Talk About An Immersion Killer

[andyjohnston.net 617]

The wheels on the forklifts turn the wrong way 😉

[GAJ52 54]

I just wish there was a way to make the forklifts disappear, never seen one of these at my local airfield Blackbushe.

[Mike S KPDX 597]

yep, this and dont allow vehicle traffic on the taxi ways, there are service roads and lane markings for this type of activity.

[Alpine Scenery 1,609]

9 minutes ago, GAJ52 said:

I just wish there was a way to make the forklifts disappear, never seen one of these at my local airfield Blackbushe.

There are a bunch of them at certain types of airports, mainly ones that fly a lot of cargo.

I used to go to airshows where this airport literally had no room for them all and had at least 20 of them outside all parked in a row.

[rtodepart 761]

I have to agree that in some airports in the FS2020 world there's too much ground traffic that behaves in a unrealistic way sometimes but i dont let that bother me anymore . In the real world ground traffic behaves like there's nothing else or no one around or the field  ... nothing against ground crew at all if you visit the forum , I was in the ground for many years too but .... 

Edited December 30, 2020 by rtodepart

[desbean 357]

Lucky me I don't pay any attention to the forklift wheels, but I don't care for the ground traffic always having the ROW over aircraft. I've lowered that ground traffic setting.

[Chock 17,769]

2 hours ago, rtodepart said:

In the real world ground traffic behaves like there's nothing else or no one around or the field

Not where I worked it didn't (Manchester Airport UK). You'd have had your airside driving permit pulled in a matter of minutes at EGCC if you'd gone around overtly breaking any or the rules for vehicles. And given the amount of exams and tests you have to do to get one, that is probably why nobody screws around. Anyone who does not have an Airside Driving Permit (such as a construction vehicle temporarily working on the aerodrome maybe resurfacing a ramp or whatever, had to be escorted by a follow me vehicle when moving around the road system.

There is a strictly-enforced 20 mph speed limit on all the airfield, with that down to 10mph in some marked places and 5mph limit in one or two places as well as inside all enclosed structures. There are speed cameras all over the place too. The Air Ops police would pull you over and taken your permit off you on the spot, and then you'd be sent home if you infringed any of this. If it was a minor infringement, you might get your permit back after a day or two and some mandatory re-training and a bit of a dressing down, but if it was a serious infringement, that'd be you losing your job.

For example, I was once doing the road marshalling wands when pushing out an Aer Lingus A320 off stand 8 at EGCC, so I went into the road to stop traffic and a vehicle (transit van) didn't stop until it was behind the aeroplane's port engine - which was running as it had done a busted APU start up. I signalled the tug and headset guys to emergency stop the push, which they did. Then the Air Ops police came over. The guy in the van tried to claim I was not in the road and had not signalled traffic to stop, claiming he had taken a picture of this (which would have been a miracle if he had a phone camera ready on the off-chance that he knew he was going to drive behind and aeroplane with its ant--collision beacons on, so it was clearly bull****, what he had done is taken a picture of the road after I'd walked back onto the ramp, and I straight up said this to him and that he was lying when the Air Ops people showed up.

Air Ops pulled the CCTV footage from the cameras on the adjacent stands, which proved I genuinely was in the road marshalling amnd signalling traffic to stop when the guy did not stop, and so the guy had his licence pulled on the spot and I subsequently learned that he had been sacked for trying to bull**** the Air Ops guys as well as for having driven dangerously and ignored a marshaler (me) and ignored an aeroplane's anti-coillision beacons. If he'd have held his hand up and said 'oops, sorry about that', he'd have probably just got a dressing down and kept his licence and his job as well, because anyone can make a mistake and honesty is the best policy in these matters, but that guy was also speeding when he came around the corned (I noticed that at the time as well), so that was part of the reason why he could not stop in time, thus it served him right to lose his job for being a pillock and endangering other people and I'm glad he got sacked.

[bobcat999 8,483]

3 hours ago, GAJ52 said:

I just wish there was a way to make the forklifts disappear, never seen one of these at my local airfield Blackbushe.

Really?  I normally have to summon one to move my plane after landing.  One day I will remember to put the wheels down.  

[Fielder 3,675]

5 hours ago, rtodepart said:

 In the real world ground traffic behaves like there's nothing else or no one around or the field  ... nothing against ground crew at all if you visit the forum , I was in the ground for many years too but .... 

Soon we have all zombie drivers, or apes (airport of the apes), LOL.

[Chock 17,769]

5 hours ago, desbean said:

I don't care for the ground traffic always having the ROW over aircraft. I've lowered that ground traffic setting.

This is something which P3D does get a bit better. Not always, but on occasion trucks will give way to aeroplanes in P3D V5 at least, as they actually always should in the real world. I'm sure there must be a way to make this happen all the time in flight sims, and it really would help with realism if trucks were aware of the aeroplanes.

Incidentally, there are occasionally fork lifts at major airports. They are usually in the cargo areas and not airside, but the really large ones do sometimes go airside to remove broken down airport vehicles which cannot be easily towed.

[desbean 357]

1 minute ago, Chock said:

This is something which P3D does get a bit better. Not always, but on occasion trucks will give way to aeroplanes in P3D V5 at least, as they actually always should in the real world. I'm sure there must be a way to make this happen all the time in flight sims, and it really would help with realism if trucks were aware of the aeroplanes.

Even in FSX the ground traffic stuck to those separate vehicle paths, although they would cut you off were they intersected. I'm assuming that MSFS airports have vehicle paths but no way for me to know without some sort of AFCAD program.

[mwilk 1,106]

I worked at DFW for 13 years. I wish I had a dollar for every time I got cut off by a vehicle while pushing back an airplane. Many of our ramps were uncontrolled so vehicle traffic went anywhere and everywhere outside of the designated roadways. I don't think I ever saw someone be cited for a violation.

[HighBypass 2,339]

6 hours ago, andyjohnston.net said:

The wheels on the forklifts turn the wrong way 😉

Are you sure? Perhaps they have those fancy mecanum wheels?? 

[desbean 357]

6 minutes ago, HighBypass said:

Are you sure? Perhaps they have those fancy mecanum wheels?? 

Haha, that's it, they have "spinners"

[blueshark747 1,843]

4 hours ago, Chock said:

Not where I worked it didn't (Manchester Airport UK). You'd have had your airside driving permit pulled in a matter of minutes at EGCC if you'd gone around overtly breaking any or the rules for vehicles. And given the amount of exams and tests you have to do to get one, that is probably why nobody screws around. Anyone who does not have an Airside Driving Permit (such as a construction vehicle temporarily working on the aerodrome maybe resurfacing a ramp or whatever, had to be escorted by a follow me vehicle when moving around the road system.

There is a strictly-enforced 20 mph speed limit on all the airfield, with that down to 10mph in some marked places and 5mph limit in one or two places as well as inside all enclosed structures. There are speed cameras all over the place too. The Air Ops police would pull you over and taken your permit off you on the spot, and then you'd be sent home if you infringed any of this. If it was a minor infringement, you might get your permit back after a day or two and some mandatory re-training and a bit of a dressing down, but if it was a serious infringement, that'd be you losing your job.

For example, I was once doing the road marshalling wands when pushing out an Aer Lingus A320 off stand 8 at EGCC, so I went into the road to stop traffic and a vehicle (transit van) didn't stop until it was behind the aeroplane's port engine - which was running as it had done a busted APU start up. I signalled the tug and headset guys to emergency stop the push, which they did. Then the Air Ops police came over. The guy in the van tried to claim I was not in the road and had not signalled traffic to stop, claiming he had taken a picture of this (which would have been a miracle if he had a phone camera ready on the off-chance that he knew he was going to drive behind and aeroplane with its ant--collision beacons on, so it was clearly bull****, what he had done is taken a picture of the road after I'd walked back onto the ramp, and I straight up said this to him and that he was lying when the Air Ops people showed up.

Air Ops pulled the CCTV footage from the cameras on the adjacent stands, which proved I genuinely was in the road marshalling amnd signalling traffic to stop when the guy did not stop, and so the guy had his licence pulled on the spot and I subsequently learned that he had been sacked for trying to bull**** the Air Ops guys as well as for having driven dangerously and ignored a marshaler (me) and ignored an aeroplane's anti-coillision beacons. If he'd have held his hand up and said 'oops, sorry about that', he'd have probably just got a dressing down and kept his licence and his job as well, because anyone can make a mistake and honesty is the best policy in these matters, but that guy was also speeding when he came around the corned (I noticed that at the time as well), so that was part of the reason why he could not stop in time, thus it served him right to lose his job for being a pillock and endangering other people and I'm glad he got sacked.

Yup the Flight Line Driving Cert was one of the most enforced and strict things I’ve seen in the Air Force. To the point people were terrified and hated having to drive across the flight line from fear of messing up on clearance communications with the tower or being responsible for an incursion incident.

The license was the biggest most focused item during random audits I’ve seen in airfield operations related departments. Auditors came in and demanded everyone stop what they were doing and produce their flight line licenses. You could pretty much kiss your airfield access goodbye if you failed to produce it or were carrying an expired one.

Edited December 31, 2020 by blueshark747