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Aviation Terms

Microsoft Flight Simulator collects the information it needs to model an airplane into folders, one folder per airplane. Each folder contains all the information FS needs to draw the airplane and make it behave in a realistic way. Because this information consists of several different kinds of objects, this aircraft folder is called a container. As the system's owner, managing aircraft containers is your job.

Let's take a look at a typical aircraft container, such as you would see if you opened the Aircraft directory and looked inside a typical folder.

This is the "mooney bravo" folder in FS9\Aircraft. As you can see, it consists of a number of folders --- subfolders of "mooney bravo" in this case --- and files, such as aircraft.cfg and Mooney_Bravo.air.

The model folder contains the shape information for the airplane. Its contents govern the appearance of the airplane on the screen.

The panel folder contains the image maps and gauge information for the aircraft's panel.

The sound folder contains the sound files that give the aircraft its unique sound.

The texture folders provide one or more "liveries" or paints for the aircraft, each one of which provides the same aircraft but with a different paint job.

The aircraft.cfg file contains general definitions about the plane's appearance and behavior. You may from time to time need to edit the aircraft.cfg file, such as when adding new texture sets. We will talk about editing the .cfg file another time.

The Mooney_Bravo.air file describes the aircraft's performance characteristics. It is, in fact, a binary file, and not a text file. You can't edit it unless you have a special .air file editor which does not come with Flight Simulator.

The mooney_bravo_check.htm provides the checklist which you can display with the kneeboard while you're actually flying the aicraft; and the mooney_bravo_ref.htm file contains the reference page. You can edit both of these files if you want to; they don't affect the aicraft's performance or behavior.

Multiple Airplanes with the Same Panel

So how does this help?

Let's say you have installed two different kinds of Mooney Bravo's. You would have two Bravo folders in your FS9/Aircraft directory, called, for example, Bravo1 and Bravo2.

But Bravos all use the same panel. So why would you want to install the panel twice? It takes up extra space, but it's also more work for you. Ideally you should be able to install all the Bravo's you want and just tell them all to use the same panel.

This is also true when you have several aircraft that use the same sound file.

What you want is to arrange things like in the following diagram:

Plane1 and Plane2 each have a folder structure like Mooney_Bravo, with their own model, panel, sound, and texture folders.

What we want to do is to set up some separate common resources folder which contains just one panel folder, called "panel.757" which  the two airplanes both share.

But how do we do this?

 

The answer is based on an important property of the panel and sound folders.

Each of these folders contains a .cfg file of its own.

Panel folders contain a panel.cfg file.

Sound folders contain a sound.cfg file.

Although both of these .cfg files have lots of information peculiar to panels and sounds, they both allow a particular type of parameter called an alias, which allows the .cfg file to tell FS9 it should look elsewhere for the aircraft's panel, or elsewhere for the sound.

[fltsim] alias=panels\panel.757

panel.cfg

Here is a panel.cfg file that points elsewhere for the panel. In fact, these two lines in the panel.cfg file tell FS9 to ignore the panel folder in this aicraft container, and go look to the folder panel.757 for everything about panels for this aircraft.

You can put this alias file in every aicraft folder that you want to use panel.757.

Alias files have exactly the same format for sound files.

General Installation Procedure

So. You've just downloaded a new panel that you want several of your aircraft to use. How do you actually go about setting it up?

1. You must have some folder set aside in FS9/Aircraft to contain your common panels. I call mine "Fsfsconv." You can call yours anything you want. "Panels" is good. Just open the explorer, navigate to your FS9 folder, and select "Aircraft," click on it to open it, and inside, choose "Create a new folder." Name the folder Panels.
    

2. Next, follow the instructions for installing your new panel, but instead of adding the panel folder to an aircraft, add it to the Panels folder, and give it a special name, such as panel.737NG, or panel.757. This folder will contain the panel.cfg, any .bmp files that go with the panel, and such .gau and .cab files as the designer may provide. (Alternatively, many panels call for .gau and .cab files to be added to FS9/Gauges. That's okay too.)
    

3. Go to the aicraft folders that you want to use the new panel. Open the panel folder in that aicraft. Bring up the "panel.cfg" file using notepad.exe or the editor of your choice, and replace the entire file contents with:
          [fltsim]
          alias=panels/panel.XXX
    

4. Repeat this for every aicraft that should use your new panel file.
    

5. Restart Flight Simulator and try it out.

What kinds of things can go wrong with this?

Well, the cache for your add-on panels must be located in the FS9/Aircraft directory, just like the aircraft folders. It must not be in any other aircraft folder. Rest assured, Flight Simulator will ignore it when determining what aircraft you have installed.

Also, if you misspell anything in the dummy panel.cfg file, such as the [fltsim] keyword, or the alias= keyword, then it won't work right. Spelling is everything with computers.

Do all of this exactly the same way with any sound packages you want to share between aircraft.

Good luck!