Folder permissions?

I have installed Flight Gear and need to edit many of the files. However, its in a directory thats owned by root. Because i will end up doing a lot of experimentation in these folders, i dont want to have to log into root account every time i need to make changes (and everyone says to stay out of it anyway). The only way i see is to manually change the permissions of EVERY folder under the main flight gear directory. Theres got to be another way.
Can i change the installed directory to my home folder?

kdesu kwrite /path/tofolder/tofile

gnomesu gedit /path/tofolder/tofile

or kde3 has super user file manager
kde4 has too but may not work

HA! Super user file manager. Thank you so much.