Getting Around the Airport

[Guest fsfly]

Hi all!I have been using FS2004 now for a couple of weeks, not everyday, but have been getting some flying in, and trying out the new features. One of those which I find to be excellent is the "signs" that are now at the airports, but I was troubled with the fact that its very difficult to find your way around an airport using the "taxiway signs" etc when directed by ATC without some kind of guide, and "progressive taxi" just makes it too fake to be "as real as it gets"! So for those of you who have not found this yet, there is an FAA site where you can download diagrams for just about every airport in the United States. They are in PDF format, so you will need to have Acrobat Reader to be able to view, and/or print them. The site is: www.naco.faa.gov/ap_diagrams.aspMy home airport is DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth International), and I followed the diagram per the directions ATC gave me in FS2004 to my departure runway, and every taxiway was correct and in the proper location in both the sim and the diagram.Since this site is an FAA site, the only diagrams that you can get are for airports within the United States, does anyone have links to similar diagrams for airports in International locations? ie; Europe, Asia, Carribean, Canada etc?Thanks for any info,Joe

[Joseph29 225]

Instead of the pink progressive taxi line maybe FS2004 should of put a "follow me" car instead. It would of looked better than the pink line.

[Guest CargoMun]

Oh no, not the pink line vs follow me car discussion again lol :D

[Guest fsfly]

Hey guys!Did not intend to open up a can of worms on the "pink line" vs a "follow me car" etc. Just wanted to put some general information out there for those that may be in the same boat as I was until I found the website to get airport diagrams, so as to more easily navigate on the ground around an airport. Please don't flame me here, I am just trying to help others out, and hopefully gain some additional information as posted in my original note.Thanks again,Joe

[Orlaam 306]

I don't want to derail this thread, however, since you guys mentioned the pink line versus a car (that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard by the way), I have to add that why wouldn't some small white arrows on the side or top of the screen telling you where to turn be better. The pink line is awful, but a chase car is dumb as can be, it's not Nascar!That said, the taxiway signs look good, but they don't really help much as far as I'm concerned.

[Geofa 108]

Per your quote:"I was troubled with the fact that its very difficult to find your way around an airport using the "taxiway signs" etc when directed by ATC without some kind of guide"It is often very hard to taxi around a real airport-and the faa is molto concerned about runway incidents because of this real life difficulty.I personally never taxi around any airport (even my home) without an approach plate open on my lap with the runway diagram. It can be very confusing going to an unfamiliar airport-and usually when I fly to a pretty big one I am not familiar with I always tell the tower "unfamiliar" and ask for progressives.I agree-the pink line might be a little tacky-but the difficulty of following signs and taxi clearances-especially in poor visibility is one of the biggest challenges in flying-and I doubt you will find a diligent pilot out there who taxis without having a hard copy to refer to. Often -if I have a co pilot I will ask them to follow the map and confirm as I taxi.I would suggest goto your local airport and buy an approach plate of your area-they are not expensive and will have a runway diagram of every airport on the plates-at majors there will be an entire separate diagram.Just today I flew to a small uncontrolled airport in my state-listening to the awos it stated that a couple taxiways were closed and one could only get to the terminal by back taxiing the runway. I had that approach plate opened well before landing and the route mapped out in advance-and it was a lot harder to figure out on the ground. http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg

[Geofa 108]

Here is a cool example of technology (gps and scanned taxi charts) in action. This will make taxiing in real or virtual a piece of cake:http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/FNT/cap.htmlhttp://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg

[Steve Cannell 4]

I used to enjoy listening to real ATC at Pearson CYYZ online. Unfortunately it's no longer available. :-(Anyhow, late at night they would often switch it to ground rather than approach and it was funny listening to pilots lost taxiing.They would say pearson was a real maze with all the construction. :-)Steve