Parking Spot adjustment for B737-200 at smaller airports

[RayP]

First...Great Product. Its just whats needed to keep good old FSX alive a little longer!
My question is can the size of aircraft that GSX see's at different airports be changed?  I fly CAPT SIM's B737-200 into alot of smaller airports but GSX see my aircraft as too big for those airports. Seems to be looking for a large parking spot since a smaller prop plance works fine. A medium spot is plenty of space for this early B737. You can get that Boeing into many small places. Now that you can make adjustment at the gate with version 1.1 this would be great. To have some services like the push-pack tug would be GREAT!!

Thank You

Ray Proctor

[Bruce Hamilton]

Is that Captain Sim larger than the default 737-800?  That works with GSX at a medium. Not sure why GSX requires a medium when AES will service me at a small, but that seems to be how it is.

[marvic]

According to Boeing Wikipedia info, the 737-200 was replaced with the -500 series and very similar in size.  So I would say very much smaller than the -800 model.  I too have the same issue with the -200 & -500 getting service in SMALL parking and gate areas. ( I know this has to do with FSX parking spot radius and NOT GSX.)

[virtuali]

If you want to stop GSX saying the airplane is too big, you need to edit the airport AFCAD. Small, Medium and Large are just labels, what counts is the radius in meters.

If the parking radius is smaller that half of your wingspan, GSX will say it's too small for your aircraft because it IS too small, at least this is what the AFCAD says.

If the AFCAD is wrong, and maybe that parking *had* enough space for that airplane, the correct solution is to change the AFCAD to set the correct value, not force GSX to behave wrong to compensate wrong AFCADs.

[RayP]

I understand what your saying HOWEVER a way to allow parking at any space would be alot better that editing every airport parking spot.

Thats all I was saying. My B737-200 parked in a small parking spot with a ton of space around it. The program should be able to allow
parking if I want to park there.  As in real life, plane are not always parked in the right spot but need ground services...The user should be able to choose..It would be a GREAT selling option !


Thanks

Ray Proctor

[data63]

Well, if GSX can't rely on the AFCAD, on what basis should it know if an aircraft fits into a spot or not?

the AFCAD ist THE soure for any kind of parking info (and in most cases the parking spots are rather to big than to small)

In my opinion using the AFCAD as basis for that is the best solution

Happy landings

Juergen

[Lawgiver]

Does anyone know of a good/reputable tutorial on how to edit the AFCAD??  Would like to learn how to do that properly instead of just experimenting.

Regards,
Rob

[virtuali]

ADE is quite powerful, and it's free. Or there's AFX, a commercial program, the main advantage it's much faster and allows to preview your changes in FSX.

[Lawgiver]

Hi Umberto,

I have seen ADE mentioned several times in the forum.  I will check out AFX.  I like the idea of previewing before any actual changes are made to the file.  I would love to take a crack at adjusting some of the parking positions at the default airports.  Most I have tried so far always park me well beyond the Tee.  The AI are the same too.  They are parked beyond the Tee as well.  Is there a chance the GSX AFCAD editor could handle this task or is that too complicated??

Regards,
Rob

[virtuali]

GSX by default will try to put your airplane reference point (the red cross you see from the Top down view) in the parking center, it can be programmed to apply any offset, even customized for every airplane, but it's something we can do for our airports, were we control everything, including the texture that draws the tee in the first place.

With ADE or AFX, your option is to adjust the parking center, the parking tees are just cosmetic, they don't really "do" anything in FSX, I don't believe the AI system recognize them.

[Lawgiver]

Hi Umberto,

Sounds like adjusting the center of the parking position at the default airports is what I need to do.  That or find an updated AFCAD.  For example, my home airport KCAK ramp parking isn't so bad.  But the gate parking is another story.  Depending on what AC you have chosen, you are parked so close to the terminal building you can't see the marshaller anymore through the windscreen.  If you adjust his position, he will end up inside the building.  I'm getting the impression the default AFCADS really aren't that good.  I am going to pick up AFX.  It's listed on Flight one for $US 29.99  Since purchasing GSX, I have taken a real interest in how this stuff works.  Believe it or not, it's really interesting.   

Regards,
Rob

[JPL19]

Well, if GSX can't rely on the AFCAD, on what basis should it know if an aircraft fits into a spot or not?

. . .

Juergen

Why does GSX even need to care?  I don't want or need it to tell me where I should or should not park.  Nor, do I feel I should have to make AFCADS fit this program.  To me it is not a feature but a needless detriment.  Treat a gate as a gate, I don't need GSX to make judgement calls.  AES is so more seemless, where GSX wants to play "big brother".

[Bruce Hamilton]

I don't need GSX to make judgement calls.  AES is so more seemless, where GSX wants to play "big brother".

GSX isn't making judgement calls, it calculates your aircraft wingspan in comparison to the size of the parking spot in the AFCAD, something AES should probably be doing as well.  AES will service a jumbo in a small gate, which is unrealistic even for simulation.

[virtuali]

Why does GSX even need to care?

Already explained several other times:

because it needs to place vehicles on their starting positions, that depends on the parking size (assuming that is correct, respecting the parking size should help not going inside buildings, nearby jetways, etc.), but then the vehicles will need to approach the airplane so, an airplane that is larger than the parking position, will create all sort of maneuvering problems.

[JPL19]

I try to use real world gate arrivals and departures, when I can find it (pretty often).  One of the things I used to do was set a parking spot to a very small radius (1) to ensure no AI was taking up my gate upon arrival.

I guess that option is gone, and now, I have to get in the habit of checking an AFCAD before each flight to be sure my arrival gate passes GSX approval. I know it is not the fault of GSX if it is incorrect, but, prior to this it never mattered and never took up more time to see if an AFCAD was correct.  Another "pre-flight item, I guess.

Joe