Converting the Flight Gear AI Cessna 177

The Cessna 177 is missing from the collection of Flight Gear aircraft. The Cessna 177 is in the standard AI aircraft folder of the later (Flight Gear 3) versions, which has many other aircraft such as the Dash 7 and the Saab 340.  Viewing the model in G3D showed the model was detailed enough for use.

Steps

When creating a new aircraft or modifying an aircraft in Flight Gear the first step is to create a different folder for the modified aircraft files.

• Copy the c172p folder and rename it to c177

• Open the c177 folder and change the name of the c172-set file to c-177-set. This is the name that will show up in the Flight Gear launcher

• Edit the description in c177-set.xml to 

   <description>Cessna 177 Cardinal Test</description>

• You may want to add a note to the description to say you edited the file "Cessna 172p-set used for Cessna 177 test aircraft modified by OpenFlight 8 June 2019"

• Change the folder name also:

<model>

 <path archive="y">Aircraft/c177/Models/c172p.xml</path>

 </model>

• Now open the "Models" folder and cut and paste the following files into this folder from the c177 folder found in the Flight Gear/AI/Aircraft folder:

• 177-tex.png

• c177.ac

• Next we need to replace the reference to the c172p with a reference to the c177 in the /Models/ to

<PropertyList>

<path>c177.ac</path>

• The textures need to be referenced in the .ac 3 model file, so change the followng line:

texture "177-tex.rgb"  

• I am using version1.0 so changing the file from .png to .rgb using GIMP export to Silicon Graphics with agressive compression works, or the aircraft will show without textures.

The result:

A short hop showed that the model 'flies' without any problems although several error messages are show regarding animations and other things.

• Re-position model down a metre or so. (Position tags do not seem to work) 

• Make the cockpit glass transparent

• Configure propellor and control surface animations

• Clean up any errors, and remove all Cessna 172 dependencies

The 177.ac 3d file was imported into Blender, exported as .3ds and imported into Wings 3D

Bottom images:

The picture on the right is an attempt at a crude cabin: it hides the transparency or to be more accurate there are no transparencies, but the instrument panel shows through, and the vertical float above the runway does not seem to be affected by the position parameters.