Parking heading suggestion

[Wolf0]

Hello,

Currently GSX defines a direction for the gate/apron parking, via the afcad. The vehicles are then positioned accordingly.

However, there are some airports around the world where the same gate (apron parking) can be used on different configurations. It depends on the size of the aircraft, the wind direction, the rotation time, company preference, parking space available, convenience...

Is it possible to make GSX less demanding regarding the parking spaces? I.E., is it possible to provide ground services regardless of the heading that the airplane finishes the parking, even if it is completely against the afcad?

I know that this makes the parking guidance impossible, since GSX wouldn't know where to place the marshaller, but it would be a fair if, after the parking brake was set, we could request ground services on whatever heading we would be in, as long as the aircraft was within a defined parking space.

Best regards,

Pedro

[virtuali]

Currently GSX defines a direction for the gate/apron parking, via the afcad. The vehicles are then positioned accordingly.

Only by default. But you can customize the position, size and heading of the parking, which will be used by GSX instead of the ones specified in the AFCAD.

[Wolf0]

Only by default. But you can customize the position, size and heading of the parking, which will be used by GSX instead of the ones specified in the AFCAD.

Yes, but the point was to allow multiple configurations without having to customize the position.

I'll give you one example of what happens at Horta airport (LPHR):

RWY28 in use


RWY10 in use


We can only have one option with today's GSX.

It would be nice to land at this airfield with GSX configured for RWY28 but be able to request ground services even if we parked like on the RWY10 configuration...

Do note that I'm not asking for the possibility of saving multiple configurations per parking spot. I'm only requesting that the vehicles would appear regardless of the heading, as long as the airplane was inside the parking radius and with parking brake set. We could live without the marshaller guidance in this case. I'd just like to have the possibility to request the stairs and the cargo loaders regardless of the heading. In this scenario we could even have the possibility to request pushback, but just the straight line, with manual stopping.

Best regards,

Pedro

[virtuali]

Do note that I'm not asking for the possibility of saving multiple configurations per parking spot. I'm only requesting that the vehicles would appear regardless of the heading

To do that, it would require having multiple configurations for a parking spot. We might think about it but, cannot promise anything.

HOWEVER, since GSX associated its own customization file with the AFCAD that was active when you edited it, you can already do this, by having two different AFCAD, and switch between them, so GSX will use a different .INI file, with an entirely separate configuration.

Since you might need to change the runway in use configuration to allow for different runways (closing the unused ones), that can be a way to have GSX storing multiple configurations per airport: just use more than one AFCAD (with different names, of course), and alternate between them, which is how several scenery developers do anyway, to allow for different runway assignment.

[Wolf0]

Yes, I am familiar with that procedure of changing the afcad for selecting a determined runway configuration.

However I was merely requesting something way simpler than that: that the vehicles would appear regardless of the afcad/configuration/position. I really don't know how you've coded GSX and that may well be impossible by nature. But since GSX relies on so many data from the aircraft itself I thought that it would be possible to activate the service vehicles around the aircraft regardless of it's position within the afcad, just by calculating the geometry of the aircraft. As far as I understand, the afcad itself is only used for the movement animations, like deciding where to spawn the vehicles (if the afcad has the proper spawn locations defined), what kind of vehicles to provide (gate size and type) and the pushback sequences and parking marshalling.

But imagine an airport with a single runway and an endless apron (with no designated parkings on the afcad). If one would park a A320 somewhere on that apron, would it be possible for GSX to make stairs and baggage carts appear near the aircraft and connect them to the doors?
The aircraft type and position would be known by GSX. Deploying the vehicles would be similar to it being inside a parking radius. The only thing that wouldn't work would be the apis/marshaller and pushback (since there's no afcad available to be read by GSX).

But we'd still have some sort of visual display of vehicle activity around our aircraft...

I'll leave you to coding more goodies for us. I hope I was not boring with this subject. I was only trying to transmit my idea clearly, although I'm not fully aware if the current code works as I imagined above.

Thank you for you time and the great program you've designed.