OnCourse Software

If you assign a gate via the "Designated Parking Control" interface of PF3 you will be cleared to that gate by Ground after you have landed.
And TGS will guide you there reliably.

But still it can happen that you find your gate already occupied by an AI aircraft. PF3 cannot do anything about that (except for the new feature to reassign a different gate).

It is described in the PF3 Manual that a change of the AFCAD file is needed to keep the parking spot free of AI traffic.
I never liked this method too much because apart from feeling uncertain about editing the original airport file of a payware addon it implied further corrections regarding GSX and I also had consecutive problems with the CTRL-J jetways. Furthermore you cannot easily change the gate for each flight.

But there is an easier and more flexible solution for that now with the payware "Where are my aircraft" (WAMA).
The newest version of WAMA (besides its original purpose of keeping track of all your aircraft and displaying them in the sim) includes an option to define the departure and arrival gates and then have WAMA keep these gates free of AI traffic.
It only takes a few seconds to set it up and the gates can easily be defined differently for every flight. It works fine for me (using UTLive).

This is a very nice addition to the parking functionality of PF3. Now you can be sure that your gate really is reserved for you (without the need of editing an AFCAD file).

WAMA is available on SimMarket and it is not too expensive.

Unfortunately that add-on does not work with FS9, so I cannot try it - serves me right for being stuck in the past! Sounds a fun add-on aparet from the benefit mentioned.

I generally open the airport in AFX but don't save anything. I simply look down the parking list to the lowest, and choose that one. It generally works because AI aircraft choose their gate on the basis of both best fit and order listed (and ICAO code, if given). Unless your airport is over-full of AI aircraft (in whih case it needs fixing, anyway) there is a high probability that last-listed gate will be free. But looking at it in AFX helps you allow for the other factors (above).

You can also see the listed order when you select your gate in PF3, but you cannot see gate size and ICAO codes there. I think it would still work that way most of the time too.

John

The only solution is to use other add ons like fscaptain which is a great airline simulator. It will assign you a gate according to your airline and it will remove any AI planes parked at that gate or assign you another one if the original one is occupied depending on your settings.

Nam1394 wrote: *

Wed May 03, 2017 6:53 pm

The only solution is to use other add ons like fscaptain which is a great airline simulator. It will assign you a gate according to your airline and it will remove any AI planes parked at that gate or assign you another one if the original one is occupied depending on your settings.

I use FSCaptain myself but I never managed to get the gate reservation feature to work for me (even with percentzap=100).
I guess it is because I use UT2 / UTLive which reinjects the aircraft soon after it is removed by FSCaptain. It is the same when I use the traffic zapper of FSUIPC manually (I think that is what FSCaptain does automatically).
WAMA also works with UTLive for me - just sometimes a flickering of the reinjected aircraft for fractions of a second.

RALF9636 wrote: *

Wed May 03, 2017 7:50 pm

Nam1394 wrote: *

Wed May 03, 2017 6:53 pm

The only solution is to use other add ons like fscaptain which is a great airline simulator. It will assign you a gate according to your airline and it will remove any AI planes parked at that gate or assign you another one if the original one is occupied depending on your settings.

I use FSCaptain myself but I never managed to get the gate reservation feature to work for me (even with percentzap=100).
I guess it is because I use UT2 / UTLive which reinjects the aircraft soon after it is removed by FSCaptain. It is the same when I use the traffic zapper of FSUIPC manually (I think that is what FSCaptain does automatically).
WAMA also works with UTLive for me - just sometimes a flickering of the reinjected aircraft for fractions of a second.

It was the same for me until the latest update, it works all the time. but now with the new PF3's feature you can ask for reassignment once you landed and set it in PF3. If you are using GSX, you can check if the gate as available in the air just before landing.

Nam1394 wrote: *

Wed May 03, 2017 8:47 pm

It was the same for me until the latest update, it works all the time.

Admittedly I haven't updated FSCaptain for some time.

I am happy with that feature of WAMA now. Since I can define a departure gate there too, it also prevents UTLive injecting an aircraft into my departure gate while I am being pushed back (I had that sometimes - kind of weird).

RALF9636 wrote: *

Wed May 03, 2017 8:50 pm

Nam1394 wrote: *

Wed May 03, 2017 8:47 pm

It was the same for me until the latest update, it works all the time.

Admittedly I haven't updated FSCaptain for some time.

Check the previous post, I have edited it.

Nam1394 wrote: *

Wed May 03, 2017 8:47 pm

But now with the new PF3's feature you can ask for reassignment once you landed and set it in PF3. If you are using GSX, you can check if the gate as available in the air just before landing.

Yes I was using GSX like that too. And the new gate reassignment feature of PF3 is nice.

There is nothing wrong to have these late gate changes as an additional excitement .
Just if you don't want them and want to be sure that your preassigned gate is ready for you when you arrive, you now have another option to guarantee this with WAMA.

RALF9636 wrote: *

Wed May 03, 2017 9:00 pm

Nam1394 wrote: *

Wed May 03, 2017 8:47 pm

But now with the new PF3's feature you can ask for reassignment once you landed and set it in PF3. If you are using GSX, you can check if the gate as available in the air just before landing.

Yes I was using GSX like that too. And the new gate reassignment feature of PF3 is nice.

There is nothing wrong to have these late gate changes as an additional excitement .
Just if you don't want them and want to be sure that your preassigned gate is ready for you when you arrive, you now have another option to guarantee this with WAMA.

That sounds good. I will give it a try.