FSX buildings at airports

[Tristarcaptain 282]

I was wondering how some buildings end up in bizarre places in FSX?  For instance, I have control towers put in the middle of a runway when the airfield is now owned the Army. Hangers are impossibly close to a taxiway and when ATC send you to a runway and if you follow their directions, you are doomed to a collision.

Also, what is it with going to the refueling area...? The pumps look like they belong at a gas/petrol station for cars?!  Can these easily be deleted as it looks so unreal?

 

Martin (wanting a bit more realism)

[allardjd 1,853]

It's an easy fix, Martin, on an individual basis, but there are some quirks you need to be aware of.

 

There's a FANTASTIC freeware airport editor, ADE (Airport Design Editor) available from Scruffy Duck Software.  Search on "Scruffy Duck" and you can't miss it. With ADE you can easily add, edit or delete airport objects such as you describe and more.  I highly recommend getting it.  I use it for, among other things, generating the airport images for my airport diagrams, but it does much, much more.

 

One of the complexities is that stock FSX airport files don't just cover one airport - they typically contain many airports (50 or more is not unusual) within each file and you cannot and should not actually edit one of those.  What you can do is load a single airport into ADE from one of those files, edit it and save the edited version as a new and separate file which will contain only your edited version of that specific airport.  The stock, un-edited version will remain as it was in the original, aggregate FSX file. 

 

Normally you would place your edited airport file in the Add-On Scenery/Scenery folder in FSX, or optionally create another folder location for it within the FSX directory tree structure.  When FSX finds more than one version of an airport it uses the Scenery Library listing to decide which one to display - whichever is higher on the Scenery Library listing (and checked) is the version displayed.  

 

I find it easiest to put the tweaked airport files in the Add-On Scenery folder.  That's what it's for and it already has its own listing in the Scenery Library so you don't have to create a new entry in the list.

 

I'm probably making this sound worse than it is, but if you decide to wade in, there's plenty of help and advice available.

 

Re FSX fuel pumps - they come in several different sizes/flavors, including a small hose-reel sized one, no larger than a wheelbarrow.  Which one you see is usually dependent on the size of the airport.  Most of the big boys (and many GA aircraft) fuel from trucks in the real world anyway.  

 

John

[Tristarcaptain 282]

Thanks for that info, John.  I will have to look into that! 

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

I too find that problem at times, but other things that annoy me are a proliferation of trees in the runways of some add-on airports. Our local airstrip at Bognor Regis is one such case in point, the airfield in real life lies in open land bordered by the railway on one side and a golf course on the other. There are only a few scruffy hedgerows with a couple of small trees. When the airfield appears it is like trying to take off through a rainforest! LOL The airfield is rather special to me as it is owned by a friend of mine and it forms the base for the Bognor Regis Gliding Club.  I'd love to have the airfield appear as it really is!  https://www.brgc.co.uk/

[Tristarcaptain 282]

Hi Alan

 

I watched some of the tour over Bognor on the website link that you posted.  It looks great.  It was interesting to watch how they edited it too, as I am learning about editing videos at the moment!

 

It certainly holds true that England has 'green and pleasant lands'!

 

Best wishes

 

Martin

[allardjd 1,853]

Quote

...other things that annoy me are a proliferation of trees in the runways of some add-on airports.

 

ADE can fix that too, by placing "exclusion rectangles" that suppress autogen objects.  It's pretty easy but everything I said in the post above about how/where to save the edited airport applies to this too.

 

John

 

EDIT:  I just noticed that you're referring to add-on airports, so instead of loading and editing the stock FSX airport, you'd have to start with the bgl file for the add-on airport.  You'd then have three versions of the airport - stock, the original add-on and your edited add-on.  You'd have to be sure the location of your edited version is in the Scenery Library listing above the other two for it to be the one displayed.

 

JDA

[rosariomanzo 545]

4 hours ago, dodgy-alan said:

I too find that problem at times, but other things that annoy me are a proliferation of trees in the runways of some add-on airports. Our local airstrip at Bognor Regis is one such case in point, the airfield in real life lies in open land bordered by the railway on one side and a golf course on the other. There are only a few scruffy hedgerows with a couple of small trees. When the airfield appears it is like trying to take off through a rainforest! LOL The airfield is rather special to me as it is owned by a friend of mine and it forms the base for the Bognor Regis Gliding Club.  I'd love to have the airfield appear as it really is!  https://www.brgc.co.uk/

 

I may try to create a simple EGKC AFD for you if you want. That should be easy.

 

Edit: well, it took 15 mins to complete. This is the kind of work I often do for those small airfields wich are not well designed in FSX or missing at all (as EGKC). I call them BTN (better than nothing) airports! I've added the main runway, the apron entrance (the reference image from Google Maps shows some work in progress at the field), a windsock and a flatten/exclude area. Looking at the site you linked, I've added some runway markings too (which are not in the pics below).

Download here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gR3C4s0YGOxMfsp8of7TpF_JlyLMxOO2/view?usp=sharing

Please extract the two files in "Addon Scenery\scenery".

Hope it is a good temporary solution.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 24, 2018 by rosariomanzo

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

Wow, thanks Rosario, I'll give that a go. 

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

20 hours ago, Tristarcaptain said:

Hi Alan

 

I watched some of the tour over Bognor on the website link that you posted.  It looks great.  It was interesting to watch how they edited it too, as I am learning about editing videos at the moment!

 

It certainly holds true that England has 'green and pleasant lands'!

 

Best wishes

 

Martin

We do indeed live in a beautiful part of the country, the beach is just a 5 minute walk from my house at the end of our street! Part of that flight went right over our house,(we're just south of the railway station). Julian Hitchcock, the guy that owns both the aircraft and the airfield is a personal friend of my wife and I. He bought the airfield from under the nose of a property developer who wanted put industrial units on it! The airfield is now saved from destruction and is officially registered as an active site. It meets all CAA regs for its intended use and is a very peaceful place to be. (an added bonus is the fact that on the railway side of the airfield most of those bushes are brambles and they produce thousands of juicy blackberries in the summer!) Julian has made the airfield a real asset for the town and given the fact that the Southdown Gliding Club( Julian is CFI there) at Parham Park is often waterlogged in winter, the Bognor airfield provides a year round well drained flying area.