Introduction | Designing Missions | The Mission Window | Initial Aircraft Setup | Phases of Flight | Procedures and Sites | 3D Mission Editing| Catalogs
The procedure times that are displayed in the mission list reflect the start time of the procedure for the first procedure of the mission and the end time of the procedure for all subsequent procedures. For a landing procedure, the time displayed is the time that the aircraft touches down, and not the end of the entire procedure (as the aircraft must still complete its ground roll). Normally, Aircraft Mission Modeler adjusts the times of procedures as needed to achieve the mission goals that you have set.
If the timing of a procedure is important to your mission goal,
you can specify how the procedure time will be defined by clicking
or selecting Set Time
from the right-click menu in the mission list, which will open the
Procedure Time window. The Procedure Time window contains
parameters related to the various aspects of procedure time that
you can control - Start Time, Interrupt Time, Normal Stop Time,
Duration. The procedure's place within the mission will determine
which time aspects that you can control.
To control the start time of a procedure, select Set Fixed Start Time and enter a desired start date and time in the field below. In a like manner, to control the normal stop time of the procedure, use Set Fixed Normal Stop Time; this property is unavailable for the first procedure of a mission. Use Set Interrupt Time to stop the current procedure in progress at the specified time and begin the next procedure.
You can also attempt to control the duration of a procedure. The Normal setting defines the duration as the natural product of the procedure's start and stop times. Select Automatic/Computed to allow the duration to be adjusted by Aircraft Mission Modeler in order to satisfy the start or stop times of other procedures; this option disables the Set Interrupt Time property. Select Set Fixed/Override and enter a desired time to constrain the duration of the procedure to the exact time that you specify; this method will adjust airspeed if necessary to achieve the desired result.
The STK Vehicle procedure site has its own time element (the vehicle's), and in the process of calculating the mission Aircraft Mission Modeler may not achieve a procedure time that coincides with the time that the object is at the site location (e.g., if there is another procedure somewhere in the mission that has a fixed or user specified time). Select Minimize Site/Procedure Time Difference to attempt to force the procedure and site times to converge; refer to the STK Object Waypoint site help section for complete information on how this option functions.
There are several buttons at the bottom of the Procedure Time window that provide supplemental information or controls. Click Details... to open the Time Details window, which displays estimated minimum and maximum values for the time properties of the procedure based on the current settings. Click Turns... to set the Use Max Speed When Computing Turn Radii option for any of the procedures in the mission list. Click Reset to cancel all changes you have made since the settings were last applied, but without closing the window.
A fixed procedure time will appear in the mission list with a
clock icon 
in front of it.
If you set a fixed start or normal stop time, Aircraft Mission Modeler will modify the times of other procedures in the mission that do not have fixed times to accommodate the time property that you have defined; it is possible that doing this will invalidate the other procedures because the times required for them cannot be achieved. If you are unable to correct the problem by adjusting the time properties of the procedure that you are trying to specify, try adding a Delay procedure between the procedure and the first invalid procedure to restore the validity of your other procedures.
If you set a time property for a procedure that renders that procedure invalid, the invalid property will be marked and you will have to change it to a valid setting before you can click OK or Apply to implement the changes.