AI Mil Combat is parking on Mil Cargo parkings...

[Manschy]

Hi everybody,

meanwhile I get headache to improve my AFCAD for RAF Brüggen.
On the main apron, there are 3 parkings used by Cargo or airline visitors. Behind it, there is the flightline of the military combats.
My problem: Although I assigned "Mil Cargo" to the big parkings and "Mil_Combat" to the flight line, military aircraft are too lazy about parking on their further away parking spots - they occupy the Cargo parkings, so when the fat C-17 want to visit RAF Brüggen, naturally she disappear after stopping on the runway.

Is there any option to make the assignments clear? Here is a shot of my problem:

1 shows the Mil_Cargo line
2 is the Mil_Combat flight line.

[Firebird]

You don't show what parking codes you have for the slots. What are they?

[Manschy]

Thank you Steve,

I only have pc for the HAS areas where John's Tonkas are living. So that's fine, no other aircraft there.
So yes, I thought about parking codes for the Mil Cargo slots as well, but this way, I have to limit the visitors variety, innit? There are lots of RAF C-130 Hercs and C-17 Globes, USAF C-140 Starlifter and sometimes a hired BA 767

So regarding this, it would be possible to block the Mil Combat ramps by specify all parking codes for each big aircraft visitor, right?
So there is no solution to simply let Mil Combat aircraft not to park on Mil Cargo when those parking spots are closer to the arriving landed aircraft?

[gsnde]

Hi Manfred.

I guess the key to this is to make sure via the parking codes that the regulars that are supposed to park somehwere will really use these spaces. If there is a spot with the right size and the right code then an aircraft will take it. This way you do not have to restrict the visitor spots in any way.

Does this make sense?

[Firebird]

With parking spots it can be difficult to get things to park where you want them to.

As a rule I tend to ignore the MIL_COMBAT and MIL_CARGO parking types as these are generic and are the most easily overridden.
I use them but only for generic admin purposes rather than for operational use.
What I tend to do is code the parking spots with the sqn codes that I would like for example 17SQ followed by the type, e'g' TORN,
Now if you have enough spots for each sqn then it is easy and simple otherwise you have to start having backup spots, e.g. 17SQ, 31SQ, 17SQ, TORN.
If you have atc_parking_code that matches your spot exactly then it will use it. This is where having TORN for visiting Tornados may help. Now the spot doesn't have to match the entire atc_parking_codes parm exactly just one parm.

If you do not have an exact parm match it then looks for the first free spot that is the same or greater than the aircraft requirement.
If the aircraft is 8m is size and the first two slots are 7.5m and 12m in size it will choose the 12m one. This may be why your cargo slots get used up first.

In essence, the best practice is two code slots one sqn at a time and ensure that they are at the top of the parking slot order. Anything that is used for non-fixed parking e.g. C-130 slots have nearer the bottom of the list so they will only get used when nothing else will do.

[hgschnell]

A brilliant tool is AIFP3 - Bulk Traffic - "Traffic and Parking Analizer" to check the situation.
It lists everything you need (and more), even Parking Peaks& conflicts.

[Manschy]

Hi Guenther,

excellent hint, thank you. I own this prog but mainly I use it for creating or changing traffic files. Will have a look how it can solve my issue.

@Steve: Thank you for explenation. So does it mean an added "TORN" maybe channels the Tornados to a specific spot? Same for a C-130 by adding a HERC to the parking code section inside the aircraft.cfg? That would be less effort to make it....

[Firebird]

Yes adding 'TORN' will help but only if each aircraft.cfg entry for a tornado includes 'TORN'. So the same can be said for each Sqn ID.

The bottom line is that unless an exact match is found from a parm from the aircraft's atc_parking_codes parm line the sim will default to using size and parking slot order for somewhere to park.
If you load up your afcad and look at the parking list the undesignated/non-based parking slots should be at the end of the list not the beginning.

If you wanted to send me a copy of your afcad I could take a quick look to see if there were any recommendations that I could make.