I was watching a number of videos using VATSIM and it got me thinking, with many airports having multiple versions, ranging from default, freeware AFCADs, to detailed payware, how does VATSIM manage them? Gates may not be in the same position , or even exist in different versions of the same airport.

The coordinates of all of these versions are the same unless the developer did something wrong in implementing them.

Even at airports where different versions differ these differences are not so big as to create problems.

 

For example you may be waiting for departure at the holding point and see the landing traffic a few meters/feet of the side of the runway or you may be parked at a gate and see some traffic offset from your gates or with the fuselage half inside the building. Its not a big issue.

 

Tower and Ground controllers usually spot the difference but they already know about different scenery versions by then.

Gates aren't too much of a problem. Missing runways or entire airports can be  

 

The new runway at Frankfurt, the (not really new) runway at EHAM (for people using FS two thousand and old). are more of a problem for the pilots missing the scenery than the ATC or other pilots. Decinding wether to land on grass or go around and request a different runway is up to the pilot with the missing scenery. ATC should take it in their stride, and hopefully the pilot doesn't get too wierd when the ATC offers some friendly advice about available scenery updates.

 

It's all about the positive attitude and not being terse.

 

I remember not long ago I was flying into an event at EHAM and someone was flying a scenery without the Polderbann runway (36L/18R). The Pilot started yelling at the controller that he shouldn't assign new runways that havn't been there long. The Dutch accented ATC saying "But this runway has been there for ten years!" made - I'm sure - most of the traffic on frequency chuckle. The flood of texts with links to updated scenery for FS9 and all sorts of other sims was significant.

 

From the ATC perspective, deviations are only an issue if they make traffic conflicts such as missaligned terminals that put parked planes on taxiways. Scenery deviations are likley more disturbing for pilots who may see aircraft landing on grass next to runways, aircraft taxying into the terminal, sticking their nose into the building and halfway out the other side, and other odd phenomena which to ATC are just a little blob on a map.

 

 

and always disable collision detection in your sim realism/crash settings, just in case you log in on gate E3 2 minutes before someone else logs in at gate E3.