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[PapaG39]

I am attempting to get back into FMB after years away from it...

After choosing the HomeBase and an acft I want to position myself  "only one airplane"  near the end of the runway that I want to take off from.

I know that you can put the aircraft on the runway by simply placing the aircraft icon on the lift off end of the runway, but I want to taxi a bit to the runway I want to take off from.
I'm using the mosquito with 4x500lb bombs and it sometimes it needs more rooml to lift off so I like to taxi far enough back to get the extra room for
a good lift off...
To many of these runways on the Channel maps have either trees or buildings or something nasty right on the end of the runway..
don't know why they did that, but they did...ha ha..

Anyway, how can I place my Mosquito exactly where I want it?

I have an old FMB help manual by "Nutcase from long long ago, but he doesn't address that particular scenario...

[KiwiBiggles]

Hi PapaG,

You're absolutely right about runway design and airfield layouts, many player-built maps (as opposed to stock Maddox maps) can't handle heavily-loaded aircraft, or too many aircraft at once.  Historically in the IL-2 modding world, I believe this wasn't well understood until a modder called Spider109 wrote a very thorough tutorial on the topic.  Even some stock Maddox maps have terrain elevation issues where AI aircraft can't complete the landing circuit without having a "controlled flight into terrain", or taxi way-point issues where AI aircraft can't taxi to their parking points without colliding into airfield buildings etc.  The solution is that airfield layouts and environs need to be carefully designed and tested to launch and recover certain numbers and types of aircraft successfully.

But I digress...

I believe you are flying CUP, so you have access to the 4.12 taxi-to-takeoff feature.  Take a look at these videos to see how it's done.  I place my "take-off" way-point exactly over the runway takeoff icon, and a further ordinary navigation way-point directly in line with the runway about 3-5 kms out, at about 500 meters altitude (for fighters) to ensure the AI aircraft take off nice and straight.  With a bit of experimentation you and your AI Mossies should be taxi-ing to take-off in no time. 





Good hunting!
KB

[PapaG39]

Excellent info KB, thank you.  It took me a while because he breezed right through the most important parts which took me a
while to catch by zooming things bigger & I finely caught the clicking on "target" to get things set correctly.
Without clicking on the target I couldn't get the "taxi to runway" to show up...

Another question this brought up though:  what am I doing wrong because after take off the acft does 5 complete turns to the left at very low altitude
before it finely does a 360 to the right and then proceeds on to the first way point & then if flys AP fine from there.
Even doing a manual takeoff & latere putting the AP on the dank thing just headed back to the airport .. so something I'm not doing somewhere...

I varied the distance,  altitude & speeds for the first waypoint, but that didn't make any difference for me anyway...

[nyali]

i seem to recall a similar issue, i think the way to correct it [working from memory here] is to make 1 taxi to runway waypoint on the very end of the runway you wish to use, then about 50 meters in front of that on the runway place your takeoff waypoint, with the first flight waypoint about 3km away in line with that. This ensures that the aircraft 'takes off' and then proceeds to the next waypoint as normal.

the behaviour of the plane making the turns back over the runway is due to the autopilot trying to hit [fly over] the takeoff point.

[KiwiBiggles]

Here's how I do it fellas.  Note the waypoint at the end of the runway (the lift-off end) is a "normal" take-off waypoint:

Waypoint 13(15) = Waypoint: Takeoff; Waypoint Options: Normal

All the taxi-ing waypoints prior to that are "taxi" take-off waypoints:

Waypoint 0(15) - 12(15) = Waypoint: Takeoff; Waypoint Options: Taxi to Takeoff

The last waypoint (the first "navigation" waypoint) is a normal waypoint in line with the runway:

Waypoint 14(15) = Waypoint: Normfly; Waypoint Options: Normal

Here's the mission code you can try yourself (created in stock 4.12).

Code: [Select]

[MAIN]
  MAP NWEurope/load.ini
  TIME 12.0
  CloudType 0
  CloudHeight 1000.0
  player RAF_No486SQN00
  army 1
  playerNum 0
[SEASON]
  Year 1940
  Month 6
  Day 15
[WEATHER]
  WindDirection 0.0
  WindSpeed 0.0
  Gust 0
  Turbulence 0
[MDS]
  MDS_Radar_SetRadarToAdvanceMode 0
  MDS_Radar_RefreshInterval 0
  MDS_Radar_DisableVectoring 0
  MDS_Radar_EnableTowerCommunications 1
  MDS_Radar_ShipsAsRadar 0
  MDS_Radar_ShipRadar_MaxRange 100
  MDS_Radar_ShipRadar_MinHeight 100
  MDS_Radar_ShipRadar_MaxHeight 5000
  MDS_Radar_ShipSmallRadar_MaxRange 25
  MDS_Radar_ShipSmallRadar_MinHeight 0
  MDS_Radar_ShipSmallRadar_MaxHeight 2000
  MDS_Radar_ScoutsAsRadar 0
  MDS_Radar_ScoutRadar_MaxRange 2
  MDS_Radar_ScoutRadar_DeltaHeight 1500
  MDS_Radar_HideUnpopulatedAirstripsFromMinimap 0
  MDS_Radar_ScoutGroundObjects_Alpha 5
  MDS_Radar_ScoutCompleteRecon 0
  MDS_Misc_DisableAIRadioChatter 0
  MDS_Misc_DespawnAIPlanesAfterLanding 1
  MDS_Misc_HidePlayersCountOnHomeBase 0
  MDS_Misc_BombsCat1_CratersVisibilityMultiplier 1.0
  MDS_Misc_BombsCat2_CratersVisibilityMultiplier 1.0
  MDS_Misc_BombsCat3_CratersVisibilityMultiplier 1.0
[RespawnTime]
  Bigship 1800
  Ship 1800
  Aeroanchored 1800
  Artillery 1800
  Searchlight 1800
[Wing]
  RAF_No486SQN00
[RAF_No486SQN00]
  Planes 4
  Skill 1
  Class air.TEMPEST5
  Fuel 100
  weapons default
  spawn0 3_Static
  spawn1 2_Static
  spawn2 1_Static
  spawn3 0_Static
[RAF_No486SQN00_Way]
  TAKEOFF_005 4099.66 12636.80 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_005 4297.70 12930.64 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_005 4309.93 12943.63 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_005 4325.87 12952.40 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_005 4348.19 12957.18 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_005 4369.70 12961.16 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_005 4343.41 13112.58 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_005 4342.61 13126.92 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_005 4348.19 13142.86 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_005 4359.34 13148.44 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_005 4370.50 13154.02 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_005 4399.19 13159.60 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_005 4405.57 13120.55 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF 4675.66 11599.35 0 0 &0
  NORMFLY 5462.10 6804.06 500.00 300.00 &0
[NStationary]
  0_Static vehicles.planes.Plane$TEMPEST5 1 3981.68 12625.56 400.00 0.0 null 1 1.0 null 1
  1_Static vehicles.planes.Plane$TEMPEST5 1 4003.08 12649.34 400.00 0.0 null 1 1.0 null 1
  2_Static vehicles.planes.Plane$TEMPEST5 1 4017.82 12670.26 400.00 0.0 null 1 1.0 null 1
  3_Static vehicles.planes.Plane$TEMPEST5 1 4036.36 12691.65 400.00 0.0 null 1 1.0 null 1
[Buildings]
[Bridge]
[House]


Click to enlarge image in Photobucket


Click to enlarge image in Photobucket



Hope it helps. 
KB

[PapaG39]

Ha Ha  KB, when I look at the coded print outs my old brain just turns to mush.., however, I have watched each of those tutorials several times
and each time I gleaned a bit more FMB knowledge to tuck away for the future.
There is so much to know about the FMB and I am waaayy behind the power curve right now, but your fine tutorials have perked me up
a whole bunch...ha ha..
Once I get up to speed its gona open a lot more fun  for me...
@ 76 my wife & I don't do a whole lot of strenuous stuff any more...she likes her crossword puzzles & I like my il2

One of the Tutorials showed a long line from the last taxi-for-takeoff to past the far end of the runway as a normfly, so I put it way out there & 3000m & 350km
& the ol Mosquito just took off & climbed right up to 3000m following all of the waypoints just fine...

thanks again

S!

[PapaG39]

I was just going through the Taxi to Takeoff Tutorial which brought up another question.
Since there are four A20's are you starting your #1 aircraft manually or are you using the AP throughout the takeoff sequence?
Also, just prior to takeoff you did some very fast clicking among the communication stuff at the top left of screen.
is this part of the setup before taxi to get them to follow correctly or what? 

[KiwiBiggles]

Sorry PapaG, I should have been clear those aren't my videos, they're from the net.  One of them is also hosted at M4T's Knowledge Base, and they're the ones I used to figure out how to plot taxis-to-takeoff for myself. 

A correctly plotted mission should work whether you're flying manually, on auto-pilot, or for AI flights.

Let me know if you're still having trouble with it, and I'll make a step-by-step illustrated tutorial on the weekend--once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy.  I do actually think the feature is a bit buggy in 4.12--sometimes when you start the mission you'll be at the "lift-off" takeoff point facing the wrong way down the runway, so watch out for that, usually it will fix itself if you re-start the mission.  I haven't tested the feature thoroughly in 4.13, but I suspect TD fixed the bug in their latest patches.  At the moment I'm working on a 4.12 taxi-to-takeoff campaign for VP's Modpack, so it will be interesting to see how reliable taxi-ing is in a campaign environment--if it's not reliable I'll have to use "normal" take-offs, which would be a shame. 

Let me know if you'd like a more detailed tutorial though. 

Cheers
KB

[KiwiBiggles]

I'm not at my gaming computer, but this is the Comms procedure for a leading a manual flight to taxi from my (poor) memory.  I always fly as flight-leader--in my opinion the sim needs the player as flight leader to give of its best.

I - Start (own) engine.

Tab-3-Q-1 (comms menu: flight, start engines. Q is the "technical" menu)

Tab-9-5 (comms menu: tower, request takeoff clearance.  Actually, you can do this anytime, or not at all, it's just for "atmosphere" really and doesn't affect the simulation otherwise.)

Begin to taxi, your flight will follow you. I can't remember the key for the taxi pathway "arrows"--since I plan my own missions I already know the way! 

By default, your wingmen will follow you at 20-meter intervals, but you can increase the distance in the taxi waypoint options.  I haven't tried it yet, but think 30-meters might work quite well to stop the aircraft getting "bunched-up" sometimes.

Hope that helps some...

[PapaG39]

Hi KB
Thanks for the reply & I just assumed (wrongly) that you were the creator of those great videos without really looking into it..

anyway..  I have been doing one taxi-to-takeoff one after another on different runways & maps just to get myself into doing it correctly.

I have finely got myself into doing them without to many mistakes...
I have been using from one to four Mosquito aircraft loaded with 4x500lb bombs and full fuel in varied taxi type situations
and have been starting the show rolling via the AP.

Sometimes the aircraft just launches & climbs a steady climb and gains speed very well..other times it staggers into the air & climbs
like and overloaded, under-powered accident waiting to happen.  Ha Ha just like in real life.

I have been trying to learn how to level bomb with the Mossie from 3000M &  and little by little I am starting to get a feeling for it..

By making different scenarios  with FMB has been a big help by my being able to add a bit of challenging scenarios to it...

Oh boy...  I just went into my last single mission creation and started the engines myself, but the other three never did taxi with me.

I started the engines again and then, with the throttles at idle, selected the AP and the plane just launched itself immediately on a take off roll.

I guess, if your willing, I will definitely be open to your step-by-step- tutorial offer on how to get the ai moving without using the ap or howto go from engine start to ap & be able to get those other guys to follow ha ha...
S!

[KiwiBiggles]

Ah... level bombing.  You'd be able to teach me something there.  I've long wanted to give it a try, but never found the time.  One day soon I hope! 

[PapaG39]

Yeah, there is a definite time consuming learning curve to it.
the basic setting up the keys etc is no problem but the aircraft hands off trim in il2 has been a big problem for me.
plus my old brain doesn't work as fast as it use to and my instrument scan ain't like it was 45 years ago...ha ha...