autower - automatic tower position for FS 2004

This is autower's homepage. There are no Web 2.0 fancy rounded buttons here, but you should find all the information you need.
In a nutshell, autower is an add-on to Flight Simulator 2004 that automatically sets the tower position to the closest airport.

Abstract:

Have you ever been annoyed by the fact that when you want to see this perfect
touchdown you just made from an outside perspective, the tower is anywhere
but where it should be? Got frustrated trying to get the tower where
you think it is in reality, or at least somewhere where it fits well?

If the answer is yes, then take a look at autower. Designed to operate in
the background without any user intervention, it automatically moves the tower
to the airport where you want it to be, to the spot where the tower sits in
reality (well, at least somewhere close).

autower is free and open source software, released under the GNU General Public License.

autower is actively maintained and improved in response to user requirements. While there are versions available on popular sites related to Flight Simulation (uploaded by myself or by other people), those are not updated on a regular basis; the latest version, official support, and source code, is only guaranteed to be available here. In other words: this page is the authoritative source of information about autower.

autower requires FSUIPC. The free version of FSUIPC will work just fine, unless you're using an extremely old version (for FSUIPC 3.70 or older, you need a registered version).

Downloads:

autower 2.4.0
autower 2.4.0 source code | github
If you like and regularly use autower, please consider donating for an important cause (see just below).
Old versions can be found in the archive .

Want to link to or redistribute the files? Go ahead, but please read this.

Please help if you can

autower is, and will always be, free for you to download, use, and modify.

I'm glad to see that in general, the FS community is willing to recompensate developers for their efforts. If you think that autower is worth it, you're more than welcome to contribute -- but don't give your money to me. Please, if you can, donate to a Literacy Project in Laos. Thank you!!!

Note: I am not personally affiliated with Big Brother Mouse in any way. I simply fell in love with Laos and the people there, and I saw that BBM is doing something that is very much needed. Your donation will make a difference!

News, Hints, Notes, Version history ...

Nov 04,2011: Version 2.4.0 released. The logic for determining the available sceneries has been completely rewritten. Now, an arbitrary number of sceneries is supported, and the order in which they are considered should exactly mimic FS9's behavior. Previous versions supported a maximum of 999 layers, and may have gotten the ordering wrong under certain (unusual) conditions. This version also fixes a glitch accidentally introduced with version 2.3.0, where a debug message would be unconditionally displayed if the tower settings for TNCM were changed using autower.ini.
Oct 30,2011: Version 2.3.0 released. This version allows to conveniently override tower positions (and names) within the configuration file, instead of having to directly modify the airport definition. Moreover, closed runways are now accounted for, thus yielding more accurate results on roughly 500 airports.
Aug 02,2011: There is an alarming increase in network surveillance being done by ISPs notably in the UK and the USA (Vodafone, TalkTalk, and probably many more), where the Internet Service Providers are literally stalking their customers, monitoring and then replaying every browser request. Not only does this completely screw up all usage statistics and double or triple internet traffic, but most importantly, it is a totally unacceptable invasion of user privacy.

Therefore, I've switched over to providing all of the content of my site by encrypted HTTPS only. More background can for instance be found here, here, and here. If you are a TalkTalk or Vodafone subscriber, I urge you to switch to an honest provider who takes your privacy seriously.
(There are also older announcements. Click here to see all of them.)

Frequently asked questions

You're also very welcome to contact me by mail. Please look into any of the downloads to find my mail address.

Feedback

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2010-09-26 Christoph Ramana: VOHY has a faulty airport definition, so you have no choice but to fix the airport's AFCAD. (Please see the FAQ entries about debug mode and fixing the tower position above; the screenshot in the former contains the output for VOHY).

Sorry about that, but this is something that autower cannot do anything about. It relies on the tower positions in the AFCAD (if present) being correct and useful. If they are not, well, what you get is "garbage in, garbage out".

2010-09-26 David Just figured it out. It does not work CA89, due to multiple runways. However, I moved on to L12 (Redlands Muni) a single runway airport. I don't do meters at all, so to make things simple, here is what I did. Since Autower bases everything off the center of the runway, the first thing you should do is enter top-down view (Ctrl+S) and then go to view settings. Make sure it is North Oriented (usually it's North Oriented at high altitudes). For this purpose, we want it North Oriented. Now, slew your aircraft to the center of the runway (length and width wise). In other words, halfway down the runway and on the centerline. If you've done this correctly, you can now set the Autower.ini file parameters regarding heading and distance both to 0. Start autower.exe, switch to tower view, and you should find yourself with a tower view directly above your aircraft. Now, keeping your aircraft in the center of the runway, begin altering the heading and distance parameters to your liking. For me, I prefer a 1st person type thing, so I set the TowerHeight1Rw to 2. Roughly 6'5" above the ground (a taller person). I then adjusted the ZoomLevel to what is an acceptable representation of regular old eyesight. Us humans can't zoom with our eyes :) This value works out to 102 which FS translates to a zoom tower zoom level of 001.60 (found in view settings). So. The first thing to do is, with the aircraft in the center of the runway, start backing the tower viewpoint away from the aircraft (which is now your visual cue). Use the negative values to keep it precise. With both heading and distance set to 0, set the distance to -10. You'll see that, even with the heading at 0 (should be the same as the primary heading of the runway and your aircraft, it is slightly off to the left. Oh well, we'll work with it. From there, it is a back and forth game of adjusting the distance and heading to your liking as both settings affect each other. A heading setting of 90 with a distance setting of 10 will look different at heading 90 and distance 20. You just have to play with it. For me, I just used the airports beacon as my desired tower location. Using the beacon allows me to look for the big red and white tower as I am adjusting the parameters. Since we're dealing with meters here, the finer adjustments really will be adding or subtracting 1 at a time. 1 meter is roughly equal to 3.3 feet. So, once you've eyeballed your new tower location, find out exactly where it's at. This is simple. If you've set your height to something low like me, just slew your aircraft to 15 or so feet in the air. If you've got it at 300 feet in the air, put your aircraft 315 feet in the air, or whatever, just make sure it is above the tower. Now. Go to tower view. Start slewing your aircraft around to find it, in case your view is obstructed by a building. Open a new window ([ key) and set it to top down (Ctrl+S) now just bring your aircraft directly over your tower. Use the arrow keys for precise movement. Keeping your aircraft on the same heading as the runway. As you approach the tower's location you'll see that the aircraft's wings are coming close to being parallel with the top of your screen. Make them parallel. Now, slew back and forth. When you approach the center of your tower's view, the aircraft will flip from facing forward to backward. Once you hit that center spot, simply look at the top down view. The red cross hair is exactly where your tower is positioned. If you're happy with it good, because adjusting it wouldn't entail repeating this entire process. Hope this helps somebody.

2010-09-26 Christoph,

For example VOHY...

2010-09-26 David I'm trying my hardest to understand this program. Using the .exe version. I created an "Autower" folder in my FS9 root directory. This contains all Autower related files. Running FS, starting at CA89 (Skylark Field), and attempting to edit the towers position, which seems to be in the middle of the runway and way up. After reading and re-reading your README, I'm thinking the CA89 may not be eligible for the simple fix. It has three runways, I think (they're all dirt), and I'm using an addon scenery for it. If I read your README correctly, all I would have to do is open the .ini, edit the SimpleFixHeading and SimpleFixDistance parameters and restart Autower. However, this is having no effect. Can you please confirm if I am just screwed? I've never used AFCAD or any tools related to it.

2010-09-25 Christoph Ramana: Probably the only solution is to modify the airport's AFCAD. (If the airport has a single runway, it might also be affected by the SimpleFix* settings in autower.ini). Can you give an example of airports where this is happening?

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