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Aerofly Landegerät: Helicopter Emergency Medical Services

Create random custom missions for Aerofly FS 4.

This nice little project generates custom_missions_user.tmc to use with Aerofly FS 4. The HEMS version of this tool generates random Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) missions.

What does it do?

  1. The Landegerät reads a GeoJSON file (see below)
  2. …which contains heliports (to start from)
  3. …emergency locations (to fly to).
  4. …and hospitals (to end your mission).
  5. The Landegerät will create multiple missions,
  6. …set on different days and at a different time
  7. …with randomly selected heliports, emergency sites, and a hospitals.
  8. Finally it will fetch METAR weather data for the given location and date,
  9. …and export these missions to a custom_missions_user.tmc which you then can use in Aerofly FS 4.
  10. …as well as Point of Interest (POI) files, which will contain cars and persons for every emergency site.

How to use it

This tool requires Node.js (at least version 20) to be installed on your local computer.

The Landegerät is a Command Line Interface (CLI) tool, which means you need to open a terminal to run it. The tool itself does not need to be installed, as the Node.js tool npx will take care of downloading as well as executing the Landegerät.

CLI usage

Usage: npx -p @fboes/aerofly-patterns@latest aerofly-hems GEOJSON_FILE [AFS_AIRCRAFT_CODE] [AFS_LIVERY_CODE] [...options]
Create landing pattern lessons for Aerofly FS 4.

Arguments:
  GEOJSON_FILE              GeoJSON file containing possible mission locations.
  AFS_AIRCRAFT_CODE         Internal aircraft code in Aerofly FS 4. Defaults to "ec135".
  AFS_LIVERY_CODE           Internal aircraft code in Aerofly FS 4. Defaults to "adac".

Options:
  --metar-icao=.., -m=..    Use this ICAO station code to find weather reports
                            Example value: EHAM
  --missions=..             Number of missions in file.
                            Default value: 10
  --callsign=..             Optional callsign, else default callsign will be used.
  --no-guides               Try to remove virtual guides from missions.
  --cold-dark               Start cold & dark.
  --transfer, -t            Mission types can also be transfers.
  --no-poi, -p              Do not generate POI files.
  --directory, -d           Create files in another directory instead of current directory.
  --help, -h                Will output the help.

Example:

npx -p @fboes/aerofly-patterns@latest aerofly-hems C:\User\example\Downloads\hamptons.geojson ec135 --metar-icao=KISP --callsign=MEDEVAC11

As of present there are three helicopters in Aerofly FS 4:

AEROFLY_AIRCRAFT_CODE Type
ec135 Eurocopter EC135
uh60 Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk
r22 Robinson R22

Download the missions

There are already multiple mission files generated in /data. They are stored in directories with the pattern data/HEMS-[LOCATION_NAME]-[AEROFLY_AIRCRAFT_CODE]/. These files are in each directory:

  • missions/custom_missions_user.tmc: Mission file with multiple emissions
  • scenery/poi directory with the POI files (see below)

See the installation instructions on how to import the missions into Aerofly FS 4.

Using the POI file

The "Landegerät: HEMS" can generate POI files for you. These file contain positions for cars, persons and other objects to be present at every emergency site.

You will need to copy the generated POI folder to your Aerofly FS 4 user directory, and there to scenery/poi.

Idea donated by ApfelFlieger.

Creating and editing the GeoJSON file

The mission generator needs a GeoJSON file which contains all possible locations to be used in the missions.

This project contains example GeoJSON files, which will help you build your own missions source file.

  1. Lüneburg, Germany (open in geojson.io)
  2. San Francisco, USA (open in geojson.io)
  3. Oban, Scotland (open in geojson.io)

Content of the GeoJSON file

At the base of this file it needs a FeatureCollection, in which a list of Feature locations need to be put. There are three types of Feature locations:

  • Heliports as a possible starting point for your helicopter; at least one is required.
  • Hospitals as a possible end point to return at the end of your mission. If no hospital is given, the heliport will be used as hospital instead.
  • All other locations are considered to be emergency sites.

geojson.io example

geojson.io is a free online editor for creating and modifying GeoJSON files. It allows for adding, editing and deleting GeoJson Feature locations on an interactive map, as well as editing the properties of each Feature. It also will display icons matching the marker-symbol.

To create the different types of locations, you will need to add properties to every GeoJSON Feature. Find the list of properties below:

Properties of heliports & hospitals

Property Type Description
properties.marker-symbol string heliport, hospital or hospital-JP
properties.title string Name of location
properties.icaoCode string ICAO code
properties.direction number Optional orientation of helicopter
properties.approaches number[] Optional list of approach directions
properties.url string Optional URL which links to further information

There are special properties.marker-symbol values for these locations:

properties.marker-symbol Mission purpose
heliport Landing pad position to start / end flights
hospital Landing pad position at hospital to ferry patients to
hospital-JP Combined hospital and heliport

Properties of emergency sites

Property Type Description
properties.marker-symbol string Optional, see below
properties.title string Name of location¹
properties.direction number Optional orientation of POI

¹) If the location does not have a unique name, use "location near …" to describe the location.

There are special properties.marker-symbol values for emergency sites, which will create different types of emergency sites:

properties.marker-symbol Missions
default Patient recovery
car, road-accident Car accident
person², cricket Lost person
ship², ferry Ship SAR
bicycle Bicycle accident (not yet fully implemented)
bus Bus accident (not yet fully implemented)
farm Farming accident (not yet fully implemented)
fire-station Fire (not yet fully implemented)
logging Logging accident (not yet fully implemented)
mountain Lost person in mountain area accident (not yet fully implemented)
rail-light Tram accident (not yet fully implemented)
rail-metro Metro train accident (not yet fully implemented)
rail Train accident (not yet fully implemented)
swimming Lost person in open water (not yet fully implemented)

²) Some marker symbols will not spawn the correct icon in geojson.io, but are still valid mission types.

For more information see the main documentation.