Landing on top of buildings in FS2004

[rottenberg]

Having gotten my rudder-pedals set up, I fired up FS2002 with the idea
of landing commandos on top of buildings in Manhattan. I surprised
myself (though probably only I would have been surprised) by my
ability to even get as close as I did to buildings. However, instead
of touching down, I fell through the tops of skyscrapers. Is this
because (as a newbie, sad to say) I turned off "crashing"?

[Peter Duniho]

"rottenberg" > wrote in message
m...
> [...] However, instead
> of touching down, I fell through the tops of skyscrapers. Is this
> because (as a newbie, sad to say) I turned off "crashing"?

No...it's because there's no "runway" on the top of the building on which
you tried to land. It's a question of how the scenery is configured.

Some buildings do have "runway" surfaces designed into their tops, so that
helicopters can land there, for example. If there's a building you want to
land on that doesn't have a "runway" on top of it, you need to use the
scenery editor to add one yourself.

Pete

[Kevin Reilly]

On Mon, 21 Jun 2004 Peter Duniho wrote:

>No...it's because there's no "runway" on the top of the building on which
>you tried to land. It's a question of how the scenery is configured.

Sadly true. What's really annoying is that some of the world's buildings
have nice inviting helipads painted atop them, but they're just there
for show. You'll pass through the building if you try to land on them.
Back in FS2000 and earlier, Two World Trade Center was one of the few
locations where the helipad was solid, but alas it was removed for
FS2002.

Oddly, while most buildings seem to be hollow, a lot of the bridges I've
tried DO seem to have 'runway' surfaces even though only a lunatic would
attempt to land on them in real life. Hardly 'as real as it gets'.

Does anyone know if there are any tutorial web pages out there that
detail how to find a particular building in the default scenery and add
a land-able surface?

--
Kev
__________________________________________________ ________________________
"Please assemble product the other way round."
On a Japanese air freshener

[[email protected]]

On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 00:49:27 +0100, Kevin Reilly
> wrote:

>Does anyone know if there are any tutorial web pages out there that
>detail how to find a particular building in the default scenery and add
>a land-able surface?

AFCAD adds differing sized helipads on the ground.
(http://afcad.projectai.com/). It might be hard to add one to a
building though.

The only way to add one would be to 'slew' (and then stop) at the top
of a particular building, write-down lat/long (including altitude
data) then create a new AFCAD airport (addon scenery) file, then add
the helipad, along with lat/long and altitude data. AFCAD is pretty
easy to use, very good help-files.

'If' AFCAD helipads holds a helicopter building roof (?) the harder
part would be setting the helipad at the precise altitude, so it's
flush with the building-top.

AFCAD needs altitude data at the very point of the altimeter (gauge),
If the altimeter (actual pilot gauge inside the aircraft) is flush
with the surface on the top of the building, it might work the first
time, or need only slight altitude adjustments.

I'd try it but never fly the helos.

[rottenberg]

"Peter Duniho" > wrote in message >...
> "rottenberg" > wrote in message
> m...
> > [...] However, instead
> > of touching down, I fell through the tops of skyscrapers. Is this
> > because (as a newbie, sad to say) I turned off "crashing"?
>
> No...it's because there's no "runway" on the top of the building on which
> you tried to land. It's a question of how the scenery is configured.
>
> Some buildings do have "runway" surfaces designed into their tops, so that
> helicopters can land there, for example. If there's a building you want to
> land on that doesn't have a "runway" on top of it, you need to use the
> scenery editor to add one yourself.
>
> Pete

Thanks for the reply. I guess my next question is, how can I know
ahead of time which buildings are landable?

[Peter Duniho]

"rottenberg" > wrote in message
om...
> Thanks for the reply. I guess my next question is, how can I know
> ahead of time which buildings are landable?

Honestly, I can't think of an easier way than to try to land on them. :(
Seems to me you could probably figure it out in the scenery designer, but a)
I don't know that for sure, never having actually used the scenery designer,
and b) even if you can, it's not clear that it'd be easier than just flying
(or slewing) to various buildings and testing them out. I doubt that, even
if the designer provides access to the information, it provides any sort of
useful database search functionality that would allow you to quickly find
all landable buildings.

There might be another way, but if there is, it's not something I know of.

Pete

[Doug]

This doesn't really help if you're still using FS2002, but I've found in
most of the big cities in FS9, most any large building with a flat roof is
can be used as a helipad. Specifically in NYC, near ground zero, I can land
on all of the skyscrapers with flat roofs.


"rottenberg" > wrote in message
m...
> Having gotten my rudder-pedals set up, I fired up FS2002 with the idea
> of landing commandos on top of buildings in Manhattan. I surprised
> myself (though probably only I would have been surprised) by my
> ability to even get as close as I did to buildings. However, instead
> of touching down, I fell through the tops of skyscrapers. Is this
> because (as a newbie, sad to say) I turned off "crashing"?

[rottenberg]

"Doug" > wrote in message >...
> This doesn't really help if you're still using FS2002, but I've found in
> most of the big cities in FS9, most any large building with a flat roof is
> can be used as a helipad. Specifically in NYC, near ground zero, I can land
> on all of the skyscrapers with flat roofs.
>
>
> "rottenberg" > wrote in message
> m...
> > Having gotten my rudder-pedals set up, I fired up FS2002 with the idea
> > of landing commandos on top of buildings in Manhattan. I surprised
> > myself (though probably only I would have been surprised) by my
> > ability to even get as close as I did to buildings. However, instead
> > of touching down, I fell through the tops of skyscrapers. Is this
> > because (as a newbie, sad to say) I turned off "crashing"?

That sounds about right. A few nights back, I returned to NY in an
AH-1, and managed to "touch down" on buildings. However, I haven't
gotten refined my hover skills, and come in too fast that I end up
bouncing off buildings.