Tower 3D Pro EGLL Schedules July 2022

[rxangus]

Hi,

I wrote a little program that takes real traffic info from Flightradar24 and converts to a Tower 3D Pro schedule. Here's the full day EGLL (Heathrow) schedule for Sunday 17th July 22 and Monday 18th July 22.

The schedule files need to be renamed before use so they just read egll_schedule.txt

https://drive.google.com/file/d/103cZMyk-o79UkXiye7muJSmoIwtpalqf/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SyRIbwzsKiE28L6WdXX-5y6GmaDd756r/view?usp=sharing

 

Local traffic not affected.

 

Happy to get constructive feedback!

[crbascott]

The problem with using scheduled flight data is that are just schedules - they reflect a plan and not what actually happens. And in most cases the times are based on the 0’s and 5’s (00, 05, 10, 15, etc.). So, this leads to only being active in 5 minute intervals - not necessarily really fun (waiting around) or realistic.

For arrivals, the game doesn’t allow arrivals with the same time (even with multiple runways). It will delay the flights. So if you have five arrivals at 10:00 four flights will be delayed and more than likely it will cause your flights at 10:05 to be delayed also.

For departures, the delay is not as significant. For each “duplicate” the pushback request is delayed around 14 seconds. Using 5 departures as 10:00 as an example, the 5th pushback will be requested around 10:01. However, you then sit around and wait for the next batch of pushbacks at 10:05.

So, you can choose to do nothing but there’s a chance the enjoyment level of the schedule will be limited. You can manually or programmatically adjust the schedule to limit the number of duplicate times. Another option is to use actual flight times instead of scheduled flight times and adjusting as needed per game limitations.

Personally, I started using scheduled data and after noticing the duplicate time issue I began adjusting the times. I then moved to using actual times as I felt it more truly reflected the daily life of an airport.

Food for thought.

[rxangus]

16 minutes ago, crbascott said:

The problem with using scheduled flight data is that are just schedules - they reflect a plan and not what actually happens. And in most cases the times are based on the 0’s and 5’s (00, 05, 10, 15, etc.). So, this leads to only being active in 5 minute intervals - not necessarily really fun (waiting around) or realistic.

For arrivals, the game doesn’t allow arrivals with the same time (even with multiple runways). It will delay the flights. So if you have five arrivals at 10:00 four flights will be delayed and more than likely it will cause your flights at 10:05 to be delayed also.

For departures, the delay is not as significant. For each “duplicate” the pushback request is delayed around 14 seconds. Using 5 departures as 10:00 as an example, the 5th pushback will be requested around 10:01. However, you then sit around and wait for the next batch of pushbacks at 10:05.

So, you can choose to do nothing but there’s a chance the enjoyment level of the schedule will be limited. You can manually or programmatically adjust the schedule to limit the number of duplicate times. Another option is to use actual flight times instead of scheduled flight times and adjusting as needed per game limitations.

Personally, I started using scheduled data and after noticing the duplicate time issue I began adjusting the times. I then moved to using actual times as I felt it more truly reflected the daily life of an airport.

Food for thought.

Thanks - this is all interesting stuff! I do deal with cancelled flights but you're right that using scheduled arrivals/departures is not so realistic. There's no reason that I can't amend the code so real actual arrival and departure times are used as Flightradar24 includes those in their records.

Anyway I just thought some very up to date EGLL schedules might be of interest to some. It's an airport I play frequently and was a bit tired of the same schedule over and over.

[MJKERR]

Equally, you need the correct terminal file
The default one will give some strange results, compared to what should actually happen!

Furthermore, there are many long turnarounds included (aircraft moved between terminal and stand)
This becomes obvious with United Airlines, typically every third arrival is move to remote stand as soon as possible

I had a quick peruse, I do not see any Cargo flights
Finally, some of the new contracts will result in white aircraft (airline / aircraft combinations) as they are not included in Real Colours
Alternatives or other airports would be required

[MJKERR]

7 hours ago, rxangus said:

full day EGLL (Heathrow) schedule for Sunday 17th July 22 and Monday 18th July 22

 

 

I will test this next week (using my terminal file from summer 2019 so should be very close as Terminal 4 has returned to normal operation)
As above, I suspect some white planes may be created so will check and advise on alternatives

You also use the same method I use with real-world timetable data
As above, it does mean batches of arrivals and flights

[rxangus]

3 hours ago, MJKERR said:

I will test this next week (using my terminal file from summer 2019 so should be very close as Terminal 4 has returned to normal operation)
As above, I suspect some white planes may be created so will check and advise on alternatives

You also use the same method I use with real-world timetable data
As above, it does mean batches of arrivals and flights

Thanks for this. Must admit I’d not even considered the terminal file so there’s another to-do. I’d also not considered white planes but that might well be beyond what I can handle.

 

I’ve already modified the program so in principle it will handle other airports too but each schedule needs to be checked against its aircraft file to prevent loading issues.

Unsure about cargo flights - I just grabbed the schedule data from Flightradar24 so it is what it is.

 

Edit - I suppose the main advantage of my program in my eyes is that it’s now about two minutes’ work to create and error check a full day schedule from Flightradar24 data. I haven’t seen that option up to now.

I think I’ll modify it to work on actual arrival/departure times and some other airports. I’ll see if it’s practical to update terminal file(s) too.

 

Edited July 19, 2022 by rxangus
Additional info

[MJKERR]

2 hours ago, rxangus said:

I’d also not considered white planes but that might well be beyond what I can handle

It is rather time consuming to check and correct
When EGLL and Real Colour were released some airline and aircraft combinations were missed due to the Real Traffic file used
I had to add about five other airport Real Colour downloads to correct this

Equally, due to British Airways swapping aircraft blocked gates was a problem
Thankfully this is easily simplified by using the aircraft registrations
There are also some low priority flights that get cancelled if gates are not available (in real life)
Sadly the use of Terminal 3 does mean some flights use the wrong terminal (the compromise is to mix with 5B and 5C)

[DeltaVII]

What you could do is pull the same schedule from FlightAware (where you also get the regional flight numbers as the carriers' flight numbers instead of the network (DAL5199 from JFK to BWI is actually EDV5199, for instance) and compare ETD/ETA with ATD/ATA. That way, you also avoid a lot of white planes. And where data are missing, Flightera.net (careful - they have request limits!) and radarbox.com might be helpful.

[Macquarie]

Thank you for the new schedule. I tried a while during morning time. It is nice to see a up to date schedule for LHR. 

[whyevenbothernaming]

By any chance can you send the files for the program? I usually use EliGrim's schedule generator but it sadly doesn't support EGLL.

[rxangus]

On 8/3/2022 at 2:27 AM, whyevenbothernaming said:

By any chance can you send the files for the program? I usually use EliGrim's schedule generator but it sadly doesn't support EGLL.

Could you clarify what you want? Do you mean the program itself or something else?

[rxangus]

EGLL schedule for Friday 22nd July 2022 using actual times rather than scheduled.

Also, updated EGLL terminal file.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12EOaZeG2Kyw0RKYenzXE7ncA2Y9ga0Vs/view?usp=sharing Schedule

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Abk3sT5hWTxiJQIsvCIegma_frL0py9O/view?usp=sharing Terminal

[whyevenbothernaming]

I'm not very techy but I think what I want is the program to run. But if you can't give it to me, that's fine. Thanks

[rxangus]

Here's the EGLL schedule creator tool:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PWY6RAyPgXYHQM0rfzs7tJKXzr2sVux4/view?usp=sharing

 

Instructions

Click "Load earlier flights"  above the first arrival in this flightradar link and repeat until you can see the first flight yesterday. https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airports/lhr/arrivals

 

Click immediately before the scheduled arrival time of the very first flight ie to the left of the first digit then scroll down to the landing time of the last arrival yesterday then press left shift and click again immediately after the M of PM. All arrivals should now be highlighted. Paste the data into notepad and save as arrivals.txt

 

Repeat the exercise for departures from this link and save the file as departures.txt https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airports/lhr/departures

 

Now load the spreadsheet and click "Load arrivals" at the top left. Pull in the arrivals.txt file

Now load departures using the departures.txt file

 

*Important* - now click "Error Check" to remove any problem flights eg if cancelled etc. This also corrects aircraft types where Flightradar differs from the game.

 

Click "Save file" and then look for egll_schedule.txt wherever your PC is set up to save files to by default. Try "documents" folder.

 

Move the schedule file to the EGLL game folder and load as normal. Back up the original first!!

 

If the game does not load then there is probably an aircraft mismatch which I haven't caught. You can resolve this manually by comparing the aircraft types in the schedule file with the EGLL_airplanes.txt file. Amend the schedule file to correct.

 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2022 by rxangus
Better instructions!

[MJKERR]

I had a quick look at the Terminal file
CSN is Terminal 5, but I am sure it should be Terminal 4
From memory at this time they were in the process of swapping back to Terminal 4

There are few other oddities...
Terminal 3 is mixed, but then you end up with incorrect piers or stands being used
American Airlines had temporarily moved to Terminal 5, but should now be back at Terminal 3
Again, same as above, in the process of moving at this time

[rxangus]

I used this to get the current terminals. It has CSN as T5 but I found a couple of oddities and missing airlines so it may well not be accurate.

https://www.heathrow.com/at-the-airport/terminal-guides/which-terminal

[MJKERR]

2 hours ago, rxangus said:

I used this to get the current terminals. It has CSN as T5 but I found a couple of oddities and missing airlines so it may well not be accurate

The Heathrow website often does not take into account code share flights
At the time the flights were provided by British Airways
Hence the error

Use this one instead :
https://www.airport-london-heathrow.com/lhr-airlines

Apologies I thought it was Terminal 4, but it may be Terminal 3
However, it definitely not Terminal 5

Equally, Iberia has now swapped back to Terminal 5
There were two flights from Terminal 3 due to American temporarily using Terminal 5
That arrangement also ended when Terminal 4 reopened