how to make a custom take off location for float planes

Clipperboy wrote:

I am a bit of a flying boat nut and also being a newbie have come accross a few obstacles in logic with FSX.

For example there are no water runways in australia, therefore how can I start a flying boat in Rose Bay in Sydney Harbour (used to be Australias first international airport)

Can you specify a starting location by GPS and altitude/ground?

Also is it possible to refuel at airports?

I have taxied to refuelling pads but cannot now turn around the aircraft to get back out again nor can i see an option to refuel?

am I trying to be a little too realistic in my FSX existence?

When you chose an airport in the menu look down to the bottom, it has a window "runways" with a drop arrow, you can find water runways if there are any.

You can set your starting point by longitude and latitude if you like by feeding that into the "map.

Refuel:
Take your choice of these three ways.
1: Taxi over to the fuel pumps. Get close.
2: Assign a key to the command "Add Fuel Quantity".
3: Select "Aircraft - Fuel and Payload" from the menu (press Alt).

start the plane on land, then roll it into the water

I cannot start a flying boat such as the short sandringham (no wheels at all) on land and roll it into water....

radarmans approach of adding the longitude and latitude into the map seems like the answer I am after..... do any of you know of a method of generating longitude and latitude values from place names.....

Of particular interest is Rose Bay, Sydney Harbour.

Great tip on the refuelling - thanks!

The best way since you aren't going to do it so often is Google it.

http://www.sydneypilotservice.com/navigating.htm

Clipperboy wrote:

I cannot start a flying boat such as the short sandringham (no wheels at all) on land and roll it into water....

Of particular interest is Rose Bay, Sydney Harbour.

I can't figure out which file exactly you have - the "Sandringham" part is throwing me off the scent. What I think you have is the empire20.zip by Jens B. Kristensen... if you don't maybe you should get it. ➡ http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?DLID=&Name=&FileName=empire20.zip&Author=&CatID=root

As this file uses a setup.exe I'm unable to determine whether or not this updated version includes the 'flights' which were a part of the FS2004 version. The Readme doesn't throw any light on the mystery either.

When I read 'Rose Bay' in your post I remembered that in my FS2004 version of the Short at least one of the 'flights' started there at dawn - I could never find that place on any map.

Though I don't have the s23_v10.zip (the older version) installed ATM, I just found the file in my archives and see that it includes 5 flights out of which 3 have Sydney-Brisbane in the name, so that must be somewhere in the vicinity.

You might already have those or similar (updated?) flights inside your "Flights" folder without being aware of it, seing that JBK now uses installers. I'd suggest you either browse to the "Flights" folder and have a peek inside, or you "Select a Flight" and look for it in the menu after having loaded FSX.
I'd be very surprised if JBK had omitted the 'flights' in his more recent uploads. Should that be the case however, I'm quite happy to upload the flights I have for you. I can't be sure if they'll be working but it's worth a try and wouldn't cause any harm to your sim.

here is a link for the airport codes to every seaplane base in the world:

http://www.photius.com/seaports/

for some reason, this site does not like opera. use firefox when you go there.

Assuming Free Flight, why not just "save" when you are at the desired starting point? That's what I do, default the mission and that's where the game takes you from the start screen. Use the SLEW commands to push the plane to the starting point.