My two cents: thoughts about GSX so far

[Scandinavian]

Firstly thank you for a quite good add on. It really fills a huge gap in the sceneries where we didn't have AES support.
But there are a few things I would to comment.
I think I read that you were working on this, but it would be nice to be able to turn off the front stairs when we are using sceneries with non animated gates, but with gates non the less.
And in some airports you walk from the airplane to the terminal, so when the gsx bus arrives, it looks kinda weird. So being able to turn off that would be neat.
During my past flights with GSX I have noticed that the rear stairs park very close to the pushback path. With the 737-800 it nearly clipped the wings. And when I pushed back at São Paulo/Congonhas SBPS the push back brought me to a position where the stairs was placed in the wing when I was pushed. Also the guy "walking" besides the push back truck is not walking, just sliding along the tarmac. That don't look like something that that should be in a product with generally quite good people animations.

When starting boarding, both the passangers and the cargo drives towards the plane at the same time, leaving the passenger bus to arrive long before the cargo in my experience, and more often than not, the loading finishes before cargo is boarded, with GSX whining about me closing the doors. That is not really realistic. Maybe in a future version it would be wise to separate the two actions?
Those messages are not needed I think, we should at least get the option to turn them off, especially the sound.

To end on a positive note, I would just like to again point out that this is a good add on, and I would recommend it to all airline geeks even now.

Cargo loading in the front cargo hold would be nice, but that is a feature I also think I read you were working on.

[virtuali]

I think I read that you were working on this, but it would be nice to be able to turn off the front stairs when we are using sceneries with non animated gates, but with gates non the less.

Yes, that's already been discussed internally and planned for an update.

The minimum feature offered would be let users specify, on a parking by parking basis, which spots have static jetways.

But we might do even more, basically opening the airport customization feature to users, so you'll be able to set other things like if there's a need for a bus, if there's already a docking system made by the scenery developer (so we won't activate the marshaller), the maximum distance to place the marshaller (so he won't end up behind buildings), the radius to place service vehicles (so you can override the radius of the AFCAD), the pushback preference, etc.

The result of this would be some kind of text file with all the customizations for an airport, that users could eventually share, here or everywhere else.

Also, we'll add a couple of Global options, like the ability to turn the waiting for doors entirely, so you might use unsupported airplanes with non-standard doors without waiting for them to be supported, and also some Global settings to always ask for Stairs if there's no jetway and always ask for the Passenger bus, they might be useful when you don't want to do a full customization, maybe a quick flight into an airport you don't plan to use that much.

I believe these might cover the most pressing issues, and with users sharing their airport customization files, we'll be relieved of the burden of having to spend too much time to add new supported airports, and concentrate on new program features instead.

A bit later on, we could release an airplane editor, so you could set all your doors directly within GSX, without having to look for a configuration file or for the airplane to be supported.

Just be sure of this: we haven't spent 2 years doing GSX, just to release it and let it unsupported, it's has been designed right from the start to be constantly growing.

The first thing to be released, however, will be the PaintKit, with explanation how to organize liveries and control the appearance of vehicles at all airports.

[theshack440]

It's great to hear about all of this. I also think it would be nice, if it's not included in the things that you mentioned, to choose whether or not you want those aft stairs (or have, as a submenu within the in-game GSX menu, a "Deboarding" option and next to it a "Customized Deboarding" where the user chooses precisely what he or she wants, possibly eliminating the need for specific airport files -- or maybe as an addition to them). Looking forward to all of the coming updates.

[b737]

I'd like to add my .02 as well.

First off, was having a lot of the problems others had in not being able to update files, errors with in FSX etc.

Well, I discovered, when I had clicked on the FSX download for GSX, it d/l the addon setup file.  I installed that jsut fine.  Myu clue was when Umberto said the docs to GSX were in the coatl<sp> folder, I didn't have one.  After returning back to the FSDT site, i clicked on a link that showed all the product files. It was then I noticed a seperate file for the GSX setup.  After installing, everything worked fine.

Now on to some thoughts.

As a realworld pilot(B737's) I'm very familiar with ground ops, pushback etc.

OK, I was using FSlabs Concorde on a flight from PHOG to KLAX.  Catring truck shows up fine, the caterer dud has a concussion now, as he doesn't duck when entering.

I don't use the fuel option, as FSLabs needs it's own loader...no biggie. Pax/Cargo loading looked cool.

Now, my caveates<sp> if you will.   Concorde is unique in how you start her, ie 2&3 at the gate; love the way you have that setup.  However, as you may/maynot know; there are some checklists to be done before pushback can commence.  It is a little annoying to have them bugging you to relase the brakes when runnig the checks.  Be nice if we could let hem know when we are ready to push, instead of a constant reminder..more realistic behaviour.

During pushback, everything fine; Plenty of time to start 1&4, very relaistic. However, again when aircraft is stopped, many checklist items are ongoing; agian be nice for us to clear them off.

IE; when they give the command to set brakes, they stand by till we clear them off; as in real life.   Also, I don't quite understand the need to re-release the brakes, for the tug to clear the aircraft.  After push in the 73, we set the brakes, clear the tug driver and wingwalker, and then finish our checklists.   Again, these were just some th8ings i noticed from a realworld stanpoint, that were a little odd.

Overall, I'm enjoying GSX for the short time I have used the product.

ONe last thing. Would be nice to know were our gate is located at the airport when we select that gate on the menu. especially somewhere like KLAX.   I'm familiar with KLAX, I fly in there a lot; I just don't know how to coorelate real gates, to fsx gates.   I did make a printout from the Airport design program recommended; but I'm still not sure how to know the gate coorelation.

Something perhaps in the future to consider with editor or other means. When you get set to taxi to a gate, the popup would allow you to also filter by airline. So if I selected Southwest at KLAX, I know I would have the selctions of Terminal 1 Gates 1-14.  Or something along those lines if possible.

Thanks again, for this immersive program. Just would like the ability to control the flow of things a little more relaisticly.

Best,
David

[mseiwald]

Hi,
Overall GSX is a great product and i'm really enjoying it.

However in some points i have to say that David is absolutely right in his previous post.
I'm a realworld First Officer on A320's and it would really be good if you could turn Off this reminders every 10 seconds. It's annoying during the checks. I also don't get the point why we have to release the parking brakes right after pushback. What if you don't have a Taxi clearence yet....why would i Need to release the brakes then?

Besides this points its a Great product

Kind regards
Manuel