04-04-2011, 10:50 AM
Like many of you, I enjoy the excellent free OzX airfields in Australia and North America.
Currently, I understand they are planning to add "start points" (I'd call these destinations as well for FS P) for all their airfields so you can
position your aircraft at the a particular field. I think this is a great feature for FS Passengers users as well.
There is a download from FigAir called "OZx3.3 airstrips BGL files" URL
http://figair.com/component/option,com_r...own/id,45/ that has all airfields in the ver 3.3 OzX publication. However, as
FS Passengers is so versatile, you need more!
What I mean is, that helicopter flights are an option I'm sure some people take advantage of for a change in flying methods. I certainly do, and think
it's great to have the option to fly to oil platforms off north west and south east Australia (Bass Strait) with FS P.
So, I think it would be good to have a knowledgeable specialist, add these less obvious "start/destination" points to FSX for the continued enjoyment
of all using FS P and OzX Airfields. http://aussiex.org/forum/
I'd like to think the very dedicated and talented guys at OzX would consider adding these to their product as the next releases come out, but I fear
this will take some time. Hence my request/comment here for an update to the FigAir/Bliksimpie files in the mean time.
I note that a few people (27 on 6 Apr 2011) have read my post, perhaps they're interested in how OzX interacts with FS Passengers?
Anyhow, I thought I'd give it a go myself and see if I can create a simple FSX scenery BGL file that contains the "North West Shelf Oil Platforms" for use with FSP. I've got a program called "Airport Design Editor 9x" (ADE 9x) that can compile BGL files. But first, I think I need the latitude, longitude and elevation of each platform's helipad!
Now how to get that info. Well, I can fly in FSX, to each one according to the directions provided by OzX in the OZx_ORBX_Ant_Fields_3.3_directions user manual. Sounds easy, the greatest distance from the platforms centred on Karratha in Western Australia (YPKA), is 96 nautical miles, so it's about 48 minutes at 120 kts in the helicopter.
But wait, there's 7 platforms... If I fly from Karratha each time (even if I cheat and don't do the return trip), it'll take about 6 hours to do the lot! Not a good idea?
Okay, I'll fly to the closest one then to the next and so on... Should be shorter and take less time, but to do that I need the bearing and distance/time from one to the other.
And to get that I need the latitude, longitude of the platforms... My original problem!
I decided to use this great website called "Calculate distance, bearing and more between Latitude/Longitude points" http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/latlong.html. They have a calculator that gives you a "Destination point given distance and bearing from start point".
So, I used the OZx_ORBX_Ant_Fields_3.3_directions with my start point as Karratha in Western Australia (YPKA), its coordinates being S20° 42.73' E116° 46.40' and found the coordinates for each platform.
This is what I worked out:
Platform Calculated Coordinates
Stag (YPKA310037) 20°19′25″S, 116°15′45″E
Wandoo A & B (YPKA329039) 20°09′39″S, 116°24′24″E
Legendre (YPKA356060) 19°43′00″S, 116°40′51″E
Cossack (YPKA346070) 19°35′09″S, 116°27′11″E
North Rankin (YPKA331075) 19°37′45″S, 116°06′37″E
Goodwyn Alpha (YPKA322078)19°42′01″S, 115°54′18″E
Angel (YPKA000096) 19°07′09″S, 116°55′15″E
I then used the coordinates to calculate the bearing and distance to each platform in order of distance from my start point, Karratha.
To do this I used the same websites other calculator that gives you distance, bearing from two sets of coordinates.
This is what I worked out:
Platform Calculated Coordinates Bearing (M) Distance (NM)
Stag (YPKA310037) 20°19′25″S, 116°15′45″E 310 37
Wandoo A & B (YPKA329039) 20°09′39″S, 116°24′24″E 039 13
Legendre (YPKA356060) 19°43′00″S, 116°40′51″E 029 31
Cossack (YPKA346070) 19°35′09″S, 116°27′11″E 300 15
North Rankin (YPKA331075) 19°37′45″S, 116°06′37″E 261 20
Goodwyn Alpha (YPKA322078) 19°42′01″S, 115°54′18″E 249 12
Angel (YPKA000096) 19°07′09″S, 116°55′15″E 058 67
I then flew the route from Karratha to Stag to Angel via the others in order as listed above and noted their actual heliport coordinates once landed at each platform:
Platform Actual coordinates (helipad) Elevation (ft AMSL)
Stag (YPKA310037) 20°17′23″S, 116°16′32″E 120.2
Wandoo A & B (YPKA329039) 20°07′35″S, 116°26′10″E 120.1
Legendre (YPKA356060) 19°42′14″S, 116°42′32″E 67
Cossack (YPKA346070) 19°33′22″S, 116°29′36″E 41.7
North Rankin (YPKA331075) 19°35′02″S, 116°08′16″E 147.1
Goodwyn Alpha (YPKA322078) 19°39′08″S, 115°55′44″E 147.1
Angel (YPKA000096) 19°06′01″S, 116°47′27″E 147
Now I need to work out what to do with this information?
ADE only does one airport at a time and compiles it to one BGL. I want to add multiple "airports" to the BGL... Any idea's how to do this would be good.
Thanks Wayne
Post Edited ( 04-06-11 11:24 )
Currently, I understand they are planning to add "start points" (I'd call these destinations as well for FS P) for all their airfields so you can
position your aircraft at the a particular field. I think this is a great feature for FS Passengers users as well.
There is a download from FigAir called "OZx3.3 airstrips BGL files" URL
http://figair.com/component/option,com_r...own/id,45/ that has all airfields in the ver 3.3 OzX publication. However, as
FS Passengers is so versatile, you need more!
What I mean is, that helicopter flights are an option I'm sure some people take advantage of for a change in flying methods. I certainly do, and think
it's great to have the option to fly to oil platforms off north west and south east Australia (Bass Strait) with FS P.
So, I think it would be good to have a knowledgeable specialist, add these less obvious "start/destination" points to FSX for the continued enjoyment
of all using FS P and OzX Airfields. http://aussiex.org/forum/
I'd like to think the very dedicated and talented guys at OzX would consider adding these to their product as the next releases come out, but I fear
this will take some time. Hence my request/comment here for an update to the FigAir/Bliksimpie files in the mean time.
I note that a few people (27 on 6 Apr 2011) have read my post, perhaps they're interested in how OzX interacts with FS Passengers?
Anyhow, I thought I'd give it a go myself and see if I can create a simple FSX scenery BGL file that contains the "North West Shelf Oil Platforms" for use with FSP. I've got a program called "Airport Design Editor 9x" (ADE 9x) that can compile BGL files. But first, I think I need the latitude, longitude and elevation of each platform's helipad!
Now how to get that info. Well, I can fly in FSX, to each one according to the directions provided by OzX in the OZx_ORBX_Ant_Fields_3.3_directions user manual. Sounds easy, the greatest distance from the platforms centred on Karratha in Western Australia (YPKA), is 96 nautical miles, so it's about 48 minutes at 120 kts in the helicopter.
But wait, there's 7 platforms... If I fly from Karratha each time (even if I cheat and don't do the return trip), it'll take about 6 hours to do the lot! Not a good idea?
Okay, I'll fly to the closest one then to the next and so on... Should be shorter and take less time, but to do that I need the bearing and distance/time from one to the other.
And to get that I need the latitude, longitude of the platforms... My original problem!
I decided to use this great website called "Calculate distance, bearing and more between Latitude/Longitude points" http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/latlong.html. They have a calculator that gives you a "Destination point given distance and bearing from start point".
So, I used the OZx_ORBX_Ant_Fields_3.3_directions with my start point as Karratha in Western Australia (YPKA), its coordinates being S20° 42.73' E116° 46.40' and found the coordinates for each platform.
This is what I worked out:
Platform Calculated Coordinates
Stag (YPKA310037) 20°19′25″S, 116°15′45″E
Wandoo A & B (YPKA329039) 20°09′39″S, 116°24′24″E
Legendre (YPKA356060) 19°43′00″S, 116°40′51″E
Cossack (YPKA346070) 19°35′09″S, 116°27′11″E
North Rankin (YPKA331075) 19°37′45″S, 116°06′37″E
Goodwyn Alpha (YPKA322078)19°42′01″S, 115°54′18″E
Angel (YPKA000096) 19°07′09″S, 116°55′15″E
I then used the coordinates to calculate the bearing and distance to each platform in order of distance from my start point, Karratha.
To do this I used the same websites other calculator that gives you distance, bearing from two sets of coordinates.
This is what I worked out:
Platform Calculated Coordinates Bearing (M) Distance (NM)
Stag (YPKA310037) 20°19′25″S, 116°15′45″E 310 37
Wandoo A & B (YPKA329039) 20°09′39″S, 116°24′24″E 039 13
Legendre (YPKA356060) 19°43′00″S, 116°40′51″E 029 31
Cossack (YPKA346070) 19°35′09″S, 116°27′11″E 300 15
North Rankin (YPKA331075) 19°37′45″S, 116°06′37″E 261 20
Goodwyn Alpha (YPKA322078) 19°42′01″S, 115°54′18″E 249 12
Angel (YPKA000096) 19°07′09″S, 116°55′15″E 058 67
I then flew the route from Karratha to Stag to Angel via the others in order as listed above and noted their actual heliport coordinates once landed at each platform:
Platform Actual coordinates (helipad) Elevation (ft AMSL)
Stag (YPKA310037) 20°17′23″S, 116°16′32″E 120.2
Wandoo A & B (YPKA329039) 20°07′35″S, 116°26′10″E 120.1
Legendre (YPKA356060) 19°42′14″S, 116°42′32″E 67
Cossack (YPKA346070) 19°33′22″S, 116°29′36″E 41.7
North Rankin (YPKA331075) 19°35′02″S, 116°08′16″E 147.1
Goodwyn Alpha (YPKA322078) 19°39′08″S, 115°55′44″E 147.1
Angel (YPKA000096) 19°06′01″S, 116°47′27″E 147
Now I need to work out what to do with this information?
ADE only does one airport at a time and compiles it to one BGL. I want to add multiple "airports" to the BGL... Any idea's how to do this would be good.
Thanks Wayne
Post Edited ( 04-06-11 11:24 )