General Discussion

[Charl]

Welcome to the New Look GNZ LAP!

Thanks to Trolly for setting up the Forum, and thanks to everyone who participates.
It's an amazing experience, sharing information across continents and time zones...

Let's hope this Forum will help to produce ever more and ever better AI for the beautiful flying environment that is New Zealand.

[ardypilot]

Fantastic idea Charl + Jenks!

I look forward to this package immensely and will help out wherever I can.

I am proud to say that these forums have contributed to a positive outcome in virtual kiwi aviation

Here is an idea for you:
Would it be possible to add skydiving AI aircraft? I don't know if you can make jumpers pop out the back of AI planes but it's just my 5 cents worth

[Ian Warren]

Hi Charl & Jenks
- Sounds a superb IDEA! old wiggy been missin GA traffic for long time , keep eyeballs out for local planes and send pics

Skydivers and Parachute's , wish I had my camera out the day a P51 was in transit to buzz NZCH tower, picture this ... parachute-parachute-P51-Parachute , just the angle I was standing to View , but sure would have been a site to see Dangling up there!

Ian

[Charl]

Moving on...
Next up will be aircraft. The NZ civil register is a goldmine if you like virtual aircraft spotting.
Top manufacturer is Cessna: 671
Next is Piper: 377
So Jenks is on the mark with repaint strategy.
Who'd like to guess what's the 3rd most populous aircraft manufacturer in NZ?





...and the answer is: de Havilland!
There are 81 of 'em, no less than 50 of which are Tiger Moths.
Most GA aircraft live in the central North Island, not surprisingly.

[Jenks]

Yes, I'm listening...

I have done a few of those 400 series Cessnas already - just haven't uploaded them yet.

I'll see if I can knock off the entire 400 series list you have given - it seems quite manageable. It has been really busy workwise recently so I have only managed to complete a couple more Cessnas for Paraparaumu and finished off the tweaks to some of the ones I had already done.

I'm really keen to get more 'real' Kiwi GA flying - I just can't promise how quickly I can get on to them. All depends on work at the moment.

I'll post some more previews in the screenshots forum soon, and there will be some more Cessnas heading on to Avsim soon as well.

Thanks for the motivation Charl!

Steve

[ardypilot]

Hi fellas,

I don't mean to be pushy at all, but do you have a rough time frame of when this package would be completed?

The reason I ask is because I am soon to begin a tour of NZ promoting Christian Stock's mesh & topo, and it would be great to have some real GA up in the skies with me!

[Charl]

Well now...
This is not a small project, it turns out (but they never are)
There are 1600 aircraft and 100 airports.
It's taken a couple of weeks to establish where they all are.
What needs doing next:
Repaints repaints repaints
Lots of AFCADS for the AI

As I mentioned, I will focus initially on Zone 2. This will involve a bit of trial and error - how many AI aircraft d'you need to service 35 airports, without overdoing it?. So this may take a while - of course, anybody who can stencil 5 letters on one of Henry's paintkitted Cessna's can contact me and I'll supply all the pointers!

The smart stuff we can leave to Jenks, and it'll be worth the wait.
Take a look at what's coming. (Bear in mind this is an AI aeroplane!)


Auckland Volunteer Coast Guard Service Inc. Cessna 182 over Ardmore.
Here's the real one, also at Ardmore:

[ardypilot]

1600! Gosh I was not expecting that much

In that case I shall pressure you no longer- I can't wait for the final outcome

Great Coastguard 182 by the way!

[Jenks]

Can I ask a favour Charl - or anyone who is able. I am wanting to do a batch of Ardmore resident Cessnas and they all seem to have some sort of 'world globe' type logo on the tail?

Is anyone able to get up nice and close and take a picture of just that logo - filling the frame if possible (and any obvious variations of it).

Reason being is that with my repaints I like to start off with everything highly detailed/accurate and downsize the image afterwards. I've found that it gives much better and more realistic looking details than trying to work at the final image resolution, which is quite blurry. I completely redraw the logos etc, rather than copying and pasting from photos, to get it all crisp. So, even if you can't see the detail on the finished product, be assured it is there, and it is as accurate as I can possibly make it!

Thanks in advance...

Steve

[ardypilot]

Went there today and got the photos for you:



The globe is actually in different positions on ZK-TAN and ZK-TAQ so I took pictures from differant angles which show that:

I have the original 1600x1200 pixel images if you need them.

Cheers

[Charl]

MAJOR POLICY SHIFT
The Great NZ GA AI Project has been expanded to include everything up to the 5 tonne MTOW class.
Several reasons, most importantly:
1. It allows for more variety in the sky, otherwise all you'd be seeing is Cessnas and Pipers
2. It's faster to paint a fleet, rather than individual aircraft.
3. There are several BN2 Islanders already painted, and it seems a shame to waste them!



So the Project becomes the Great NZ Light AI Project, pronounced Jeanz Lap
The spotter Pajero has a new logo too.

[ardypilot]

Great to see the 5 tonne development guys! I have changed the topic name accordingly

Love the screenshot too- well done on all your hard work so far- keep it up!

By the way- how will you include the Volcanic Air Safari's AI plans?

They are C206 floatplanes based on Lake Rotorua right, and the jetty scenery is only included with REAL NZ Rotorua- so will everyone need this scenery in order to be able to use your addon?

[Charl]

Just watch this space - they take off on water so don't need any specific scenery.



But wait! You will see them from time to time elsewhere too. They are amphibeans remember, and thanks to HTAI's magic, and a little skullduggery with the traffic files, they will land where you least expect B)

[ardypilot]

Fantastic!

It just gets better and better!

[Jenks]

Got to ask you Charl - have you managed to get them successfully operating off the water?

There was much discussion in the HTAI forums on this. A lot of people, myself included, couldn't get it to work correctly. Some said you needed to adjust the contact points before it would work, others said the complete opposite...

The best I achieved was that it operated from a water runway, but I had to put up with it alternately submerging up to the bottom of the fuselage and then at other times taxiing along a few feet off the water! I was trying to get 'DXC operating from Taupo.

If you've managed to get it working I would love to know how - or better still grab an AFCAD file off you so I can have a look at what you did.

[Charl]

Yep - it's all done in the AFCAD.
I've posted a quick video clip, have a look in the videos forum.
I'll do a little more tweaking before it's done, and also maybe change the water effects of the aircraft slightly.

While I have your attention - what's your next paint project- Ardmore Cessnas?

[Jenks]

Yep, Ardmore Cessnas are filling up my paintshop hangar at the moment. Three done and two more in progress - plenty of reference for others as well. Check out my new topic 'Filling the gaps' for a couple already complete.

Apologies for not getting them uploaded to Avsim yet, but I will get them on there soon. I have around 10 repaints just waiting for me to find the time to upload them!

And thanks for the video, hopefully I'll be able to sort out my water strips now!

[Charl]

Great News
Jeff Trozzo, world-famous Carenado painter, is on board!
Jeff will have a go at some of these:
> >ZK- JCL Cessna 172RG Aeroplane Adventures Ltd
> >ZK- UWE Cessna 172N Air Charter Taupo
> >ZK- EHJ Cessna 172N Air Discovery Ltd
> >ZK- EJY Cessna 172N Air Discovery Ltd
> >ZK- FLT Cessna 172N Air Discovery Ltd
> >ZK- OFC Cessna 182R Air Discovery Ltd
> >ZK- DXF Cessna 172M Air Gisborne Ltd
> >ZK- SOW Cessna 185A Art Deco Airlines
> >ZK- JMC Cessna 172S CTC Aviation Training
> >ZK- JMY Cessna 172S CTC Aviation Training
> >ZK- JSP Cessna 172S CTC Aviation Training
> >ZK- CXM Cessna 177B Taupo Air Services
> >ZK- DHU Cessna 172M Taupo Air Services
> >ZK- EJZ Cessna A152 Waikato Aero Club
> >ZK- EOQ Cessna 152 Waikato Aero Club
> >ZK- JGP Cessna 172M Waikato Aero Club
> >ZK- WAM Cessna 172R Waikato Aero Club

This project is really gaining momentum, and may become a world-first in GA realism.

[CODY]

Well this will be my first....I needed to know,if you wanted the 'SP Skyhawk Tail" also...
On too "ZK-CXM, DHU, JSP And FLT"....
Jeff

[ganymedes62]

Hi guys, it's good to see that more people are painting up Henry's wonderfull Cessna's
I'm also happy to see that I can scratch a few from my own 'to do' list
As some of you may know, I'm responsible for painting up quite a few of the generics that are part of the Cessna package. If someone is in need of the base files for (some of) these generics, I still have my originals, which were made at 500% of the normal size. I also have the original work for most of the (tail) logo's, also oversized.
I also happen to be an avid collector of fonts, so if you're in need of a specific font for a registration or something, it is quite likely that I have it around
Cheers and good luck on the project,

Adrie van Dijk