general aviation parking error

[Guest]

A strange thing I can't figure out. At a number of airports, (mostly ones with AFCAD updates) I get directions for general aviation parking when flying heavies. A good example is Midway, where I'm always misdirected. Has anyone else experienced this? Any clue as what to do? It is frustrating, especially if I can't remember how to get to the proper gate area.Thanks,Spruce

[Guest Joshieca]

When you land at most larger airports you are given the option of choosing taxi to parking or taxi to gate....just to make sure that you're chosing taxi to gate,right?Are you using an overlay at that airport? That might be source of the trouble also.[br][br][div align=center][br][link:members.cox.net/fstimes/wetimage.html]Click Here For Weather Image of the Day!

[KevinAu 441]

The problem is most addon AFCAD authors add parking spaces without regard to properly naming the gate so that the default "Parking" name is designated for the gate which the ATC then treats as "general aviation". You can use AFCAD to rename the gates. There are also "Radius AFCADs" available at PAI that have gates which are correctly named and use radius sizing to direct AI airliners to park at their real world gates.

[Guest]

If you're flying VFR, ATC will always direct you to general aviation parking. If you file and fly an IFR flight plan, you'll have the option to request taxi to gates.Matt

[Guest RobK]

Another possible reason is that maybe all of the gates are currently being occupied by AI aircraft and the only avialable spaces are the GA parking. There have been some situations when I landed at an airport and the only option I had was to request permission to taxi for takeoff because all of the gates and GA parking were occupied by AI aircraft. If I sat and waited for some of the AI aircraft to taxi to the active runway freeing up some of the gates then I would be given the options to taxi to the gates or parking. Rob