I'm a big fan of GSX, and was curious how others handled this situation. I notice that even though I connect the jetway, the back stairs always still come up to the craft, even though they are not needed. Is anyone actually using that back staircase, when the jetway is already connected? Do those back stairs even work when the jetway is connected? I probably have a wrong setting 🙂

 

There are a few reasons why stairs are put on an aeroplane even when a jetway is connected. The most common reason is for the cleaning staff, who usually are down on the ramp, so they would not want to climb up the exterior stairs of the jet bridge with their mops and buckets, vacuum cleaners etc, blocking up the gate where passengers board, then traipse through the boarding tunnel, and then have to cart rubbish off out the same way past passengers, since this would cause congestion and also not make the image of air travel look fancy, which is the image airlines and airports want to project to passengers.

Sometimes, catering stuff is brought on via the rear stairway too, although most of the time catering stuff is loaded through the doors on the other side of the aeroplane via a truck with a loading platform.

The other reason you might put steps on an aeroplane is for safety if the aircraft is being fueled, in which case you need two exits to be available for any people on board should a problem or emergency occur with the fueling procedure, since the emergency slides are not armed when the thing is on the stands with the doors open. Generally speaking, airlines try to avoid fueling aeroplanes when passengers are on board, but it does happen occasionally, however, if you look at a plane which is fueling, you might also notice that a member of the ramp personnel will be on the headset connected to the cockpit so that he can alert the flight deck to a problem, which is known as being on 'fuel watch'. You might notice that on an ATR-72, which has airstairs at the rear, the aircraft is not often loaded whilst it is being fueled, since the loading process can block potential escape routes for passengers, i.e. through the forward cargo hold entrance and the bulk cargo loading door at the rear opposite the airstairs door.

The one time you won't see steps on aircraft in these kinds of situations, is if there is a wind warning in place, and you can tell there is a wind warning in effect through a few visual clues if you are at an airport: No cones will be placed around the aeroplane (since they can blow away) and most if not all of the wheels will be chocked rather than just a few, or in some cases only the mains will be chocked, but not the nose, in order to allow the aeroplane to pivot and not put stress on the nose gear. In windy situations, the aeroplane pivots, and so you cannot put steps on the back because the pivoting tail would bash the fuselage into the step, so in extreme circumstances, it is not possible to load a plane in windy weather if there is no jet bridge available.

The other reason to use airstairs and mobile steps is for budget concerns. Airports charge for using the jet bridge, but they might connect a bridge to an airliner which is not paying for that service for their own reasons, and so there would still be stairs put on the thing anyway. This would be rare, but it is not unknown, for example if a passenger is ill but able to walk, or someone is being escorted off the plane by security services.

Another reason is for balance. Sometimes there is a risk of tail tipping owing to weight in the back of the aeroplane, and this can potentially be a risk as everyone stands up, then people start disembarking via the bridge, but there is a blockage of people in the aisle, meaning there are more people in the rear of the aeroplane with the front emptying out; this can put it at risk of tipping on its tail. In these circumstances, if the risk is deemed to be particularly high, then rear stairs will be put on and the rear door will be opened first to get some of the weight off the back of the aeroplane; in this situation, someone will watch the suspension oleo of the nose wheel, and if there is a lot of chrome showing, they'll halt the process and do something about it quickly. It is often why you see the rear of a plane being unloaded of its bags first, and the front loaded with them for the outbound flight. We used to have to watch for that on KLM 737s, which were quite often at risk of that because of the way they loaded them with bags and cargo, meaning we'd get stuff out of the back first.

Edited June 4, 20215 yr by Chock

Ah, interesting! So there are real world uses for it. I guess I just didn't notice it in the past, as my view was probably blocked by the jetway. It would be cool if GSX simulated some of the cleaning, catering or ramp personnel using it randomly every now and then, whilst passengers are boarding through the jetway.

The more immersion the better. Thanks for the detailed reply, @Chock!

Also, if you customize the spot in GSX, you can check a box to eliminate the stairs there.  I also use that option for non-jetway ramp spots that I dedicate to bizjet use, as the business acft I use in the sim all have their own airstairs.

 

1 minute ago, w6kd said:

Also, if you customize the spot in GSX, you can check a box to eliminate the stairs there.

Thanks for the suggestion! I was hoping there was a global setting for this, like the wingspan one, but there doesn't seem to be. I am hoping that I can at least select all gates for an airport at once, and then deselect that option for all of them.

 

5 minutes ago, w6kd said:

I also use that option for spots I dedicate to bizjet use

While we are talking about this, can you please recommend a PMDG level business jet for P3Dv5? I have the Flysimware Falcon 50, but it felt clunky the last time I used it. How do you feel about the Carenado XL560 Citation, or the Carenado H25B H850XP? The latter seems interesting, and even has wingflex, but I am concerned that it seems to be one of their older models.

44 minutes ago, sunny_in_the_sky said:

Thanks for the suggestion! I was hoping there was a global setting for this, like the wingspan one, but there doesn't seem to be. I am hoping that I can at least select all gates for an airport at once, and then deselect that option for all of them.

 

While we are talking about this, can you please recommend a PMDG level business jet for P3Dv5? I have the Flysimware Falcon 50, but it felt clunky the last time I used it. How do you feel about the Carenado XL560 Citation, or the Carenado H25B H850XP? The latter seems interesting, and even has wingflex, but I am concerned that it seems to be one of their older models.

You can mass-select gates in the listing on the left side of the airport customization window, and then once-selected, disable stairs for all of the selected spots by checking the disable stairs box.

The PMDG 737 with the BBJ extension is the only bizjet they make.  I flew Gulfstreams IRL, and the BBJ1 with a very light payload performs roughly similar to the G-V in terms of thrust-to-weight and range.  It's the bizjet I fly most often, unless I need to wedge into a small parking area, then it's usually the Falcon--but the lack of a proper long-range nav system in the Falcon has kept it mostly hangared here since the BBJ came along and filled the need for a bizjet with international range and LNAV.  If Flysimware ever ports the UNS-1 over from the Lear 35 to the F50, that'd be a game-changer for the Falcon.  I don't have either of the Carenado jets...their reputation is for pretty graphics and pretty dysfunctional FDE and avionics, so I generally stay clear.