Since the development of AES (which I love), it seems that developers are no longer willing to include their own active gate docking systems for FS9 scenery. Is it because they want us to spend more money by buying AES credits? I don

FSDT is certainly putting out their own high quality airports. None of them have docking gates, unless you purchase AES credits. Now, I may be a little off on my facts here, so please correct me if I

I'm an enthusiastic AES user, but I do have to agree, there may well be those that used to be satisfied with docking systems as provided. For devs to just stop including a feature simply because AES is available does not seem in principle quite fair to me. No matter how great or economical AES is, value and choice has been removed.

Another very satisfied AES user here... like Geddy_2112, I don't even fly to non-AESed airports anymore. I noticed that the other day after installing a really nice freeware airport and when after landing there I arrived at the gate, there was no AES. Well, something was missing and true enough, I haven't flown to that airport anymore. My loss? Yes, for sure, there are many great airports out there that are not supported by AES (yet, I hope :( ) Especially Russia comes to mind with it's many really well made freeware airports (Oliver, if you are reading this.... :()But I really like AES and don't mind paying a bit extra. As it has been said, there are a lot of "AES cheap" and even "AES free" airports, plus free credits really start to accumulate after you buy enough credit packs - I stopped counting after the tenth. This is really just my personal opinion, but I would like even more AESed airports and do not care for any other active gates system. Also, I am buying airports that have AES support exclusively. How much am I willing to pay for fully functional airports? Ugh..., that's a tough one. So far, I haven't complained when I was buying them AES credit packs; in fact, I was more than happy to see that more quality airports got AES support. Flight Simming (FS9 exclusively) is my hobby and I am willing to spend some money on it. I can easily see myself flying FS9 for years to come. FSX I dumped after an intensive two months period and I don't miss it one tiny bit. Consider, how much do you get for 15

While I agree that it would be nice if scenery designers had their own docking mechanisms implemented in their sceneries, this would mostly be hit and miss with various user aircraft. Like it or not, AES is a uniform system that works with all user aircraft and is pretty much set and forget as far as scenery designers are concerned, not to mention that there's probably profit-sharing going on there as well.My only gripe with AES is its problem with the /3GB switch and non AES to AES airport flights. Unfortunately it seems that Oliver's given up on trying to find a solution to this. Personally, having dumped over 100 euros into it, I have since uninstalled it given the constant crashes I had. Alas, to me flying (and landing) is much more important than AES ever was :)Like it or not, AES is the benchmark for active gates as far as FS9 is concerned. It seems however that FSDT is working on a similar product for FSX (they're using it in their JFK and GVA sceneries, iirc), so we'll probably see some competition there.

I think the original poster has a point. On the other hand, AES is not just about docking gates. The follow me truck, the bloke in the yellow jacket :( (can't remember what he's called right now), and all the rest of it. Still, it would be nice to have a choice between AES and native to the scenery alternatives. I know Gary Summons of UK 2000 had intended not to have AES for his airports originally as he had a pretty good system himself, but he bowed to users' pressure, or at least that's what it looked like. As it is it's only available for EGLL and EGBB at the moement with UK2000 airports.I use AES and have grown to like it a lot and I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to use only AES equpped airports . . . well, most of the time anyway.

Mack,not to hijack this topic, but 2Gb *should* be enough to handle the strain FS puts on the memory. I do not have Ultimate terrain but everything else and can routinely fly to, let's say, Aerosoft's EGLL, or FSDT KORD & KJFK with PMDG B744. True, I had a few OOMs, but they were invariably a consequence of some rogue LC file. Or a duplicate AFCAD. Ok, back to topic now... I think there is much more to AES than just active gates. Pushback, a follow me car, catering vehicles, buses that bring pax to the aircraft, rain/snow rwy textures and so on. I've seen a few different versions of all these things and like Mac says, AES is a uniform system throughout the sim and the best one at that. So, when I buy an airport, I do not associate the price of an AES credit pack with it. Regards,Jure

Mack,not to hijack this topic, but 2Gb *should* be enough to handle the strain FS puts on the memory. I do not have Ultimate terrain but everything else and can routinely fly to, let's say, Aerosoft's EGLL, or FSDT KORD & KJFK with PMDG B744. True, I had a few OOMs, but they were invariably a consequence of some rogue LC file. Or a duplicate AFCAD.

I'll keep the derail going just long enough for this reply ;)Unfortunately, when you combine maxed-out UT with FE and GE, throw in real weather courtesy of ASA, marry this with the PMDG MD11 and decide on an leisurely 8 hour stroll from EDDF to KJFK or vice-versa with 100% AI traffic (300 or so planes at and around those airports), while setting your AA and AF to 16x and to top it all off throw 1600x1200x32 with all sliders to the right at it...it's a guarantee for an OOM. Believe me, that kind of a load literally devours memory by the bucketload. I can squeeze just under an OOM with everything but the MD11 with UT switched off. Unfortunately the MD11 tipped the scales and I've given up and made my /3GB switch a permanent feature. I do hope Oliver does find a workaround for this problem, as I miss AES terribly. Alas, flying without UT is just not as much fun and I didn't buy the MD11 to rust in the hangar :)