When you have parking codes set, sometimes my a/c go to other non-designated areas for that a/c, dhould i just name all the unused parking places with the parking code "unused" and then rename when i need to use them?

macc

No, leave them blank, with no code at all.

Make sure that they have the proper "atc_parking_types=" however.

For military stuff it should be either:

atc_parking_types=MIL_CARGO
-or-
atc_parking_types=MIL_COMBAT

Blank coded spots tend to be used for transient parking. If you have resident aircraft parking in your "transient" spots, you don't have, assuming your local spots are coded correctly, enough resident parking spots.

When an AI aircraft lands it starts a search process to find its proper parking spot.

The first thing it looks for is a spot that matches its desginated parking code, 99FS (for 99th Fighter Squadron) for example. If it finds a spot that matches its code, assuming the radius of the parking spot is at least the same radius as the AI aircraft, it will make its way to that spot and park.

Now if said AI doesn't find a spot matching its designated code, it will next search for a spot matching its designated type, MIL_COMBAT for example. Again assuming it hasn't found a spot matching its desginated parking CODE, and it does however find a spot matching its designated parking TYPE, and again this spot has a large enough radius, it will then preceed to this spot.

The real fun begins when an AI aircraft cannot find either one of these first two examples.

So the key to creating good AI is to make certain that at the fields where your AI are flightplanned to and from, that there are an adequate number of parking spots of the correct radius.

If you have properly coded parking spots, but you don't have enough to handle all the ai that are coded to park there, then the AI will look to park in the correct parking TYPE spot. Hence why you should leave any unused parking spots without a code. If you code all the unused stuff "UNUSED", it won't make a difference as the parking code can only be 4 characters long. But besides that, by using another parking code, you are not permitting an AI aircraft to use that spot unless it's the last spot left on the field.

Due to a misunderstanding on my part I gave some wrong information. In the aircraft.cfg file atc_parking_type= should remain the same as in FS9, i.e.,

atc_parking_types=MIL_CARGO
-or-
atc_parking_types=MIL_COMBAT

My guide will be amended shortly.

Sorry

sorry, i am using, FS2004, there is enough resident parking, because they keep on changin around even though the code is correct.

Radius still drives a lot of the parking choices AI makes. I change mine to the following and it works well. I also only use M-codes....

MCRS Mil_CARGO (Military Cargo Small) 12M i.e. C-12, C-21 etc.
MCRM Mil_CARGO (Militayr Cargo Medium) 21M i.e. C-130
MCRL Mil_CARGO (Military Cargo Large) 34M i.e KC-135, C-17
MCRH Mil_CARGO (Military Cargo Huge) 44M i.e. KC-10, C-5

MTRN Mil_COMBAT (Military Trainers) 8M i.e. T-38, T-6II
MFIG Mil_COMBAT (Military Fighters) 14M F-15, F-18, F-16 etc.
MBOM Mil_COMBAT (Bombers) 30M B-1, B-2, B-52 etc.
MREC Mil_COMBAT (Recon Aircraft) 26M U2S, P3C etc

MHLS Mil_COMBAT (Military Helicopter Small) 10M UH60, SH60 etc
MHLL Mil_COMBAT (Military Helicopters Large) 23M CH-53, SH3 etc.

I also use XGA code for all my GA and Business traffic (GA_Medium) Ramp slot 14M (normally I resize all the GA_Small to medium because it adds more available parking.

Commerical traffic I still use PAI standards for parking.

I have close to 12000 AI aircraft flying and close to 800 traffic BGLs and by using a simple radius and code system it has solved a lot of my parking issues.

Amended my post above.