answered Australia V2 - Dirt runways have 'zero' width

[Lukosius]

I have just purchased and installed Aus v2 on a new PC running Win10.
My FSX-SE install is also new.

I noticed that ALL dirt/gravel/sand runways in Aus v2 have 'zero' width. Also a large number of them don't have a numerical runway designation (instead they will have NE, SE, SW, NW etc etc).

Are these two 'glitches' by design or errors that need to be corrected in a SP?

I do a lot of outback flying so this is somewhat problematic for me.

 

[Graham Eccleston]

It is quite normal practice to place zero width taxiways and runways when the underlying imagery is better than the bland default dirt texture. This is not necessary with P3D V3 and V4 where it is possible to place invisible runways and taxiways to preserve the main texture.

 

While not a real world flyer, I understand it is normal for many outback strips to not have runway numbers, just compas points.

[Lukosius]

Thanks for the clarification.

On a different subject, I noticed that the parking designations for YPPH (Perth) are all over the place, which is then placing AI aircraft in totally unrealistic (and incorrect) bays.
I haven't checked the other major airports but I assume there are similar problems with those.

Apart from overlaying a new, 3rd party airport, I guess the only way to correct this is by using airport editing software (e.g. ADE) ??

And is there any potential issues with doing that with Aus v2?

 

I don't particularly want to edit the airports in Aus v2 as you have done a great job for the most part, however this is a minor thing that does get to me.

[Graham Eccleston]

YPPH Perth airport in AUv2 was coded to accommodate all the AI aircraft visiting the airport from the FTX AU AI Traffic pack. All parking was placed in accordance with the real world parking allocation for each individual airline. There may be one or two spots where appropriate aircraft could not fit but it should be more than 95%  Accurate.

 

Many 3rd party AI Traffic packs use different parking codes so parking for those AI aircraft can not be guaranteed.

[Lukosius]

Unfortunately this is not the case. Some examples I have noticed so far....

- Regional (FIFO) airliners in the International terminal bays.
- Wide bodies (international) aircraft being placed at incorrect 'ramps', when there were spare bays at the International terminal.
- Large number of Qantas domestic aircraft over the other side of the airport at the Virgin and T2 terminals. Sometimes over 50% of Qantas aircraft.
- REX Saab's aircraft all over the place. Only spots I didn't see them were where they should be.
- Other FIFO aircraft (Alliance, Skippers, Cobham) splattered all over, and not at their own terminals.

They are just some examples. The real world situation at YPPH in regards to terminals is a dogs breakfast as it is, so that doesn't help.
And this certainly isn't a criticism, but more an observation.

As a real-world pilot who regularly flies in/out of PER, this was the first thing I noticed when I loaded up.

[Graham Eccleston]

Is it possible you have a 3rd party YPPH airport taking precedence over the AUv2 one?

 

Here are some screenshots of the AUv2 YPPH in my sim. Not a busy day at the airport but enough to see where aircraft are parking.

 

International Terminal.

 

Virgin Terminal, REX and some FIFO in the background.

 

Qantas Terminal

 

Skippers area in background, Cobham in the foreground.

 

 

 

[Lukosius]

Nah, definitely no 3rd party airports loaded.
This is a fresh install of FSX. I haven't added anything except AI flightplans (which are all correct in respect to parking bays).

1) FIFO area with the Virgin domestic and international terminals in the background.
We have Qantas and Skippers aircraft where they should not be...

2) Virgin domestic A330 in an International bay, and a lone Alliance F70 at a random international ramp...

3) Virgin and Skippers at Qantas domestic...






5) Random aircraft over behind the Qantas terminal...

[Graham Eccleston]

That does appear as though there are no parking codes included. I’ll check with my colleague, the APX files for each platform were compiled separately but the same parking codes should have been added to each.

[Lukosius]

I believe I have found the problem, and it is because the parking codes used at YPPH (within AusV2) are different than my flightplans.

Some examples ....

- My flightplans have QLK for Qantaslink - AusV2 doesn't use QLK at all.
- OZW (Skywest) is extensively used in AusV2 even though Skywest hasn't been around for a number of years (now VOZ).

- There is no JTE for Cobham in AusV2.

- SKP is used for Skippers in AusV2 though my flightplans use SKI.

These are just some examples that I have found so far. And I don't want to go change the BGL's so will just have to deal with aircraft at the wrong bays for now.

I assume this has resulted from Orbx's Australian traffic using the same codes as AusV2???
I totally get that because you want to remain consistent across your software. But not great for those of us using other traffic solutions where parking codes slightly differ from what Orbx uses.
 

Edit:  Graham, I just noticed your post further up already explaining this (the 3rd-party traffic parking bay issues), so makes sense. I'll play around with my flightplans and edit where necessary, though you might want to look at my comments re QLK, OZW, and JTE, for future updates.


 

[Graham Eccleston]

Good that you found the issue, I am in the middle of reinstalling FSX so I could check this out. I'll now stop that process.

 

The codes used in the FTX AU AI Traffic pack have been there since the first pack about 2008. We have maintained those codes for consistency. Other packages have been released since then with different codes in some instances, but we found it impractical to change.

 

For example, for Qantas we use QFA for international aircraft,  QFAX for domestic, QFAZ for the B717's and EAQ and SSQ for the Dash 8's. It helps to manage where the aircraft park where a general QFA or QLK would be too broad and not produce the desired result.

 

I'm surprised your REX and Skippers aircraft did not park where they should though, we use a common code for those.

 

Our coding has not been an issue so far as most users turn off their third party Traffic packs when flying in Australia, it's far more comprehensive in terms of aircraft and flight plans and covers more than 700 Australian airports.