Miss-Alignment FIX

[crauds]

I have noticed several default airports in FSX Deluxe that have mis-aligned ILS Localizer courses. Is there a software program that any of you SDK gurus are aware of that would allow me to fix these in the default scenery database? KPHL 9R, for example, has a Cat II/III approach but the FSX localizer course is set to .45 degrees less than the runway heading which brings the plane out to the right of the runway (not true in real life!). An adjustment to the true course would correct this. I had to do this with countless airports in the old FS98 but there were several tools available that made it easy to do.
Is there anyway I can correct the default files in FSX?

Quad Core 2.66 MHZ / 4.0 G DDR2 / Vista 64 / Nvidia 9500 GT/ FSX Deluxe SP1

[Flying Officer Jevans]

There's no automatic program, but you can do it manually for each airport with the excellent program ADE 9X. With it you can alter vitually all aspects of the airport, including ILS'.

[N2056]

Keep in mind that runway markings approximate the true direction, as is the case in real life :)

[pedmond]

I think isle of man has this problem, am I right?

[jvile]

I have noticed several default airports in FSX Deluxe that have mis-aligned ILS Localizer courses. Is there a software program that any of you SDK gurus are aware of that would allow me to fix these in the default scenery database? KPHL 9R, for example, has a Cat II/III approach but the FSX localizer course is set to .45 degrees less than the runway heading which brings the plane out to the right of the runway (not true in real life!). An adjustment to the true course would correct this. I had to do this with countless airports in the old FS98 but there were several tools available that made it easy to do.
Is there anyway I can correct the default files in FSX?

Quad Core 2.66 MHZ / 4.0 G DDR2 / Vista 64 / Nvidia 9500 GT/ FSX Deluxe SP1

What you see at KPHL runway 09R is a very common problem in both FS9 and FSX. In most cases it is not severe enough for the novice pilot flying a ILS approach to detect the slight misalignment. This slight misalignment has nothing to do with offset Localizers which are by design and shown on proper approach charts.

When MS developes the airport and uses their compiler it rounds off certain numbers. In the case of KPHL 09R the problem is 2 fold. In my first picture using the free ADE9X utility you can see the runway heading is reported as 75.449997. When we look at the actual FS compiled heading it is

<Runway
lat="39.8644263669848"
lon="-75.2570794522762"
alt="35.997F"
surface="ASPHALT"
heading="75.44999694824220" <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<---------- RWY heading

ADE list 6 decimals vs many other utility's only listing one decimal past the whole number. MS works with the 14th decimal place

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/3383/fsscr000v.jpg (http://img706.imageshack.us/i/fsscr000v.jpg/)

Ok we establish that the runway heading is 75.449997 as per ADE9X but also look at the Localizer User Planes radio signal (green feather) and it is slightly off center of the runway. That is the first problem.

Now we look at the Localizer heading with ADE9X and it shows how the MS compiler rounded it down to 75.00000000000000

<Ils
lat="39.8687282949686"
lon="-75.2355216443539"
alt="35.997F"
heading="75.00000000000000" <<<<<------------ Localizer heading compiled by MS
frequency="109.300"
end="PRIMARY"
range="27.01N"
magvar="10"
ident="IPHL"
width="3.48000001907349"
name="ILS/DME 09R"

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/9425/fsscr001w.jpg (http://img192.imageshack.us/i/fsscr001w.jpg/)

A designer should never tweak the runway heading unless they understand how it affects the approach code and the missed approach turn for the AI Planes. The easiest thing to do is change the Localizer heading to 75.449997. Once that is done then we drag the Localizer Symbol so the feather tail is center to the runway.

All Airport design utility's for FS9 and FSX except ADE9X work by decompiling and compiling the airport bgl file. This accelerates additional rounding and by the time the airport is designed many parts are misaligned. ADE9X never decompiles and compiles the XML to bgl because of rounding problems but we work in project files which are mainly binary code. We always compile from binary and not from a decompiled bgl converted back to a XML.

hope this helps

jim

[jvile]

I think isle of man has this problem, am I right?

RWY 08 at Isle Of Man does not have a problem. The Localizer is offset as per the approach charts and the pilot must be properly trained to fly this approach.

Before making any Localizer adjustments study the approach charts to see if the Localizer is what we refer to as a Offset Localizer or LDA/SDA type Approach per the placement of the Localizer antenna.

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/2176/fsscr002qj.jpg (http://img12.imageshack.us/i/fsscr002qj.jpg/)

[crauds]

Thanks, Jim. That is exactly what I discovered after I put up the original post. I was at first unable to upgrade my version of ADE because I had an older version. Once I got the latest up and running I was able to correct the localizer headings on all the PHL rwys. Dragging the feather to align it with the centerline is a technique that would have saved me several hours of trial and error. Thanks for that advice. The other problem I noticed is that FSX does not offer runway 27L as an option. How can I add it to the database? Is it possible thru ADE?
Craig

[jvile]

Thanks, Jim.

snip---------

The other problem I noticed is that FSX does not offer runway 27L as an option. How can I add it to the database? Is it possible thru ADE?
Craig

Craig

Are you saying that ATC will not allow you to select the approach for runway 27L when runway 27R is also active? Step up the winds to 8 kts from the west and force the airport to flip arrival direction. Both 27 parallels should be available through the ATC Window (unless 27L has been closed)

You can add any approach to the database in the approach mode of ADE but those approaches are already there.

Traveling for the next few days but Reggie can assist if he sees this post. You can also post that problem on our ADE web site and Tom Gibson, Reggie or George will help out.

jim