Custom Schedules - Real Traffic Details

[Pedantic G]

Hi all,

Looking at building my own schedules for some of the airports rather than having to depend on ATC Joe to do these for me with his excellent work (he does have a day job after all!) but can't seem to find any websites/info on daily activity anywhere (i.e. arrivals/departure schedules, airlines, aircraft type, aircraft reg etc) to build these.

Could probably note down a sample schedule from Flight Radar but to sit and do this for a good 4 to 5 hour period would be a real pain!

Can any of the forum members suggest any sites?

G

[mc16v]

Get my info from Flighaware

[ml0130]

Best thing do do is use flightawere and you will also need to use the airplane and airlines files that the game gives you

[crbascott]

23 minutes ago, ml0130 said:

Best thing do do is use flightawere and you will also need to use the airplane and airlines files that the game gives you

To help set gazza2868's expectations, how long does it take you to make your custom schedules?

[mc16v]

Several hours, not all at once though :-)

[VenturaGuy101]

It is cases like this that I wish schedules was implemented differently in Tower!3D.  I wish that there was a custom schedule (*.tsf files for example) file that would be a text file that lists the airlines, airplanes, airports, gaandlocaltraffic, schedule, and terminal files used in the custom schedule.  After selecting the airport on the main screen, a new select menu would appear that would list all *.tsf files in the airport folder.  The user can select one of the custom schedules or select default for the FeelThere fake airlines and schedule.  The file can also list information like the date of the schedule, author, etc.  That way if you want to do a custom or partial schedule you copy the tsf file and reference a different schedule.txt file and it would be available in the menu.  So using the example files below if a user had Nyerges Designs Real Traffic, ATC-Joe's schedule, the user would see 3 choices:

> Default
> Nyerges Designs Real Traffic for KPHL
> ATC-Joe's Custom KPHL Schedule

Example Nyerges Design File:  kphl_nyd_rt.tsf

Title: Nyerges Designs Real Traffic for KPHL
Author: Nyerges Designs
Date: April 2016
Airlines: kphl_airlines.txt
Airplanes: kphl_airplanes.txt
GA: kphl_gaandlocaltraffic.txt
Schedule: kphl_schedule.txt
Terminal: kphl_terminal.txt

 

So ATC-Joe would only need to copy the above file and change the GA, Schedule, and Terminal file names.

ATC-Joes File:  kphl_atc_joe.tsf

Title: ATC-Joe's Custom Schedule for KPHL
Author: ATC-Joe
Date: November 2017
Airlines: kphl_airlines.txt
Airplanes: kphl_airplanes.txt
GA: kphl_gaandlocaltraffic_atcjoe.txt
Schedule: kphl_schedule_atcjoe.txt
Terminal: kphl_terminal_atcjoe.txt

I hope this suggestion is added for the next version of Tower!3D Pro and I will add it to the suggestion thread when FellThere opens one up.  I just wish it was already implemented.  We would only need to drop the files into the airport folders and replace any files.  Users could also make schedules with FeelThere fake airlines if they wish.

[Pedantic G]

Thanks for the input all.

Looking at the  custom schedules done so far by forum members and the Feel There ones it looks pretty self explanatory with a couple of questions ?

eg: LHR, LAS, 744, BA, 275, 19:31, 12:00, 1, BA

LHR - Originating airport (London Heathrow)

LAS - Destination Airport (Las Vegas)

744 - Aircraft type (Boeing 747-400)

BA - Airline Flight Code (British Airways)

275 - Flight Code (ie BA275)

19:31 - Time of arrival (or time called to tower)

12:00 - No idea what this is used for?

1 - No idea what this is used for?

BA - Terminal for arrivals or departures

Also, can you have arrival or departure times the same for flights or is is best to have a minimum 1 minute interval spaces in the schedule so as not confuse the system logic?

Cheers 

G

[crbascott]

In both schedule files I've created, I've provided a header record showing the schedule file format:

// Depart,Arrive,Type,Airline,Flight,Arrival,Departure,Duration,Codeshare

The arrival time (19:31) in your example is actually the time the flight appears on the DBRITE

The 12:00 you question is the departure time (pushback request). In the LAS arrival example you provided, the departure time is irrelevant to the sim so 12:00 is plugged in. You'll see something similar for a departing flight where the arrival time is 12:00.

Duration is not used by the sim so the number 1 is being plugged in.

The last field (BA in your example) is codeshare and is also not being used by the sim.

=======================

You can have flights with the same time - depending on the situation the sytem handles them differently.  

You can have an arrival and a departure with the same time, no issue at all.

You can have two or more departures with the same time. Here's how it works:. Let's say you have 3 departures all at 08:00. The first pushback request will come in at 08:00:00, the second at 08:00:15, and the third at 08:00:30.

Two arrivals at the same time will definitely cause one of the flights to be delayed. When the delayed flight appears depends on the number of runways, other inbound traffic, and a minimum separation of 5 nm. 

Happy scheduling!

 

 

 

[Pedantic G]

Hey guys,

Another quick question. When you look at actual airport schedules for arrivals and departures, be it on flight aware or flightradar24, it shows take off and landed times. To be accurate for actual schedule timings for custom schedules do you subtract say 5 minutes from the actual times shown to allow for pushback and taxi time for departures and Dbrite call times for arrivals for accuracy or am I being too pedantic in my search for accuracy!

Gazza

[crbascott]

Are you using actual flight times or scheduled flight times? What is the purpose of your schedule? What is your definition of accuracy?

And most importantly, what the heck does pedantic mean? ;)

[Pedantic G]

So many questions!

"Pedantic - someone who's too concerned with literal accuracy or formality"

Using the actual times to create a "as close to the actual day" being recorded for a schedule. 

Will do best endeavours as otherwise will disappear up my own "a**e" for the sake of being too pedantic! :-)

G

 

[crbascott]

LOL. 

It's tough to duplicate an exact day due to the many factors that can impact departures and arrivals. I've built some 1-2 hour challenges on the Discord server attempting to imitate real life but know it won't ever be exact. So, being pedantic is not an issue for me. 

[gsuha]

SO I have purchase the Real Traffic for the Pro version and I had installed it. Not sure what I'm suppose to do next. I looked in the game to see if there was option for "real traffic" edit. Can anyone advise me what I'm suppose to do or direct me to a forum thread that discuss this? 

Thank you in advance,

Gary