Update airport ICAO codes to the current ones

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ramon.cutanda
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Update airport ICAO codes to the current ones

Post by ramon.cutanda » Wed Aug 31, 2016 2:56 pm

I really cannot understand why FSAirlines sticks so strongly to old ICAO codes. I find it much more logical to keep ICAO codes updated; specially when the new code is not a new airport after the closure of the old but refers to the very same airport, coordinates, runways, etc, the only change being the new ICAO code.

I guess there must be some technical reasons, but I admin a website and I know from my own experience that it is quite easy to make a "Search and replace" in the database so that all the old codes could be updated to the new ones in a matter of seconds.

Of course, I am not in the staff, and I know nothing about the the maintenance or the technical particularities of the FSAirlines database. But I really think this change should be taken into consideration.

Bests,
Ramón Cutanda / PePaOlé / PPO101

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joefremont
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Re: Update airport ICAO codes to the current ones

Post by joefremont » Thu Sep 01, 2016 1:56 am

The primary reason we don't change the icao codes is that the vast majority of users are using a version of the Microsoft FSX, which was released in 2006 or the earlier FS2004 which have in it codes from the time they were released. Neither Dovetail Games which with there FSX Steam Edition or Lockheed with Prepar3d have done any significant updates to the airport databases so they still have same old data that FSX had.

The problem with that is when someone starts up there sim and enters the code for an airport where the code has changed, the FSA client, which does not look at the codes, just the GPS coordinates, says they are at the wrong airport, making a very bad user experience.

What we would need is a way to record for each airport, the codes used in each flight simulator so when someone books a flight they can now the correct icao codes to use.

I am actually working on a project to rebuild the airport database using data from ourairports.com, which has an excellent freeware airport database, and merging into it data extracted from the major flight simulator versions into one unified data set that would have those alternate codes, but its not ready yet, so be patient.
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ramon.cutanda
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Re: Update airport ICAO codes to the current ones

Post by ramon.cutanda » Thu Sep 01, 2016 7:12 pm

Most of us aim to make our flights as real as possible. That's why we spend our money (sometimes more than we sensible should...) in detailed airplanes, complex sceneries, planning tools... And we keep our FMCs and planning tools up-to-date with the current AIRACS. And let's not forget the use of up-to-date charts. All those resources use the current real ICAO code. So the problem of having FSX ICAO codes "is there" whether FSAirlines keeps its airports updated with the current info or not. So, at least for me, it makes much more sense to keep everything as close as the real life as possible even if it were not possible to search airports using the old ICAO code.

I like reading you are working on this matter and, of course, I am not in a hurry by any means. I have been reporting ICAO codes inconsistencies for years and now I just felt I could share my thoughts.

Thanks so much for your detailed reply and interest in this matter.

All the best,
Ramón Cutanda / PePaOlé / PPO101

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