MAIW Model/parking radius standards - What are they?

[kungfuman]

I did a quick check and found that the mdl is set to 33m radius, when in fact in real life it should be 22m. If you alter the mdl size that may solve your problem.

Hi,

I am creating a military-themed AFD file (for general release) for an airport that is visited by WoAI and other traffic.

For many years, I have used a "rule of thumb" which specifies model radii for jet aircraft as 0.75 x wingspan, and for props as 0.666(7) x wingspan. Adopting this rule, I have modified my aircraft model files and afcads accordingly.

What I am aware of is that this is not going to be a suitable approach for any file destined for general release, and I would like to know what parking/model radii standards MAIW adopt for their packages.

I am also interested in why Steve has quoted that specific figure, and what standards he is referring to. Where can I find them, and why should they be adopted over any other standards? I'm not questioning the figure, just wondering how to determine its merits over and above any other figures.

So, in a nutshell, what standards do MAIW use, why do they use them, and are they also what the perceived majority use?

Many thanks, your answers will be very gratefully received....

Dan

[Firebird]

Hi Dan,
That standard isn't what I would call an MAIW standard. It was just stating two actual figures. The 22m I got from taking the actual wingspan dividing by 2 and converting to metres.
I can't recall what the relevant aircraft I was talking about now but it sounds like a way of overcoming a problem realistically, rather than a standard. Generally we stick to the mdl size as the parking spot size.
I think that most commonly the people making afcads tend to make them the size of mdl. Sometimes this becomes a problem as when an mdl is created it also takes into account things like trailing hoses, cargo and ground animations. Nick's Phantoms came out at 20m, so he altered them down to a far more realistic size afterward.

The reason we tend to make the parking spots just big enough for the mdl to squeeze into is that FS will park a plane in the smallest possible spot that the plane will fit in, if it can't find a perfect parking code match. The bigger you make the spots the more chance that other aircraft, normally visitors, will take them rather than the ones you actually plan to go there.

Any other thoughts here guys? Feel free to correct any misconceptions that I have.

[kungfuman]

Oh right.

So in the context of aircraft design, parking radius is not consciously set, it is merely a product of the design process/model size.

[Firebird]

That's right the mdl size gets set in the compilation. Its also used by FS9 its its aircraft menu, i.e. the rotating view of the individual model. If it looks too far away, then that is due to the mdl size, making it smaller will make the aircraft appear closer, and obviously the opposite is true.
The mdl size can be altered through the original afcad program or a utility such as the one that Martin has produced over at Owl's Nest.

Now for FSX purposes, I have learned that the parking spot size required is worked out by taking the wingspan specified in the aircraft.cfg and dividing by 2. In theory nothing wrong with that but a lot of AI fde designers use a lot of parms in there to get the aircraft to fly as they want rather than set the true size so it may turn out to be different from the real plane.

Have I made anything clearer, or added to the confusion.

[kungfuman]

wrt fs9 it's as I expected. I don't have fsx.

I had assumed that model size = parking radius, and that its value was "chosen" by the designer.

Now I know that it is not necessarily chosen.

[gsnde]

Some effort is made to standardize the model sizes and orientate to the true values.

Reggie Fields has his Commercial & Business Jet list published since a long time.

The AlG team has recently published a information for FS9 Commercial Aircraft, FS9 BizJets & GA, FSX Commercial Aircraft and FSX BizJets & GA.

Inspired by Reggie's list I started The Owl's Nest to provide the same information for military aircraft (see the Military Aircraft Reference).

[kungfuman]

Some effort is made to standardize the model sizes and orientate to the true values.

What do you mean by "true values"? In the real world we have wingspan and length. How do "true values" compare? Is there a specific relationship?

Cheers,

Dan

[gsnde]

Dan,

I mean true in the sense of real world sizes like you say. Although there surely are many valid arguments why a modeler has tricked with the size of an aircraft, this has lead to the situation where parking has to be assigned almost individually. The more aircraft incorporate the "true size values" the better you can work just with parking spot sizes and types.

[kungfuman]

Thanks for your reply