Airport Update 2020

[joefremont]

For the last two months a majority of pilots have used sims that have updated airport codes (P3D5, XP11 and MSFS) so I am going to move forward on updating the airport codes. To see what is changing to your VA overview page and find the link titled "Airport Update 2020" in the options to see what is going to change.

While there is no one dominate sim used by our pilots, MSFS has the most up to date codes so it will be our 'source of truth' for now and its codes will be the standard.

I am also going to go through the database trying to find all airports that are too close to another, with the goal that all airports that are within 1-2 nm of each other should be merged.

I hope to get this process done by the end of November.

[joseramonpuga]

Good morning
Once you create the new airport codes and do the routes changes, Are you going to leave the old FSX airport codes in the database?

[Cat]

I'm pretty sure the answer to that is no as FSA can only have one designator per location.... so airlines like ours with pilots flying older formats such as FS9 & FSX / FSX-SE will need to maintain their own "conversion charts" ... but if you look in the FSA airport database, you will see the codes for each format. Routes that have old FSX codes should automatically change to the new ones if they are applicable, however pilots flying older sim formats will still need to use their old code in their sim. Sounds confusing but it's really not that bad.... we've gone through this before when Joe ported codes and then the majority complained... but now the majority are using more current sim formats with updated airport codes so us "old folk" have to suck it up and just deal with it.

Example: FSX "S67" Nampa Muni just outside of Boise, Idaho will port to KMAN, it's current code. But we will still fly to S67 in our FSX flight plans while booking and flying to KMAN in FSAirlines. Hope this makes some sort of sense. Remember, FSA determines aircraft/pilot location via lat/long so as long as you are on the correct spot on the planet, it doesn't matter what your sim airport code is as long as you fly to the correct FSA location.

[Cat]

What would be cool but a TON of work I'm sure would be a system whereby in our settings, we tell FSAirlines what simulator we are using and then it assigns the codes specific to that sim. It would take multiple fields for each format for EVERY airport in the world..... that would be a huge undertaking and I for one can deal with a little discrepancy on some podunk airports instead.

Think of it like this: you have just gotten the latest Jeppensen approach charts but you are flying FSX Steam edition with no database update and you are flying into Chicago O'Hare .... nothing will match because they've added runways and changed frequencies since FSX was created and now.

So each of us must take stock in what our simulator database really says and just keep notes when it does not match FSAirlines regarding airport codes.

[joefremont]

Sam, thx for giving such a good explanation of how the codes work. Unfortunately the way the system has been built each airport has to have one primary code in the database that identifies it, everything else we have created builds on top of that and changing that would be a massive project. But along with each airport we store a list of the known codes from each of the different sims we support.

I have recently create an 'Airport Code Differences' page that can be found off the VA -> Overview page and the Database -> Airport page where you can select a sim and it will show you what the differences are between our 'standard' code and what that sim uses. You can also go to the 'Database -> Airports' page and put in a code, and it will show you a list of airports where that code matches the main code or any of the alternate codes for the airport.

So Jose to answer your question, the old FSX codes will still be in the database but they will not be the primary identifier where they have changed.

I still need to do some work, there are airports right now that are too close together that I want to merge and I need to do some verification that alternate codes are assigned to the correct airports. Right now there are a few airports that are less than a nm apart and for us they should really be considered one airport.

[Cat]

That Airport Code Differences page is a nice touch, thanks.

Yeah - those dang, durned, dastardly heliports on/near major airport properties can snare your plane on a divert like a mouse trap, I've been there done that! LOL For some reason in the system they seem to take priority when the system has to choose between the two.

[joefremont]

Just so everyone knows, I am planning on updating the airports some time over the new years weekend and will be announcing some down time in the wee hours so I can do the update, not sure when but I will post at least 12 hours before on the site news that we will be having downtime. There are a couple other things I need to update that I can only do when everything is shut off and will be doing that then also.

I have also been starting to identify a number of airports from X-Plane 11 where they have different codes and that airport is not present in MSFS, FSX or P3D5 and will be updating them as a second phase, there are about 600 of those and I hope to post those soon.

[joefremont]

I just posted on the site

Hi Flyers. on Sun, Jan 3, 2021 at 05:00 UTC (Sat, Jan 2, 2021 9:00 pm PST) The system will be down for up to two hours while I do some database updates and update the airport codes to reflect new values.

I am going to try to get XP-11 changes done at the same time, I have identified about 600 more from XP-11 that will be updated also, the link off the VA page does not reflect those yet, when you see the name change to 'Airport Update 2021' you will know that those are the final changes, hope to get that up later today.

[joefremont]

The airport update 2021 page has now been updated and has the official list of what is changing.

I think all my prep is done, now jut wait till tomorrow evening to pull the trigger.

[joefremont]

Update is starting now, shutting down the web server.

[joefremont]

Update complete, server restarted. Checking to make sure everything is running.

[joefremont]

We keep getting the occasional pilot who says I few to FAJS but it says I landed at the wrong airport FAOR.

Well thats the new code. Apparently MSFS has a different airport with the code FAJS and a few airlines created routes to it. These can only be mistakes, so I moved them to FAOR and am deleting FAJS to try to reduce any confusion going forward.

Seriously, we have talked about this so much there is really no excuse for making this mistake any more.

[joefremont]

Differences between airport codes keep coming up, on a recent support ticket I gave this response.

With more than 50,000 airports in the database an no good real world reliable free source to update those codes it is not possible for us to manually update the codes to real world values and even if we did they may not match the codes in the sim which is where we fly. Right now MSFS is the most used sim and has the most up to date codes so it is now our source of truth.

This is a sore subject for me as I am always being told that our codes are wrong because they don't match real world or the sim that person flies so you will forgive me when I tell you this is subject is closed and not up for debate.

[Cat]

IMPORTANT: Pilots must realize their location is determined by lat/long position and not by any specific airport code number.

So when in doubt, a pilot should CHECK THE FSA AIRPORT DATABASE before departure to ensure the airport they are flying to in their sim matches the location they are flying to in FSAirlines.