Changing AI aircraft parking spots

[jwh]

I have basically finished backdating Algiers Maison Blanche Airport to give it an early 1960s appearance. Along with removing the modern terminal and jet parking signs on the apron, among other things I also deleted a number of AI aircraft parking spots to make it less crowded and changed the direction the aircraft face to match the vintage photos of the airport that I have.

This is how it looks now:



As you can see the AI aircraft are sitting opposite to where the removed modern terminal was sitting. What I would like to do is move some of those AI aircraft to park opposite that wonderful 1950s terminal building so that they would look like this:



Is there some way that I can do this that isn't too complicated?

Thanks John

[Tom/CalClassic]

How did you change what you have done so far? What program did you use?

Normally it’s just a matter of:

1. Select the link connecting a given parking spot to the rest of the taxiway system by clicking on it.
2. Press the Delete key to remove it.
3. Click the parking spot to select it.
4. Drag the parking spot to move it to the desired new location.
5. Create green apron route links to the new location from an existing taxiway link. This creates an invisible path for AI aircraft to follow.
a. Choose the green apron link button,
b. Click on the existing taxiway and drag away from that. Stop dragging where you want to place the next node in the chain.
c. Start the next apron route link on top of the last node created.
d. Finish by dragging the last link (as you are creating it) onto the parking spot.
6. If instead you need to first create some visible taxiways, click the blue taxiway link button and create those in the same way.
7. Make sure that all new links are connected to each other and to the existing taxiway and to the parking spot.

Hope this helps,

[jwh]

Hi Tom
Thank you for your reply. I'm just using AFCAD.

The image below is what I now have.



There were lots of parking spots in the original scenery in front of both the new and old terminals. Far too many in my view as AI aircraft were bumping into each other when starting to taxy. As mentioned above I deleted quite a number of them and altered the direction. The parking spots that you see are what I kept.

The nine parking spots on the left all have AI traffic at various times of the day which appear to have been programmed in. I would like to also have AI traffic on the five parking spots on the right which is in front of the original terminal. No AI traffic goes to these five spots.

Can this be rectified through the AI Traffic flight plans?

Thanks
John

[Deleted]

That's how the adapted Algiers Maison Blanche looks like in my FS:





By far not perfect, as I still have the big Air Algerie hangar.

John, if you delete or reduce the size of the parkings on the left or on the right, you will get automatically some more AI in front of the terminal.

Parkings aren't managed by flightplans. These are steared by the 'atc_parking_codes' included in aircraft.cfg of each model. The parking spot, which might to be used by a specific AI, should have the same code. 

Bernard

[Tom/CalClassic]

See how those parking spots at the left are blue? That means they have a different parking code assigned than the rest - that may be one reason why the AI aircraft park there. And parking spots can have multiple codes. In addition, the type of parking (Gate or Parking) matters as well. Open one of my airports in AFCAD to see how things are assigned.

[Defender]

The parking code system should indeed help if all the gates closest to the terminal are coded only for Air France and Air Algerie and no other gate or parking has these codes. If it doesn't work as expected it will probably be because ATC directs landing aircraft to the nearest (by taxiway distance) "suitable" spot to the runway turn off the aircraft has used. Sometimes it ignores codes and the parking spot radius also plays a part.

So if you don't get a result then possibly you could add and alter taxiways so that there's a direct taxiway from the runway to the terminal spots (no other spots leading off it) and make sure that the outlying spots need a longer route. Now of course other airlines might end up at the terminal as well but if AF and Air Algerie are the main serving airlines then that shouldn't be a big drawback.

Good luck

Bill

[jwh]

I have had success and learned heaps in the process. I now have AI aircraft in front of the old terminal.

Thank you Tom for the tip about looking at the AFCAD in one of your creations. Changing the "Identification Area" from Parking to Gate did the trick.

And thank you to all for your suggestions and input. Where would we be without this Forum.

John

[jwh]

Hi Bernard
Just wondering which is the Maison Blanche scenery that you have. From memory I downloaded mine from Avsim and then renamed a lot of the .bgl files to remove all modern parts of the airport.

Going by the runway layout etc. yours looks to be an earlier vintage.

Thanks
John

[Deleted]

The scenery is called 'ALGIERS REAL SCENERY DAAG 2007' done by Riad Ghenim. I adapted the Afcad to the scenery. But based on the 1957 chart of your Flickr album, I particulary have to rework tarmac area.



Bernard

[jwh]

Thanks Bernard. I'll have a look at that as I would like to have an earlier version of the airport if possible.

I'm reasonably happy with the backdate that I have done, but due to the original program have been unable to backdate the runways to give them the late 50s-early 60s appearance. I can live with that.

John

[Deleted]

Tried to get approximatively this here:






The author missplaced the tower anyway.

In order to place the Caravelles in front of the terminal, I modified their atc parking codes. Otherwise they might be parked somewhere in the pampas! A method I also use at Idlewild to get the jets where they should be. 
 
Bernard