Making a Basic Aircraft Template for EFASS
Things you will need before starting:
1. Documentation on your aircraft. IMPORTANT: do not assume real world information will
be correct for the plane you have. Some developers use fudged numbers for various reasons,
check their documentation to ensure you use numbers that will reflect the reality of your sim
version.
2. Multiple, proven flight plans. You want to have flights at max range and short, fully loaded
and not. If your aircraft is capable of intercontinental flights (IE ocean crossings) you will
want to do at least 2 of them. I prefer to use real world routes when possible as this can
also help me determine if the numbers have been fudged on a plane.
3. Time. Making an accurate template will take at least several hours, if not days, for larger,
longer-range aircraft.
Once you have all the above ready, it's time to start the basic template:
1. Open EFASS, start your sim, and load the aircraft in question.
2. Click the “Aircraft” button then “Create Template.”
3. In the “General Aircraft Information” tab: Fill in the information in the “Aircraft
Label/Type/Manufacturer,” “Model,” “Handle/ICAO,” and “Waketurbulence Category,” and
“Registration” fields (feel free to use generic information UNLESS you are modeling a
specific aircraft with a special configuration).
4. Select your “Weight” unit of measure (KG or LB, use whatever unit of measure your
documentation is in for easy reference).
5. Put in all known “Weights/Payload” information. All the numbers will be in either KG or
Lbs, which ever you've chosen.
6. Fill in in “PAX/Crew” fields (for reference, if the proper cabin crew numbers are known you
can include them here). Weight per person should be the standard.
7. Select “Performance/Fuel Calculation” tab. Enter all known information.
8. Select “Equipment” tab and check the appropriate boxes, if known; if not, leave blank.
9. SAVE the template.
At this point you've established a basic, raw template that can be used to plan flights. Its not 100%
accurate, but it will at least get the job done. Now it's time to fly.
A Word on the flight plans.
On the planning page you can fill in the “FLTNR” box, do so in a way you will remember. As an
example, you can use “RTFXXXA” where the XXX is the aircraft ICAO and the A is the number
of the flight. Doing this will make it easier to find when you need the black box information.
Fly several flights and at the end of each one, open the template again and go to the performance
tab. On that tab you will see “Import Black Box File.” Click that, and it will present you a list of
flights. You can, if you use the above method of naming, find the flight and import it.
Or, click on the date modified tab of the sorting (This is OS and set-up dependent), then find the
newest one. If you do this just after landing, it should be the closest one to your current time.
Once you have the file selected, click “Open” and then click “Save.” Repeat this process for each
flight you do until you have at least 4 flights, 2 long range and 2 short, 2 full load and 2 light load
(do one long range full and empty and the same for short).
Once this is done, you've established a fairly well rounded template that should be reliable.
You can then export it to the site; if you choose to export to the site, use the following for a naming
standard to help everyone know exactly what it is:
Developers Manufacturers Type, Version number and Flight sim
Carenado
Cessna
206H
V3.2
XP
So it would look like : Carenado C206H V3.2 XP
If you are doing a special configuration plane, put that information on the end of the name.
IE CarenadoC206H V3.3 XP10 N2384L
Abbreviating the manufacturers is acceptable, as we're all fairly smart and can look it up if we need.
Try to NOT abbreviate the Developers unless you know its a widely known version of the name.
If you need to put a version of a sim, put it after the name IE XP10 or XP11