Hi.

I just wanted to share a discovery I made. I didn't know how to save an INS plan, the documentation says that you can save and load a panel state. I couldn't make much sense out of it so I looked for something different. So I went to the FSX\Civa\ADEU folder, where the flight plans are saved, and started opening them to take a look and see the what they say.

The files end in .AWC and can be opened with Windows notepad. Here is what is inside the KBOS - KMIA tutorial flight plan:

;
; Carousel IV-A INS
; ADEU Waypoints Data Card
;
; Waypoints Data Card for tutorial flight KBOS-KMIA
; Part 1, waypoints #2 to #9 into positions 2 to 9
;
2 N 41*43.4 W 071*00.3 ; 2 PDV
3 N 41*17.1 W 071*25.7 ; 3 TRAIT
4 N 40*55.1 W 072*19.0 ; 4 HTO
5 N 40*43.7 W 072*32.1 ; 5 HTO15
6 N 40*08.8 W 073*12.1 ; 6 GEDIC
7 N 38*56.4 W 074*31.7 ; 7 ZIZZI
8 N 38*03.4 W 075*27.8 ; 8 SWL
9 N 37*53.1 W 075*35.6 ; 9 SWL12
;
; End Of File
; 

From what I can figure, anything after the semi colon ( ; ) is ignored (much like in the FSX .cfg files!). So what appears to be being read is the lines that start with 2 N 41*43.4 W 071*00.3 ; 2 PDV and ends with the line 9 N 37*53.1 W 075*35.6 ; 9 SWL12. So I made my own and it looks like this:

;
; Carousel IV-A INS
; ADEU Waypoints Data Card
;
; Waypoints Data Card for flight YMML - YSSY
;
1 S 37*09.9 E 145*23.7 ; 1 DOSEL
2 S 36*10.9 E 147*04.2 ; 2 EBONY
3 S 35*50.3 E 147*38.4 ; 3 ARRAN
4 S 35*25.8 E 148*17.9 ; 4 NONUP
5 S 34*44.4 E 149*23.4 ; 5 CULIN
6 S 34*30.1 E 149*56.0 ; 6 TARAL
7 S 34*16.8 E 150*25.8 ; 7 RIVET
8 S 34*13.2 E 151*12.9 ; 8 RISOL
9 S 34*06.9 E 151*13.2 ; 9 SIZZL
;
; End Of File
; 

As you can see, I have used the same style for my plan (YMML - YSSY). I created it in Windows notepad and saved it, in FSX\Civa\ADEU folder, as YMMLYSSY.AWC. Once the INS was ready (ALIGNED) I use the ADEU to load my plan and away I went. It's working great.

I don't think you can make a complete flight plan of more than 9 waypoints because the CIVA-INS can only read 0-9 (the 0 is reserved for the original start point of the flight and 1 is the first waypoint). You might be able to load other parts of a flight plan while in flight (there are 3 parts to the tutorial KBOS - KMIA plan) but I need to test my ideas out first.

Mark

You definitely described how it works, Mark. If somebody would be up to �a manual editing of those files, that would be the way to go.

First, before I might explain further, let me repeat something I've posted in "Civa - The only thread please" (can be found here http://www.captainsim.org/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1285100008)

Quote:


As you see, there's a nice freeware tool out which helps you getting away from the need of editing text files.

The usage here is to load a pre-made flight plan from your favorite tool or the internal flight planner from FSX and then to convert it into those ADEU cards which the Civa ADEU Reader can process later.
To have them read, they have to be saved in the FSX\Civa\ADEU folder, like you outlined above.


(I might add some functional pictures later, with lit buttons)

The Civa's ADEU reader then offers you those files when it's loaded by clicking on the small "slot" of this unit. Just switch through the different file names to make sure you have the right one ready.

You asked yourself, how more than 9 waypoints can be loaded.
Well, easy as switching through the files. The are numbered in ascending order, so if the first few waypoints have been processed and the very last of one ADEU card is active, it's time to load the next card. �This "last" isn't always number 9, but usually number 7 when plans are made by this little tool.

This is usually done on one unit while the others are set to "Remote on", which will make sure that they receive the new coordinates altogether.
See this "Remote" as a small data network which enables you to enter data in one unit and to have it copied into all others where "Remote" is set to on.


(I might add some functional pictures later, with lit buttons)

So you would click "Remote" on all units when you are flying from waypoint 6 to waypoint 7.
If all "Remote" lights are lit, you're ready to go and the next step is to choose the correct data card now on the ADEU Reader window. Choose it and click the small red button (the round one on the left side below the slot, reading "AUX START"). The green "Read" light on the lower right comes up for some seconds and extinguishes after successful reading of the new coordinates.

You can now check if all new coordinates were transfered into the units. If so, disable "Remote" and fly those waypoints until the next card change has do be processed.
"Remote" should be off because you might want to go for DME updates in between flying the waypoints and these DME updates are done on one unit alone while the other unit will update on another DME. So they should not share coordinates in this step.


The little plan converter tools sets up different files for you (AWC, ADC, TXT) to help you with some tasks on operating the INS.

First, as we've spoken about, there are those .AWC files. These are the cards we load into the ADEU Reader, they contain the coordinates and the optional names or notes on each set.
As you outlined above, the values after ";" are free to use. The Civa doesn't care about them and the plan converter offers you to make notes on each waypoint which are purely optional of course.
All things the ADEU looks for are the coordinates.

There are some .ADC files made too. (Notice the difference, we spoke about AWC before.)
In short (because it would extend this small explanation otherwise), these files contain your pre planned DME update points together with their coordinates.
You don't necessarily need them as DME updates can be done without. If you're interested in the usage here, check the Civa docs on this item. As said, these ADC files are optional but nice.

The third variation of files made by the plan converter are .TXT files. These are the ones that contain your whole plan, the notes you made, the remarks when to change ADEU cards, waypoint names and distances between waypoints.
These TXT files are a big help and without reading them, you will get lost even before the first ADEU card change because you won't know when and where to change.
Their structure is pretty straightforward, so just open one up after having processed an example flight plan of yours and see four yourself.

So I recommend this little tool (link above) which currently is under BEER-WARE LICENSE � (see here: http://darkc.no-ip.org/trac/planconverter/wiki/BeerWare)
It sets up all necessary things, helps you with the notes on the flight plan and suppresses possible errors when entering those long coordinates manually.
A great help.


The question about what to think of this "Situation Save" function of Civa is easy to answer.
If you travel on long routes and your kids begin to wonder if they have a Daddy (because Mummy spoke about one), or your dog has to go outside because otherwise it will "process" its things inside, a panel save function on every plane is more than welcome.
The problem might be that the plane itself features this panel state save but of course does not save the data on the INS units as they are no part of the plane.
So you would have to save their alignment, accuracy state and their currently loaded waypoints too and that's where this function comes in handy and was made for.
If you don't save their state, you would load up your plane later and receive a "fresh" INS, not aligned, not accurate, not in nav mode and without a flight plan.
It will be hard to get them into a valid nav mode when flying.

For details on this, the docs again help.

You are right, great tool there. I always have enough money for at least two beers in the pocket, just in case.
I went manually too until that guy came up with it. Later, I saw in the Civa forum, that others tried too but I found this one to be the best so far.

I see, the "situation save" function might alter its value here and there. But isn't it great to have such things?

As you said, the other thing is much more common: forgetting about a correctly timed change of the ADEU cards and ending up in flying circles or even worse, going back to the first waypoint of the corresponding card. What to tell the passengers?

I had those things more than once and it can happen very quickly if you have routes with short distances between waypoints.
Flights in dense airspace with many intersections following in a short distance to each other are the stressing factor here while over water would be a reason to sleep in front of the screen if ATC doesn't wake you up. �

If you fly online, a "direct to" when using the INS is a real task then and then the txt files come in handy.
Maybe they clear you of some 12-15 waypoints and just give you the name of one that is far ahead.
Where is that waypoint and which card has to be loaded now? The loading itself takes some seconds too.
Of course, you could ask for an initial vector and then look that card and waypoint up, but the challenge is to be quick.

Ah, must have been a great and somehow stressful time with those big INS birds. Concorde was one until 2003 and I just found a 2006 727 picture showing the units.
Doesn't Fedex still use them?