The Mission and Monitor screen is accessed from the Aircraft Selection screen or the Flight Generator screen.

The Mission and Monitor screen provides aircraft settings for computation of the assessment and for the choice of missions.

Missions and Vessel Landings: If you are near the sea a mission may appear in the searched list in the Flight Generator screen. A mission may also be chosen at random as a result of pressing the right facing Red Arrow "New Destination" icon on the Airport: Home Page.

Current missions available are maintenance missions and sea searches, and landing on a boat at sea if landing types are chosen.

Check the boxes next to vessels you want to try landing on. Uncheck all vessels compliant with sea searches or maintenance missions, rather than vessels for landing missions so that missions are always capable landing missions.

Maintenance Missions:

Choose a helicopter or light bush aircraft, maybe with tundra tyres.

Go to mission page - missions, check "Maintenance Missions".

In the Flight Generator page, clear the searched list ("!" button).

Perform a search: Look at the top of the searched destinations list, there may be some navigation site locations at the top. If there are none then you need to relocate or choose a longer flight time.

Sea Search Missions:

Go to mission page - missions, check "Sea Searches".

Any of the boats in the list will be used for search operations, checked or unchecked.

In the Flight Generator page, clear the searched list ("!" button).

Perform a search: Look at the top of the searched destinations list, there may be one Sea Search Mission at the top.

Note: capsized vessels drift with the wind direction. With >augmented versions, any ship can be rendered drifting in the wind, these missions show ship speed as zero knots.

Vessel Landing Missions:

Go to mission page - missions, check "Vessel Landing Mission".

Check some of the boats in the list, perhaps just the carrier or luxury yacht, these will be selected for landings.

In the Flight Generator page, clear the searched list ("!" button).

Perform a search: Look at the top of the searched destinations list, there may be one Vessel Landing Mission at the top.

No Missions:

Go to mission page - missions, check "No Mission".

Mission locations can be viewed in the World Map page, use the right hand dropdown list to choose locations onshore or offshore, browse through them and locate yourself nearby them for missions.

Approaches Selection:

Requires Approach Plan Types. Please see Flight Generation

Short Medium and Long Approaches: Choose approach legs lengths; distance calculated for the time at the aircraft normal approach speed.

Computed Approach: First a runway approach is computed, with waypoints generated to the touchdown. Finally a route is computed between departure and approach.

Other approach routes included with >augmented upgrade:

Final Approach Fix: If available a natural FAF is selected as an approach to the runway, otherwise a FAF is computed.

Final Approach Fix ILS Preferred: If available a natural ILS FAF is selected as an approach to the runway, otherwise a FAF is computed.

Final Approach Fix NDB/VOR Preferred: If available a natural NDB/VOR FAF is selected as an approach to the runway, otherwise a FAF is computed.

STAR: Standard Terminal Arrival Route. STAR waypoint ends route in GPS plan, no FAF. The routes usually head toward a transition waypoint onto STARs. Choose to load into the FMC or GPS, a relevant STAR for the assigned runway approach.

FAF and STAR: STAR endpoints compatible with the GPS plan are added from the currently selected AIRAC Data, major route transition, FAF and FAP if available.

ILS FAF and STAR: The ILS Approach is favoured if more than one available

NDB/VOR FAF and STAR: The NDB/VOR Approach is favoured if more than one available

Final Approach waypoint: The STAR approach features a Final Approach Fix (FAF) from the AIRAC information. Additionally, a Final Approach waypoint (FAP) is drawn ahead of the FAF if it can improve on the final heading. If a final approach fix is not found, one is created at the Computed Approach APP1 waypoint, which is very similar to the FAF.

Departures Selection:

Requires Approach Plan Types. Please see Flight Generation

Initial Departure Fix: If available a natural IDF is selected as a departure from the runway, otherwise an IDF is computed.

SID: Standard Instrument Departure. SID waypoint major route endpoints compatible with the plan are added from the currently selected AIRAC Data. The plan heads toward a terminal waypoint usually being a transition from the SID onto the major routes. Choose to load into the FMC or GPS, a relevant SID for the assigned runway departure.

IDF and SID: SID waypoints compatible with the plan are added from the currently selected AIRAC Data including the IDF.

Failures and Reliability:

To enable Flap and Gear damage:

IF Mission and Monitor page, Damage and Failures, check "Equipment Stress Damage" and "Equipment Damage Flaps and Gear"

You may want to have the appropriate FSX Realism items set:

• In Flight Model: Move the "Crash Tolerance" slider over to the right - realistic
• In Crashes and Damage: Check "Detect Crashes and Damage"
• In Crashes and Damage: Check "Aircraft Stress Causes Damage"

However, Gear and Flaps fail due only to continuous over-speed, which is detected by IF. The gear and flaps cannot be affected by the Probability Induced Reliability setting.

Probability Induced Failures:

Ideal Flight applies a probability of failure to various systems to create random failure scenarios based on MTF, mean time between failures.

Failures are enabled or disabled for Engines, Instruments, Brakes, and Other systems. Enable G-Force to have an effect, and messages can be enabled so you get a report as the failure happens. Systems can simply fail with time, but can fail more often when misused or with aggressive flying. Manually alter the probabilities if for example you would like to simulate an aircraft in disrepair.

Damages and Failures:

Damages and Failures are split into five groups; Equipment Damage, Engine Failures, and Instruments, Brakes, and Other System Failures.

Equipment Stress Damages Include:

    Gear Overspeed Damage
    Flaps Overspeed Damage

Equipment Failures are subject to stress from overspeed, and have no probability settings.

Gear and Flaps will fail a certain time before reaching maximum stress speed.

Engine Failures Include:

    Engine Turbo Failure
    Engine Fire
    Total Engine Failure

Instrument Failures Include:

    ADF
    Airspeed
    Altimeter
    Attitude
    Comms
    Compass
    Electrical
    Engine
    Heading
    Vertical Velocity
    Transponder
    Nav
    Pitot
    Vacuum

Brake Failures Include:

    Total Brake Failure
    Left Brake Failure
    Right Brake Failure

Other Failures Include:

    Vacuum Failure
    Electrical Failure
    Hydraulic Failure
    Pitot Blockage
    Static Port Blockage

When on the ground, the surface is measured for bumps and more bumps will increase probability of failure, and so will travelling faster while on the ground.

The probability an engine might fail is increased when using full power, generally to use a shade under full power will preserve the engines.

A failed turbo will cause the engine to fail sooner, an engine fire will fail the engine fairly soon after (and turbo if there is one).

Pulling high G or landing with a bump will also increase the probability of failure.

Whenever a flight is started, the aircraft is considered serviced.

Probability Induced Reliability: Choose the reliability setting for the aircraft. The Custom Reliability setting shows that probabilities have been manually edited in the Settings.ini file.

The probability of failure is measured in Hours Mean Time Between Failures (Hrs MTBF).

Probability Failures Disabled - Ideal Flight will not induce random failures
Very Reliable           1 failure in 500 hours per group
Reliable                1 failure in 100 hours per group
Unreliable              1 failure in 50 hours per group
Very Unreliable         1 failure in 10 hours per group
Extremely Unreliable    1 failure in 5 hours per group
Totally Unreliable      1 failure in 1 hours per group
Custom Reliability      manually edit Settings.ini Failures values: EngineRisk, InstrumentRisk, BrakeRisk, and OtherRisk

If you are set at Reliable:

[Failures]
EngineRisk=360000       average 1 every 100h = 50 two hour flights
InstrumentRisk=180000   average 1 every 50h
BrakeRisk=540000        average 1 every 150h
OtherRisk=360000        average 1 every 100h

Custom Probability Settings: Choose the button just right of the probability menu. Alternatively edit custom probabilities in Settings.ini with Notepad:

[Failures]
EngineRisk=3600000      Default 3600000 seconds = 1000 hours MTBF
InstrumentRisk=1800000  Probability of failure = 1/1800000 = 500 hours mtbf
BrakeRisk=5400000       Failures are calculated each second
OtherRisk=3600000       Probabilities increase with aggressive flying and misuse
..

Windows XP: see "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Ideal Flight 10\Profiles\Settings.ini"

Windows Vista and above: see "C:\ProgramData\Ideal Flight 10\Profiles\Settings.ini"

Special Failure Scenarios: particular failures and scenarios can be set up with regular FSX Failures, found on the FSX Aircraft menu.

Vessel Landings: Landing missions require vessels with facilities to allow landing, these can be allocated by selecting required vessels from the vessel landings list.

Soft Runway Surfaces Preferred: Chooses grass runways if available, for the Fuel/ETA calculation, and places you at the runway start if "Active Runway" is also chosen.

Loose Runway Surfaces Preferred: Similar to "Soft Preferred" but chooses gravel and dirt runways instead.

Surface Types: Select surface types allowed from the surface types list. The water surface requires floats or buoyancy.

       0 = Concrete
       1 = Grass
       2 = Water
       3 = Grass Bumpy
       4 = Asphalt
       5 = Short Grass
       6 = Long Grass
       7 = Hard Turf
       8 = Snow
       9 = Ice
      10 = Urban
      11 = Forest
      12 = Dirt
      13 = Coral
      14 = Gravel
      15 = Oil Treated
      16 = Steel Mats
      17 = Bituminous
      18 = Brick
      19 = Macadam
      20 = Planks
      21 = Sand
      22 = Shale
      23 = Tarmac
      24 = Wright Flyer Track

Surface type designations are as follows

• Firm: 0, 4, 10, 17, 18, 19, 23
• Loose: 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22
• Soft: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7
• Other: 11, 15, 16, 24

Water only aircraft should have Water selected alone.

Water and other surfaces combined denote amphibious aircraft.

Monitored Systems and Other Actions: Select systems and actions to be monitored for flight assessment and scoring, and settings for the flight:

• Monitor Slope: Keeps track of your descent onto the runway. Not down an ILS, instead monitors the slope consistency, so that it works for landing anywhere, at any slope required.
• Assess Flight Time: Only assessed when you land at the planned airport.

• Show Approach Waypoints: Choose to show approach waypoints in the briefing route table, and the route map, and also in route text strings.
• Show Approach Map in Briefing: Choose to show the approach map in the briefing.
• Show Departure Map in Briefing: Choose to show the departure map in the briefing.

Passenger signs:

Turn them on before pushback - they are checked during pushback
Turn them off when underway - they are checked during flight after takeoff
Turn them on before touchdown - they are checked during touchdown
Turn them off before exiting - they are checked when you come to rest

Measurements: Start and Stop Speeds The speed at which measurements begin to record starting and stopping distances during takeoff and landing. With a speed of more than zero knots, the location the plane actually started moving from is unknown, this is estimated by projecting back from the point where the plane reaches the measurement speed. See more in Takeoff and Landing Distances in the Fly! section.

Advance To; Minutes to Go: WP, TOD When advancing time; these are the number of minutes to go at the present speed to the next waypoint or top of descent position. Also used for the Pause at Next WP / TOD in-flight menu item. Also see Measurement Settings

Ai Aircraft

Ai Aircraft do not use water runways. Do not select water landing only aircraft for Ai operations, or they will appear stuck on airport parking bays.

Aircraft will be departing and arriving at your destination, and at several airports along the route. Ai Aircraft will appear in their parking bays at the start of the simulation.

In tower views Ai aircraft can be observed up to 75Nm away on radar.

When FSX introduces Ai Aircraft into the simulation, a short pause may be noticed just as ATC starts talking to them.

The Ai Aircraft are started from the AiList.dat files in the "..\Ideal Flight\Flight\New" folder. We need to generate a flight to create one.

Ai Aircraft can be added to the list manually, so we can supply our own flight plans for them too.

The in-sim menu item "Remove Ai Aircraft", attempts to remove all Ai Aircraft not just IF10 traffic. The runway is cleared although in time other Ai programs continue to inject aircraft.

Ai Culling

During flight, excess Ai aircraft, off-route, or far away, are culled to aid performance, except in tower views. Ai aircraft are not culled if visiting departure or destination airports, or airports visible to the user aircraft en-route. This way the FSX Ai aircraft can be increased to fill the airports, without excess aircraft flying out of view during the flight. See Config.ini File [FSSetup], for settings. (>augmented)

Ai Settings - Ai Selection

Hide Parked Aircraft: Refers to your saved parked aircraft. If an aircraft is left in an official parking bay, Ai aircraft may also take the same spot. If parked aircraft are showing they could be shown merged with an AI aircraft when the sim starts.

In the interest of improved performance, IF10 only creates Ai aircraft likely to appear to the user during the flight, and removes them when they are no longer likely to appear.

En-route airports running Ai: Enable airports along the route running departures and arrivals.

Allow any smaller aircraft activity at large airfields: Do not restrict small aircraft from large airports.

Allow occasional smaller aircraft activity at large airfields: Occasionally allow small aircraft at large airports - overrides the "allow any smaller" setting.

Only the model can be selected for Ai. Depending on the add-on, the model may appear with the variation name as well, but all variations are selected with the single model item checked.

Full Ai Aircraft Optimisation: Allow IF10 to remove third party Ai Aircraft that are unlikely to appear or interact with the user. Please also see Ai Aircraft Culling for other settings.

Ai Shadow Aircraft: Enable the shadow aircraft, "Ai Buddy". In this case any model variation can be selected. (>augmented)

The Ai Shadow Aircraft (Ai Buddy) is scheduled to start very near to your departure time, or can be already departing, and is going to be flying precisely your route, with ATC. If the shadow aircraft is the exact same model as the user aircraft, it will be programmatically loaded to a similar amount, both aircraft flying equal loads. Other aircraft will load up with the setup from aircraft.cfg station values.

Ai Shadow Aircraft Settings:

• Ai Setting: Ai Shadow Aircraft. Enable or disable the Ai Shadow Aircraft before building the flight.
• Ai Setting: Hold Ai Shadow Aircraft for starting instructions. The Ai Buddy will be waiting for your command to start up right away. In this mode, Ai Buddy can still take several minutes to get underway, depending on traffic already in the sim. Otherwise Ai Buddy will start at or near to the user planned Push Back time, after the planned User Preparation time is completed.
• Ai Setting: Ai Shadow Aircraft keeps to left. The Ai Shadow flight plan is offset slightly from the user flight plan to the left or right, by an amount determined by the wingspan of the aircraft. Warning: When using the in-sim menu item to change Left/Right, the plan is rebuilt and the Ai Buddy is restarted on the new plan. The Ai Buddy aircraft may not necessarily move to the other (Left or Right) side of the user aircraft, since the Ai Buddy is on its own flight path, and does not strictly follow the exact line of the plan.

In-sim Ai Shadow Aircraft Actions Menu:

• Start: Start the Ai Shadow Aircraft when waiting for starting instructions. If waiting for instructions, the Ai Buddy will get underway after the planned User Preparation time is completed.
• Locate: Message showing bearing and distance to the Ai Shadow Aircraft.
• Follow Plan: Follows the plan and keeps to flight speeds laid out in the briefing.
• Go Ahead: Leads the way.
• Close Up: Keeps close by.
• Drop Back: Follows behind.
• Distant: Increases distances.
• Steady: No roaming.
• Left: Ai Buddy follows its own plan similar to that loaded by the User aircraft. Warning: The Left/Right directive actually restarts the Ai Buddy nearby the user aircraft on a new plan shifted laterally to the user plan.
• Reset Nearby: Restart the Ai Shadow Aircraft, positioning nearby the user aircraft when in flight, or at the ramp if the user aircraft is on the ground or very close to the airport. The Ai Shadow may appear significantly below your aircraft if you have gained altitude very quickly.
• Reset: Restart the Ai Shadow Aircraft at the ramp.
• Exit: The Ai Shadow Aircraft ends flight, and waits at the departure ramp to be restarted with the Start menu item. The User Preparation time is ignored.

Tips for using shadow aircraft:

• Choosing a similar or slower shadow aircraft can make it easier to follow.
• Set the user aircraft parameters to build routes for the performance of the shadow aircraft if possible, so that your plan can be compatible with the shadow aircraft.
• Internally IF10 can instruct the aircraft to match the current user aircraft speeds, or catch up and slow down as needed, to an extent.
• The aircraft may play around; for example it could pass by then dive below and come up behind.
• When restoring a saved flight IF10 tries to place the Ai Shadow aircraft just up ahead of you if you are on level flight between waypoints.
• The Ai engine cannot start aircraft too near the airport take-off and landing areas or it will start on the ground.
• Save your game when established on a route at level flight, then after restoring, there is a better chance you can reconnect with your Ai Buddy.
• When choosing to set Ai Buddy to Go Ahead, try reducing your speed slightly to help Ai Buddy get ahead quickly. Especially at or near maximum speeds. Similarly when using the Drop Back directive, try increasing your speed temporarily to reduce the time taken for Ai Buddy to fall behind.

Ai Aircraft Notes:

The Ai aircraft list box finds installed aircraft including those found in folders specified in fsx.cfg. The checked aircraft are Ai traffic that IF will randomly select and control independently of other traffic systems. Unchecked aircraft are available for IF to use but this is opting not to use them.

IF traffic does not affect other traffic, the aircraft will occupy empty parking slots or will not enter the sim. The FSX traffic slider has no effect with IF10 Traffic. IF traffic adds a few aircraft around the flight schedule and route so there will be some company at any time of day. Ai aircraft cannot stay at airports with no parking facility.

[FlightParams]
AiMinSelection=10       ← Minimum number of Ai models selected for each airport
AiSelectionPercent=25   ← Percentage of available Ai models selected in the Ai Selection box for each airport
AiMaxPercent=50         ← Percentage of parking used by IF traffic with over 10 places available
AiRatio=50              ← Departure and Destination traffic, verses En-Route traffic
AiParked=60             ← Percentage and parked verses in-flight traffic

fsx.cfg File

We need to ensure other SimObjects directories are included in fsx.cfg:

[Main]
User Objects=Airplane, Helicopter
SimObjectPaths.0=SimObjects\Airplanes
SimObjectPaths.1=SimObjects\Rotorcraft
SimObjectPaths.2=SimObjects\GroundVehicles
SimObjectPaths.3=SimObjects\Boats
SimObjectPaths.4=SimObjects\Animals
SimObjectPaths.5=SimObjects\Misc
SimObjectPaths.6=SimObjects\UT2 Aircraft        ← a traffic add-on would normally insert an entry like this
SimObjectPaths.7=MyTraffic\aircraft
SimObjectPaths.8=G:\AIPlanes                    ← add your own entry for another directory like this
SimObjectPaths.9=..\..\..\MyAi                  ← and relative to your FSX program directory like this

IF10 Settings.ini File

We can exclude directories for use by IF Ai in Ideal Flight Settings.ini:

[AiExcludeDirs]
Dir1=SimObjects\Rotorcraft
Dir2=SimObjects\Animals
Dir3=SimObjects\Boats
Dir4=SimObjects\GroundVehicles
Dir5=SimObjects\Misc
Dir6=SimObjects\UT2 Aircraft
Dir7=G:\AIPlanes

Perhaps we want to store our aircraft elsewhere on the system, maybe organised between Ai and User types.

Say I have C:\MyAiAircraft and C:\MyAddonAircraft

I would add these lines to FSX config - Section [Main] in fsx.cfg

SimObjectPaths.8=C:\MyAddonAircraft <- I don't want these included for Ai just users
SimObjectPaths.9=C:\MyAiAircraft <- I want these for Ai - IF10 reads fsx.cfg and installs these


In IF10 Settings.ini IF10 reads these and includes them all for Users - IF10 settings.ini:

[AircraftIncludeDirs]
Dir1=SimObjects\Airplanes 
Dir2=SimObjects\Rotorcraft
Dir3=C:\MyAddonAircraft <- I don't want these included for Ai just users


Next in settings.ini IF10 reads these and excludes them all for Ai - IF10 settings.ini:

[AiExcludeDirs]
Dir1=SimObjects\Rotorcraft
Dir2=SimObjects\Animals
Dir3=SimObjects\Boats
Dir4=SimObjects\GroundVehicles
Dir5=SimObjects\Misc
Dir6=C:\MyAddonAircraft <- I don't want these included for Ai just users


Completely refresh the Ai Setup by deleting the AIInclude.dat file

Close IF10, then delete the file:
"C:\ProgramData\Ideal Flight 10\Profiles\AIInclude.dat"

Finally restart IF10 and go to the Ai Selection Page.


Hint: The popup menu on the IF10 startup page will take you to Edit the IF10 config and settings files.
The popup menu on the main page will take you to Explorer Locations - FSX config.

AiList.dat files

e.g. "C:\ProgramData\Ideal Flight 10\Flight\New\4_AiList.dat"

D=at your Departure airport, A=at your Arrival (destination) airport
.:A=Arriving, D=Departing
.:.:Departure airport
.:.:....:Arrival airport
.:.:....:....:ID number for Plan file
.:.:....:....:...:0-99% time from first 30 minutes approximately, and 30 from destination
.:.:....:....:...:..:Aircraft folder name, use '#' in place of ':' for the drive name
.:.:....:....:...:..:...............:Aircraft variation title
.:.:....:....:...:..:...............:..................:ATC Call Sign
.:.:....:....:...:..:...............:..................:......:Flight Time (decimal hours)
.:.:....:....:...:..:...............:..................:......:....:Cruise Speed (Knots)
.:.:....:....:...:..:...............:..................:......:....:....:Cruise Altitude (ft)
.:.:....:....:...:..:...............:..................:......:....:....:....:Wingspan (m)
.:.:....:....:...:..:...............:..................:......:....:....:....:....:PlanType (IFR, VFR)
.:.:....:....:...:..:...............:..................:......:....:....:....:....:....:Traffic portion, B, C, D, E = mid route, A = route ends

A:A:LSPM:LFBL:1:22:d#\ai\Mooney_Bravo:Mooney Bravo With G1000:N1000B:2.10:180:15000:5.50:VFR:A
A:D:LFBL:LFLO:5:22:d#\ai\C208B:Cessna Grand Caravan Paint1:N208LN:1.09:160:18000:7.94:IFR:A
D:A:DIAP:EGFF:6:5:d#\ai\C208B:Cessna Grand Caravan:N208BC:2.81:160:18000:7.94:VFR:A
D:A:LFLO:EGFF:2:13:d#\ai\Mooney_Bravo:Mooney Bravo With G1000:N1000B:2.75:180:15000:5.50:IFR:A
D:A:LFSG:EGFF:3:7:d#\ai\FA-18:FA-18 Hornet 1:N002:1.37:400:40000:5.70:IFR:A
D:D:EGFF:EGXJ:4:26:d#\ai\FA-18:FA-18 Hornet 3:N004:0.67:400:40000:5.70:IFR:A

All decimal values are expressed with "." a period.
Drive names use "#" in place of ":", e.g. "C#\" = "C:\".

These plans would be found in the IF\Flight\New folder with the other files for the flight:

0_Ai0001.PLN
0_Ai0002.PLN
0_Ai0003.PLN
0_Ai0004.PLN
0_Ai0005.PLN
0_Ai0006.PLN

You can add your own aircraft and plan definitions, but FSX will not accept any plan or aircraft for Ai Flight if it is incompatible with conditions.