Making non ATC airports controlled

[Guest Nudge]

Hi,Can anyone tell me if there is a way to make an airport with no ATC controlled for FSX?My local airport now has an ATC and would like to add an ATC to it, any help will be much appreciated.TIA

[Guest UlfB]

I used Flight1 AFX to make my local airport controlled. There is also freeware tools to modify airports, but I haven't used them.What you do with AFX is to load your local airport and save the airport defintion in a new bgl-file in the Addon Sceneryscenery folder. Then you add the type of communication you want (ground, tower etc) and the frequences to use. Very easy.Ulf B :-)

[Guest radivil]

Really, adding ATC might be the second easiest thing to do after dropping in a scenery object or two. Doing it by hand with XML is not nearly as difficult as you'd think it would be either.In fact, I added ATC (as a test) to an uncontrolled field and I doubt it took more than five minutes. And that's including typing up the XML, compiling it, and loading FSX.

[Guest UlfB]

radivil,Please tell us how you do it. I'd like to do it in just 5 minutes.Ulf B

[Guest radivil]

The way to cut down the time, like I did ;) is to have a template ready to go:<?xml version="1.0"?>Just replace what you need as needed. The only time consuming thing is to actually figure out what you need to add where and that doesn't take more than a few minutes. That code will create the listed frequencies and place a control tower of your choice. The most time consuming thing is figuring out what "safe" frequencies or other local ones are (that is, if you're only like five miles from New York you'll probably want to use one of the frequencies that New York City's area uses for clearance).Below is the XML required to add (random) frequencies and a tower to KUNV (University Park Airport), which is locally believed to be the busiest uncontrolled airport in the US. The only research I had to do was figure out its lat and lon, magnetic variation, airport reference point, and altitude (all easily gleaned from the flight planner) and copy over pre-existing frequencies (the AWOS and UNICOM).

[Guest UlfB]

Thanks, but what do I do with the xml file? I guess I've got to change coordinates and other parameters in the xml file. Should I copy the file to some FSX folder?Ulf B

[Guest Nudge]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, that has helped alot.Much appreciated