Random flight generator

[Bobber]

Hi all,

This is my first post...

First, I absolutely love this program. Hats off to Dan and everyone else. This is a program that's long awaited! I remember my days with
the 'ol ATP SubLogic program, and have been waiting for a role-playing type program like this for a long time.

Going on the ATP thing (for those who remember), one thing I loved was the randomness of the flight generator. Would there be a
possibility for someone to create an add-on like this to supplement FSPassengers? I am not down with the tech lingo (or capability!), but
wondered how difficult it would be to create a program where you would be able to:

- Enter in your airline, and if it is a real-life airline, it could read from a database of its aiports of use, or if it is a fake airline, the user could
enter in airports of use manually
- The user could enter in their home base, and the generator would create a days work and generate routes for that pilot dependent upon
a) what aircraft type and range, and b) the pilots rest period and max allowable hours for that days' work

I know this is probably far more difficult to create than I am thinking, but it would be GREAT to be able to run FS, get your days work and
routes, and start up FSP and go...

Any takers???

Bobber

[Chris B.]

That sounds great Bobber! I'd also like a randomly directed set of objectives/locations to fly to. It's much like a real life career would
demand instead of you instead of simply flying to where ever one feels like going one day.

Untill such a program is out I do the following:
1. Grab a good world almanac.
2. I hand a pair of dice to the wife (no puns you guys) or youself.
3. Have a predetermined set of rules that help me determine either heading direction (1-360 compass degress), or find a land based
airport via longtitude and latitiude coordinates (mind you this can set you destination around the world).

An example of the compass direction I roll for each digit.
1. For the first heading digit (1 die). A roll of 1 gets zero, 2 gets one, 3 gets two, and 4 gets three. 5 & 6 are go again untill you get one.
2. For the second heading digit (2 dice). roll of 2 gets zero, 3 gets 1, 4 gets 2, ....etc. a roll of twelve would go again.
3. For the third heading digit (2 dice). same routing for finding the second digit.

I suppose you can also think up a similar proceedure for rolling the flying range away from the departing airport. Then pick an appropriate
airport within the close vicinity of your randomly picked target area. I know this seems crude but it's a method of random formulation.

I often smirk at finding myself say "Oh, looks like I'm flying to Eli, Somalia today (or the next few days)" Eli where? OH! Well how do I plot a
route there? Flight changes? Oh man I gotta cross the pond (Atlantic), hope I'll keep my FSP budet above the water to make it there.

And then from that destination I do the whold thing over again to find myself flying to a new place.

Hope this helps keep things fun for folks that find that they don't know where to fly to next.

Cheers!
Chris B. in little 'ol flat Iowa

[Nick75]

I also think that would be a great idea, if the FSP program or some kind of an add-on program would be able to scan a database of
ICAOs (however large or small as defined by the user) and then generate a specific destination. Maybe a program like this wouldn't
actually be that difficult to create... the actual way in which it would work (as described by Bobber) seems pretty straightforward enough IMO. But then again, translating that into programming code might not be lol...



Post Edited ( 07-13-05 02:08 )

[Bobber]

I wish I had the tech skill to do this, but if I tried, all you'd probably end up with is a blank screen. : )

[davidvoogd]

Personally I'm glad FSP does offer you the ability to choose your own flights. There is a program out there that can help you find a flight - it
was in a recent article at Flightsim.com, I'll go see if I can dig it up.

[fruitfly]

fa.zip and fa-upd.zip at avsim.com

[altstiff]

Kewl Beans....

[roger wilcox]

Hi all
My first post here, congrats to Dan and the team for a great addition to the flight sim world. I am using FSPassengers in conjunction with
Just Flight's Airliner Pilot. There is some duplication in terms of they are both tracking my "career" but I am disregarding the Airliner Pilot
career, using it as the flight generator while FSPassengers takes care of my career and the business side of things. Great fun!!
all the best
Rog