SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

A fun and interesting challenge in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is to fly a scientific research mission. In these activities, you must transport a scientific team to record precious data about rare natural events from your aircraft. The user will need to follow their requests to position the aircraft and ensure optimal flight conditions so that they can carry out their work safely and accurately. If you wish your aircraft to be used on this kind of activity you will need a preset that has been appropriately set up as part of the Modular SimObject, as explained below.

 

For more information on the various other career activities and how to prepare your aircraft, please see here:

• Career Activities

 

 

Scientific Research Constraints

When it comes to setting up planes for the available scientific research activities, there are a few requirements that must be fulfilled:

 

• The plane will need to have the navigation_graph_pilot.cfg (as explained here).
• The plane will need to have the ApronWithoutCovers.flt file (as explained below).
• The object_class must be "Airplane".
• The operating_status must be either "in_service" or "experimental".
• The plane cannot be flagged as military.
• The plane cannot be flagged as premium.
• The plane ui_max_range must be greater than 1.
• The payload mass must be greater than 1kg (see Note On Payload Mass for more information).
• The plane can have wheels or big wheels, for landing gear.
• The plane cannot have skis or floats for landing gear.
• There must be a navigation graph called navigation_graph_passenger.cfg with the following nodes: OPERATOR, SCIENTIFIC_PLANE_ENTRANCE, SCIENTIFIC_WALK_START, DIRECTOR, SCIENTIFIC_DIRECTOR_ENTRANCE, and SCIENTIFIC_DIRECTOR_START. This is explained in more detail below.

 

Following these constraints will give the aircraft the MED_Cabin type. See here for more information:

• Note On Cabin Codes

 

 

Navigation Graph Setup

Once the aircraft model has been prepared for scientific activities and the Modular SimObject has been created with a preset that uses the adapted model parts and respects the constraints, the next thing to do would be to add in the required navigation_graph.cfg files. One thing that all these navigation graphs have in common is the need to set up mass stations and station loads for weight distribution. These things are explained in detail here: Weight Distribution. The navigation graph for this kind of activity should be called navigation_graph_passenger.cfg and you can include the required nodes for this activity in the same graph as that used for Commercial Flights And Passenger activities.

 

For scientific research activities the following nodes are required:

 

• SCIENTIFIC_WALK_START

  This is the node where the scientific researcher will be spawned. It should be projected on the ground, around 5-6m from the aircraft, and the node heading should be pointed towards the aircraft entrance. You can only have one of these nodes and it requires a corresponding SCIENTIFIC_PLANE_ENTRANCE node and - inside the aircraft - an OPERATOR node as well.

 

• SCIENTIFIC_DIRECTOR_START

  This is the node where the scientific director will be spawned. It should be projected on the ground, around 5-6m from the aircraft, and the node heading should be pointed towards the aircraft entrance. You can only have one of these nodes and it requires a corresponding SCIENTIFIC_DIRECTOR_ENTRANCE node and - inside the aircraft - a DIRECTOR node as well.

 

• SCIENTIFIC_PLANE_ENTRANCE

  This is the node where the scientific researcher will enter the aircraft at the end of the RTC animation. It should be projected on the ground, close to the aircraft entrance, and the node heading should be pointed towards the aircraft entrance as well. Once placed, you will need to connect the node to the corresponding SCIENTIFIC_WALK_START using an edge.

 

• SCIENTIFIC_DIRECTOR_ENTRANCE

  This is the node where the scientific director will enter the aircraft at the end of the RTC animation. It should be projected on the ground, close to the aircraft entrance, and the node heading should be pointed towards the aircraft entrance as well. Once placed, you will need to connect the node to the corresponding SCIENTIFIC_DIRECTOR_START using an edge.

 

• OPERATOR

  This is a node where the the scientific researcher will sit and operate the equipment used for the activity. This node is functionally equal to the SIT node used by passengers. As such, please see The Passenger Navigation Graph for how to set this up.

 

• DIRECTOR

  This is a node where the the scientific director will sit and operate the equipment used for the activity. This node should be placed where the copilot would go, since the director has to sit beside the plane pilot to direct operations. See The Pilot Navigation Graph for how to set this node up.

 

 

Included SimAttachments

To make things simpler when creating your aircraft, some components that can be used scientific research activities are available as Included Attachments for you to use. These are:

1. Asobo_Camera_DirectorsCut
2. Asobo_Camera_Thermal
3. Asobo_Observation_Device_01
4. Asobo_Observation_Device_02
5. Asobo_Observation_Device_03
6. Asobo_Observation_Stabilizer

 

You can find out how to set these up from the following page:

• Using Included SimAttachments

 

 

FLT Files

When a user starts a scientific research activity they will not be going through the usual Preflight checks, and so they will need to have an ApronWithoutCovers.flt file in the aircraft preset for the activity instead of the Apron.flt. This file should be set up like a regular apron FLT file, however you should ensure that the following parameters and sections are setup correctly:

• Section [SimVars.0] must have the parameter SimOnGround set to true.
• All [Covers] needs to be set to false.
• Section [Controls.0] must have the parameter ParkingBrake set to 100.00 (if the aircraft has a parking brake).
• Aircraft electrics and engines must be turned off.