Lists of acceptable parking for flight planning?

[duckbilled]

Hi there,

Not sure if I need to adjust my workflow to better work with GSX, but I'm having trouble overcoming an issue that has been bugging me. I was a long time user of AES in FSX. I have been using GSX for a about a year in P3D, but I haven't dug too deep into its functionality, but the Level 2 update looks like it has a ton of new features (purchased yesterday. The addition of SODE jetways everywhere is really cool!

My workflow: When I start a flight, I load ASV4 first. Then I load ProATCx, select my departure/arrival and my departure gate, aircraft... Lastly, I start P3D and position my aircraft at the selected gate. I can figure out which gates are appropriate (size and airline) by checking out the AFCAD in ADE, but I can't figure out which gates will work with GSX (has jetway, double jetway...). Is there a text file somewhere that contains that information? I know I can warp to an available gate and create my flightplan once I find out where GSX puts me, but I'd prefer to create the flightplan before I load the flight and spawn at the actual gate I'm departing from.

Does everyone just warp to the gate after loading the flight, go to windowed view and create their flightplan after warping, or, is there a way to get the information before I load the flight.

Thanks!

[virtuali]

but I can't figure out which gates will work with GSX (has jetway, double jetway...).

Just open the GSX menu, the list of parking spots will tell you:

- If the parking is suitable for your airplane (size)

- The kind of parking (gate, cargo, ga, etc.)

- If it's taken by an AI or not and, if it's taken, how much time before it will be available again

- If there's a jetway  ( a /J after the name ), or a  SODE Jetway ( a /JS after the name ).

[duckbilled]

but I can't figure out which gates will work with GSX (has jetway, double jetway...).

Just open the GSX menu, the list of parking spots will tell you:

- If the parking is suitable for your airplane (size)

- The kind of parking (gate, cargo, ga, etc.)

- If it's taken by an AI or not and, if it's taken, how much time before it will be available again

- If there's a jetway  ( a /J after the name ), or a  SODE Jetway ( a /JS after the name ).

Thanks. What I'm looking for is a way to find this information before I load the flight, so I can include the departure gate in my flighplan. This method requires me to start the flight first (unless there is a way to access the GSX menu outside of P3D).

And if it isn't possible, does everyone just create their flightplan after the load P3D and are warped to the appropriate gate?

[virtuali]

Thanks. What I'm looking for is a way to find this information before I load the flight, so I can include the departure gate in my flighplan. This method requires me to start the flight first (unless there is a way to access the GSX menu outside of P3D).

Ok, I misunderstood you. No, it's not possible to use GSX outside the simulator, since it's a Simconnect plugin, which only runs inside the sim.

[airbadger]

GSX would be 1000% better if I didn't have to scramble during the taxi-in to correctly configure the gate and restart Couatl, all while navigating my way around the airport. If I could take care of all that ahead of time without having to teleport to the destination and back again before a flight... that would be the dream.

[virtuali]

GSX would be 1000% better if I didn't have to scramble during the taxi-in to correctly configure the gate and restart Couatl, all while navigating my way around the airport.

The whole attitude is wrong. Bear with me, now:

Assume we had an uber-editor that you could potentially launch from outside the simulator, like a super-ADE, with 3d preview, etc. Something that might took years and so much money to develop, that would cost more than the simulator itself. What you would do with it, and how you'll use it ?

You will probably dedicate some time to work on it, without flying (you cannot fly, it's an "editor"), so you'll likely take some time to Prepare (pun intended) your airport, without thinking about flying.

Then, once you'll be satisfied with what you did in this uber-editor, that costed so much work to us to do, and so much money for you to buy, what you will do next ? You'll start the simulator, and go flying, knowing the airports you just configured will surely work.

Now, replace "uber-editor", with Prepar3D (of FSX, if you like), and that's your editor. Bonus feature: it doesn't cost anything more, because you already bought it, and with the time we spared not doing something you could already do with the simulator, we could actually improve GSX to do thing you CANNOT do in any other way. It doesn't even require exiting the editor and entering the sim, since they are one and the same!

The whole concept is, resist the temptation of flying every time you start the simulator, and accept that sometimes you'll use it as an "Editor".

[duckbilled]

If I am following your correctly, I did consider something like this, but it could take a lot of time on my part. I thought about customizing a gate, or set of gates at every airport that can be used for any scenario. Then, I could have a spreadsheet telling me which gate to use for each scenario. Problem is I have a job and a family - including a 14 month old boy. I have a ton of add on scenery, and I would need to create a gate at each airport, for each size aircraft and for each airline that I could need for that airport. I'd rather just spawn on the active warp to a gate and do my flight planning once I have the gate assignment. Not quite as immersive, because I'll have to bounce between applications, but less labor intensive in the end.

My alternative was to find some sort of list - perhaps something that can be exported fro GSX, that has the gate size, airline code(s) and jetway situation for all of the airports in the sim. Not an editor. Just a spreadsheet. ADE gets close, but it still lacks the jetway info.

[virtuali]

ADE gets close, but it still lacks the jetway info.

I was basically trying to tell you the same. ADE is quite close to what you need, and it *does* have a list of jetways too. But it will only work for products using default jetwys.

With GSX Level 2, and many 3rd party sceneries using SODE jetways, there are now 3 ways to do jetways: 1 = default, 2 = SODE, 3 = GSX (which are still SODE, but created by GSX), so ADE cannot give you a realistic representation of the jetways.

And any other tool that would have to run outside the simulator, will have an hard time trying to do this, because it would require to look all your sceneries, your GSX customization files, 3rd party SODE XML files (some of them are encrypted!!), FSDT native scenery scripts that add jetways without using GSX Level 2 (all of them are encrypted).

It would be fairly complex to create a tool that would always and reliably tell you the complete situation at an airport, without running in the simulator.

[duckbilled]

Got it. Thanks. It would be nice to have this feature somewhere, but I understand the complexity. Nonetheless, it would be a worth ETL project.

So this means my workflow has to look like this.


1. Load P3D with the aircraft I plan to fly at the desired airport
2. Reset UTL
3. Quickly select a gate from the GSX menu before the AI aircraft are reloaded
4. Close the sim
5. Restart my computer
6. Start ASV4
7. Start ProATCX
8. Create flight plan using the gate identified earlier
9. Start P3D
10. Start flight with aircraft at gate identified earlier and proceed as usual.

This adds the additional step of loading the sim to find the right gate, but it eliminates the need to check the AFCAD in ADE. Small trade off.