John Hinson

Yes, usually a missing texture will produce a light grey aircraft. Just a shot in the dark, but try saving the textures in DXTBMP to a different, but appropriate, format. John

Ha ha - no, this is in real life! Officially called an IATA code, it is what appears on your airline ticket. In the USA, it is typically the last three letters of the ICAO code but rarely so in other countries - e.g. EGLL Heathrow is LHR. Best regards, John

PS - out of inquisitousness I just downloaded the file that is probably being referred to and I can see there are two LWM2 files present which I think are indeed Landclass although I am no expert on that. Take them out temporarily and see if that improves things. John

PDX is the ticket code for Portland. "Blurries" are most commonly caused by Landclass files in a scenery directory that also has a texture directory. It can also apparently be caused by excess work demanded from the CPU (which may be one and the same thing!). There may be some residue from the original scenery installed that is causing this, but it is worth checking there are no LC files in the scenery in question. That issue doesn't seem to affect all users and I have seen many sceneries distributed with LC files in the wrong place. John

Chris - in technical terms you may well be correct but in layman's terms AFCAD does indeed destroy features that it doesn't understand. I mentioned the matter of placing a file at a higher level earlier. Best regards, John

The actual file name isn't critical (although it is snesible to follow a convention for your own ease of identification) - as long as the file has a .bgl suffix and is in a valid scenery directory, Flight Simulator will recognise it and act upon it. John

This is why I don't understand why anybody uses AFCAD any more. AFCAD goes back years and does not understand features that have been discovered since. In this instance, it is clearly exclude boxes that are getting destroyed during a save. ADE requires a bit of a mindset change to understand and use but does the job very well. If you want something that looks and feels more like AFCAD, get a few coins out from your wallet and buy AFX. The latter will also warn you if you try and save a file with unknown features (rare!) and instruct how to circumnavigate the issue. If there was a button I could press that would uninstall AFCAD from everybody in the world's PCs, the number of threads across a range of forums would be reduced! 🙂 Psssst! Don't tell anybody, but another way to resolve qballbandit's issue would be to save the modified file on a different scenery layer to load after the original. Any special features only in the original would still work. . . . and please don't now mention the urban myth about multiple A&FD files. John

A couple of thoughts from this end: Make sure FS9.exe is "Run as Administrator" Make sure the destination directory for the flights is not "Read Only" John

I repeat: Runways do not "harden" the surface, only taxiways and aprons do. Runways never have, and the software you use to create an AFD file makes no difference. Using taxiways and aprons is a bodge, what will make a big difference is that ADE will create an invisible flatten polygon - this will be a separate file. The reason I strongly recommend dropping the use of AFCAD2 (the latest version is 23 years old!) is because it will silently destroy features created by newer software such as AFX or ADE if you amend and save a file. There are a couple of very good alternatives to AFCAD - AFX is great for those used to AFCAD as it is very similar, but ADE has a few more features such as the flatten polygon mentioned. John

Runways do not "harden" the surface, there must be something else in your AFD file that does that - an apron area or taxiway perhaps. Are you using AFCAD? That is dark ages stuff, and will actually destroy features added by more modern editors. Use ADE, and create a flatten polygon for the area of the carrier. John

I'm afraid I really can't think of any good reason why they should want to post blatant lies. John

Where the heck did you get that idea from? If you read their home page explaining the reason for the temporary outage, you will see: Forums will remain the heart of the site John

The Flightsom.com temporary home page is very clear in explaining that the downloads will be available agan once the rebuild of the site is complete. Best regards, John

You are entitled to your opinion, of course. But I believe you are mistaken. It is worth reading-up about copyright law. Whilst products may be offered free of charge, they remain the property (and copyright) of the developer concerned, whose permission should be obtained before sharing. Sadly, as time passes, files do get lost. That's life. But the files on Flightsim.com are not lost, they will return. Fortunately on this occasion, another source seems to have been found to save you waiting for that. I cannot remember whether it was this forum or the one at Flightsim.com, but posts requesting the sharing of files used to regularly be removed. John

Be patient and await the return of Flightsim.com. It hasn't gone for ever. The legality of asking people to send you files is questionable. John

I would have though that if it is only a case of replacing a few details, it should be possible with a half-decent graphics programme (I use one that allows layering during the preparation) and a conversion utility such as DXTBMP: https://www.mwgfx.co.uk/programs/dxtbmp.htm The latter allows you to change the textures to something editable. My experience is limited to changing incorrect registrations on third-party aircraft and I have every success with that method. But as Chris says, if you want to do more than that it gets a whole lot more complicated! Good luck, John

I liked Windows 7 because it predated all the annoying bloat that followed. It just worked in the background and did its job. I would love to still have it, but realistically that won't happen. Instead I put up with all the annoying pop-ups that interrupt my work, telling me things I just do not want to know. I have spent much time working out how to turn most distractions off, but it shouldn't be like that in the first place. Something that goes with getting old is not liking change. Especially when it is change for changes sake - usually with the sole intention of extracting something from your wallet. J

That is not what he said - the name is Matthew Ministry. Like "aussiewannabe" the only site offering it is an FTP site and is a little dubious in the way it operates, insisting you download a file before accessing the file you want. I would not touch that with a bargepole. Matthew is a well-established developer and provider of free downloads. My best suggestion is to check some others of his files for a contact address - he may be able to assist. Or perhaps contact William Morgan, the provider of the file that says needs Matthew's extra. There is nothng insecure about FTP as such but many browsers have never supported it properly. Best regards, John

ADE & AFX will do it fine. John

The web site is not dead. You didn't get a reply because nobody knows of any. I believe there is some software that will convert aircraft to statics, but I have never used it. It is probably this one: https://www.fs2000.org/2010/11/30/fs2004fsx-static-aircraft-mdl-maker/ What I do is set up some once a week AI flight plans, two trips out and back at around 3 in the morning (it has to be two, although can be timed so tight that the second one is cancelled) and then you never see them move. Hope that helps. John

Gosh, Ray, never mind breaking that record, that goes back further than my ageing memory does and I am really having to scratch my head over this. It feels an eternity since I used Radar Contact - as it didn't suit my regression to the 1960s era of simulation with slow-descending aircraft I went elsewhere. Although you could read it that way, my post doesn't specifically refer to my creating the NORWEGIAN or NOR SHUTTLE call signs and I think its likely other airlines had greater priority for me at the time. I am afraid the answer is that I am pretty sure I didn't upload it and any work I did on Radar Contact is long gone to the great recycling plant in the sky. With apologies, John

Hi Ray, I am not a supporter of the "my simulator is better than yours" discussions that seem to dominate some forums, but you can be assured that FS2004, if well managed, will give hours of endless pleasure without running out of VAS. A reasonably modern computer, not needing to be high-spec, runs it nicely. That doesn't mean it is the best flight simulator in the world, but I hang onto it for a very good reason - an extreme eyesight issue causes me to get unpleasantly disorientated if using Virtual Cockpits. There may not be many posts on forums such as these, but perhaps that's because most of what there is to say has already been said. But that doesn't mean this simulator isn't used or loved any more. I usually check in daily and expect others do too. Best regards, John

I'm sorry, but that comment is not thought through. Server space costs money, and allowing people to freely upload images consumes a huge amount of it. Just use a third-party service (which covers its costs by other methods) and live with it. John

There is another, FS Meteo. It is intersting to note that many of the surviving weather engines support a huge range of FS versions, in the case of FS M from FS98/CFS2 right through to Perpar3D. It questions why some of the other weather engine developers dropped it. Personally prefer FS GRW visually, but have FS Meteo on hand for a rainy day - pun intended! With FS2004 you just don't know what might disappear tomorrow. Best regards, John

Sorry, I can't - I downloaded mine many years ago from a site that old age doesn't allow me to remember. Sorry if I wasn't clear: FS2004 mesh may be available commercially, but I don't think you will get it with road/river corrections FSX mesh is compatible with FS2004 FSX road/river adjustments are not compatible with FS2004. Hope that helps. John