on flight plan first list entry
double-click on second flight plan list entry
double-click on first flight plan list entry again

I get this error message:

'You are currently editing a weekly flight plan. Daily or sub-daily repeat periods are not applicable.'
Click to expand...
I got over-eager in my checking of repeat periods. Presumably, your first flight plan was daily (or sub-daily) frequency an the second was weekly. That shouldn't happen (of course).
When I saved the leg data for the eleventh leg the columns didn't line up and some of the leg data couldn't be seen.
Click to expand...
I presume the cause was one field being wider than the column width I have allowed, thus skipping a tab stop. At the moment, I don't limit the width of fields in the Leg List, but I guess I'll have to.
Could not complete writing of flight plan file. Argument 'Start' must be greater than zero.
Click to expand...
This is a simple coding error which should be easy to find.

Nothing too serious here. I should be able to have it all in working order by tonight. Please respond to my query re setting arrival time ASAP.

Are we getting close?

Don
 
Hi Don,

When entering data for each leg I've found that if you have used the ETA button and then change the departure time a new ETA time is available and pressing the ETA button again updates to the new time. As I've always filled in the arrival time this is very helpful. I wasn't aware that you could leave the arrival time unfilled. If I leave the arrival time blank it would be helpful to have it entered in the saved file as this could give guidance when writing other flight plans for similar aircraft but, bearing in mind what is currently happening when writing leg data, is not vital.

Colin
 
gsnde said:
I can confirm this, Colin. It happens with 'Save File Set', while I could use the 'Save As...' command.
Click to expand...

Hi Martin,

It seems it's just you, me and Don testing this utility out as I've not seen any input from anyone else for some time. Happily we seemed to be taking different paths in testing so it's sorted out the various problems and now they're declining we're both finding the same ones.

Colin
 
EDIT: Forget the question. I just found the problem. Don

Gents, do either of you recall the name of the file to which you were trying to save. (Please tell me it did not start with "flightplans".)
Don
 
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Hi Don,

Being given an option to name the file set I would have had to think up something comprehensive which wouldn't have started with 'Flightplans'. It might have been AirBerlin_set or something similar as I now have a vague recollection of putting something like that in.

Colin
 
Thanks. The problem I found only arises when you save a file, "Reload" it and save again. This need not have occurred in the same session. Hopefully, it's the one you were experiencing - cause there's nothing else suspicious in that area.

Don

Re your second-last message - and a fine job we're doing, too.;)
 
Hi, mind if I join in?

OK, being a big bang person, I started by trying to load my biggest traffic file first - over 200 meg of GA traffic generated by another AI tool, also still in pre release. While loading, V0.66 threw up at me a number of airports that it said weren't actually in Flight Sim, so I aborted loading, restarted, and decided to reimport FSX airports. It went through a collection process (giving me more "bings" than a San Fran trolley car, and finally presented me with a list of some 24095 airports, but with the "Save AirportList.dat" button greyed out. From this, do I imply (it's STILL binging at me, BTW) that the tool has actually saved what I've just retrieved? How do I know?

It's annoying - I've ACTUALLY CLOSED IT DOWN, and it is still Binging at me! Help!

OK, next question - as I never managed to load all those flight plans, is there some way, once loaded, to easily identify all those lines with "missing airports"? Because I sure can't remember them, and I really don't want to have to stop the process each rime it recognises one!

I really haven't gotten very far into the tool yet, but it is certainly something the hobby actually needs.

BTW, does it have the ability to load a FS9 airport, correct the days, etc., and generate an FSX .bgl file? I hope so - the tool I am using currently is quite good, but command line based, and single purposed.
 
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