Post by chasensfo on Mar 5, 2022 9:02:17 GMT -5
I am making this thread to replace the 90s Charter/Cargo/Start-up Carriers thread.
The previous thread contains many files I just threw together without properly coding airports, fixing errors using correct aircraft numbering or cruise speeds, etc. as well as not posting repaint links in most cases. The flight plans are also in a lazy copy+paste format instead of properly formatted like my Google Drive files for easy compiling. If there ever is to be an installer, things need to be streamlined. As 1998\99 is my main focus, I won't be doing much in recounting the history of these airlines in most cases, but I will offer at least a description of the carrier at the time. Posts in the old thread containing obsolete flightplans will be deleted as they are updated and posted here over time.
In this thread, I will share my retro flight plans made from any era EXCEPT for 1998 and 1999, as well as flight plans by others where appropriate with proper credit\permission.
Flightplans will be sorted first by decade and then geographically and may be found here: drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/0B44VcEgVwXmbdWVHOFM2VUNMY1U?resourcekey=0-ptOpoOV_TExBkpSyMrcMmg
All flightplans will use the appropriate airports actually used in each era, with scenery available for many of them and planned for most of the rest. Refer to this list to see which airports are used: drive.google.com/file/d/1dUfq3lgSfFgXxU7s4p3tCQAEpC3EJKjK/view
Incomplete Airlines:
Just as I have done with the 1998 Project, I will be uploading some incomplete airlines that either only represent flights by an airline to a certain geographical region or certain airports or exclude some aircraft types. As the 1998 project takes up most of the time I put aside for flight simulation stuff, many of these airlines will be posted with no intent of being fully finished. In that case, I will provide the raw flightplan files in MRAI format (the format used to compile into usable flightplans for the simulator) and that way members of the community can finish some or all of the carrier if they'd like so it makes progress. Anyone is welcome to try and finish these carriers, just contact me if you need help and so I can compile them with the existing plans and aircraft and find the repaints. Otherwise no need to ask permission, just let me know you're going to do it and all I ask is that we keep the files together for easy access rather than uploading them in another place instead when finished (though feel free to do that so long as they are also here with the other files and I get credit for my part).
December 1989 (So, let's call it 1990. Sometimes.)
For example, I know wernerw has been working on various schedules from the www.departedflights.com website, including 1989. As I badly wanted to fly around the late 1980s US West Coast during the short period of time where American and USAir had large operations made up from the assets of PSA and AirCal for just 3 years or so, I have decided to create flights from that era myself in the Western US, with no plans to expand to more regions, though it is possible. Most US carriers have with 1985, 1987 and\or 1991 flightplans thanks to the OAG projects from those eras, but as 1988 and 1989 were very unique in the United States as things moved fast with rapid consolidation in the fallout from the 1985-1988 "Merger Mania" (as it was called), hubs, routes, liveries, and aircraft types changed insanely fast. As a result, I feel the US carriers should be represented in this interesting bit of history. This will at least allow some regions to be fully explored until the full airlines are ever completed.
Though the schedule is from the very end of 1989, it would have more or less carried into the Spring of 1990, with most airlines keeping the schedule with minor trimming as needed until March or April. If an airline I complete from this schedule has 1990\91 plans already available, then I will call it 1989. If the airline is missing from 1990\91 but has 1988\89 plans already, or if that airline changed so much between the late 80s and early 90s that I think it needs separate 90s plans, then I will call it 1990. It will be a case-by-case basis that will simply ensure the most realistic retro world possible for those who, like me, switch between years they wish to fly in. In the case of USAir for example, 1991 plans already exist, but they reflect the carrier after dismantling its West Coast network and retiring the BAe-146 fleet. Likewise, 1988 plans from the OAG project exist for Piedmont Airlines, which was close to fully merging into USAir in 1988 but operating independently with hybrid jets that said "Piedmont' but were in USAir colors and whatnot. Since Piedmont survived independently until April of 1989, I feel they are best represented that way for the late 1980s and the 1991 plans will reflect the post-merger network. So, I will call the plans "USAir 1989", but I will make a 2nd version leaving out the former Piedmont routes to the project area from their hubs such as CLT and DAY, in case users would rather have Piedmont and USAir together but separate as they were for most of the late 80s. It may be inconsistent, but all that really matters is that each period has the most realistic traffic possible.
Note that with the exception of Alaska Airlines, I will not be doing airlines serving this region that already have both 1988/89 and 1990/91 flightplans completed, which includes Northwest Airlines, Aloha Airlines, Pan Am (mainline, regionals I'll do since LAX isn't represented in 1988), and Continental Airlines (mainline) along with various international carriers.
Some airlines that had their operations entirely in the Western US will be completed and uploaded as a normally completed air carrier, the incomplete carriers will end up here: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bVXf1tj1vmMF_PUyrvpyXbEh8uHKlbq1?usp=sharing
For now, partially completed airlines included in the project will include all flights to California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. In the future, I may add Hawaii and maybe YVR and some parts of Western Canada.
My edits of other flightplans
Over the years, I have edited many flightplans by others to make them more realistic. I've added proper variants and special liveries, removed fictitious aircraft, added charters in some cases, segregated regional carriers properly to get the correct callsigns, added subsidiaries like Delta\USAir Shuttle, corrected the airports used to match the year the plans represent, and sometimes corrected the cruise speeds and aircraft order for better AI parking at hubs. In the case of the 70s, 80s and early 90s OAG project by RAI member aleck, as the plans came in 1 massive file with all the airlines together, I have split them up into individual airlines so that they may be easily plugged into other eras (like using United 1985 with you 1987 traffic as well until there are proper plans, for example). I've also used the 1991 OAG plans of Aeroflot in its final form to make realistic 1991-93 plans for most of the dozens and dozens of independent airlines that were formed from the break up of Aeroflot in the various former USSR nations which were now independent, as well as ensuring the proper liveries and aircraft types are assigned for the new carriers. Often, these carriers started off rather huge with excess aircraft and routes, and those who survived past 1993 usually quickly downsized to a much smaller carrier. Prior to the mid 90s, almost all of these airlines operated in full Aeroflot colors with either no titles or logos, their own titles, or simply slapping the flag of their new nation over the Russian flag on the tail of the Aeroflot livery. I have done the repaints in many cases as well if needed (which was not nearly as much work as it sounds like). Obviously, even just assigning the proper livery variations to the MRAI 2003 flightplans, for example, required a lot of knowledge and resources, not to mention time. I did it over a decade, 6 years of which I had a job with a lot of downtime where I did most of this. So, with the exception of the ex-Soviet carriers and some plans by Eduardo and others who are OK with it, I will not actually post the plans individually on forums as I didn't make them, but I will post them in Google Drive so you all can use them yourselves. All credit, of course, goes to the original authors, who in most cases are no longer reachable, such as MRAI who's 2003 thru 2005 global flightplans are retro treasure now almost 2 decades later.
While I obviously do not have the time to hunt down repaints for the entire global 2003\4\5 MRAI projects, I am sharing my compiled files so that you may see if I have the aircraft installed personally or not. If I have it, they're out there somewhere and you can ask here on RetroAI in the shoutbox below or something. Many of these files will not have their own airport.txt. I will share the airport.txt file I used with Ttools to compile these plans which has just about every retro airport you'll need for compiling plans with, as well as dozens I had to add over the years as they weren't even included in the default airports file. If you run into this issue, Wikipedia is a good way to find the coordinates and elevation to quickly add the airport. Keep in mind that I either last installed these plans into P3Dv4 or P3Dv5, so running FS2004 or FSX, you will run into issues like RJNA being recognized as RJNN in your simulator, or Indonesian and Filipino airports using the old outdated codes changed in the 2000s. If you run into that, you'll either have to grab the needed airport from the airport.txt file of another airline, simply use the CTRL+R "replace" feature to correct the code for your simulator platform, or run the flightplans in AI Flightplanner which will both correct the airports and issue you an airprot.txt file itself when you save the plans. For now, I have done most of the North American airlines for the MRAI 2003 plans (not the 2004\5 plans yet) and much of the OAG project stuff, but I have not uploaded the majority of my edited plans and will do that over time. So check back from time to time and I'll post in the thread if there is a major upload.
If you see an "X" next to the plans, like "Air Calin 2003 X", that is my symbol to represent the plans are representative and marked so that I know to replace them in the future if possible. That means I used plans from another year but modified them to better fit the assigned year. In the case of Air Calin, I used 2005 plans (as no 2003 plans were made that I know of) but assigned the 2003 livery to them, rather than just placing the "Air Calin 2005" traffic.bgl into my 2003 file and seeing the wrong livery. I also do this to ensure planes use the correct airport or callsign if required, otherwise I simply just use the original .bgl from another year if it is similar enough as a stand-in, which is how you "fill in the gaps" with your retro time periods.
Links to folders containing modified flightplans, groped by era:
My 2000s edited plans may be found here: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1R2YABjdTfyW0itcunk61eI_rifRvKIMl?usp=drive_link
My 1990s edited plans may be found here: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1j7bzSx9wxJNUNb0CThoiJF3VYBcPCTbu?usp=drive_link
My 1980s edited plans may be found here: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UpzKLD0AJ6pZAOMP1PviwAGVFBQKZbBf?usp=drive_link
That's about it, hopefully, this is the last flightplan thread I have to make here. A lot of the repaints needed for the 80s and 90s are in obscure packages tucked into people's Google Drive or Box accounts that aren't labeled with what they contain. So if you know where to find a repaint that I couldn't find a link for, or you know of the paint on a more modern model, please post or otherwise let me know so everyone can find it.
The previous thread contains many files I just threw together without properly coding airports, fixing errors using correct aircraft numbering or cruise speeds, etc. as well as not posting repaint links in most cases. The flight plans are also in a lazy copy+paste format instead of properly formatted like my Google Drive files for easy compiling. If there ever is to be an installer, things need to be streamlined. As 1998\99 is my main focus, I won't be doing much in recounting the history of these airlines in most cases, but I will offer at least a description of the carrier at the time. Posts in the old thread containing obsolete flightplans will be deleted as they are updated and posted here over time.
In this thread, I will share my retro flight plans made from any era EXCEPT for 1998 and 1999, as well as flight plans by others where appropriate with proper credit\permission.
Flightplans will be sorted first by decade and then geographically and may be found here: drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/0B44VcEgVwXmbdWVHOFM2VUNMY1U?resourcekey=0-ptOpoOV_TExBkpSyMrcMmg
All flightplans will use the appropriate airports actually used in each era, with scenery available for many of them and planned for most of the rest. Refer to this list to see which airports are used: drive.google.com/file/d/1dUfq3lgSfFgXxU7s4p3tCQAEpC3EJKjK/view
Incomplete Airlines:
Just as I have done with the 1998 Project, I will be uploading some incomplete airlines that either only represent flights by an airline to a certain geographical region or certain airports or exclude some aircraft types. As the 1998 project takes up most of the time I put aside for flight simulation stuff, many of these airlines will be posted with no intent of being fully finished. In that case, I will provide the raw flightplan files in MRAI format (the format used to compile into usable flightplans for the simulator) and that way members of the community can finish some or all of the carrier if they'd like so it makes progress. Anyone is welcome to try and finish these carriers, just contact me if you need help and so I can compile them with the existing plans and aircraft and find the repaints. Otherwise no need to ask permission, just let me know you're going to do it and all I ask is that we keep the files together for easy access rather than uploading them in another place instead when finished (though feel free to do that so long as they are also here with the other files and I get credit for my part).
December 1989 (So, let's call it 1990. Sometimes.)
For example, I know wernerw has been working on various schedules from the www.departedflights.com website, including 1989. As I badly wanted to fly around the late 1980s US West Coast during the short period of time where American and USAir had large operations made up from the assets of PSA and AirCal for just 3 years or so, I have decided to create flights from that era myself in the Western US, with no plans to expand to more regions, though it is possible. Most US carriers have with 1985, 1987 and\or 1991 flightplans thanks to the OAG projects from those eras, but as 1988 and 1989 were very unique in the United States as things moved fast with rapid consolidation in the fallout from the 1985-1988 "Merger Mania" (as it was called), hubs, routes, liveries, and aircraft types changed insanely fast. As a result, I feel the US carriers should be represented in this interesting bit of history. This will at least allow some regions to be fully explored until the full airlines are ever completed.
Though the schedule is from the very end of 1989, it would have more or less carried into the Spring of 1990, with most airlines keeping the schedule with minor trimming as needed until March or April. If an airline I complete from this schedule has 1990\91 plans already available, then I will call it 1989. If the airline is missing from 1990\91 but has 1988\89 plans already, or if that airline changed so much between the late 80s and early 90s that I think it needs separate 90s plans, then I will call it 1990. It will be a case-by-case basis that will simply ensure the most realistic retro world possible for those who, like me, switch between years they wish to fly in. In the case of USAir for example, 1991 plans already exist, but they reflect the carrier after dismantling its West Coast network and retiring the BAe-146 fleet. Likewise, 1988 plans from the OAG project exist for Piedmont Airlines, which was close to fully merging into USAir in 1988 but operating independently with hybrid jets that said "Piedmont' but were in USAir colors and whatnot. Since Piedmont survived independently until April of 1989, I feel they are best represented that way for the late 1980s and the 1991 plans will reflect the post-merger network. So, I will call the plans "USAir 1989", but I will make a 2nd version leaving out the former Piedmont routes to the project area from their hubs such as CLT and DAY, in case users would rather have Piedmont and USAir together but separate as they were for most of the late 80s. It may be inconsistent, but all that really matters is that each period has the most realistic traffic possible.
Note that with the exception of Alaska Airlines, I will not be doing airlines serving this region that already have both 1988/89 and 1990/91 flightplans completed, which includes Northwest Airlines, Aloha Airlines, Pan Am (mainline, regionals I'll do since LAX isn't represented in 1988), and Continental Airlines (mainline) along with various international carriers.
Some airlines that had their operations entirely in the Western US will be completed and uploaded as a normally completed air carrier, the incomplete carriers will end up here: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bVXf1tj1vmMF_PUyrvpyXbEh8uHKlbq1?usp=sharing
For now, partially completed airlines included in the project will include all flights to California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. In the future, I may add Hawaii and maybe YVR and some parts of Western Canada.
My edits of other flightplans
Over the years, I have edited many flightplans by others to make them more realistic. I've added proper variants and special liveries, removed fictitious aircraft, added charters in some cases, segregated regional carriers properly to get the correct callsigns, added subsidiaries like Delta\USAir Shuttle, corrected the airports used to match the year the plans represent, and sometimes corrected the cruise speeds and aircraft order for better AI parking at hubs. In the case of the 70s, 80s and early 90s OAG project by RAI member aleck, as the plans came in 1 massive file with all the airlines together, I have split them up into individual airlines so that they may be easily plugged into other eras (like using United 1985 with you 1987 traffic as well until there are proper plans, for example). I've also used the 1991 OAG plans of Aeroflot in its final form to make realistic 1991-93 plans for most of the dozens and dozens of independent airlines that were formed from the break up of Aeroflot in the various former USSR nations which were now independent, as well as ensuring the proper liveries and aircraft types are assigned for the new carriers. Often, these carriers started off rather huge with excess aircraft and routes, and those who survived past 1993 usually quickly downsized to a much smaller carrier. Prior to the mid 90s, almost all of these airlines operated in full Aeroflot colors with either no titles or logos, their own titles, or simply slapping the flag of their new nation over the Russian flag on the tail of the Aeroflot livery. I have done the repaints in many cases as well if needed (which was not nearly as much work as it sounds like). Obviously, even just assigning the proper livery variations to the MRAI 2003 flightplans, for example, required a lot of knowledge and resources, not to mention time. I did it over a decade, 6 years of which I had a job with a lot of downtime where I did most of this. So, with the exception of the ex-Soviet carriers and some plans by Eduardo and others who are OK with it, I will not actually post the plans individually on forums as I didn't make them, but I will post them in Google Drive so you all can use them yourselves. All credit, of course, goes to the original authors, who in most cases are no longer reachable, such as MRAI who's 2003 thru 2005 global flightplans are retro treasure now almost 2 decades later.
While I obviously do not have the time to hunt down repaints for the entire global 2003\4\5 MRAI projects, I am sharing my compiled files so that you may see if I have the aircraft installed personally or not. If I have it, they're out there somewhere and you can ask here on RetroAI in the shoutbox below or something. Many of these files will not have their own airport.txt. I will share the airport.txt file I used with Ttools to compile these plans which has just about every retro airport you'll need for compiling plans with, as well as dozens I had to add over the years as they weren't even included in the default airports file. If you run into this issue, Wikipedia is a good way to find the coordinates and elevation to quickly add the airport. Keep in mind that I either last installed these plans into P3Dv4 or P3Dv5, so running FS2004 or FSX, you will run into issues like RJNA being recognized as RJNN in your simulator, or Indonesian and Filipino airports using the old outdated codes changed in the 2000s. If you run into that, you'll either have to grab the needed airport from the airport.txt file of another airline, simply use the CTRL+R "replace" feature to correct the code for your simulator platform, or run the flightplans in AI Flightplanner which will both correct the airports and issue you an airprot.txt file itself when you save the plans. For now, I have done most of the North American airlines for the MRAI 2003 plans (not the 2004\5 plans yet) and much of the OAG project stuff, but I have not uploaded the majority of my edited plans and will do that over time. So check back from time to time and I'll post in the thread if there is a major upload.
If you see an "X" next to the plans, like "Air Calin 2003 X", that is my symbol to represent the plans are representative and marked so that I know to replace them in the future if possible. That means I used plans from another year but modified them to better fit the assigned year. In the case of Air Calin, I used 2005 plans (as no 2003 plans were made that I know of) but assigned the 2003 livery to them, rather than just placing the "Air Calin 2005" traffic.bgl into my 2003 file and seeing the wrong livery. I also do this to ensure planes use the correct airport or callsign if required, otherwise I simply just use the original .bgl from another year if it is similar enough as a stand-in, which is how you "fill in the gaps" with your retro time periods.
Links to folders containing modified flightplans, groped by era:
My 2000s edited plans may be found here: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1R2YABjdTfyW0itcunk61eI_rifRvKIMl?usp=drive_link
My 1990s edited plans may be found here: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1j7bzSx9wxJNUNb0CThoiJF3VYBcPCTbu?usp=drive_link
My 1980s edited plans may be found here: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UpzKLD0AJ6pZAOMP1PviwAGVFBQKZbBf?usp=drive_link
That's about it, hopefully, this is the last flightplan thread I have to make here. A lot of the repaints needed for the 80s and 90s are in obscure packages tucked into people's Google Drive or Box accounts that aren't labeled with what they contain. So if you know where to find a repaint that I couldn't find a link for, or you know of the paint on a more modern model, please post or otherwise let me know so everyone can find it.
