The only way I've found to "manage" transient parking spaces for "the world" is to have a master fp system covering all traffic bgls you've installed. I've worked on one on and off since I began. It has been the bane of my existence in each of its various versions as my system grew and hardware failures destroyed those versions (while I failed to back the damn thing up!). I did manage to get it working for Nellis, of all places, for about 3 real world months. But my current version just basically sucks.
This is how it works - for ONE base.
Essentially, you need to maintain a text version of all fp's on your system.
1. Install/copy each fp, line by line, in an Excel spreadsheet/Access flat-file database.
2. On a separate worksheet, you need to have a list of parking spaces along with their specs.
3. On yet another worksheet, you need to have all the atc_parking_codes/types codings for EVERY individual aircraft which is perma-based or will be transiting the base that day.
4. Extrapolate the hour by hour (even minute by minute sometimes) arrivals and departures schedule for the base.
5. Extrapolate the parking space occupancy/availabillity for each parking space.
Now comes the "fun".
Correlate the occupancy vs availability of spaces in terms of arrivals and departures based on parking space specs and atc_parking_codes/types of perma-based and transient aircraft scheduled for that day. This can be done via sorts, searches and brute force.
It gets messed up routinely because of the "somewhat random" assignment of aircraft already at the base to parking spaces each time the sim is started/loaded. It also gets messed up because of ATC inaccuracies and missed approaches causing delays in both arrivals and departures - which cascade into parking space (non-)availability problems.
I did let the sim run for an entire week without restarting one time and found that the management system I had at that time actually did predict/handle the assignments correctly. That is, all aircraft which were supposed to be at the base for a 2 day period actually had spaces and were showing up and parking correctly.
Meticulous and tedious customization of atc_parking_codes/types along with micro-managing the flightplans in various packages makes a big difference - but one runs into the problem of what works great for one base screws up another. FSX's allowance of 4 fully and accurately functioning atc_parking_codes has made a significant difference over trying to accomplish the same thing in FS9.
Edit to add: If you want to try this on a small scale, pick someplace like Singapore. Limited aircraft inventory, a limited number of bases, and little need for international/other force traffic unless you want to make a headache for yourself.
Has anyone else tried to do this to manage flightplan schedules against afcad parking space availability?
How has your system developed? How does it work?
How effective is it?
What has been the biggest problem you've overcome? that you haven't overcome?
Why waste 'trons for a snappy signature when I can use this?
Oh, I don't. I honestly didn't figure more than a couple other people seriously tried to do this.
It's a question of flightplan writing with minimal considerations versus traffic/base management. The first is relatively easy; RiPipPip's fp generator is an example - and I am by no means denying it does its job quite well nor am I saying it didn't require skill to create the Excel wroksheets and macros which make it function.
The second is more complex, dependent upon and restricted by what someone actually has installed and what FSn allows. I haven't found a decent example of the second, which was why I've repeatedly tried to devise one myself.
Why waste 'trons for a snappy signature when I can use this?
I have to admit that I tried something like this back when the original Holloman package was released. I was looking to identify times of the day, and which days, where departures/arrivals/TNGs were excessively heavy. I wanted to start with just he Holloman traffic, and once it was working, I intended to expand to all traffic bgls in my sim. I was hoping to be able to make minor adjustments in fps to reduce go arounds and timeouts.
Getting the data into excel was no problem, but I quickly learned that my excel skill, while not bad, were no where nearly up to the task. Since then I've obtained some books to study to upgrade my excel and access knowledge, but alas haven't stayed with it.
It is a major project, and I think more suitable for a team effort rather than an individual effort.
I think such a system, using either/or both excel/access would really be a boone to traffic planning and efficient developement. Think how great it would be to insert a proposed new traffic bgl into the management system to analyze the effects of the overall fs AI setup on a users computer. You could identify potential problems and make corrections to avoid before going further along.
The fact that I realized the usefulness of such an application was good, but the lack of ability follow through was a major let down. I can read, but seem to no longer have the ability to retain what I've read in, enough detail to do this kind of thing anymore.
Sure hope someone is able to develope this kind of application.
My greatest succss has been with a complex MS Access application rather than a purely MS Excel one. It's easier for me to see the relationships using the database relationship link design window - or whatever it's called. To make it REALLY work as I envision it, however, VBasic for Applications (Access) code neeeds to be written and incorporated.
OTOH, it most likely CAN be done in Excel alone using macros. I know that I got a small scale version done for Adak sometime back in 2006/early 2007. It "crashed and burned badly" when I tried to expand it to include Elmendorf - mostly because I found it to tedious to maintain as I added new traffic.bgls.
The "working" version of Nellis that I mentioned was a combined Access and Excel system. I used Access mostly for data entry and searches and Excel for tabular displays of the raw flat-files.
Why waste 'trons for a snappy signature when I can use this?
My final thoughts before I stopped thinking about this altogether was that Access was likely the best route to go for initial compilation and manipulation of the data, with excel perhaps being call on for some correlation of data prior to graphic display. OTOH maybe Access alone is the way to go with this. The very last book I bought for this project was for Access - turned out to be heavy material, but I've always liked database stuff. Maybe I'll restart doing the reseach. Maybe I'll get back to my studies of visual basic as well. Don't hold your breath tho !
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