Updated Sofia airport (LBSF) available for P3Dv4 & v5

[787flyer 633]

Hi,

Just stumbled across this scenery of Sofia (LBSF) from a relatively unknown FS developer (AflOSim), but it looks to be of decent quality so I think I will go ahead and buy it and support another P3D developer.

 

What surprised me is the number of continual updates (at least 4 this year with the latest released late last month!) to this airport that have been made by this developer to improve the quality and feature set.

One thing I did notice is the default CRTL+J jetways which I know some of you will appreciate. I will investigate to see if they can be easily swapped out with SODE jetways.

In addition, this particular purchase will likely not break the bank.

 

For more info visit: https://www.aflosim.com/. Purchase is through Simmarket.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,980]

13 minutes ago, 787flyer said:

One thing I did notice is the default CRTL+J jetways which I know some of you will appreciate. I will investigate to see if they can be easily swapped out with SODE jetways.

I spotted that airport a week or so ago so look forward to your thoughts.

Regarding SODE jetways providing the supplied default ones are in a separate BGL it should not be a problem disabling them.

I’ve used many of Cartayna’s jetways which are superb. He’s stopped doing them for P3D but there are tutorials on how to create your own. Has anyone tried making their own?

[787flyer 633]

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I spotted that airport a week or so ago so look forward to your thoughts.

Regarding SODE jetways providing the supplied default ones are in a separate BGL it should not be a problem disabling them.

I’ve used many of Cartayna’s jetways which are superb. He’s stopped doing them for P3D but there are tutorials on how to create your own. Has anyone tried making their own?

Sure. I will let you know.I probably will provide an update here at the weekend. I have a long weekend coming up so should be able to spend some time on this.

 

Re SODE,jetways, yes I am "making" my own. I am in the middle of that exercise right now with KDAY from Real World Scenery. This particular scenery has static jetways so I have disabled that specific .BGL to .OFF. And then its a matter of using GSX to add the relevant SODE jetways it supplies to each parking space. The only thing I noticed is in the v5 version of this scenery, some parking spaces were not set up for Terminal B so I may have to resort to adding them in via ADE before I add the GSX SODE jetways. I enquired with the developer last week about this (B11-B19 parking spaces are missing from the AFCAD) but have not heard back.

Note for KDAY, Inibuilds they only have a DL file available, no GSX profile with the SODE jetways. I forgot to check for Cartayna's GSX profiles. I have his package downloaded. Good reminder! 

[rockon01uk 2]

Hi Guys.

Bought this scenery a few weeks ago and just to let you know there is a text file in the optional folder when insatalled. This has instructions to add GSX jetways called "GSX ini for LBSF read me.txt". Also have just the renamed LBSF_ADE5_ADE.BGL active only as I had LBSF_ADEX_ADE.bgl active also and had floating jetways. Just thought it may help and so you don't have to do it yourself.

[spilok 1,136]

Thanks for the heads up.  I bought Sofia immediately when I read your post. SODE works well enough for me at this airport.  I remember fondly flying into Bulgaria with my wife about 4 years ago.  We were on a Bulgarian/Romanian planned trip.  We were very impressed with Bulgaria, and I swear...I had the very best pizza I've ever had in a restaurant called New York Pub in Bulgaria. Bulgaria was beautiful.  We went on to Bucharest and eventually got to Dracula's (Vlad the Impaler) Castle in Transylvania.  What a wonderful 10 days!

Since I already have LROP in Romania, it was very fitting to also add LBSF in Bulgaria.  Thanks again.  Brings back memories.

[787flyer 633]

On 10/26/2022 at 7:16 PM, rockon01uk said:

Hi Guys.

Bought this scenery a few weeks ago and just to let you know there is a text file in the optional folder when insatalled. This has instructions to add GSX jetways called "GSX ini for LBSF read me.txt". Also have just the renamed LBSF_ADE5_ADE.BGL active only as I had LBSF_ADEX_ADE.bgl active also and had floating jetways. Just thought it may help and so you don't have to do it yourself.

Thank you for your expert advice! I will certainly check this out. I have purchased it and I plan to install it tomorrow.

And welcome to the Avsim  forums by the way. 🍾

[787flyer 633]

Hi @spilok,

You are very welcome. I will try your suggestions out. Thx!

Similar to you, there was another reason when I posted the article and that was I also had experience of Bulgaria very recently and enjoyed it. We were on a Danube river cruise earlier this year down to the river delta  near the Black Sea and we enjoyed that immensely.We had the opportunity of visiting Ruse which is a city located directly at the river bank and was a very pleasant to walk around in and enjoy the environs. Unfortunately Sofia was a bit of distance to visit (300km) so we are saving that for a future visit but we are looking forward to going back..

Oh and by the way, in addition to your best pizza recommendation, I can also vouch for one of the back street pizza places in one of the narrow alleyways (no room for a truck, just a bike!) behind the main tourist square in Naples. 😉

It was not much to look at from the outside or in for that matter - very basic dining tables and tablecloths and  perhaps seating for 10-15 local people, but the pizza was out of this world!! 🍕

Edited October 28, 2022 by 787flyer

[Ray Proudfoot 8,980]

I've just bought and installed it. Few problems eventually solved. GSX jetways now working.

The AFCAD needs some changes. All these Ramp GA Large descriptions need altering when you have a jetway available. Otherwise a nice airport for a fair price.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,980]

Has anyone noticed parking positions 1-10 are positioning the aircraft too far forward if using GSX?

I've altered the stop position on all of them. Easy enough once I'd reminded myself on how the proces works.

[787flyer 633]

19 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Has anyone noticed parking positions 1-10 are positioning the aircraft too far forward if using GSX?

I've altered the stop position on all of them. Easy enough once I'd reminded myself on how the proces works.

Hi Ray, yes I am seeing that as well. I installed the scenery yesterday and have my GSX SODE gates enabled based on the supplied GSX ini file, but the parking positions are too far forward so it needs some tweaking. I still need to mess about with some of the other positions of vehicles etc as they tend to interfere with one another or drive through those concrete ramparts that support the jetways.

In general, I am quite surprised about the good quality of the airport and amount of detail at the airport. You even see animation of people in the terminal. There is VGDS as well but have not tried this out yet. I'll need to take my iFLY B737-800 for a small circuit.

The scenery is also quite well matched in terms of textures and blends in with the existing land class quite nicely (I am using Orby Global openLC Europe)

 

All in all, it's not a bad scenery to have for the price. I hope the developer continues to make further updates.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,980]

Hi Mark,

The VGDS objects are linked to the original parking positions and once you correct the parking spot to match the ground markings they are no longer accurate.

They are SafeDockn.BGL where n is the parking position. I have renamed them and created my own using GSX.

[787flyer 633]

3 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Hi Mark,

The VGDS objects are linked to the original parking positions and once you correct the parking spot to match the ground markings they are no longer accurate.

They are SafeDockn.BGL where n is the parking position. I have renamed them and created my own using GSX.

Yep! Thx Ray. I figured that out this morning.

At least I have the parking spaces renumbered since there were a few gates that were not labelled correctly at the B terminal and fixed a few other issues with the AFCAD. And now I have set about implementing the GSX SODE jetways.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,980]

Worked out how to add option for walking pax to aircraft. Ideal for airports like this.

[787flyer 633]

On 11/3/2022 at 12:21 PM, Ray Proudfoot said:

Worked out how to add option for walking pax to aircraft. Ideal for airports like this.

 

I love it! Great work Ray.  👍

You are way ahead of me. I still need to re-add 5 more GSX SODE gates and then I think I should be operational at LBSF. I may try that approach for Gate B5 where there's no jetway.

More work to do this weekend I think.

 

[787flyer 633]

On 11/3/2022 at 12:21 PM, Ray Proudfoot said:

Worked out how to add option for walking pax to aircraft. Ideal for airports like this.

 

Hi Ray, a quick update: I finally finished off the SODE gates at Sofia and tinkered with the walking pax option in GSX Level 2 as you showed above. It's quite a nice feature and easy to use I found. A couple of pics below, one of the new SODE gates and the other where I added a walk-in gate at B4.

The only "fly in the ointment" is  when the walkway is created, typically from the terminal building door to the apron where the aircraft is parked at a stand, you have to route the walkway barrier across the vehicle pathway, thus virtually obstructing the airport traffic. It would be nice if Umberto would provide a feature in GSX just to remove that section of belt that connects between the two stanchions where it crosses the vehicle roadways.

GSX SODE gates added at Sofia Terminal B

GSX Walk-in gate at Stand B4 - Sofia Airport

Now I am on to my next "mini project". I am re-doing FSDT's Terminal E at Zürich and am removing the std CTRL-J gates and adding SODE gates to all the E gates.

As an aside: It looks like GSX is "back to normal" although having done the latest Live Update yesterday morning due to another issue with GSX wanting to re-start Couatl at any airport (at least this was fixed quite promptly) , I see there is some minor enhancements made for boarding the cockpit and cabin crew that appeared in the GSX menu when boarding was initiated.I had not seen that before.