Additional Aircraft Information

Once you have your aircraft in a state where it can fly in the simulation and everything looks correct, you will need to set up some supplementary systems and parameters to ensure that it is displayed correctly in the UI of the simulation, that the flight assistant works correctly, and that it calls the appropriate airport services.

Aircraft Classification Details#

Once you have an aircraft that can fly and have the flight model more-or-less refined, you can focus your attention on setting up how the aircraft is presented to the user when they have the package installed. There are a number of specific parameters required for this, but some information can only be derived from the Career Compatibility tool and the online package analyser which is used as part of the ingestion process. As such, some parameters may be blank when you have the project open in DevMode, but will show correct information when uploaded to the Marketplace.

The following images show the Simulation UI for an aircraft, and each modifiable parameter has a number which can be correlated with the list underneath:

The following list gives all the parameters and information required to set up the numbered sections in the images above, most of which come from the [FLTSIM.N] section of the aircraft.cfg, except where specified. You should ensure that these all of these are correctly filled in using The SimObject Editor - either in the appropriate Preset folder or the Common folder - and note that you can use localised text here for most of the text inputs (more information on localisation here).

1. Display Name#

   The display name of the aircraft is comprised of two different strings:

   • ui_manufacturer - This is the aircraft manufacturers name (not the name of the asset creator). For example, in the images above this is “Cessna” and “Patey Aviation”.

   • ui_type - This is the type or model of aircraft. For example, in the images above this is “208B Grand Caravan EX” and “Draco X”.

   Together these strings will be displayed as the identifier for the aircraft on the various menu screens throughout the simulation.

    

2. Creator#

   This is set by the ui_createdby parameter and shows the name of the asset creator or publisher.

    

3. Variation#

   This is set by the ui_variation parameter, and is normally added in the preset folder, as it is used to define the variation of the aircraft that the preset is defining. If the variation is for a specific career challenge, then this should be reflected here, for example: “Cargo”, “Private Charter”, etc… You can also use this to distinguish between aircraft that have floats, ski’s, etc… Basically, this is the user-facing name for a specific preset and should flag to the user what makes this preset different from the others. If the aircraft has no preset and only one variation, this should be set to “Default” or omitted.

    

4. Specialisation Statistic#

   This section gives some statistic that is relevant to the career for which the aircraft will be used. It may not be present for all aircraft, and will be added automatically by the ingestion process. However, it still relies on certain parameters being set up correctly:

   • Seats (Commercial Flights And Passengers / Search And Rescue / Charter Service) - This shows the number of seats that the aircraft has available for passengers. This is calculated as the total number of SIT nodes in the appropriate navigation_graph.cfg.

   • Skydiver Capacity (Skydiving) - This shows the number of seats that the aircraft has available for skydivers. This is calculated as the total number of SIT nodes plus the JUMPMASTER_SIT node found in the appropriate navigation_graph.cfg.

   • Max Weight (Cargo) - This is the approximate maximum payload for the aircraft performing the cargo missions. It is calculated as the max_zero_fuel_weight - empty_weight or the max_gross_weight - empty_weight if max_zero_fuel_weight isn’t set.

   • Product Capacity (Agricultural Aviation) - This shows the total capacity of all liquid dropping tanks defined for the aircraft to hold the agricultural chemicals.

   • Water Capacity (Aerial Firefighting) - This shows the total capacity of all liquid dropping tanks defined for the aircraft to hold the water to fight fires.

   • Max Banner Length (Aerial Advertising) - This shows how long the banner that the aircraft will tow can be. The more powerful the aircraft, the longer (and heavier) the banner can be. The power calculation is based on either the max_rated_hp (for piston engines) or rated_shaft_hp (for turboprop engines) along with the empty_weight parameters. You can find more information here: power-to-weight

   Ideally, all the parameters and files listed above should be set up correctly for your aircraft, assuming it is capable of flying the associated career missions.

    

5. Landing Surface#

   The landing surface icons show the main kind of runway surface that the aircraft can takeoff from and land on. These are based on the landing gear for the preset or aircraft, where:

   • Control Tower Icon ( ) = Normal wheels or skids

   • Mountain Icon ( ) = Big wheels.

   • Water Icon ( ) = Floats, Floats and wheels

   • Snow Icon ( ) = Skis, Skis and wheels

    

6. Fuel Consumption#

   This is set by the ui_fuel_burn_rate parameter and shows the average fuel consumption in litres per hour. Note that for aircraft with electrical engines, you should use the ui_engine_available_electrical_capacity but this is not displayed in the UI.

    

7. Cruise Speed#

   This is set by the cruise_speed parameter in the flight_model.cfg and shows the cruising speed of the aircraft.

    

8. Maximum Altitude#

   This is set by the ui_certified_ceiling parameter and it’s the maximum altitude that the aircraft is certified to fly at.

    

9. Range#

   This is set by the ui_max_range parameter and it’s the approximate maximum range of the aircraft on full tanks and at average fuel consumption.

    

10. Cabin Type#

    This one is set based on the characteristics of the preset, as returned by the package analyser on ingestion to the marketplace. It uses the cabin code generated by the characteristics of the aircraft preset (as listed here: Note On Cabin Codes) and generates a descriptive string, like “Cargo” or “Medevac”, etc… If the preset is not set up for any career activities, then this will be left blank.

     

11. Landing Gear#

    This one is set by the package analyser on ingestion to the marketplace. It uses the landing gear setup for the preset (as defined in the [CONTACT_POINTS] section) and generates a descriptive string, like “Wheels” or “Floats”, etc…

     

12. Engine#

    This is the engine type of the aircraft and is comprised of two different strings:

    • The engine_type setup in the engines.cfg gives the general kind of engine

    • The ui_powerplant_specifics parameter gives additional (optional) information about the make/model of the engine.

     

13. Instrumentation#

    This is set by the ui_instrumentation parameter and is optional. It can be used to give details of any specific cockpit instrumentation that the preset has and that sets it apart from other presets or aircraft.

     

14. Additional Information#

    This is set by the ui_additional_information parameter and is an optional piece of information that is useful for users to know about the selected preset or aircraft. For example, if the preset is for a scientific mission, then you may have something like “Mounted infrared camera, IR-Image 9300”.

UI Display Order#

Aircraft are ordered in different ways depending on which section of the UI the user is currently browsing:

• On the main aircraft selection screen, all aircraft are ordered alphabetically based on the their Display Name.
• On the variations screen, aircraft are ordered based on the package order (ie: the order in which the files are parsed in the package itself).
• On the liveries screen, they are ordered with the “default” livery first, “official” liveries second, then all the rest in alphabetical order. Note that that this is only the case for MSFS 2024 modular aircraft, as MSFS 2020 aircraft will show the liveries in the order in which they are defined in the aircraft.cfg.

Airport Services#

Your aircraft will also need to have the different airport services it can use defined. For that you can go to the [SERVICES] section of the The SimObject Editor and select/deselect those services that will be applicable for the preset or aircraft:

Note that the choices here may impact the starting orientation of the aircraft when used for career missions, and may also limit or expand which careers are available to your aircraft. Please see the following page for more information:

• General Career Mode Requirements

Reference Speeds#

Under the Flight Model tab of the SimObject Editor, you can find the Reference Speeds section. This section is, again, not directly linked to the way the aircraft will fly, but the values input here will be used by the Flight Assistant, the aircraft selection UI, notifications, overspeed triggers, etc… and so it’s important to set these and make them as accurate as possible:

You can find full details of these parameters from the section on [REFERENCE SPEEDS], however we’ll point out a few of the most important ones and where they will be used by the simulation:

• Full Flaps Stall Speed: This is used by the Flight Assistant
• Flaps Up Stall Speed: This is used by the Flight Assistant
• Cruise Speed: This is used in aircraft selection UI
• Max Mach (Jets only): This is used for the overspeed trigger
• Max Indicated Speed: This is used for the overspeed trigger
• Cruise Altitude: This is used as part of the spawning conditions definition
• Spawn Cruise Altitude: This is used as part of the spawning conditions definition
• Spawn Descent Altitude: This is used as part of the spawning conditions definition