Has anyone else tried to do this to manage flightplan schedules against afcad parking space availability?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.
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?