Updating Airport Info

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

The FSX airport data seems to be getting fairly long in the tooth (i.e. old) and getting worse over time.  Seems like somewhere between half of the airports I fly into have something wrong...

• ILS frequencies wrong
• ILS has DME on the plate but not in FSX
• Middle markers not on the chart but FSX has one.
• Runway numbers incorrect (e.g. magnetic variation changes causing the number to change)
• Taxiways wrongly named.

So, I am wondering:

• What is the easiest way to correct the info?  What is the minimal amount of work?
• Is there a place to upload corrected airports so that they can be easily installed in groups, perhaps by region, by folks (or does this have to be a painful, one-by-one effort)?
• Will data in P3D 2.0 be useful in FSX to correct some of this (I doubt anybody knows but it's a question).

I searched to see if this question's been asked before.  Didn't see anything recent.  Wondering what people think.

[bsmonroe 0]

There are several programs that allow you to update airport information and even create new airports from scratch. I use AIrportDesignEditor (ADE) but it isn't the only one out there. You also have the option of editing the xml data - but that is a very tricky process and in the end it is easier to use something like ADE instead. You can also add approaches, markers, etc as well.

 

However, if you haven't done this sort of thing before, you need to give yourself time to read the documentation and forum posts. Otherwise  you could find yourself wasting a lot of time doing something that would have been easier had you just read the manual. I have only edited FSX and FS9 airports - PD3 and XPlane likely have equivalent software for those platforms.

 

Also, always do a search on the AVSIM library. It may well be that someone else has already issued a "correct version" of the airport which will save you a lot of time and bother. I've found lots of them that way.

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

Gregg,

 

I fly into  a very large amount of FSX airports, and do not ever suffer any of the issues you've described - not once.

 

The reason is that I update my AFCADs and scenery from several different scenery libraries, one of the largest is right here on AVSIM. Certainly you can update the scenery yourself (I too recommend ADE), but it's rarely necessary for me to do so given that others have already done so.

 

The most important statement I can make about scenery is never, not EVER (that's E.V.E.R) add the scenery by merely dumping it into the Addon Sceenery\Scenery and Addon Scenery \ Texture folder.  Did I say NOT EVER?

Some scenery will require you to create a main airport folder and sub-folders for scenery and maybe a texture folder.  I strongly encourage folks to name their scenery using this convention (just an example, not a real scenery):

 

KPHL Ray Smith 11-2012

 

Airport ICAO, Author, Date released.

 

By namling your scenery folders as above, a quick look will tell you what's installed, who made it, and when it was made. This makes keeping scenery up to date too easy.  Should be done for AFCADs and large sceneries alike.

 

 

Hope this has been of help!

 

 

Dave

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

I did a little digging in the Library.  From what I can guess from reading through the descriptions, the Navaid info is in with scenery files.  If true, that's unfortunate.  Many times I just want the Navaids fixed...since I'm not sure about the quality of the scenery someone makes.  Navaid info, on the other hand, is cut and dried...

• a localizer does or does not have a localizer with a particular frequency.  It may have DME
• it does or does not have a glideslope set at a particular angle.
• there may be markers on final
• there may be an on-airport VOR, NDB, TACAN or VORTAC (Not sure if this is part of an AFCAD or not)

My understanding might be wrong but, for me, I'd just want to either get or fix the Navaid info without getting or changing the airport scenery.