New Updated KDFW AFCAD as of 8-16-10

[DMullert]

Hello Folks!

Given all the fixes and adjustments made by FSDT on the 1.0.1 through 1.0.5 updates, I decided to go back and re-do the FSX AFCAD in order to take advantage of the FSDT work.  I have incorporated all of the gate assignments I did on my original release but made some adjustments here and there and also added windsocks near all the runways currently used at DFW for takeoffs.  I made the airline code corrections suggested here in the forum and moved some cargo carriers around in order to denote more accurate parking spots.  For those of you who complained about the 18R ILS flying you in a bit high, FSDT fixed that issue with 1.0.5, so cheers.

Hope this helps everyone. 

To the folks at FSDT, feel free to incorporate my work on future releases.

Dennis D. Mullert 

[cmpbllsjc]

Thanks for taking the time to redo it from FSDT's latest good version with all the little fixes. It's too late now since you already posted this one, but I should have asked you if you could add a starting point for the little helicopter pad that sits in the taxiways by 18L south of Terminal D. Not a big deal though since I can add it myself. Usually when flying a copter out of here I just select a fuel box as for a start point.

I'm going to down load it now a give it a shot.

Thanks again.

Sean

Forgot to ask, does this one include the fix for the Jetway not working at E14?

[DMullert]

Heyy Sean!

No problem - Glad I could conribute.  This version should include the fix for E-14.  I read somewhere in the forum that FSDT addressed the E-14 problem with the 1.0.5 fix, so it should be included.  I noticed a helipad near the entrance to the GA parking area - most likely the one you mention.  I'll take a look at it and see if I can activated.

Thanks!

Dennis D. Mullert

[virtuali]

I read somewhere in the forum that FSDT addressed the E-14 problem with the 1.0.5 fix, so it should be included. 

Not, it was fixed in the latest AFCAD 1.0.6 (this version is only available as the AFCAD). If you based yours on 1.0.5, you should be able to include the fix quite easily, by reducing the parking radius of E15 from 44 mt to 42 mt.

[blueridgeflyer]

Thanks for the effort Dennis.  Its good to see you here in these forums.  FSDT KDFW is quite stunning and has given new life to my FSX. 

[Brian S]

Dennis,

I am going to put my 2 cents in one more time and then I will be quiet, I promise!      Again, it is critical if you are going to release an AFCAD for everyone to use, you try and follow the "standards" set up in the AI community the best you can and not tune your AFCADS with parking codes and radius sizes etc that are not consistent with the rest of the AI community.  Here are some suggestions to make it precise to the FSX standard.

1)  Parking Radius.   The critical value for determining an AI aircraft parking spot minimum size in FSX is in the aircraft.cfg file - under the airplane geometry section - the wing_span= value is critical.  For instance, lets take the American Airlines Boeing 737-800 with winglets, a frequent visitor to KDFW.  The wingspan on that aircraft is 117.42 feet.  In meters that is 35.79m.  The formula for FSX parking radius(not FS9 which is handled differently) is the wing span in meters divided in half.  For this aircraft, the parking spot should be 17.89m, rounded up to 18.00m GATE=SMALL.   This is the FSX standard that is hard coded into the sim for AI aircraft parking.  The AFCAD put out by FS Dreamteam is also incorrect to the FSX standard.  You will notice virtually all of the FSX AFCADS released on AVSIM for instance, use this standard because it is how it is coded in FSX.  Look up AFCADS for FSX released by Ray Smith and/or the AIG Ground team for instance, who do frequent AFCADS that are quite good.  This may sound complicated, but to make it very easy, look at this chart.  

http://www.flightsimx-fanatics.com/FlightSim/FSXWingSpanValues.htm

The spots just need to be resized in your AFCAD and you will get very precise parking.  For instance, with the issue of parking American Eage ATR 72's in gates 30-39.  You have done a great job aligning them with the way they parking in real life.  However, you have chosen to label one type of aircraft parking spot as EGF, and another for the same airline as AALX.  This will cause mass confusion.  The AI standard is to use the AALX designation, because you have two carriers that are commuters for American-American Eagle and American Connection.  This standard simplifies the situation for airlines such as United (UALX) that have different commuters flying for them.  To ensure that the ATR's park in 30-39, just make the parking spots all in terminal B that are used for the American commuters as AALX and correct the parking radius for the different aircraft types.  ATR's should be a radius of 14 and the ERJ's should be 11.  Problem solved and consistent with the FSX community.

2)  Aircraft parking codes- See my paragraph above for consistent parking codes

3)  A couple of parking spots missing- I did not see any parking spots for cargo airlines Martinaire and Ameriflight, two UPS feeder cargo carriers with frequent scheduled flights each day.  


Thanks for your efforts, just trying to make some suggestions that are consistent with how FSX vs FS9 AFCADS are handled.  

Brian S.

[DMullert]

Hey Brian!

Thanks for your input.  I appreciate it.  I am quite new at this AFCAD business, so I'm doing what I can at the moment and learning as I go.  A couple of explanations:

1.  I used EGF instead of AALX for the ATR parking spots because otherwise I would have CRJ's and ERJ's parking where the ATR's park, so in order to avoid that issue, I labeled my Eagle ATR's as EGF's instead of AALX's and since American Connection does not fly to DFW it works well - I forgot to explain that logic in my previous e-mails.  I will try your method of assigning different radius's to differnet aircraft to see how that works with the ATR's and the rest of the Eagle fleet.  If it works that way then I'll update the rest - as you can imagine, taking this approach is very time consuming, but worth the try.

2.  Regarding the parking radius stuff you explain, it makes sense, however I used the AFCAD produced by FSDT and kept all of the gate radius's alone (did nto touch them), except for a couple of gates on terminal A and C that had "Heavy Gates" denomination, which I switched to Medium Gates in order to prevent 777's from parking there, which would be a bit unrealistic.

3.  I have already included Martinair Cargo on a release coming up later today under the code MPHC, and Ameriflight had already been included under the code AMF in the cargo section across from the AAL hangars, close to the UPS ramp.

4.  Gate E15 I just fixed, so it will be included in my upcoming update later.

5.  Helicopter starting position added near the GA ramp as requested by Sean above.

6.  I've been tempted to add the jet blast barriers that are missing from the FSDT scenery, but since I'm not sure when and if FSDT will release an update that would include the barriers, I decided to hold off on those for now.  I speak specifically about the barriers at the end of runways 35L and 35C that were recently added.  Depending on the signal we get from virtuali will depend on whether I add those in a future release or not.

7.  Champion Air was taken off as it is now deceased.

8.  The aircraft parking codes I am using are the codes from ADE, so I am hoping those guys are staying on par with the "FSX Commuity" currently used codes.

Hope this helps!

Dennis D. Mullert

[Brian S]

Hey Brian!

Thanks for your input.  I appreciate it.  I am quite new at this AFCAD business, so I'm doing what I can at the moment and learning as I go.  A couple of explanations:

1.  I used EGF instead of AALX for the ATR parking spots because otherwise I would have CRJ's and ERJ's parking where the ATR's park, so in order to avoid that issue, I labeled my Eagle ATR's as EGF's instead of AALX's and since American Connection does not fly to DFW it works well - I forgot to explain that logic in my previous e-mails.  I will try your method of assigning different radius's to differnet aircraft to see how that works with the ATR's and the rest of the Eagle fleet.  If it works that way then I'll update the rest - as you can imagine, taking this approach is very time consuming, but worth the try.

Yes, it's time consuming, but it's the right way.  I understand your thought process with EGF vs AALX, but OTHER people should not have to change their aircraft cfg's around for one airport AFCAD.  That's the reason for the standard, so the same aircraft park in the correct commuter parking no matter what airport they fly into.  FSDT did this part correctly by listing the commuter flights parking spaces as AALX (not the correct radius though).  Remember, 3 different airlines that fly for American Eagle, you have Executive Airlines operating ATR72's, and American Eagle and Chautauqua operating ERJ's and CRJ's for American Eagle and American Connection.  

2.  Regarding the parking radius stuff you explain, it makes sense, however I used the AFCAD produced by FSDT and kept all of the gate radius's alone (did nto touch them), except for a couple of gates on terminal A and C that had "Heavy Gates" denomination, which I switched to Medium Gates in order to prevent 777's from parking there, which would be a bit unrealistic.

That's the point, whoever made the AFCAD for FSDT did it by the FS9 standard, not the FSX standard which is HARD CODED into the sim.  So by what you are telling me, an FSX AI 777 aircraft in your AFCAD could then park in ANY AAL parking spot that has a radius of 31m or more, virtually all of your AAL parking spots.  31M is the wingspan of the B772.  If you want the planes to park so they have enough room, make your Heavy Gates at 31M  for the 777, your Heavy gates for the B763 at 26M, the Meduim Gates for the B752 at 21M, and the Small gate at 18M for the B738 and MD80 series (technically you could go down to 17M for the MD80's if you wanted to be more particular).

3.  I have already included Martinair Cargo on a release coming up later today under the code MPHC, and Ameriflight had already been included under the code AMF in the cargo section across from the AAL hangars, close to the UPS ramp.

Wrong Martinair Cargo, I am talking about Martinaire Cargo, which operates for UPS as a feeder cargo airline flying Cessna 208's.  Parking code MRA, call sign Martex.

4.  Gate E15 I just fixed, so it will be included in my upcoming update later.

Thanks

5.  Helicopter starting position added near the GA ramp as requested by Sean above.

Nice

6.  I've been tempted to add the jet blast barriers that are missing from the FSDT scenery, but since I'm not sure when and if FSDT will release an update that would include the barriers, I decided to hold off on those for now.  I speak specifically about the barriers at the end of runways 35L and 35C that were recently added.  Depending on the signal we get from virtuali will depend on whether I add those in a future release or not.

Cool.

7.  Champion Air was taken off as it is now deceased.

Thanks.

8.  The aircraft parking codes I am using are the codes from ADE, so I am hoping those guys are staying on par with the "FSX Commuity" currently used codes.

I understand that EGF is the correct ICAO code, however, like it was previously said, the AI standard is to use the X code at the end of the AAL, DAL, COA, UAL commuter airlines since several different carriers fly for these commuters.  





Not trying to be a pain here Dennis, just trying to help out with consistent standards in the community so you can make the best AFCAD possible.

Brian S.


PS.   If anyone is interested in some Martinaire Flightplans, you can download them from my flight plan section over at AIG here.  http://www.alpha-india.net/forums/index.php?topic=9025.30.  I use the screen name Regulate at AIG.  Hope this helps. 

[DMullert]

Hey Brian!

No problem, I am not taking yoru suggestions wrong.  Do, however, be mindful that there really isn't a so called "ai standard" out there.  A lot of authors release their AFCAD files with either FSX or FS9 standard and the user community in 99% of the cases downloads, uses, tweaks, and eventually end up using what works best for them.  Most of the AFCAD files being used today in FSX are still the old FS9 format, and even programs such as ADE still have codes and things ported over from FS9.  Most people that migrated from FS9 to FSX and who migrated their AI world over, guess what???  also migrated the codes and everything else they had done for FS9 over to FSX, mainly because of the inmense amount of work involved with switching.  For those users that are bothered with an airline code here or there, or a parking radius here or there, there is ADE -a magnificent freeware tool to customize your airport AFCADS and do what you prefer with it.

In my case with this AFCAD file, I wanted to share something with the FSDT/DFW community that would enhance their use of the airport and at the same time help the folks at FSDT with an AFCAD file that is more up to date with reality - not perfect, of course.

I for one don't have Martinaire in my cargo plans - will add it soon as I find time.  The gate radius issue, I'll see if I can find time to tinker with it as well.  I have tested this AFCAD file against my FSDT KDFW and I have to say things look pretty nice and accurate from my side - perhaps not perfect, but much better than the default.  Feel free to modify my AFCAD file and make it better and share it with the community if you wish.

Again, I appreciate your input.

Dennis D. Mullert