How to overcome problem of Marshaller facing wrong way?

[Ray Proudfoot]

I am testing a 3rd party moving map application that includes a feature to guide you to a chosen parking spot. Can't say which as I'm under an NDA.

The problem it has is on some occasions it will guide you to the parking position the wrong way so you end up with GSX's marshaller with his back to you. This is mostly caused by poorly designed AFCADs.

I decided to see how GSX handles the issue. Using a default airport - KCNO - and stand G3 I left the runway and selected that position with the Follow-Me as guidance.

Sure enough it also had me approaching the position with the Marshaller's back to my aircraft. See attached images. The gate's heading is 268.1 degrees but it should be 88.1.

Is there any way you have found of overcoming this problem? Given it's a default AFCAD it's very disheartening this type of problem exists and not just occasionally. I've had the problem at several airports both with default AFCADs and 3rd party ones.

[virtuali]

The "Parking System" object can be rotated.

[Ray Proudfoot]

The "Parking System" object can be rotated.

A somewhat shorter answer than I was expecting.  Yes, I know it can. Shouldn’t be necessary if AFCADs were designed with a bit more care. It would seem GSX hasn’t found a solution either.

[virtuali]

Shouldn’t be necessary if AFCADs were designed with a bit more care. It would seem GSX hasn’t found a solution either.

I'm not sure what you are suggesting here. GSX has many ways to override mistakes made in the AFCAD, and this is no different. What else GSX is supposed to do, other than allowing to correct problems in the AFCAD ?

[Ray Proudfoot]

I’m not suggesting anything. I was asking if you have found a way of the Marshaller facing the aircraft at gates where the AFCAD is wrong. Your first reply was so brief as to be no real help. Can you expand on that?

[virtuali]

I’m not suggesting anything. I was asking if you have found a way of the Marshaller facing the aircraft at gates where the AFCAD is wrong. Your first reply was so brief as to be no real help. Can you expand on that?

How GSX can possibly decide if the AFCAD is wrong ? It might have been made that way intentionally.

It's not GSX place to guess or correct the airport designer intentions, this is exactly the same as the parking radius or the pushback preference. An airport designer might set it in some way for a good reason, or it might be a mistake, GSX cannot possibly know.

Which is why, it offers you the ability to override lots of this data related to the parking, without touching the original AFCAD.

[Ray Proudfoot]

Why would the AFCAD be designed like that intentionally? It has to be an error. Many airports have the problem so as far as I'm concerned it's just down to sloppiness with the designers.

I shall look at the tools available to me to fix it but as my moving map software reads the AFCADs finding a solution within GSX is not an option.

[virtuali]

Why would the AFCAD be designed like that intentionally? It has to be an error. Many airports have the problem so as far as I'm concerned it's just down to sloppiness with the designers.

Not so easy.

It happened to us too: some parking at KLAS looked as if they were reversed, but it's exactly as they are in real life (because the old terminal was demolished) and, guess what, users assumed we made some kind of mistake, see this threads here:

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,16028.msg114927.html#msg114927
http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,16705.0.html

I shall look at the tools available to me to fix it but as my moving map software reads the AFCADs finding a solution within GSX is not an option.

If the issue it's just the GSX marshaller facing the wrong way, as the subject of your post seems to indicate, you have a solution in GSX to fix THAT problem, which is to rotate the marshaller.

If, instead, such parkings are causing an issue even in your moving map software, I don't see many other options other than editing the AFCAD yourself, which will also make unnecessary to rotate the marshaller in GSX.

[Ray Proudfoot]

Thanks for that and in those circumstances I agree the AFCAD is correct.

But I have LIRF (3rd party) and if you look at stand 222 you'll see there are taxi lines from two directions. That is wrong as proven by this satellite image showing there is only one taxi line to the gate. Some AFCADs may be correct but there are several that are clearly wrong.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7994488,12.2642074,148m/data=!3m1!1e3

How many times have you checked an AFCAD for faults and it's come back clean? GSX suffers as much as other utilities.

[virtuali]

How many times have you checked an AFCAD for faults and it's come back clean? GSX suffers as much as other utilities.

That's precisely my point: you cannot be *sure* these are "faults", which is why even ADE doesn't flag them as such. In this cases, you have to use your own judgement.

[Ray Proudfoot]

That's precisely my point: you cannot be *sure* these are "faults", which is why even ADE doesn't flag them as such. In this cases, you have to use your own judgement.

The type of fault I'm discussing here isn't a fault that ADE can find. hence the problem. You only discover it when you select a parking position only to find the marshaller has his back to you and no obvious alternative route so he can guide you in.

The most common fault in AFCADs is orphaned or incomplete links which whilst not disastrous does suggest a certain amount of sloppiness when designing them.

[virtuali]

The type of fault I'm discussing here isn't a fault that ADE can find

Again, that was precisely my point.

Just like ADE, GSX cannot (and I don't think it should even try) decide on its own this is a fault for sure. That's why, you must act on your own, either on the AFCAD itself or, if the issue is only the GSX marshaller facing in the wrong way, on the GSX marshaller.

[Ray Proudfoot]

I've been editing AFCADs and placing them in a special folder named Corrections at the top of my scenery.cfg. Bit of a pain having to do it so I will also investigate whether rotating the marshaller is the better option. Thanks.

[virtuali]

Bit of a pain having to do it so I will also investigate whether rotating the marshaller is the better option

As I've said, rotating the GSX marshaller will just rotate the GSX marshaller so, if this is your only issue, that's clearly the better option, since you can also do it for multiple parkings at once.

But if the reversed parking spots are an issue (not sure what it might be) to your moving map software, which reads the AFCAD, moving just the GSX marshaller won't change anything to the moving map software, since GSX doesn't touch the AFCAD.

[Ray Proudfoot]

Thanks Umberto. I'll try rotating the Marshallers first. Easier to do than editing AFCADs. That might be the best compromise.