Aircraft positions at the gate

[Ian S]

Hi
I've recently installed GSX, and it is great. There is one little issue that I think, but I am not sure, is related to GSX, as it appears to have cropped up at the same time I installed GSX.

Basically, when I start a flight all add-on is aircraft about 1-2m further forward than they should be, sometimes right up against the terminal building. Therefore it looks odd and I have to reverse them to line up with GSX vehicles. This does not happen with the default aircraft, which are positioned correctly on the yellow marker points on the tarmac. Also my AI are all found to be too far forward of the marker points.

I can't find details of this elsewhere in the forums or manual, but am hoping you might have some suggestions.

cheers

Ian

[virtuali]

GSX won't affect in any way where your airplane is parked or where your AI will park. That's only depending on the scenery AFCAD, which is not modified by GSX in any way.

[Ian S]

OK, must be a coincidence. Thanks for the prompt reply.

[cbear]

I have the same issue, every airport the marshall puts myMain gear on the "T" not the nose gear.
Is there anyway to adjust this?

Bruce

[virtuali]

I have the same issue, every airport the marshall puts myMain gear on the "T" not the nose gear. Is there anyway to adjust this?

You don't have the same issue. This thread was about having the airplane misplaced when starting a flight and this, of course, doesn't have any relationship with GSX, since GSX won't affect in any way how your airplane or AI airplanes will park, because that's entirely controlled by the AFCAD

Your question, instead, is why the GSX Marshaller doesn't put your front gear on the parking Tee, which is a GSX question and, is related to the AFCAD, but it's another issue entirely.

On any airport that doesn't have any specific customization (like the FSDT ones) GSX doesn't know anything about the stopping positions on ground, which might differ depending on the airplane type and the parking. FSX AFCAD standard support the Tee parameter but, there are basically no airports that use it, and 3rd party airports have their own custom markings on ground, so that data is entirely missing from the AFCAD, which is the only thing GSX knows about an airport.

Which means, lacking any better information (es. full airport customization, like in FSDT airports) the GSX Marshaller will place the CENTER of your airplane (which is the red cross you can see from the Top Down view) to be in the CENTER of the parking, as defined in the scenery AFCAD. This will result in the same positioning AS IF you were starting a flight or moved the airplane using the standard "Go To Airport" menu on FSX.

[frostycab]

Virtuali, does that mean I can manually edit the AFCAD files to correct the parking positions so that all aircraft will stop on the "T"? I know the AFCADs are editable, but I've never heard of being able to customise parking positions specifically for different aircraft. Can you recommend a good editor program that would allow me to do so?

[virtuali]

Virtuali, does that mean I can manually edit the AFCAD files to correct the parking positions so that all aircraft will stop on the "T"?

On a default airport, or a 3rd party add-on airport that uses default ground markings from the AFCAD, the FSX AFCAD specifications supports the parking "tee" distance parameters, but as far as I know, no airport (default or 3rd party) ever used it, it's not very well documented and chances are FSX just ignores it.

We use our own internal method, to link custom ground markings to specific airplane types, but it works only with our airports, and there's nothing to configure, it's already supported by our airports and GSX in this case is aware of it.

[frostycab]

Damn. I hoped there was going to be an easy fix. LOL. I wonder if its possible to reset the centerpoint for the aircraft instead so that its offset enough for GSX to get you to stop at the "T". Theoretically it should just be a question of moving the aircraft reference point forward to the front wheel, though I have no idea if its possible or practical. Does anyone have any ideas? Do you think that this would be something that could possibly be written into GSX as an option in the aircraft editor in a future version of the software?

[virtuali]

I wonder if its possible to reset the centerpoint for the aircraft instead so that its offset enough for GSX to get you to stop at the "T"

No, it will probably affect other things in the flight model, if you don't *really* know what you are doing.

Do you think that this would be something that could possibly be written into GSX as an option in the aircraft editor in a future version of the software?

It should have been something customizable parking by parking, but I doubt many would take the pain to measure each parking on each airport JUST to have the airplane parked on the tee, which might be not be realistic to begin with (especially on default airports, where you can only have 3 rows in total).

We'll probably add the ability to use FSDT docking system (place them anywhere in the world) in a program update, and that WILL of course allow to specific the final position you are supposed to end on.

[frostycab]

...but I doubt many would take the pain to measure each parking on each airport JUST to have the airplane parked on the tee, which might be not be realistic to begin with (especially on default airports, where you can only have 3 rows in total).

Sorry, I made it sound more complex than I actually intended. What I meant was if a future version of GSX gave us the ability to offset the supposed center of the aircraft by a few feet then it would prevent the program parking us so far forward. All it would take would be for the user setup the aircraft in the GSX Aircraft Editor and say stop the aircraft with XX meters remaining to what GSX would think was the correct default position. That way all 747 aircraft could be offset more or less correctly, as could 737s, Dash 8s, A320s....

Not sure if I've really made it clear.

[virtuali]

All it would take would be for the user setup the aircraft in the GSX Aircraft Editor and say stop the aircraft with XX meters remaining to what GSX would think was the correct default position. That way all 747 aircraft could be offset more or less correctly, as could 737s, Dash 8s, A320s....

It wouldn't work, it must be made at the parking level.

Default airports don't have the parking tee all in the same position at all parking spots and sometimes the tee is not even drawn, and of course 3rd party airports usually have their own tee made with custom textures with different scaling, that's why it must be made at the parking level, which how we do it for our own airports, and not even all of them because, as I've said, is a fairly long process.