I used to use GSX with Fenix but ended up removing GSX from my PC.  I felt it took too long and required me to do non related things that a pilot would have to do.  I saw something called Fenix2GSX and was wondering how that differs from plain GSX.  I also didn't like the fact that GSX had people walking in the air and on the tarmac and it required me to download a bunch of files to try and fix that while it didn't always do the trick.  What is everyone's experience with Fenix2GSX?

It's not gonna fix people walking in the air, the arduous task of downloading and copy-pasting a GSX airport profile you will still have to undertake yourself.

Other than that, it completely removes any interaction with GSX when flying the Fenix (well, almost, you still have to specify the pushback direction). Takes a bit of learning/reading the README on the Github repo, but once you figure it out it's really nice! That is, as long as GSX doesn't word not allowed its pants (which it does sometimes), then you're stuck with repeating the whole boarding process or just using GSX for pushback.

One thing I don't like is that you have to specify any extra fuel you'd like to take when exporting your Simbrief flightplan, since GSX takes the amount of fuel specified there and uplifts it. I often forget that (since extra fuel is not part of the flight plan you get from OPS IRL, either) and have to re-export the Simbrief plan.

Honestly, if you're not a big GSX fan in the first place, Fenix2GSX isn't going to magically fix everything that made you quit GSX the first time around. But for me, I use GSX anyways, and the integration is really nice! On the other hand, a few mouse clicks when using the PMDG aren't exactly killing me either.

34 minutes ago, psychedelic_tortilla said:

It's not gonna fix people walking in the air, the arduous task of downloading and copy-pasting a GSX airport profile you will still have to undertake yourself.

Other than that, it completely removes any interaction with GSX when flying the Fenix (well, almost, you still have to specify the pushback direction). Takes a bit of learning/reading the README on the Github repo, but once you figure it out it's really nice! That is, as long as GSX doesn't word not allowed its pants (which it does sometimes), then you're stuck with repeating the whole boarding process or just using GSX for pushback.

One thing I don't like is that you have to specify any extra fuel you'd like to take when exporting your Simbrief flightplan, since GSX takes the amount of fuel specified there and uplifts it. I often forget that (since extra fuel is not part of the flight plan you get from OPS IRL, either) and have to re-export the Simbrief plan.

Honestly, if you're not a big GSX fan in the first place, Fenix2GSX isn't going to magically fix everything that made you quit GSX the first time around. But for me, I use GSX anyways, and the integration is really nice! On the other hand, a few mouse clicks when using the PMDG aren't exactly killing me either.

Thanks.  This is helpful.  

For me GSX is only pushback tool without Fenix2GSX. It really made me enjoy GSX

I just brought GSX during the Black Friday sale and came across Fenix2GSX yesterday, it works great so far although I haven't had a chance to use it a lot. I haven't had any major issues with GSX either so all in all I am pretty pleased.

I recently picked up GSX and have started using Fenix2GSX. The Fenix2GSX automates a lot of the stuff so as soon as you import the simbrief gSX kicks off with sending the fueling truck etc. You can increase the density of passengers to speed up their boarding time as well. The passengers walking on air thing is annoying but doesn't occur all the time. If you park out on the tarmac and have the passengers bussed in it works pretty nicely. The pushback is my favorite feature. The fuel thing doesn't bother me because I typically put some extra fuel in my plan  out of habit, so everything ends up matching up.

Edited November 30, 20232 yr by red259

2 hours ago, red259 said:

I recently picked up GSX and have started using Fenix2GSX. The Fenix2GSX automates a lot of the stuff so as soon as you import the simbrief gSX kicks off with sending the fueling truck etc. You can increase the density of passengers to speed up their boarding time as well. The passengers walking on air thing is annoying but doesn't occur all the time. If you park out on the tarmac and have the passengers bussed in it works pretty nicely. The pushback is my favorite feature. The fuel thing doesn't bother me because I typically put some extra fuel in my plan  out of habit, so everything ends up matching up.

Actually like the fact that you can choose how automated it is.

I find it normally works better on a gate, parked I find I get about 15 passengers on board it stops and then insta-completes when the cargo is loaded.

Relatively new to it, but 30 flights in and I've still to see anyone walking on air.

 

G

I love Fenix2GSX - It absolutley  adds a lot of realism for me (removing the need to access GSX menus etc). I particularly love that upon arriving at a gate, everything occurs automatically. 

 

I'd love if the developer and Fenix worked together and included the funcationality into the defauly Fenix.

 

28 minutes ago, Gazzareth said:

Relatively new to it, but 30 flights in and I've still to see anyone walking on air.

Ive had it happen when because of my settings the jetway pulls away while gsx is still loading passengers. That is the only time I noticed it and I just need to adjust my Fenix settings to stop that I believe. One really weird issue I have is GSX using gates that are not even attached to a terminal. Maybe its a MSFS issue at some airports. Not sure. 

Edited November 30, 20232 yr by red259

There are many reasons for passengers "walking in the air" and all can be fixed very easily, starting by reading the manual, which covers most of them:

- The most common case is trying to use GSX replacement jetway files on 3rd party airports. GSX Pro should only be used to replace jetways on default airports and, by "default", it means default-default, not handcrafted/premium airports, which should be considered like 3rd party in this case. By default, all 3rd party airports are automatically excluded from jetway replacement when you first install GSX Pro or you update it. But if you install a 3rd party airport after GSX, you must go back to GSX Config panel again and run the "Exclude 3rd party" routine again. And note that some airports that don't respect the official package naming convention can't be automatically detected this way (usually it's freeware), so you might have to add their code manually in the GSX Config page of the installer. The complete explanation of the whys and the how's is at Page 7, which also suggests that, if you only fly to 3rd party airports, it might be easier to just disable all airports from GSX jetway replacement and forget about it.

- The jetways might have retracted while GSX was still boarding. This is surely caused by the airplane having a jetway automation feature, which should be disabled. But it can also happen with the default "AI Copilot" that, when tasked with communications, sometimes operates the jetway on his own, since he doesn't know about GSX existence.

- The airport might use non-standard jetways, like T-shaped or compass pivoting or partially fixed. Those are outside the SDK specifications and different airports have made them in completely different ways to overcome the SDK limitation but, the gist of it, the data we get from Simconnect Navdata API about the jetway geometry, it's not useful to sort out these non-standard types. But we accounted for that, and there's a way to use these types, but it will require specific airport customization. The complete explanation is on Page 74 of the GSX manual, the chapter named "Special Jetway types", and it's directed mainly to profile creators but, reading it will at least explain why it's not a "GSX bug" and how a custom airport profile can fix that.

- The passengers might not be completely "in the air", maybe it's just their heads sticking out the jetway roof or their feet visible under the jetway floor. This, again, is not a "GSX bug", but simply a lack of the very concept of the "height of a jetway floor", which it's just not something the simulator knows about so we could get from the Navdata. Again, the explanation about this in the chapter "Custom Jetway Floor heights" at Page 72 of the manual, should be an interesting read to know that, even you might not want to do that work, it IS possible to fix this with a custom airport profile, and in fact it's likely that, an airport profile for such airport already exists.

- Then, there's the dreaded Simobject limit. If the combination of all sim objects (AI, ground traffic, default ground vehicles, windsocks, etc.) visible in the sim has exceeded the maximum number of objects, currently documented to be 1000, Simconnect calls start to fail and, for example, the call to obtain data about jetways might fail as well, resulting GSX not getting the data it needs to plot the waypoints in the jetway, with passengers possibly walking in the air to some random place even outside the airport. If this happens, your only option is to work with every possible tool to reduce the amount of Simobjects in the sim, because no single product is responsible: it's the combination of many of them. From GSX side, the most effective tool is not setting the Passengers Density slider too high, especially on very dense airports. But the most effective one, in general, is reducing the maximum number of AI traffic and reducing the amount of Ground vehicle traffic. 

 

just to add   since  been using  this app  for  awhile  now,  make  sure  you start  it  before  you start  the  sim