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FSXA Ramp_gates issue

J

jamagn

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canada
I have modified two small airports from FSXA stock that had only a tower view (not a physical one) and a runway only (using ADE Airport Design Editor). Modifications included adding taxiways, aprons, ILS, ramp_ga small and medium, tower and ground coms, etc. I was able to compiled them and all my modifications work fine but after a successful landing, ATC tells me to contact ground, but my ground options show only takeoff options and NOT taxi to gates. I did not have this issue when modifying larger airports in the same region. Can someone give me an insight of what might be the problem? Appreciate responses.

Jamagn
 
Have you run the Fault Finder to make sure your taxiways are all connected? Make sure there is a runway taxipath down the middle of the runway, also connected to the rest of the taxiways.

Bob
 
I assume from your description that you have no AI aircraft at the airport taking all the available parking.

Which aircraft are you using to fly into the airport? Is that aircraft's wing_span= value translate from feet to meters into a parking size smaller than the parking spots sizes you setup?

You said you added RAMP_GA_SMALL and RAMP_GA_MEDIUM parking spots. Those default sizes are 10M and 14M.

Under the properties for each spot - the Name defines what parking options you will be offered. If they are all "Parking" - you only get offered "Taxi to Parking". You have to set the Name to GATE, or GATE+ a letter, to be offered "Taxi to Gate" by ATC.
 
What kind of plane were you flying? If the radius of the model will not fit into a GA Medium spot, you will not be given parking options.
 
Thanks for the replies.
The taxiways are correctly linked to the Runway (middle black link – ADE design mode) and to the parking spots as well.

The Comms were added successfully to both Tower and Ground with their respective frequencies and they work fine Bob.

Fault finder passed and no problem compiling.

Now, all the parking spots are either RAMP_GA_SMALL (radius 10 meters) and RAMP_GA_MEDIUM (radius 14 meters) and 1 RAMP_CARGO (radius 17.5). I chose RAMP_GA_SMALL to GATE_SMALL (same with medium) because there is no terminal building, just the apron. When ATC tells me to turn next taxiway after landing, soon after doing so I receive instructions to contact ground, but the options are only take-off options. There’s no taxi to gate or parking options. The issue is that I do not get those options, just take-off.

Curiously Reggie, I have never seen AI aircrafts either landing, taking-off or parked; your assumption is correct.

I’ve been flying a B738 (737-800). The wing-span value of this aircraft is around (34 meters) and obviously longer than the radius-value in use. But I noticed that some of the gates (GATE_MEDIUM) from a stock-airport (same region) are 23 meters radius and if memory serves me well I’ve seen AI aircraft park there and I also get instruction from ATC to park at those particular gates (radius 23 meters) after landing a 34-meter wingspan B738 aircraft.

I have been thinking the airport might have a constraint, legacy from the stock; is this a possibility?

I will try changing RAMP_GA_SMALL to GATE_SMALL and RAMP_GA_MEDIUM to GATE_MEDIUM.
I will also try changing the parking radius to a higher number.

Jamagn
 
FSX does not exactly use the wing_span value in parking.

The default B737-800W has a wing_span value of 117.42 feet. FSX then takes that value and converts it to meters and divides to get half a value. FSX then rounds up to the next whole meter to determine the parking spot size required for the aircraft. For a B737-800W with wing_span=117.42 //feet value - a 18M parking spot is required.

A non-winglet B737-800 should have a wing_span= value of 112.58 feet - which still translates into a 18M parking spot.

Parking spots are determined by their Radius value - 1/2 of the spot diameter. So a 34M wing span aircraft would use a 18M parking spot with no problem.

I strongly recommend against thinking of wing spans in meters or parking spots sizes in feet. The rounding of conversions can make it very easy to end up with aircraft set too large or parking spots set too small.

I do not know why Microsoft setup with system that way - but those are the rules.

I cannot begin to count the hundreds of parking problems we have seen over the years where a tenth of a meter, a tenth of a foot measurement has made an airport parking scheme fail.
 
Very interesting! Thank you for this important information worthy when planning parking spots. I changed 2 of my 9 parking spots from RAMP_GA_MEDIUM (radius 14) to GATE_MEDIUM (radius 23). I still do not see AI moving around but interesting enough, after landing a B738 and contacting ground I now get the options taxi to parking and taxi to fueling… but I do not get a taxi to gate option. So when I select the taxi to parking option, I get the following instruction which I never heard before: “taxi to general aviation parking via…” I get this instruction even though I have 2 properly numbered (radius 23) gates available.

On a second landing I got the same instruction, i.e. “taxi to general aviation parking via…”, but directed to the other parking spot (radius 23) that I previously changed. I was expecting direction to a gate with its pertaining number.

I guess there’s no constraint out of the stock-airport and all I need to work around with when putting parking spots and gates, is with the rules, considering conversions and arithmetic.
 
In my sim, Gate_Small is plenty big for a default 737, and probably most add on 737s. I always test something new with default aircraft. Seems that ATC will send user aircraft where ever it wants within reason, even if your have parking codes set up. ATC will send AI where you want it if you set it up properly. There is no AI at your altered airports because there are no flightplans to make that happen. You must write your own.

Bob
 
Keep in mind though that you can easily set up "Named Parking Areas" if you wish.

When I land at 33MO, I can ask the tower for one of the following:

North Parking (in front of FBO)
West Parking (far west end of ramp, for large biz-jets)
South Parking (far sount end of ramp, for smaller jets and GA)
Northeast Parking (Eaglesnest Flying Club ramp area)
Gates (of which there's only 1)
 
jamagn said:
I changed 2 of my 9 parking spots from RAMP_GA_MEDIUM (radius 14) to GATE_MEDIUM (radius 23)...... but interesting enough, after landing a B738 and contacting ground I now get the options taxi to parking and taxi to fueling… but I do not get a taxi to gate option. So when I select the taxi to parking option, I get the following instruction which I never heard before: “taxi to general aviation parking via…” I get this instruction even though I have 2 properly numbered (radius 23) gates available.

On a second landing I got the same instruction, i.e. “taxi to general aviation parking via…”, but directed to the other parking spot (radius 23) that I previously changed. I was expecting direction to a gate with its pertaining number.
Click to expand...

When you change the type of parking spot with ADE - it does not change the Name property of the parking spot. So when you changed the two spots - they are still "Parking" not "Gate" in the Name box of the parking spot properties.

Any type of Parking will be "Taxi to general aviation parking" unless you use areas like Bill mentioned above. To get "Taxi to Gate #" - the NAME of the parking spot must be Gate - the parking spot itself does not need to be a gate - just large enough to hold the aircraft.

jamagn said:
I still do not see AI moving around
Click to expand...

As Bob mentioned - there have to be AI flight plans for the airport to have AI traffic.

You mentioned in the first post that this was an airport with only a runway, so I assumed you had no AI setup. The reason I asked about AI is that one reason a user aircraft will get only ATC options to for takeoff is that AI aircraft have filled up the available parking.

One other thing of which you have to be aware is that you will be setting up parking of AI aircraft and using parking codes in the future.

Always remember that the rules about parking types, parking codes, etc - do NOT apply to the user aircraft you are flying. You can setup a commercial airport to park AI perfectly - and it means nothing for to aircraft when you land.
 
Thank you for the additional and valuable info. I changed the ‘Name’ of the two previously modified parking spots (radius-23) to ‘Gate’ and now I get a taxi to gate option. Is good to know that the parking spot itself does not need to be a gate but rather just large enough to hold the aircraft.

Indeed this was an airport (from stock) with just the runway, no aprons, no taxiways, etc. It only showed 2 starts (one at each end of the runway), the ID at the center (of runway) and the tower (view only).

It makes sense that the user aircraft will get only ATC options for takeoff if AI aircraft have filled up the available parking, but in the case of a 1-runway airport (from stock) there’s no parking at all. I assume from this that by default there’s no AI setup and thus will remain like that after the airport has been modified (adding taxiways, parking, etc.) There must be a great amount of airports in stock showing just the runway, particularly the very small ones. I came across a couple of them and I wonder how AI would fly into these airports.

Going back to my altered one, I set up codes for 2 of my 9 available parking spots hoping that those spots (with airline-codes) will not be taken by default AI, but as mentioned before, there’s no AI at all. I now understand (as Bob mentioned above) that is because there are no flight-plans to make that happen. I assume FS does not include them on very small airports (the ones showing just the runway).
 
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