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Airline-specific ground vehicles?

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What a great job PMDG!  This aircraft is fantastic, and I am glad to have it in my hangar!  Purchase and installation went fine, as did installation of extra liveries, and creating one of my own.

One question remains for me - I thought I heard some time back that there would be a paint kit for the ground vehicles, and that we would be able to create airline-specific ground vehicles for our airliners.  What is the state of play in that regard?

Cheers,

Brian

 


Cheers,  Brian L Robinson

Flight Simmer since 1983 - loving the brilliant Quality Wings 787 and all PMDG models!!

 

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9 hours ago, ozzieblr said:

What is the state of play in that regard?

Not currently an option. They're separate objects and don't have 'liveries' in the same way planes do - at least not in a way that would adjust with the plane. Additionally, it's not like you'd see Lufthansa ground services at IAD, for example.


Kyle Rodgers

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You can do that with GSX (it's a bit of a faff, but basically you create a logo file and it will plonk it on all the conveyors, high/lows and EBTs), but I wouldn't worry about it that much. We (Aviator service agents at EGCC) occasionally borrow Menzies stuff (such as LDs and GPUs) and they borrow ours, everyone uses MAG and Menzies cones, and Jet 2 are always nicking our cones and chocks lol. Some of our tugs are U/S at the moment, so we're probably going to end up borrowing some of them too, which doesn't really matter because everyone rents their stuff from TCR anyway. Currently, even though we are not the service agents for Ryannair or TUI, we have been servicing those airliners because of personnel shortages at their service agents, and I know others have been doing stuff for Swissport for the same reason. Last night I was sorting stuff out for Lufthansa (D'Nata is their service agent) because their stuff had jammed up the carousels in the bag hall. So it's not unknown to see the 'wrong' service vehicles on airliners, and you'll currently see that a lot at EGCC.

Best of all when it comes to ground service, check this out: Apparently, so a Menzies engineer was telling me last night, a British Airways Dornier 328 landed at EGCC the other day and when they went to push it out, they found that the lugs which the pushback towbar connects to was missing from the nose gear. It had been operating from airports in the Netherlands where they don't park nose-in, so it hadn't needed to be pushed off stands, and nobody noticed it didn't have the tow lugs because they were not needed at those airports. So the pilot says: 'Can you push me out?' and the Menzies crew say: 'No, we can't connect the towbar.', 'No, I mean can you physically push the aircraft out by hand?' asks the Captain. 'Sorry, we can't, we'd get in trouble insurance-wise if someone was injured doing that.' say the Menzies crew. So, the pilot, co-pilot and all of the cabin crew get out of the aircraft and they physically pushed the aircraft off stand (I know amazing right?), but the stand (stand 100 I think it was) has a slope to it, and when they stopped pushing it, yup you guessed it, they didn't chock it, so it started rolling back onto the stand, fortunately the stand goes level so it stopped rolling and finished up back where it had been. So the 328 crew plead with the Menzies crew and say they'll sign an insurance waiver form if the Menzies crew can help to push it out and get it past the hump it had rolled back from, which the Menzies crew then did. There were passengers on it at the time, and I bet if you search youtube you'll find one of them filmed it on their phone, I'd be amazed if they hadn't.

Edited by Chock
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Alan Bradbury

Check out my youtube flight sim videos: Here

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54 minutes ago, Chock said:

You can do that with GSX (it's a bit of a faff, but basically you create a logo file and it will plonk it on all the conveyors, high/lows and EBTs), but I wouldn't worry about it that much. We (Aviator service agents at EGCC) occasionally borrow Menzies stuff (such as LDs and GPUs) and they borrow ours, everyone uses MAG and Menzies cones, and Jet 2 are always nicking our cones and chocks lol. Some of our tugs are U/S at the moment, so we're probably going to end up borrowing some of them too, which doesn't really matter because everyone rents their stuff from TCR anyway. Currently, even though we are not the service agents for Ryannair or TUI, we have been servicing those airliners because of personnel shortages at their service agents, and I know others have been doing stuff for Swissport for the same reason. Last night I was sorting stuff out for Lufthansa (D'Nata is their service agent) because their stuff had jammed up the carousels in the bag hall. So it's not unknown to see the 'wrong' service vehicles on airliners, and you'll currently see that a lot at EGCC.

Best of all when it comes to ground service, check this out: Apparently, so a Menzies engineer was telling me last night, a British Airways Dornier 328 landed at EGCC the other day and when they went to push it out, they found that the lugs which the pushback towbar connects to was missing from the nose gear. It had been operating from airports in the Netherlands where they don't park nose-in, so it hadn't needed to be pushed off stands, and nobody noticed it didn't have the tow lugs because they were not needed at those airports. So the pilot says: 'Can you push me out?' and the Menzies crew say: 'No, we can't connect the towbar.', 'No, I mean can you physically push the aircraft out by hand?' asks the Captain. 'Sorry, we can't, we'd get in trouble insurance-wise if someone was injured doing that.' say the Menzies crew. So, the pilot, co-pilot and all of the cabin crew get out of the aircraft and they physically pushed the aircraft off stand (I know amazing right?), but the stand (stand 100 I think it was) has a slope to it, and when they stopped pushing it, yup you guessed it, they didn't chock it, so it started rolling back onto the stand, fortunately the stand goes level so it stopped rolling and finished up back where it had been. So the 328 crew plead with the Menzies crew and say they'll sign an insurance waiver form if the Menzies crew can help to push it out and get it past the hump it had rolled back from, which the Menzies crew then did. There were passengers on it at the time, and I bet if you search youtube you'll find one of them filmed it on their phone, I'd be amazed if they hadn't.

Amusing story. Reverse thrust to back taxi on the Dornier not allowed I take it?


Vic green

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1 hour ago, Chock said:

You can do that with GSX (it's a bit of a faff, but basically you create a logo file and it will plonk it on all the conveyors, high/lows and EBTs), but I wouldn't worry about it that much. We (Aviator service agents at EGCC) occasionally borrow Menzies stuff (such as LDs and GPUs) and they borrow ours, everyone uses MAG and Menzies cones, and Jet 2 are always nicking our cones and chocks lol. Some of our tugs are U/S at the moment, so we're probably going to end up borrowing some of them too, which doesn't really matter because everyone rents their stuff from TCR anyway. Currently, even though we are not the service agents for Ryannair or TUI, we have been servicing those airliners because of personnel shortages at their service agents, and I know others have been doing stuff for Swissport for the same reason. Last night I was sorting stuff out for Lufthansa (D'Nata is their service agent) because their stuff had jammed up the carousels in the bag hall. So it's not unknown to see the 'wrong' service vehicles on airliners, and you'll currently see that a lot at EGCC.

Best of all when it comes to ground service, check this out: Apparently, so a Menzies engineer was telling me last night, a British Airways Dornier 328 landed at EGCC the other day and when they went to push it out, they found that the lugs which the pushback towbar connects to was missing from the nose gear. It had been operating from airports in the Netherlands where they don't park nose-in, so it hadn't needed to be pushed off stands, and nobody noticed it didn't have the tow lugs because they were not needed at those airports. So the pilot says: 'Can you push me out?' and the Menzies crew say: 'No, we can't connect the towbar.', 'No, I mean can you physically push the aircraft out by hand?' asks the Captain. 'Sorry, we can't, we'd get in trouble insurance-wise if someone was injured doing that.' say the Menzies crew. So, the pilot, co-pilot and all of the cabin crew get out of the aircraft and they physically pushed the aircraft off stand (I know amazing right?), but the stand (stand 100 I think it was) has a slope to it, and when they stopped pushing it, yup you guessed it, they didn't chock it, so it started rolling back onto the stand, fortunately the stand goes level so it stopped rolling and finished up back where it had been. So the 328 crew plead with the Menzies crew and say they'll sign an insurance waiver form if the Menzies crew can help to push it out and get it past the hump it had rolled back from, which the Menzies crew then did. There were passengers on it at the time, and I bet if you search youtube you'll find one of them filmed it on their phone, I'd be amazed if they hadn't.

Airline employees are a funny group. Even though we work for competing companies, we'll help each other out. A lot of times when a competitor needs a pushback unit or an airstart or something of that nature, we'd tell them to go ahead and take it. Just put it back where you got it from and put gas in it. The only thing we wouldn't do is deice another airline's aircraft unless we had a contract with them. Too many insurance ramifications when it came to that.


NAX669.png

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26 minutes ago, PATCO LCH said:

Amusing story. Reverse thrust to back taxi on the Dornier not allowed I take it?

As far as I'm aware, you can't do that at Manchester off any stand, but in any case if it was on the stand I got told it was on, that would put a back blast onto one of the main taxiways if it reversed off, so I doubt they'd approve permission to do any fancy stuff on that stand unless the thing was really stuck there, as it would risk putting FOD on a main taxiway so then airfield ops would have to inspect the area.

Although ironically, last night as I was coming back from airfield ops which is fairly near that stand, there was a Jet 2 A330 being towed off a stand and they went the wrong way and missed the TRP and blocked that route for a few minutes whilst they sorted it out, so I'm guessing airfield ops had something to say about that. I was just about to drive past behind it, but saw that they'd screwed up and was waiting and checking it out just to be sure I was clear to proceed, that's when I saw the reversing lights go on on the tractor, so it was a good job I waited, I don't like the idea of being mowed down by a reversing A330 lol.

Edited by Chock

Alan Bradbury

Check out my youtube flight sim videos: Here

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6 hours ago, Chock said:

As far as I'm aware, you can't do that at Manchester off any stand, but in any case if it was on the stand I got told it was on, that would put a back blast onto one of the main taxiways if it reversed off, so I doubt they'd approve permission to do any fancy stuff on that stand unless the thing was really stuck there, as it would risk putting FOD on a main taxiway so then airfield ops would have to inspect the area.

Although ironically, last night as I was coming back from airfield ops which is fairly near that stand, there was a Jet 2 A330 being towed off a stand and they went the wrong way and missed the TRP and blocked that route for a few minutes whilst they sorted it out, so I'm guessing airfield ops had something to say about that. I was just about to drive past behind it, but saw that they'd screwed up and was waiting and checking it out just to be sure I was clear to proceed, that's when I saw the reversing lights go on on the tractor, so it was a good job I waited, I don't like the idea of being mowed down by a reversing A330 lol.

Sounds like a fun job you have.


Vic green

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14 hours ago, Chock said:

You can do that with GSX (it's a bit of a faff, but basically you create a logo file and it will plonk it on all the conveyors, high/lows and EBTs), but I wouldn't worry about it that much. We (Aviator service agents at EGCC) occasionally borrow Menzies stuff (such as LDs and GPUs) and they borrow ours, everyone uses MAG and Menzies cones, and Jet 2 are always nicking our cones and chocks lol. Some of our tugs are U/S at the moment, so we're probably going to end up borrowing some of them too, which doesn't really matter because everyone rents their stuff from TCR anyway. Currently, even though we are not the service agents for Ryannair or TUI, we have been servicing those airliners because of personnel shortages at their service agents, and I know others have been doing stuff for Swissport for the same reason. Last night I was sorting stuff out for Lufthansa (D'Nata is their service agent) because their stuff had jammed up the carousels in the bag hall. So it's not unknown to see the 'wrong' service vehicles on airliners, and you'll currently see that a lot at EGCC.

Best of all when it comes to ground service, check this out: Apparently, so a Menzies engineer was telling me last night, a British Airways Dornier 328 landed at EGCC the other day and when they went to push it out, they found that the lugs which the pushback towbar connects to was missing from the nose gear. It had been operating from airports in the Netherlands where they don't park nose-in, so it hadn't needed to be pushed off stands, and nobody noticed it didn't have the tow lugs because they were not needed at those airports. So the pilot says: 'Can you push me out?' and the Menzies crew say: 'No, we can't connect the towbar.', 'No, I mean can you physically push the aircraft out by hand?' asks the Captain. 'Sorry, we can't, we'd get in trouble insurance-wise if someone was injured doing that.' say the Menzies crew. So, the pilot, co-pilot and all of the cabin crew get out of the aircraft and they physically pushed the aircraft off stand (I know amazing right?), but the stand (stand 100 I think it was) has a slope to it, and when they stopped pushing it, yup you guessed it, they didn't chock it, so it started rolling back onto the stand, fortunately the stand goes level so it stopped rolling and finished up back where it had been. So the 328 crew plead with the Menzies crew and say they'll sign an insurance waiver form if the Menzies crew can help to push it out and get it past the hump it had rolled back from, which the Menzies crew then did. There were passengers on it at the time, and I bet if you search youtube you'll find one of them filmed it on their phone, I'd be amazed if they hadn't.

LOL -- love that story!!

I understand of course that airline-specific ground vehicles do not exist at all (or indeed many) airports ... however, PMDG equipment does not exist at ANY airport!  How about fairly ubiquitous livery such as dnata or Menzies, then?!


Cheers,  Brian L Robinson

Flight Simmer since 1983 - loving the brilliant Quality Wings 787 and all PMDG models!!

 

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14 hours ago, scandinavian13 said:

Not currently an option. They're separate objects and don't have 'liveries' in the same way planes do - at least not in a way that would adjust with the plane. Additionally, it's not like you'd see Lufthansa ground services at IAD, for example.

I understand of course that airline-specific ground vehicles do not exist at all (or indeed many) airports ... however, PMDG equipment does not exist at ANY airport!  How about fairly ubiquitous livery such as dnata or Menzies, then?!

  • Like 1

Cheers,  Brian L Robinson

Flight Simmer since 1983 - loving the brilliant Quality Wings 787 and all PMDG models!!

 

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8 hours ago, ozzieblr said:

How about fairly ubiquitous livery such as dnata or Menzies, then?!

Go for it :wink:


Kyle Rodgers

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On 9/25/2018 at 9:11 AM, scandinavian13 said:

Go for it :wink:

If there's no intent for PMDG to do anything about it, I will. Sounds like the original question asked whether anything was going to be done about the ground service equipment to allow the individual user to paint them because it had been said that something might be done or something.


Captain Kevin

nGsKmfi.jpg

Air Kevin 124 heavy, wind calm, runway 4 left, cleared for take-off.

Live streams of my flights here.

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On 9/25/2018 at 11:11 PM, scandinavian13 said:

Go for it :wink:

Done ... all my PMDG ground vehicles for both FSX QOTSII and P3D QOTSII-8 are now operated by Menzies, (though using the PMDG colours, as I have simply not yet had time to create a blank white livery or a full kit).  It now looks a whole lot more plausible, even though still fictional.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v8md3yamo9ceghm/MenziesServices.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e2b0o3uee68f30o/MenziesServices2.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gb8tjjh3w7q7y8x/MenziesServices3.jpg?dl=0

However if Captain Kevin, who fully understood what I was asking/suggesting, creates a full kit, that would be fantastic!

Edited by ozzieblr

Cheers,  Brian L Robinson

Flight Simmer since 1983 - loving the brilliant Quality Wings 787 and all PMDG models!!

 

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2 hours ago, ozzieblr said:

However if Captain Kevin, who fully understood what I was asking/suggesting, creates a full kit, that would be fantastic!

Never said I was going to do a paint kit. I will, however, paint my own textures on it when I get around to it. I just don't have a whole lot of free time, so I don't know when that would happen.


Captain Kevin

nGsKmfi.jpg

Air Kevin 124 heavy, wind calm, runway 4 left, cleared for take-off.

Live streams of my flights here.

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