CLASSIC-XP SCENERY Ditch the GPS. Take off into the Past. INSTALLATION MANUAL 1980’s V1.00 – 05th SEPTEMBER 2021 747classic.freeforums.net 747classic@btinternet.com CHAPTER 1. INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS Please follow these instructions to avoid causing irreparable problems with your X-Plane installation. Under no circumstances should you put our files into your default X-Plane installation. STEP 1. – MAKE A COPY OF X-PLANE This is tested with X-Plane 11.53. It may work with other versions of X-Plane 11.5x, but Laminar changes the file format every so often so chances are it will not work with older versions of X-Plane. First step is to make a second (or third as appropriate) copy of X-Plane 11. This way all modifications will be made to the copy and your primary installation, with all your payware scenery, etc. installed will be safe and not liable to irreparable damage. There are two ways to make a second copy. a) Run X-Plane 11 Installer.exe, select “Install a Second Copy of X-Plane” and follow instructions or b) Manually make a copy. Personally I go down the second route. It is more fiddly than doing it automatically, but because you only copy what you need to it is quicker. I am assuming, of course, that you are comfortable with the basics of file and folder copying. Here are my tips. i. ii. iii. “Aircraft” folder. You can save time and disk space by only copying the aircraft you need. For example if you are running 1980s scenery then why would you want to be flying a Boeing 777 or A330? I’m not sure if you absolutely need the Laminar Research aircraft. If your main steed is a 3rd party aircraft like the FJS 727 or 732 or the Felis 742, I think you will only need the Laminar Aircraft if you want to run AI aircraft or for training scenarios . “Custom Scenery” folder. My advice here is to ONLY copy the MisterX_Library. My scenery should only be using Mister X objects, if you receive any error notices please send me an email and I will make the appropriate corrections. - Do not copy the Aerosoft airports. - If you use Ortho scenery you DO NOT need to copy the folders from your default XPlane installation. You can simply link the folders from your main X-Plane installation, it saves a huge amount of disk space and time! - You need the “Global Airports” folder with the “Earth.nav data” sub folder, but this folder should be empty. Don’t install any Global Airports or they will interfere with the historic airport files. “Global Scenery”. You will need the default X-Plane scenery installed for the regions to which you wish to fly. If you have the world installed in your main X-Plane installation it’s probably as easy to copy them across. You can of course download any geographical areas at a later date if/as necessary. Copy everything else, including the files in the X-Plane root folder. Create a shortcut of the XPlane.exe file and call it something more appropriate, eg X-Plane 1980. That way you can start the historic sim directly from your desktop. STEP 2. INSTALL THE CUSTOM HISTORIC FILES. 2A. AIRPORTS Each airport is contained in it’s own Zip file which can be downloaded from the Dropbox folder listed on the 747classic forum. Unzip each airport and place the folder in the \Custom Scenery folder. SID, STAR, Airport and Approach charts are contained in a pdf file within each airport folder. You can elect to leave the pdf there or move it to a more convenient folder of your choice. 2B. OTHER REQUIRED FILES Unzip the ClassicXP80vX.XX.zip file into a dummy folder. All files are in folders with the same directory tree structure and name as the appropriate folder in X-Plane, so it’s easy to transfer them. Because you are doing all of this in a secondary installation and have your original X-Plane installation untouched on your computer you shouldn’t need to back up any files, you can just copy and overwrite. It is good practice to take a couple of seconds to double check that you are working with your “historic” X-Plane folders (not your original main X-Plane installation) before you copy anything, just to be sure. The files to be copied are: \Resources\default data\earth_awy.dat \Resources\default data\earth_fix.dat \Resources\default data\earth_hold.dat \Resources\default data\earth_msa.dat \Resources\default data\earth_nav.dat \Resources\default scenery\default apt dat\Earth nav data\apt.dat There are 2 other files which need modification. As they contain Laminar data, I’m not including modified files, I’d prefer you to edit then using Notepad. File 1. The original \Resources\default data\earth_mora.dat remains. As all the .dat files need the same cycle dates open the file with Notepad, and replace the first 2 lines with the following text: I 1150 Version - data cycle 1611, build 20161011, metadata MORAXP1150. Copyright (c) 2020 Navigraph, Datasource Jeppesen File 2. I found XP start-up errors pointing to the \Resources\default scenery\default atc dat\Earth nav data\atc.dat file. By deleting everything except the 3 header lines and the first CONTROLLER to CONTROLLER_END section (ie so that only the data for FACILITY_ID ZGD is left) the errors were removed. This would only be an issue for you if you want to use the X-Plane default ATC. That should be it, go ahead and run X-Plane! Note: This is an early version of this manual. There may be issues with some of my files or with these instructions. If X-Plane doesn’t run for you and the problem can’t be figured out straight away then please post a query on 747classic.freeforums.net. Hopefully there aren’t any major problems, or we’ll iron any errors out quickly, but please bear with me, I’m not a software developer and there are bound to be some issues with distributing and transferring what’s been running only on my PC for the last couple of years. CHAPTER 2 – CHARTS Airport charts are contained within the appropriate airport’s zip file as noted on the previous page of this document. I will be working on how to provide enroute (airway) data shortly, either by way of scanned charts or as a data file in XP itself. (See also the comments to follow about Magnetic Declination). I would strongly suggest that you use a superb piece of software called Little Navmap (Google is your friend). This will allow you to see the airport layout (or at the very basic level check that the airport you intend to fly to is actually modelled!) and navaids. At some stage in the future I may add waypoint and airway data in which case Little Navmap could be used as an enroute chart. CHAPTER 3 – WHAT YOU GET (AND WHAT YOU DON’T GET!) This scenery modification will remove all airports and navigation aids from X-Plane and replace them with backdated information appropriate to the 1980s. It should work with both default X-Plane scenery and ortho scenery. Airports are 2D only. If you want eye-candy then this scenery will not be for you. Some airports may not have any Gates. In such cases it is possible to start on a runway and slew your aircraft onto a ramp to a more suitable position. Start X-Plane with your aircraft at a runway end. Open the map (press the M key) and in the top right-hand corner of the map window select “VFR sectional” as the map Mode. Now left mouse click on the Aircraft Symbol, which will turn yellow. You can drag it with the mouse (holding the left button down) to any position on the airport and then use the Heading selector to alter the aircraft orientation as you wish. A MAJOR SHORTFALL OF X-PLANE is that the Magnetic Declination model is hard-coded into the sim, and it is updated to current day. Magnetic Declination changes over time as the earth’s Magnetic North Pole moves. This means that magnetic headings from 50-year old (or even 10-year old) charts will not match what you see in X-Plane. There is unfortunately at present no way round this within XPlane. I get around this limitation by using external instruments drawn by a 3 rd party software called Air Manager (www.siminnovations.com). By using custom magnetic declination models appropriate to the scenery what you see in your instrumentation will match what you see on the charts. I might add more specifics to this manual, but for now more information is available at 747classics.freeforums.net. I hope you enjoy using this scenery. If you have any corrections to or suggestions for this document please contact me through the forum or email address noted on the cover page.