PT1HISTORY, STRATEGY, TECHNIQUES, CAUTIONS, AND LESSONS LEARNED IN
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SECTORS WE SUBSTITUTE FOR SCENERY DISK #12;
AND, IN SOME CASES FOR FS4 DEFAULT AND DISKS #7 AND #11.

We are Dave Bailey and Bill Honeywell. We invite and encourage
questions, comments, and reactions to this labor of love! (Of
course, we hope our experience will lead users to add to the
collection.) Either write or call:

David Bailey                      Bill Honeywell
26 Seminole Drive                 41 Nottingham Drive
Nashua, NH  03062                 Nashua, NH    03062
(603) 883-2448                    (603) 889-1909

We have been 'flying' FS since version 2, running on an old
Commodore and an Epson Equity II-- with SIMGA! So we have been
around a while. When we got A&SD for use with FS4, it led us down
Victor Airways we never imagined.

Dave created the major NAVAID file, almost all of the geographical
features, the NESCTRnn files and airstrips in ME, MA, CT and
Long Island. Bill worked entirely on strips for NH, VT, western NY,
NJ, and eastern PA; maintained the data base; and wrote most of
the text files.

For the files in our freeware package, read NOTAM.TXT. There is no
reason to list them again. Some are essential, some optional, and
one for the ambitious only.

We do repeat here, however, our caution about increasing the A&SD
request to 20,000, reduce the request for dynamic objects, and to
have the automatic selections on Menu #1 active. Note: not the one
on Menu #5-- more on that later. If these changes to the A&SD
configuration setup ARE NOT made and saved, quirky results will
occur.

We have tested our work on a cloned 286 and 386 with enhanced EGA;
no mouse; no joystick; debugged for upwards of 20 flying hours;
flown the Cessna and Piper without trouble; the Lear with little
hassle (occasionally the 400+ kph will baffle FS4 and your hard
disk-- but be patient); and, the Boeing with less satisfactory
consequences. Since FS4 or A&SD do not use extended/expanded memory,
no other hardware considerations were taken into account.

In the process we learned a number of things about the parent
programs themselves-- some disappointing after the hours we had
flown over Defaults and Scenery Disks; and, one MAJOR glitch which
we have not been able to solve. (HELP IS REQUESTED!)

We still believe FS4 and A&SD are as good as their reputations. But
they are not perfect and not bug-free. In some cases distressingly
inaccurate. But we love 'em.

We earlier placed on Linx files which should now be abandoned. What
you have now is a complete revision both in strategy and material.

What is NEW.

We began with a monster file asking for 20,000 bytes and a 500 mile
radius, the center halfway between northern Maine and south-western
Virginia: the geographical area covered in the 13 DECEMBER 1990
AIRPORT/FACILITY DIRECTORY (NOAA publisher). Dave patiently placed
in that file with 6 exceptions EVERY VOR and NDB described in the
Directory. ILS were NOT included in this file. These were added in
another way.

The 6 exceptions were two in VT and four in PA. Not because we wanted
to omit them but because A&SD will not allow the user to place these
exactly to the second, sometimes not even to the degree. In time we
went back and approximated the VT locations in order to put strips 
down at Newport and Burlington. We apologize for these slight errors:
but are not entirely sorry. The other four black holes are in the 
mountains around Pittsburgh, PA. We finally gave up on approximating 
these and relied on the Detroit Area disk for them. This was the first finding: A&SD will deny placing items in certain parts of the country. 
We can only guess that it has to do with floating point math or 
division by 0.

In any case, nothing else was placed in this NAVAID file.

Next, we began creating strips for each airport we wanted to include.

These began with Design Preferences in longitude/latitude and the
laying down of a single runway.

We learned that before adding the permanent runway, we would slew as
close to N 010 degrees as we could. This allows the arrows to move
the object to the location within the second given in the Directory
AND THEN slewing the runway itself to the desired angle and adding it.
We think this has something to do with the orthogonal offset in FS4.

Switching back to Preferences and requesting coordinates.

Going into the Library Option and setting boundary options in the
coordinate system with a four mile radius. Radii are interesting in
themselves. They do not limit what can be in a file-- e.g., our NAVAID
file with a 500 mile radius can be merged into a strip of 4 miles
and all the NAVAIDS will be available. What the radius limits is how
far the cursor can be moved in placing objects. For instance: set the
grid at 5,280' and a file of 5 mile radius and try to move the cursor
outside the 5 mile limit. A 4 miles radius is the smallest allowed.

Then going back to the Add menu and completing the strip with aprons,
beacons, towers, fuel box, windsock, and other significant features.
Careful notes were taken of the data-- especially the bytes in each
strip file.

We adopted certain color conventions. In part because sectors are so
memory hungry there are tradeoffs that must be made in order to use
as many FS4 features as possible-- e.g., at night black runways will
not show up. And, in part because as we went along we wanted to know
which airport we created and which came be default. The colors were:

RUNWAY :  Olive Drab
DASHES :  Yellow -- and only on the major runway if more than one
EDGES  :  Yellow
NUMBERS:  White
FIXED  :  Light Gray
TOUCH  :  Light Gray
THRESH :  White

Matching lighting schemes with the AIRPORT/FACILITIES DIRECTORY listing
was more difficult. Often non-standard systems are used. Or, the
abbreviations given are not provided by A&SD. But where known, REIL,
VASI, and STROBES are included as appropriate.

We learned that when one file is merged into another the total of
the two is less than the individual files-- due to A&SD file header
data. That holds true for any merging. Each file created by A&SD
has a header of 81 bytes. These are not required when the file is
merged since the master will contain the header.

We also created files with mountains, rivers, lakes, roads, and
bridges where these seemed appropriate. Eventually we assembled about
270 of these small strip files.

It is in these small strip files with runways that we included every
ILS listed. We have tested these and given the accuracy of FS4 itself,
we are satisfied. In the case of JFK we added those that FS4 omits.

Then the real work began. The process starts with an accurate road
map-- not a chart. Using a ruler and a compass a circle is drawn
with an average of 50 miles. Using the same process as for the
smaller strips, a sector was created using longitude/latitude for
a city, switching to coordinates, and then saving the boundary.

1) Into EACH sector, we FIRST merged the NAVAID file. No matter
   where you fly, you then have the NAVAIDS available-- except ILS.
2) Next, we merged in those strips that lay within the circle that
   limited the boundaries of that sector. This process included the
   appropriate geographical features. Do watch the mountain around
   Lebanon, NH and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA; Lake Champlain around
   Savage Island, VT; and buildings in Elizabeth, NJ and Boston, MA.

NESCTR15 is a good example. Begin with Design Preferences at 
Syracuse, NY set for 43.06.37 and 73.43.58 put down a temporary 
object-- i.e., windsock or fuel box. Return to Design Preferences and
switch to Coordinates. Take a read out-- not from the top of the 
screen, but from the main message area. These convert to 18011.6368 
and 20251.7266. Go to the Scenery Library option and define the area 
boundaries with these coordinates and in this case an 80 miles radius.
Save. Merge the NAVAID file first and then strips for: Binghamton, 
Fulton, Johnstown, Oneonta, Sidney, Utica, Watertown, AND the Syracuse
strip created earlier with the 4 mile radius. Now delete the temporary
object placed at the beginning. That was placed in order to lock the 
editor to the location given in the Directory.

As we began to build this library of sectors, we learned a number of
other things.

1) You do have to lock the editor mode into longitude latitude or
   into coordinates by saving at each change of preference or it will
   slide back to your startup mode!
2) Sometimes strips had to be included in more than one sector in
   order for the seamless feature to work. We have done that.
3) The locations of some airports in the Default Scenery and Scenery
   Disks is simply wrong-headed. That goes for some geographical
   features as well-- especially shorelines, lakes, and rivers. We
   ended up paving over entire cities (Harrisburg and Erie, PA);
   rebuilding Block Island and parts of the Maine seacoast; covering
   with our own coloring and lighting schemes some airports that
   were accurate-- chiefly the majors at Boston and New York.
4) Using the sectors sometimes accessed the hard disk every 30 seconds
   as FS4 tried to implement our intentions. Hence we created several
   large dummy sectors around Chicago, Pittsburgh, and the like. Into
   these we merged only our NAVAID file. FS4 then can use our NAVAIDS
   until an airport comes into view: about 8-10 miles from touchdown.

We now believe it is possible to fly anywhere in New England, New York,
New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania using these sectors. We still
rely on Scenery Disks 7 and 11 and the Default for those fields we
did not implement.

Which brings us to what we think is our major and unfortunate 
discovery. Long ago in configuring FS4 we both used Automatic Load 
in going thru the setup questions. Never quite understood it and 
that's beside the point anyway. And, while we were flying we also 
made sure we had the automatic scenery load active on Menu #5: 
Scenery Library. When we began using our sectors we also made 
automatic selection of static and dynamic scenery active on Menu #1.
We followed the advice of the program manuals.

With regret we must tell you that some flight plans will first send
your machine into never-never-land and then lock you out completely.
This has nothing to do with our work. We don't believe the glitch is
in A&SD. We feel certain it is in FS4 or in Scenery Disks #7 and #11.

DO NOT HAVE AUTOMATIC SELECTION ACTIVE (Menu #5) IF YOUR FLIGHT PLAN
CROSSES THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN SCENERY DISKS 7 AND 11. Typically from
Pittsburgh to Lancaster or Washington to Carlisle. At first what
seems to be a mountain range on the boundary turns out to be some
sort of black hole or time warp. Screen image begins to quiver,
white diagonal lines take over, terrain turns all green or bright
cyan or even black, and then lock up occurs.

This doesn't mean you can't follow your flight plan. But, only switch
scenery areas AFTER you have safely crossed over what appears to be
a mountain range. In fact, if you follow this recommendation, it turns
out to be a mountain range and not a gaping hole left by an 
earthquake. That is confirmed by taking a peek back over your shoulder
after you have crossed the mountain.

Creating NESCTR36 doesn't solve the problem. Using NESCTR36 doesn't
create the problem. Leaving it out of the sector library doesn't ease
the problem. Using a dummy sector won't solve it. Using the latest
CONVERTS.EXE on earlier scenery disks doesn't solve it. You can't
pave it over. The 'chasm' is there as it were by default and we can't
do anything about it.

In testing our work we often applied a program we know as NAV4. It
is available for a registration fee of $36 from:

       NAVIGATE Inc.
       PO Box 4493
       Thousand Oaks, CA  91359

We got it from an advertisement in FLYING magazine. It isn't freeware
but can be obtained on a trial basis. Not only is it the best in our opinion for creating flight plans, but seems to us the easiest to use.
Real pilots would want something else. But for us desk chair pilots
it is friendly and easy to configure. We used it to test our locations
of NAVAIDS and airstrips and took great satisfaction with our accuracy.
We recommend NAV4. (We get no commission for this recommendation.)

NAV4 will not, however, help you find several private fields we 
included, nor will most of the charts available. But we included 
these for sentimental reasons or because of outstanding features. 
If you do printout SC1SCTRS.TXT or MODES.TXT file you can get some 
idea of where they are. Or you may simply find them as surprises. But
we do call attention to Savage Island, VT a tiny island-strip on Lake
Champlain. Or Argyle, NY with a road and fence separating the turf 
strip from Liz Honeywell's birthplace on the family farm. Or our own 
Brookline, NH between Nashua and Jaffrey/Keene-- about 8 miles west 
where you must clear trees on RWY 01 or Russell Mountain on RWY 19 
setting down quickly on either approach. 

Good Flying!

Dave Bailey
Bill Honeywell

P.S. Any response would be more than warmly welcomed.