I've got the FSX database open now, using CompactView.

 

It looks like the data we need for each airport is:

 

[iCAO]

[Name]

[Latitude]

[Longitude]

[MagVar]

[Elevation]

[Region]

[Country]

[state]

[City]

[Main Runway Sfc]

[Main Runway Hdg]

[Main Runway length]

 

Not so bad. The only one I'm not 100% certain on is [Main Runway Sfc]. I'm assuming it defines the runway surface, with numerical values corresponding to things like "paved", "turf", "water" and so forth. There appears to be about 6 possible options, from the values in the cells. All the other data, I can produce from public sources.

 

The detailed runway information is in a separate section, but we should not need to have that populated for simple flight-planning purposes. I guess.

 

The VORs section should be pretty easy to put together as well, except that section also includes the ILSs. Those look a lot more complicated, but we can probably "borrow" most of them intact from the FSX file. Here's what's in the VOR section:

 

[iD]

[Latitude]

[Longitude]

[identifier]

[Name]

[Variation]

[Elevation]

[Frequency]

[Range]

[Owner]

[Locheading]

[LocWidth]

[GsLatitude]

[GsLongitude]

[GsElevation]

[GsRange]

[GsPitch]

[DMELatitude]

[DMELongitude]

[DMEElevation]

[DMERange]

[Flags]

[Region]

[iLS_LatArray]

[iLS_LonArray]

 

An even better way would be to figure out how to automatically scrape all this data from the Flight DLC files, the way Plan G does it for FSX. I have no experience with flight sim scenery, so that's another task that somebody else would have to get involved for.

 

But if we just adapt the FSX data, the task becomes a lot smaller... it's just going to be an ongoing job of finding the differences and fixing them in our database.

And this does work for editing them... In my copy of Plan G, Tetlin is now 3T4, instead of 4AK8! :p0802:

 

And this does work for editing them... In my copy of Plan G, Tetlin is now 3T4, instead of 4AK8! :p0802:

 

Wow! Cool!!! That's really great! But it will be a very time consuming task to edit the entire database... Would be cool though if we (well, you ) would manage to get it done!

An even better way would be to figure out how to automatically scrape all this data from the Flight DLC files, the way Plan G does it for FSX. I have no experience with flight sim scenery, so that's another task that somebody else would have to get involved for.

Tried it but it looks like the scenery file format may be different and much of the data was missing including all of the airports. It looks like there is no "silver bullet" for this and it will have to be done the hard way by correcting errors as we find them.

Wow! Cool!!! That's really great! But it will be a very time consuming task to edit the entire database... Would be cool though if we (well, you ) would manage to get it done!

 

Time consuming to try to do it all at once, yes, but not so bad just dealing with them as they are found. Correcting by hand is not an elegant solution, but it's going to be manageable.

 

Tried it but it looks like the scenery file format may be different and much of the data was missing including all of the airports. It looks like there is no "silver bullet" for this and it will have to be done the hard way by correcting errors as we find them.

 

I found the Hawaii airports in one of the .paks, but only found a few of the Alaskan ones... not sure where the rest are. But I figured the file structure was probably altered, so the "old" tools for working with them may not work.

 

Well, this gives me an excuse to learn some basic SQL queries, which is something I've never touched before. :unknw:

Wow, kudos to you guys for taking this on! It's communities like this and the people in them that make simulators really fantastic. There's only so much a developer can do with minute details like this so it's really great that someone is willing to pick up where they left off.

I wish I could help, but when I start to hear things like "SQL queries" I tend to plug my ears and hum loudly :p0302:

 

Keep it up, I can't wait to see the results!

 

But I figured the file structure was probably altered, so the "old" tools for working with them may not work.

 

 

I only found way points in the ones I checked so either the structure is different or the airports are stored outside the BGL files.

 

SQL at the level it would be use for this is simple. I could provide the required statements and you would only need to change the data values. I plan to write a quick app today that will do this for us. That's the plan but, my employer may want me to actually work on their code rather than mine.

SQL at the level it would be use for this is simple. I could provide the required statements and you would only need to change the data values.

 

Yeah, I think I've already figured out how to search for the ones I need to change...

 

SELECT * FROM Airports

WHERE ICAO = '4AK8'

 

...should have returned just the one line for Tetlin in the example above, right? I had just scrolled down to it to test if the changes would do what I needed. :lol:

 

And...

 

SELECT * FROM Airports

WHERE State = 'Alaska'

ORDER BY ICAO

 

...should give me a list of just what's in the FSX database for Alaska, sorted by ICAO. I think.

 

I plan to write a quick app today that will do this for us. That's the plan but, my employer may want me to actually work on their code rather than mine.

 

Meh, I'm supposed to be reviewing new engineering drawings so I can revise an aircraft maintenance manual. But this is a lot more interesting.

Your SQL looks fine.

To change you would have

update airports set ICAO = '3T4' where ICAO = '4AK8'

 

You can change multiple values thus:

update airports set ICAO = '3T4', State = 'of mind' where ICAO = '4AK8'

just separate the variable/value pairs with a comma.

 

To insert it's just as easy with:

insert into Airports (all the column names separated by commas) values(all the values separated by commas)

just make sure your values are in the same order as your columns.

 

To delete:

delete from Airports where ICAO = '4AK8'

 

But this is a lot more interesting.

I hear ya. I'm presenting my new anti-money laundering system to the users, (again), at 10 and I'm just not that interested. Well, one reason is that I'm sure they will say "nice but can we.......". Which means I get to rewrite it yet again. When my boss said it was going to be my project for the year I didn't believe her. Now that I'm presenting rewrite number 4 I'm starting to believe.

Your SQL looks fine.

To change you would have

update airports set ICAO = '3T4' where ICAO = '4AK8'

 

You can change multiple values thus:

update airports set ICAO = '3T4', State = 'of mind' where ICAO = '4AK8'

just separate the variable/value pairs with a comma.

 

To insert it's just as easy with:

insert into Airports (all the column names separated by commas) values(all the values separated by commas)

just make sure your values are in the same order as your columns.

 

To delete:

delete from Airports where ICAO = '4AK8'

 

Ok, thanks. I'll keep playing with this and look at some "introductory" tutorials, too.

 

When my boss said it was going to be my project for the year I didn't believe her. Now that I'm presenting rewrite number 4 I'm starting to believe.

 

Heck, what I'm working on is just helping somebody else's project, because by the original schedule I'm three months into my own six month project, and the customer isn't even expecting to deliver the final data we need to actually start my project for another two or three months.

 

Which is probably why I spend so much time forum-surfing at work.

I wish I could help, but when I start to hear things like "SQL queries" I tend to plug my ears and hum loudly

 

You can help a lot, just by using Plan G with Flight and letting us know about anything you find that they don't agree on.

 

I'm planning to do a "test run" tonight to incorporate the changes we've identified so far. If it all works out, I'll post the revised database for everyone.

You guys are awesome!

 

I discovered two airstrips, that are in Flight but not in PlanG: Carl's Landing (AK19) and Birch Creek Landing (51AK)

They're to find between Talkeetna (PATK) and Montana Creek (21AK).

There is one Kotlik in Flight (PFKO) but two in Plan-G (KOT and 2A9).

 

Part of the problem we are seeing with duplicates is that some airports are listed in Plan G by their international codes, and others by their FAA codes.

 

Another problem is that it looks like some codes have been changed in recent years, so the airport is still exactly the same but it's identifier code is different.

 

But it should be easy to sort out either of those kinds of problems.

 

For Kotlik, PFKO and 2A9 are the same airport. "KOT" is not listed in Airnav, so it's probably a defunct code. I'll delete KOT and change 2A9 to PFKO so it matches the code Flight uses (though both PFKO and 2A9 are technically correct).

 

There is one Manokotak in Plan-G (17Z) but two in Flight (17Z and PAMB).

 

This one I will have to look at in Flight when I get home to see exactly what's going on, but if Flight does have duplicates of the same airport I can simply duplicate the listing for Plan G's database, one copy as 17Z and one copy as PAMB. For what it's worth, searching for 17Z at Airnav brings you to the listing for PAMB, so it's really the same airport. 17Z is not a published identifier for it, though. Not sure what's going on, other than it probably changed recently to MBA.

 

The list with different codes may become pretty long, I am afraid... I will stop posting them

 

Nah, keep them coming. They will probably turn out to be as big a problem in the long-run as the missing airports.

 

I think the most important thing to do is to post airports that are in Flight but missing in Plan-G... I am beginning to wonder how many airports are really missing in Plan-g: maybe most of them simply have a different code and that's why people can't find them...?

 

Fixing the "wrong" code is actually easier than adding a new airport to the database, so I'd prefer to fix them the right way if that is what's causing the problem.

I've written a small app to ADD, CHANGE and DELETE the airports in the Plan-G FSX database.

You can get it at my Rag Tag Fleet forum in the add-ons section.

Here is a direct link to it:

http://yankeeclipper...pic,1122.0.html

 

The READ ME for the app.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a small and dirty app that allows the editing of the PlanG_FSX.sdf database.

You can Add, Change or Delete any of the Alaska or Hawaii airports with it.

It depends on a folder on your c: drive.

Folder name = FSXData (you can have the app there as well)

Copy the PlanG_FSX.sdf file from the Data folder in Plan-G into the above listed folder.

Just double click Flightdata.exe to run.

 

When it comes up you will get a list of all the Alaska and Hawaii airports sorted by state and ICAO code.

You can click on any column name to change the sort order. Double clicking in the far left blank column

next to the ICAO you wish to edit will bring up details for the airport. You can then change the data or delete the record.

To add a new airport just bring up any airport and change the data accordingly.

 

It seems to work fine with my testing but then I wrote it and shouldn't be doing the testing. My test rig was my development system at work which is 32bit Windows 7.

 

The only problem you my encounter is that you will have to download the .NET poop from Microsoft to get it to run.

 

Let me know of any problems and make sure to backup your PlanG_FSX.sdf file first.

 

I don't foresee any problems with this but you use it at your risk. If you don't like that then don't use it.

 

Contact me at jtmarcure (at) gmail (dot) com

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Wow, how cool is that!!!

 

I seem to recall someone explaining how to open a specific Flight file to check out which airports you had already visited in the game: I don't remember if that file shows EVERY airport by default. If so, maybe opening that file and opening the Plan-G database side to side would make editing for instance all ICAO codes a lot easier. Well, maybe...