New airline codes

[jparnold]

Is it possible to add new airline codes to ADE for selection of airlines permitted at a particular parking gate/spot?

Also (dumb question?) when using an aircraft of a particular airline will gates designated for other airlines NOT be displayed when selecting gate to start from and does this also carry over to AI aircraft ie an AI aircraft of a particular airline will never appear at a gate designated for other airline(s)? Because that is what I am trying ti achieve.

 

[=rk=]

Is it possible to add new airline codes to ADE for selection of airlines permitted at a particular parking gate/spot?

You must edit the airlines.cfg file, ADE adds uses the information from that file.

Also (dumb question?) when using an aircraft of a particular airline will gates designated for other airlines NOT be displayed when selecting gate to start

No, that would be your responsibility to determine at the time of establishing your flight plan. Real world airline pilots are expected to know their own airports and gates, that duty would not fall upon air traffic control and Microsoft saw no reason to change that.

AI aircraft of a particular airline will never appear at a gate designated for other airline(s)?

The AI engine will always fill available parking regardless of airline. AI traffic routes are assigned by airplane, not airport. If there are 100 Air Canada planes coming to your airport that has only Hughes Airwest gates, the Hughes Airwest gates will all fill before the rest get turned away. The only time airline assignments work is when a gate for a particular airline is open while a plane from that airline is sent to parking.

Because that is what I am trying ti achieve.

No problem. All schedules for every AI aircraft have already been recorded and you can edit those to create your own custom traffic schedules that exactly conform to your needs. You can make sure there is a matching airline gate for every single landing. This editing is one of the more common changes made to the simulator and there are tutorials and software available in abundance.

 

[raymk]

In the ADE installation folder you should have a file "ParkingSpecs.dat". If you need to assign parking spots to an airline that is not listed in there, you can add the new airline, set the parking spot transparency and color, and set the airline parking code which needs to be the same as specified in the "aircraft.cfg" file for that particular aircraft.

e.g. Monk Air,255,120,130,100,MNK
Name of airline, transparency (0 to 255), 120(=M),130(=N),100(=K), Airline parking code

Check, if adding an airline, that the Airline parking code you apply is unique and not used in the existing entries.
After saving the file and re-starting ADE, you will be able to pick that airline from the ADE listings and the code and color will be applied to the spot.

 

[jparnold]

Thanks Rick and Ray

It was a little disappointing that AI aircraft don't necessarily don't go to gates which are designated to other airlines as that was the effect I was trying to get.
I have created a water airport (which was listed as abandoned in 2007 but is till used by private operators).
In real life one area is used by 2 private operators and the other area used by 2 different operators and so I wanted to imitate that.

What say if no parking spots are taken when an aircraft of a particular 'airline' lands, will the AI 'engine' direct that aircraft to the gate(s) designated to that airline?
If not what is the point in allocating a specific airline to an aircraft and also a parking spot?

Thanks again

John

 

[tgibson]

Hi,

AI parking spots are chosen using a priority system. Each characteristic adds to a given spot's priority score, and the spot with the highest score wins.

One characteristic that is absolute is the size - if the spot is not large enough, the plane will never park there. Other than that, the priority score will decide.

Some things that contribute to the parking score (in no particular order):

1. The size of the spot is the closest to the plane's radius.
2. The type of spot (ramp, gate, cargo, etc.) matches that in the plane's aircraft.cfg file.
3. The airline code of the spot matches that of the plane.
4. Gate parking spots have more priority than GateA, GateB, etc.
5. Parking spots high up in the Lists/Parking listing will have higher priority.

So all other things being equal, FS will choose parking spots with matching airline codes. But if there aren't any of those left it will certainly use other spots.

Hope this helps,

 

[jparnold]

Thanks Tom
Your reply certainly did educate and help me.

Yes I am aware of the the parking radius and aircraft wingspan.

I am now wondering if it is possible to 'cheat' to try and get certain AI aircraft to avoid some parking by deliberately making say a dock parking Gate A instead of Dock_GA and it all still work correctly.

Anyway I will use the priority list you gave and hope for the best. It was worth an ask.

Regards

John

 

[raymk]

John,
in your situation, say the private operators have 1 aircraft each, I would have 3 parking spots, of suitable type and size, without any airline codeings.
If the named operators also have 1 aircraft each, I would try having 2 parking spots, of suitable type and size, with codeings 'AAA, BBB' and 'BBB, AAA'.
I would have thought this would mostly give you what you are after - FSX does not always seem to follow its own rules all of the time!

 

[jparnold]

Thanks Ray

I was just trying to see if I could designate the parking spot at one area (for two operators) as a DOCK and type RAMP_GA_SMALL and FSX doesn't seem to mind having a 'ramp' on water as I could place my aircraft correctly. The only problem seems to be when selecting a starting point when manual 'flying' as the list then shows DOCK 1--DOCK GA DOCK 1--RAMP GA SMALL DOCK 2--DOCK GA etc

BUT then -
The penny just dropped
As I only have two different AI aircraft types (DHC2 Beaver and DHC3 turbo Otter) which have two different wing spans it would be easiest to use the DHC2 for two operators and the DHC3 for the other two operators and then the parking spot radius can control them - well prevent the DHC3 going to the DHC2 parking spots (too big) but it won't stop the DHC2 going to the DH3 parking spots so maybe I can control that as you suggest or using diffeernt parking spot 'types' (eg DOCK_GA and RAM_GA_SMALL).
I will have to check the liveries for those AI aircraft.

Regards

 

[raymk]

John,

I use DOCK GA for my AI aircraft and RAMP GA for my USER aircraft. This keeps me separate from the AI. When I fly in FSX, I will always start from a RAMP GA spot.

 

[jparnold]

Strange thing has happened,
When I added a parking spot last night with a type RAMP GA just for testing (I already previously had DOCK 1 and DOCK 2 both type DOCK GA) FSX listed my parking spots as -
DOCK 1--DOCK GA
DOCK 1--RAMP GA
DOCK 2--DOCK GA ie it named my added parking spot as DOCK 1

Today when I decided to add the extra parking spot (I hadn't saved it when testing) I must have selected and changed types in a different order as FSX now lists them better eg -
DOCK 1--DOCK GA
DOCK 2--DOCK GA
DOCK 3--RAMP GA.
Strange but that is the way I prefer anyway.

I have had to reassign an existing airline code in PARKINGSPECS.DAT to new airline as I could think find a preferred code which hadn't already been assigned (to an airline I have never heard of).

 

[tgibson]

BTW, you don't have to use the listing in parkingspecs.dat - you can just type in a code, any code. I often use XXX as a code when I don't want any AI aircraft to use that spot. Any 3-4 letters will work there, as long as you have matching letters in the plane's aircraft.cfg file.

 

[jparnold]

Thanks Tom
I guess if one thinks about it (as I now have) parkingspecs.dat is only an easier way of entering the relevant airline code by looking up the airline name - essentially it seems to be just a help file.
Thanks for the advice about using XXX - and using any code which isn't in any aircraft.cfg AS ATC_PARKING_CODES would also have the same effect and XXX is a good one.

 

[jparnold]

I been doing some 'testing' of airline codes and also parking 'type'.
If the parking types match (airport parking and aircraft) then AI places the aircraft. If they don't then the aircraft is not placed.
Unfortunately the airline codes do not seem to have any effect as I set the parking area type the same as that in the aircraft but had different airline codes in each. AI still placed the aircraft which is not what I expected.
Anyway using parking code type works and that is what I will use to ensure that certain aircraft will only be placed at one location and other aircraft at the other location.
My water airport is a bit like Sydney airport (YSSY) which has shared runways but the international terminals are on the west side of 16/34 and the domestic terminals on the east side.
I don't have any 'created' AI traffic but if I did I would want say B747,A380, B777 etc aircraft departing from the international terminals and smaller aircraft from the domestic terminals.

 

[scruffyduck]

The parking code Dat file includes some data that ADE can use to color parking spots in the display. The colors can help identify spots for a given airline rather than using the tool tip or opening the spot in the editor. So it is a bit more than a help file.

 

[jparnold]

Thanks Jon

I had noticed that (different colors) and it seems you can change that color and transparency too in the parking code Dat file. Great idea of yours to help identify different parking places.

I find it somewhat annoying that assigning airline codes to parking and aircraft has no effect with AI aircraft (FSX). I did read somewhere that the airline codes assigned are the 'preferred' airlines which does suggest that they don't prevent 'other' airlines using them. At least parking 'types' does have an effect and that together with parking radius helps to force AI aircraft use particular parking places.

On that subject of 'preferred' airlines I have a REAL experience in that.

We landed recently in HNL (from LAX) and our aircraft taxied to a point very close to the terminals and then just sat there with the engines 'idling' for FORTY minutes (yes 40 minutes) before proceeding to the gate. The captain announced that our assigned gate was currently being used and we had to wait until the aircraft departed. During that 40 minutes TWO other aircraft of different airlines landed of a similar type and size to the aircraft we were on, taxied past our aircraft and proceeded DIRECTLY and uninterrupted to their gates. And we were flying Hawaiian Airlines and HNL is their home airport. So in this case it was not a 'preferred' gate but a gate which HAD to be used by a particular airline ONLY. Very annoying after a long flight having to sit still for 40 minutes on the ground. In this case it appeared that gates are assigned to particular airlines and NO other airlines are permitted to use them.

Regards

 

[jparnold]

Well I take back all that I stated above regarding preventing an AI aircraft being placed at a particular parking spot by FSX.
Today no matter what I do I just cannot prevent my AI aircraft from being placed at a particular parking spot.

The aircraft.cfg has
atc_parking_types=DOCK
atc_parking_codes-TOA

The parking place (in ADE) has
(parking)type=RAMP_GA
Airlines Codes=XXX

A mismatch on BOTH yet the aircraft is still placed by FSX at that parking spot. Tom I am using XXX which you stated above that you use if you don't want any AI aircraft using that spot.
Could there be something else?
I checked that I don't have another AI aircraft of the same livery and also used traffic toolbox explorer to prove that the aircraft being placed is the one I have with attributes listed above.

I also found the information about parking assignments elsewhere her but could not determine if this information is ONLY for assigning an AI aircraft a parking spot and not for preventing the assignment - http://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=Parking_assignment

 

[gadgets]

"XXX" will not prevent AI from using the spot if no other suitable spots are available. It will simply make that spot one of the last to be assigned.

Don

 

[tgibson]

Hi,

As I said before, the only way to totally prevent a given AI aircraft from using a parking spot is to make that spot smaller than the aircraft's radius. It will never park there.

In all other cases, the things you are doing are only discouraging a plane from parking there, and as Don says if you have no other appropriate parking spots it will park there.

What many of us do in this case is to create "overflow parking spots" that have a higher priority score than the spot in question, and the planes will park in the overflow parking instead.

Hope this helps,

 

[jparnold]

Thanks Don and Tom,

I got the impression from what Tom stated ("I often use XXX as a code when I don't want any AI aircraft to use that spot.") that it would.

Yes the radius/wing span certainly works but in only one 'direction' (prevents larger aircraft but doesn't prevent smaller aircraft and that is what I was trying to do).
I will just have to accept that only radius has any control. Better than nothing. Airline codes certainly seems to control things in real life at HNL though (see previous post)

 

[tgibson]

No, everything listed *does* control, just not absolutely. That's why you have to be clever and create things like overflow parking spots. Believe me, you CAN get your aircraft parking where you want them to park, I've done it dozens of time.