All,I've searched the forum with no luck finding an answer.Example: FWN (Sussex NJ)Without my TM2 scenery:There is an airport beacon about 1/4 mi east from where it should be. I grabbed the LAT/LONG and searched the OBSTRUCT.POD but could not find it (based on the LAT/LONG).With my TM2 scenery:Beacon is gone. To quote Monty Python, "It is no more..." I can add an airport beacon via the FLY!2 editor but have not tried to POD it with my TM2 data.Which is it? A model or obstruction? Should I add it as an OBSTRUCTION or as a model? Does it matter? Does anyone have additional OBSTRUCT data information (other than what has been posted before)?Thanks in advance!

Jim-I *think* beacons are placed based on NAVAID information. I might be wrong about this (Randall?) but I think that's the case. Also- with your TM2 scenery, did you change any runway/etc. info?

Jim & Lefteris:I *believe* that beacons are models (animated, at that) and are placed based on AIRPORT information. For instance, there is an entry in the airport.dbd for beacon color and the beacon is placed on the lat/lon entry for the airport, which normally denotes its center.When you create an airport in the DB, then teleport to that location, there will be a beacon there already. If the beacon is in the wrong place, locate the position you wish it to stand in, then edit the airport DB and set the airport to that lat/lon. After importing the change, you will find that the beacon will have moved to that spot the next time you enter Fly!Now, I once had some difficulty wherein a beacon disappeared after I edited scenery in a location. The only way I could get it back was to place a new beacon with the built-in scenery editor and save the change to its scenery file - again, that was a one-time occurrance.

Lefteris & Randall,I just created some TM2 scenery, nothing with the databases for that airport. I'm a spazz using the great programs (VOL!Edit & DEXIMPORT) available but have pulled a rabbit out of my hat once in a while...I unpodded my already together TMFWN.POD, went into FLY2 and added a beacon. I then appended the response file that TM2 created and was able to successfully see the beacon after POD'ing.After this tested OK, I've done this with the rest of the airports I'm doing. So far, so good.Thanks guys!

Whatever works is the way to go, I always say! :-)

If I remember correctly, placing scenery items manually turns off some database-generated objects like beacons and antennas for that quarter tile.It makes sense - many of the objects Fly draws as antennas are really buildings. You wouldn't wany antennas sticking up out of your buildings.I wouldn't expect problems manually placing beacons.The idea of beacons showing up at the airport center as given in the database sounds right, and it would explain the pesky beacons in the middle of some single-strip airports (it's either that, or a short-field takeoff/landing competition...) The only catch with moving the airport center is that taxiways are anchored off this point, and changing it will move the taxiways as well.-Frank

Frank,In many of the cases where runways have a beacon on them, they are sans taxiways. If the airport center is relocated to move the beacon, can new taxiways be created?

>In many of the cases where runways have a beacon on them, >they are sans taxiways. If the airport center is relocated >to move the beacon, can new taxiways be created? Sure, no problem making the taxiways as long as you start after moving the airport. Since the beacons are disappearing after placing models, it might just be easier to place the beacon models and not mess with the airport location at all.-Frank

Frank,True - but if I'm not producing models for an airport, this allows me to include a correction for the beacon as a DEX file, along with the navaid corrections that someone was looking for.