How to make ATC assign the correct terminal gate?

[Amrick615 6]

Hey guys!

I decided to try out the default P3Dv5 atc, again. I'm flying a Southwest aircraft, and when landing into KLAS (FlyTampa), the ATC instructed me to park at gate A15. At KLAS, Southwest occupies terminals B and C. How do I make the default ATC recognize I'm in a Southwest aircraft such that it will give me a gate at the appropriate terminal? 

 

Thank you

[blaunarwal 432]

Check the aircraft.cfg of the plane you´re flying

Here´s an example from Captainsim. The code in bold letters was added by me. Most painters or the designer of the aircraft don´t care. The code for the airline, Southwest is SWA, can be found with Google and Wikipedia, searching "ICAO American Airlines" wich is AAL.

[fltsim.8]
title=CS 737-300 Southwest Airlines N506SW
sim=y373_CFM56-3B1
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=swan506sw
kb_checklists=
kb_reference=
atc_id=N506SW
atc_airline=Southwest
atc_flight_number=SWA737
atc_model=B733
atc_heavy=0
atc_parking_types=GATE,RAMP
atc_parking_codes=SWA
ui_manufacturer=Boeing
ui_type=737-300 CFM56-3B1
ui_variation=Southwest Airlines N506SW
ui_typerole=Commercial Airliner
ui_createdby=Captain Sim
ui_wglts=0
ui_ants=0
sizek=2
description=Boeing 737-300 (737 Classic) Base Pack. Texture by Francisco Soto - arquiplanes.com
 

Regards

Dan

[Amrick615 6]

Thank you!

[Benjamin J 751]

Just so you know, for this to work the AFCAD of the airport needs to have the correct ICAO code assignments as well. If he AFCAD does not have these, or they are not correct, you will still be assigned incorrectly. That said, at FT's KLAS I believe they are okay. This is not always the case though. Unfortunately some developers don't particularly care to get this right, and sometimes data also just isn't available. As Dan mentioned though, most times it's the entires in the aircraft's configuraiton file that's the issue. You won't believe how many airplanes miss this info or it's incorrect. PMDG honestly is the most infuriating, as their planes usually omit them completely. For the prie I'm payong I'd think that something this simple could be added. They are not alone though. Aerosoft gets them wrong all the time. When you request iniBuilds to do a repaint (and mind you, I'm paying for a repaint with a configuration file. it's LITERALLY what I'm paying for), it's usually all messed up as well. I think it's basically only FSLabs where I found them to be usually present, complete and correct.

If you are incorrectly assigned and you put the code correctly in the aircraft's cfg file, you can use Airport Design Editor (ADE) to check the gate assignments.

[Amrick615 6]

3 hours ago, Benjamin J said:

Just so you know, for this to work the AFCAD of the airport needs to have the correct ICAO code assignments as well. If he AFCAD does not have these, or they are not correct, you will still be assigned incorrectly. That said, at FT's KLAS I believe they are okay. This is not always the case though. Unfortunately some developers don't particularly care to get this right, and sometimes data also just isn't available. As Dan mentioned though, most times it's the entires in the aircraft's configuraiton file that's the issue. You won't believe how many airplanes miss this info or it's incorrect. PMDG honestly is the most infuriating, as their planes usually omit them completely. For the prie I'm payong I'd think that something this simple could be added. They are not alone though. Aerosoft gets them wrong all the time. When you request iniBuilds to do a repaint (and mind you, I'm paying for a repaint with a configuration file. it's LITERALLY what I'm paying for), it's usually all messed up as well. I think it's basically only FSLabs where I found them to be usually present, complete and correct.

If you are incorrectly assigned and you put the code correctly in the aircraft's cfg file, you can use Airport Design Editor (ADE) to check the gate assignments.

Thanks, Benjamin!

Its such a small detail that goes a long way! I tried figuring things out on ADE, but I still have alot to learn with it, so easy does it for now. 

Thanks for the help everyone!

[vadriver 247]

@Amrick615

That same inclusion works a well as in VATC ....... 😉 

[blaunarwal 432]

8 hours ago, Benjamin J said:

If you are incorrectly assigned and you put the code correctly in the aircraft's cfg file, you can use Airport Design Editor (ADE) to check the gate assignments.

Thanks mentioning this part of the problem. I thought, it's the next step, bit more complicated to do afcads. I also expect our addon producers to create usable afcads. I know, quality is different, from perfect to lazy.

[vadriver 247]

37 minutes ago, blaunarwal said:

I also expect our addon producers to create usable afcads.

that unfortunately is logistically impossible .....

what is spawned, whether it be by the sim's traffic engine or VATC's (the only 2 that do such) is dependent on your own AI inventory.

addon producers will never match that ..... they have no idea of yours, one may have more / less, up to date / or old.

the "best" is to make sure one's afcads include parking codes of sufficient gates / ramps for ALL aircraft in YOUR Ai your inventory.

& yep, that means using / tweaking afcads (using ADE) to suit (ie forget the best intentions of others, you need to do it yourself) 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

@Amrick615, you could download and run Radar Contact v4 which is now free. It gives you the option to enter your preferred gate at both airports as well as providing far more realistic ATC instructions.

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/547732-radar-contact-and-jdtllc-in-transition/

 

[blaunarwal 432]

1 hour ago, vadriver said:

that unfortunately is logistically impossible .....

What logistically is impossible for me is to fix all airports I ever bougth and keep them up to date all the time. I encountered both, airports with pre-assigned parkings and airports with no assignements at all. 

[Benjamin J 751]

4 hours ago, vadriver said:

that unfortunately is logistically impossible .....

what is spawned, whether it be by the sim's traffic engine or VATC's (the only 2 that do such) is dependent on your own AI inventory.

addon producers will never match that ..... they have no idea of yours, one may have more / less, up to date / or old.

the "best" is to make sure one's afcads include parking codes of sufficient gates / ramps for ALL aircraft in YOUR Ai your inventory.

& yep, that means using / tweaking afcads (using ADE) to suit (ie forget the best intentions of others, you need to do it yourself) 

I'm sorry but this doesn't fly with me. What's on the user's end is not something the developer can necessarily anticipate, but the least we can expect is that, assuming that the user's aircraft is setup correctly, the addon airport is ALSO setup correctly to ensure that the user's aircraft gets assigned to the proper gate, which is what this thread is about, not AI. This is just part of creating an airport scenery that is as realistic as possible. And of course, like I said above, data may not always be available or it may be incomplete. I can also sympathize with developers of mega hubs, that they may not be able to assign every single airline to the proper gate correctly, because if data is incomplete, that would mean spending hours looking at FlightRadar24 to track where every airline's planes dock... Also, things change over time: it's unrealistic to expect that an older scenery is still current in terms of the gate assignments in the AFCAD.

[vadriver 247]

@Benjamin J

For one's (user) aircraft, I prefer to use a unique code (eg in the above, use SWAP) & which is equally assigned to a preferred gate or two in my "regular" afcads.

That way there is next to zero chance of AI occupying the gate ..... if for example the number of coded gates for SWA is insufficient for the spawn & / or an AI aircraft without a coded gate chooses to use an empty SWA one.