FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 1

Version 1.9.5 Credits

May 2015 Programming - Couatl™ Engine Alberto Barbati / Gamecentric
Design Umberto Colapicchioni/Alberto Barbati
for Microsoft Flight Simulator X
Texturing Francesco Pacchioni
3D Modeling FsDreamteam
Product Developed and Published by: VIRTUALI Sagl. http://www.fsdreamteam.com
Additional Programming Massimiliano Rossi
Copyright © 2012-2014 VIRTUALI Sagl. All rights reserved. Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows, Windows®, Windows® XP, Airport Customization Umberto Colapicchioni / Fabrizio Pascucci
Windows® 2000 are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other
countries. All trademarks and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective owners. Informa- Manual/Installer Umberto Colapicchioni / Virtuali Sagl.
tion in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of VIRTUALI
Sagl. The software described in this document is furnished under a license agreement. It is against the law to copy the
software on any medium except as specifically allowed in the license agreement. The manual, documentation, video im- Testers:
ages, software, and all the related materials are copyrighted and can not be copied, photocopied, translated or reduced
to any electronic medium or machine legible form, neither completely nor in part, without the previous written consent of
VIRTUALI. THE SOFTWARE IS FURNISHED «AS IS» AND IT DOES NOT COME FURNISHED WITH ANY GUARANTEE IMPLICIT Brian Kircher, Fabrizio Pascucci, Nuno Oliveira, Robert Fitzgereld, Jon Bradbury,
OR EXPRESS. THE AUTHOR DECLINES EVERY RESPONSIBILITY FOR CONTINGENT MALFUNCTIONS, DECELERATION, AND “wb2002”,Bruce Hamilton, R. Burrell, Orion Lyau, Angelo Cosma, Sean Campbell,
ANY DRAWBACK THAT SHOULD ARISE, USING THIS SOFTWARE. “anappy”, Ingo Voigt, Robert Shelley, Ph.D., “9Y-POS”, “pride545”, “meshman”,
Stefan Rakel, “NGX_Winglet”, “eastern”
Couatl engine™ is based on the Python programming language, Copyright (c) 2001-2008 Python Software Foundation and
includes code from the wxWindows Library, Copyright (c) 1998-2005 Julian Smart, Robert Roebling et al.
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 2

System Requirements
In order to run GSX without any problems your system will have to meet the following minimum requirements:

• Pentium 2.5 Ghz or faster - A Dual Core CPU is recommended.

• 200 MB free space on your hard disk
• 2GB RAM
• 3D video card with at least 512 MB
• Microsoft FSX + SP2 or Acceleration Pack or Lockheed Martin Prepar3D 1.4 or 2.0 and above.
• Microsoft Windows XP with SP3 or Windows Vista or Windows 7, both 32 bit and 64 bit versions are supported.
• Adobe Acrobat® Reader 8 or later version, available as a free download at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Technical Support
Support for this product is provided on the forum: http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum

We have found that the most efficient way to provide customer assistance is through the forum, because a solution to an issue posted in public could benefit many users at
time. For this reason, all questions should be posted on the forum. Please DO NOT send messages via email requesting question about use of the product or submit bugs. You
should email support only in case you need a reactivation. The forum is also open for general discussions so feel free to post any request, suggestion or comment. You can
read all messages on the forum; however you must register as a user to post messages.

We suggest you install our products on fully updated Operating Systems. If you are experiencing problems during the installation or the activation, ensure you have all the
Windows hot fixes and updates before contacting Technical Support.

Information related to the product activation are included in the file “fsdt_Install_Guide.pdf” found in the destination folder of this product, after installation. Please read
it carefully before contacting Technical Support and in case you have to contact VIRTUALI please provide the following information: order number for online versions, serial
number and full name/address for CD versions.

Installation
Installation is entirely automatic. The installer will detect your Flight Simulator installation folder automatically, and will copy the files at the correct locations without any user
intervention needed. The Addon Manager module, needed in order to be able to use and Buy the product, will be installed as a submenu under the “Addons” menu in FSX. If
you already have this module coming with other products, the installer will automatically check its version, and will always install the newer one. In case you find any incom-
patibility between other product using the Addon Manager, please ensure you are using updated versions of these products.
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 3

After Install - the Addon Manager module After Install - the Couatl™ Engine module
When you launch Flight Simulator for the first time in FSX, there will be a request to GSX includes a new external executable module, based on the Python programming
trust a newly installed module, the Addon Manager, needed by the scenery to work. language, that will allow a great amount of interaction between the user and FSX.
There will be two dialog boxes, one generated by Windows, the other by FSX itself. This module is called “Couatl Engine”. The name comes from the ancient Quetzalcoatl
Aztec god, which is a creature half serpent, half bird. Basically, a “Flying Snake”, which
The Windows-generated dialog box looks like this: ( or slightly differently, depending we find it quite fitting for a Python engine running in a Flight Simulator...Couatl engine
on your Windows language ) will be used in all our present and future products.

To use these new features, you need to allow the Couatl engine to run, in a similar
way as the Addon Manager.

First, the Windows trust request:

Indicating the module “Addon Manager for FSX” is Digitally signed by VIRTUALI s.a.s.,
so it’s safe to assume is the original one and it hasn’t been tampered or corrupted. You
should allow Windows to execute the module, otherwise the scenery will not run. If
you click the “More Options” arrows, you can allow any software signed by “VIRTUALI
s.a.s” to be automatically trusted. This way, subsequent updates coming from VIRTUALI You should allow Windows to execute the module, otherwise the additional interactive
will be automatically executed without requesting confirmation. scenery features will not run.

After having allowed Windows to trust the module, another similar dialog, this time Then, the FSX trust confirmation:
coming from FSX will appear:

You should select “Yes” to allow FSX to trust this module. If you select “No”, the module
You should select “Yes” to allow FSX to trust this module. If you select “No”, the module will run, but this request will be repeated each time you start FSX
will run, but this request will be repeated each time you start FSX
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 4

Trial Option Purchase, Activation and Reinstallation

This product includes a “Trial” option: after the download and the installation, before If you have decided to purchase the product you can do so from Flight Simulator.
the purchase, the scenery will work on your PC in several “TRIAL AIRPORTS”. The trial Follow the instructions in the “fsdt_Install_Guide.pdf” document located in the \
version is not time limited and includes all product features so you have the opportunity FsDreamTeam folder, under your main FSX folder, after installing the Trial. This docu-
to completely try it before the purchase. The Trial version also works IN FULL on ALL ments is shared between all our products, and it covers everything related to purchase,
the existing FsDreamTeam and Flightbeam airports, and GSX replaces and enhances activation, reinstallation and troubleshooting.
the previous “ParkMe” feature which was offered on those airports.
Very briefly, activation it’s done this way:
Purchasing GSX will allow you to use it on every FSX airport both default or 3rd party.
• Open the “Addon Manager” menu inside FSX, under the “Addons” menu
Trial Areas • Select Fsdreamteam and GSX in the two small text windows
• Click the “Register Serial” button
The Trial areas, were the product will work fully are as follows: • Type your Serial Number, as indicated in your purchase receipt
• Let it activate, with a working internet connection
Milano Linate - LIML - Italy
San Francisco - KSFO - USA - from FlightBeam
Munich - EDDM - Germany - default or Aerosoft’s

If you are outside of one of the Trial Areas when the product is in Trial mode, this menu
will appear, allowing to jump directly to one of the Trial Areas to test the product.

GSX features will not be available on non-FSDT airports outside the Trial areas, until
the product is purchased.
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 5

What is GSX ? How it works

GSX stands for Ground Services for FSX. It’s a product designed to enhance all your After Landing - Parking spot Selection
airports to add realistic ground service features, with advanced animations and sounds.
It works with all FSDT airports replacing the previous ParkMe feature, but also on all You normally call GSX after landing the airplane on any airport, by pressing its Hot key.
default FSX airports, and on 3rd party airports too. It’s enough for an airport to be By default, the Hot key assigned to GSX is CTRL+F12, but it can be reassigned using
provided with standard airport data .BGL (also known as an “AFCAD” file) to work with the “Couatl Powered products” menu inside FSX. The following screenshots shows
GSX, which means every FSX airport, even those that haven’t been designed yet, will how GSX will look like when just landed on an airport:
work with it with no need of a specific support.

What it does

GSX offers two main classes of services: Parking Services and Assistance Services.
Parking Services are used when your aircraft is on the ground on an airport, but is not
located in any parking spot and have the engines running. Assistance Services are used
when the aircraft is parked, with engines off and Parking Brake On.

Parking Services

• Follow Me Car - To be used to find your way to the parking spot.

• Marshallers - To help you park the airplane if there’s no advanced parking aid avail-
able at that parking/gate
• Docking Systems - The advanced parking aids that allows to park the airplane
without using a Marshaller, like SafeDock, Agnis, Agnis-Papa, Apis, Rlg, etc.

Assistance Services
Here GSX is asking where you want to park your airplane. This selection is completely
• Tow trucks used for Push back
independent from the parking spot you might have been assigned to by the default
• Passengers Stairs
ATC, you can select the same parking, or a different one, it’s your choice.
• Passengers Bus
• Catering Vehicle
To speed up the selection, all parking places are grouped by terminal or area, so the
• Refueling Vehicle
list won’t be several pages long on a large airport with 100+ parking stands. You’ll be
• Baggage Loaders
able to select the desired parking on the next screen:
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 6

This screen shows all the The following screen-

available parking spots shot shows an example
in the previously select- of how the list looks like
ed area/terminal group. when there are many
If you made a mistake AI airplanes at the air-
and want to redo your port. It’s not possible
selection, pressing the to select an occupied
GSX Hot key (CTRL+F12 parking spot, if you do
by default) again will that, you’ll see a warn-
close the menu, allow- ing message about this.
ing to select a different
option.

The list displays parking spot names with their associated service, as follows: Follow Me selection

• If there’s an advanced parking assistance, like a Docking system, the list will indicate
The next screen will al-
its type, which could be SafeDock, APIS, AGNIS, RLG, etc.
low you to decide if you
• With no indications, the parking assistance is assumed to be a Marshaller.
would like a Follow Me
Car to guide you to the
The list will also display if the parking place is free or taken by another AI airplane, with
parking place. If you
a time indication in minutes:seconds before the parking place will be available (based
select Yes, a Follow Me
on the AI Traffic Schedule) or “(available soon)” if that AI is scheduled to depart in the
Car will arrive in a short
next minute.
time, and selecting No
will allow you to taxi
If the scheduled departure time for an AI has already passed, but the AI is still there,
normally on your own.
the list will indicate a “delayed” indication, so you’ll know that AI was supposed to
depart already, but it’s still there, so it’s reasonable to assume it should free the park-
ing spot very shortly.
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 7

Changing parking spot or service Confirmation of the Parking spot selection

It’s possible to undo your choice of a parking spot after having selected it, just press After you select a parking spot, the top text display area will show a confirmation
the GSX Hot key again, if a parking spot has been already selected, the menu will look message, indicating your selected parking spot, what parking assistance is available,
like this: wether you asked for a Follow Me or not, and the Handler:

The handler depends on the airport, GSX knows of many different companies around
the world, and tries to match it as best as possible. This will affect the liveries of the
service vehicle that will appear at the parking place.

Depending if you asked for a Follow Me car or not, you’ll then see one of these two
messages, indicating the available parking assistance, which could be a type of Dock-
ing system or a Marshaller:

The three menu options are as follows:

• “Change parking facility” - Displays the parking spot you just chose, allowing to
select a different one.
• “Request Follow Me” - Allows to select a Follow Me if you decide you need one
after having selected the parking spot.
• “Revoke parking Services” - Will cancel both the selected parking spot and the
Follow Me car, if you asked for one.
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 8

Follow Me Follow Me indications

Assuming you selected Yes to the previous request to activate a Follow Me car, after The lighted indicator of the Follow Me car can display the following messages:
the confirmation message, the Follow Me car will now depart from its assigned parking
spot to reach your current destination and then guide you to the selected parking place. This is the normal status the light will be when you
are following the car.
As a general rule in GSX, service vehicle don’t just “appear” in front of you. Instead,
they are spawned in a suitable parking spot, which usually is the vehicle parking closest
to your location, and they drive all the way to your aircraft. This is valid both for the Slow down will be shown if you are taxiing too fast
Follow Me car, but also for other services like Catering trucks, Fuel trucks and Passenger compared to the Follow Me car speed.
bus. Other vehicles, like the Stairs, the Tow truck and the Baggage Loders are tied to
the destination parking, and are created there the moment you select the parking spot.
This means you were too slow and were left behind,
This means you’ll have to wait for the vehicles, which might take a couple of minutes if so the Follow Me has stopped to wait for you.
the airport is very large or with a complex taxiway layout. But it’s just all more realistic
this way.
STOP will flash when you are arrived at the des-
By default, service vehicles that comes from far away, will start from a parking of the tination parking spot, ready to be assisted by a
“Vehicle” kind, as defined in the scenery. If none is found, a parking of the “Fuel” kind Marshaller or a Docking system.
will be used, and if none is found, the vehicles will depart from a random parking.

Left or Right arrows will point the direction in which

the next turn on a taxiway will be.

Follow Me to Runway Start

Starting with version 1.9.5, the Follow Me car can be used also to be guided to a
Runway when taking-off, in addition of a parking after landing.

To use it, call the GSX menu when you are outside a parking spot, for example after
Pushback. The first entries in the menu with the list of available parkings will be the
Runway starting positions, which can be chosen as a destination for the Follow Me
As soon as the Follow Me car reaches your location, it will reverse its course and will car, or as a destination to the “Just Warp me there” feature.
turn on the “Follow Me” lighted indicator, prompting you to start follow it.
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 9

Arriving at the Parking spot Parking Assistance

When approaching at the desired parking spot, you’ll see the Assistance Service vehicles Marshallers
are already waiting from you there. The selected parking assistance system, either a
Marshaller or a Docking system is already active and programmed with your airplane In case the airport doesn’t feature an advanced Docking system, the most common
type. The vehicles are in the livery of that airport Handler company. form of parking assistance is the Marshaller, and it’s the default choice for almost all
airports. He’ll will guide you to the parking spot with standard gestures, to help align
In the following screenshots, there’s a SafeDock3 system activated on the Gate: the airplane with it along both the lateral and longitudinal axes.
By default, the Marshaller will try to guide the airplane in the parking spot center posi-
tion, with the reference point of the airplane (the red cross you can see in the Top View)
placed in the center of the parking spot, as defined in the airport .BGL.

The following it’s a list of gestures supported by the Marshaller:

Signal Description
Wingwalker/guide

Raise right hand above head level with wand pointing up; move left-hand wand pointing down
toward body. Note: This signal provides an indication by a person positioned at the aircraft wing
tip, to the pilot/ marshaller/push-back operator, that the aircraft movement on/off a parking
position would be unobstructed.
Identify gate

Raise fully extended arms straight above head with wands pointing up.

Straight ahead

Bend extended arms at elbows and move wands up and down from chest height to head.

Turn left (from pilot’s point of view)

With right arm and wand extended at a 90-degree angle to body, make “come ahead” signal
with left hand. The rate of signal motion indicates to pilot the rate of aircraft turn.

Turn right(from pilot’s point of view)

With left arm and wand extended at a 90-degree angle to body, make “come ahead” signal
with right hand. The rate of signal motion indicates to pilot the rate of aircraft turn.
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 10

Signal Description
Normal stop

Fully extend arms and wands at a 90-degree angle to sides and slowly move to above head
until wands cross.
After the evaluation, the Marshaller will salute and will walk away from the parking
Emergency stop position. Now you can start calling the various Assistance Services that are available
Abruptly extend arms and wands to top of head, crossing wands. when parked.

Cut engines Operations at a Parking place.

Extend arm with wand forward of body at shoulder level; move hand and wand to top of left
shoulder and draw wand to top of right shoulder in a slicing motion across throat. When parked, with Engines Off and Parking Brakes On, you can call the following services:
The menu is arranged in the logical chronological order, considering a typical arrival
Slow down

Move extended arms downwards in a “patting” gesture, moving wands up and down from
waist to knees.

The Marshaller will use these standard gestures to guide you to the parking position,
you’ll have to keep a steady and slow speed during the approach, the Marshaller will
issue a “Slow Down” command in case you exceed 5 knots.

During the final phase, in the “Normal Stop” gesture, the Marshallers arms will slowly
move above the head, proportionally to the distance left to park. As soon as you see
its wands crossing, stop the airplane immediately. If you went too far, you’ll see the
“Emergency Stop” gesture.

Once you reached the parking position, the Marshaller will signal to “Cut Engines”, and
you’ll have to set your Parking Brake and turn your engines off, which will conclude
the Marshalling operation.
sequence, where passengers/luggage are first deboarded, then the catering and refuel-
Parking Evaluation ing vehicles are being called for the next flight, then new passengers/luggage will be
boarded, and finally you’ll remove the various ground equipment and ask for Pushback
After you are parked with engines off and Parking Brakes on, you’ll get an evaluation
of the parking accuracy, with an information text that will appear in the upper part of
the screen.
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 11

Deboarding Time Deboarding

GSX will calculate Deboarding time by estimating the number of passengers on board, This operation is performed by two concurrent processes: Passengers and Baggages,
which equals to the sum of all the stations in the [weight_and_balance] section of each handled by their own set of ground equipment.
the aircraft.cfg of the airplane in use, divided by 220 lbs. which is an industry standard
method of calculating how much a single passenger + baggages weights, in average. Passengers can be deboarded either by Jetways (if the parking spot has them) or by
For example, the default 737 has 22,000 lbs. of stations load when full, which equals Stairs. On a scenery fully compliant with FSX, with jetways programmed and flagged as
to exactly 100 passengers. such in the airport .BGL, GSX recognizes the Jetway automatically, and this will affect
how passengers will deboard. All FSX default airports that have jetways and all the
Any operation that involves time, it’s scaled down by a factor by GSX, in order to FSDT airports (were you can use GSX for free) are made this way.
make the process less tedious. By default, boarding passengers takes 0.1 seconds per
passengers, with a minimum of 15 seconds. This means the default 737 will deboard Deboarding with Jetway
passengers in 15 seconds ( 0.1 x 100 would mean 10 seconds, but the minimum it’s
15 ), and the default 747, which has about 430 passengers when full, will deboard in If the parking spot has a Jetway, GSX will expect passengers to be deboarded through
43 seconds. You can customize these values to suit your preferences, see the “Custom- that. However, when using airplanes with a passenger door at the far end of the air-
izing GSX” paragraph for more info. plane left-hand side, a single staircase will also arrive to be connected to that door.

Operating the Airplane Doors

NOTE: You are supposed to operate the Jetway. GSX doesn’t control, changes or add anything regarding the
Several operations in GSX are controlled by the status of the airplane doors, and the standard Jetway operations in FSX. A default airport or an airport that has proper FSX jetways will continue
to work in the same way even with GSX. If the scenery you use has other means to open Jetways (like using
vehicles will WAIT for you to open or close the door pertaining the operation performed. COM frequencies or other additional programs), you will continue to use that method to operate the Jetway,
When boarding or deboarding passengers, the behavior is different depending it the GSX won’t interfere or interact with it.
parking spot has a Jetway or not, and if the airplane used has more than one passenger
exit that can be controlled independently. Deboarding without Jetways

If the parking spot has a Jetway, you will have to open the main passenger door for the If the parking spot is on the apron, or the scenery doesn’t feature standard FSX Jet-
Deboarding to initiate (remember to activate the Jetway first!), but the door in the rear ways, GSX will use one or more Stairs to deboard passengers. There are different types
left were the additional staircase is placed, can be open at your discretion. A message available, chosen depending on the airplane doors height, and they are all available
followed by a short beep sound will warn you which doors are required to be open or in many liveries, representing many ground handlers and airlines around the world.
closed, before the operation can continue.

On the Apron, you are required to open all doors with a staircase, if your airplane can
control them independently. On such parking places, a Passenger Bus will also arrive, Animated Passengers
and it will wait to board passengers until you open the doors. When all the passenger One of the most requested features is being able to see individual animated passengers boarding and de-
are deboarded, a screen message will alert you of this. boarding from the airplane. GSX doesn’t have this feature right now, but it’s surely something we’ll consider
with future releases, if we could add it without sacrificing too much performances and still looking good.
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 12

Deboarding Luggage conveyor belt will remain in position, since it’s likely you request a boarding in the near
future, so it will stay there waiting for next cart, which will arrive full from the terminal.
At the same you chose the “Deboarding” operation, deboarding of luggage has started,
using ground equipment that GSX places on the parking spot, such as baggage loaders With smaller GA airplanes, where no conveyor belt is used, the baggage train will just
with conveyor belts and trains formed by a tractor and a number of wagons (depending go close to the airplane, wait a bit, and will then go away, to simulate the process. The
on the number of passengers on board). same will happen if the airplane used has no cargo doors at all.

The number of wagons in the baggage train depends by the estimated number of passen-
gers on board, which is the total weight of all the loading stations, divided by 220 lbs. Request Catering service
The 2nd menu option can be used to call a Catering Service Vehicle. They usually at-
tach to the service doors on the right hand side of the airplane. Depending on the
airplane kind, vehicles in different sizes will arrive, and if the doors are low enough, as
in smaller and GA airplanes, instead of a truck with platform, a smaller mini van will
come close to the airplane.

If the airplane has a service door on the rear right, two Catering vehicles will appear.

Catering vehicles don’t appear at the parking spot, but drive from the terminal, fol-
lowing the airport vehicle paths (when possible), so it might take a few moments for
them to arrive, after they have been called. Every catering vehicle is available in several
liveries of different catering operators around the world, and are selected by airport.
Once the Catering vehicles are in position, they will WAIT for you to open the service
doors.

If the airplane has doors too low, like with GA airplanes, no conveyor belt will appear,
but just a baggage train.
On a typical liner, the conveyor belt vehicle will move close to the rear cargo door,
and will wait for you to open it, only then it will raise to reach the door and baggage
deboarding will begin. At the same time, the train will be driven into position, waiting
for baggage to be unloaded.
The conveyor belt vehicle driver will then unload baggages, filling each wagon, and
then the wagon will go away, reaching the airport terminal to deliver the luggage. The
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 13

The method to open service doors to be used by the Catering vehicles changes de- Sequence of operations and constraints
pending on the airplane used, default airplanes usually define all the doors on the right
side as “Emergency” doors, or Exit 3, but 3rd party airplanes might have independent There are some constraints put in place, some services can’t be called after another
doors, operated with custom gauges or custom keyboard commands. GSX knows has started, for example:
about some of the most popular 3rd party airplanes, and the list of supported products
is kept constantly updated. - Deboarding passengers can’t be selected anymore after you asked for the Catering
or Refueling, on the assumption you decided to skip that step, and GSX will consider
Once the service doors are open, the procedure will begin, and a human operator it done. The menu will say Deboarding is no longer available.
will start carrying food carts into the airplane, and will replace the empty carts on the
airplane, putting them back into the Catering truck. - Once you have deboarded passengers and have been serviced by Catering or Refuel-
ing, you can’t ask for those services again.
After a while, the Catering service will end, prompting you to close the service doors,
so the truck can leave and go back to their starting position. - Once you started boarding passengers, you can’t ask for Catering and Refueling
anymore.

Opening the GSX menu will give information about the services in progress, which is
useful to understand the current servicing progress.
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 14

Reset Position Refueling

Sometimes, you might want to repeat an operation, either because of a change in your With the 3rd menu option, Refueling, you can ask for a Fuel truck to come and allow
configuration, or just because you would like to see it again, even if GSX wouldn’t you to refuel your airplane.
normally allow it, because of the operation sequence logic explained above. In this
case, the “Reset Position” command on the GSX parking menu can be used to restart The Fuel truck will arrive preferably from a parking spot of the “Fuel” type, or from any
the servicing process from the beginning, as if you were just parked, so you can restart other parking spot, if the airport hasn’t any dedicated Fuel parkings.
all services from scratch.
As with other service vehicles, it might take a while for the Fuel truck to come, since
Reset Couatl, your “Panic Button” it will drive the path from its parking to your current location.

Sometimes, it’s possible the Couatl engine that drives the GSX logic, might be con- When the Fuel truck reaches your airplane, the standard FSX Fuel page will appear,
fused of very unusual airport configurations, or errors in the airport .BGL (AFCAD) file, allowing to alter your current Fuel quantity on board.
and report an error, that would stop the script and block all its operations. With the
“Restart Couatl” option, under the “Couatl powered products” menu in the main FSX After you have made your selection and loaded the Fuel needed, the truck will return
menu bar, you can trigger a manual restart, allowing to resume without having to quit to its parking spot, completing the Refueling process.
from FSX and restart it.
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 15

Boarding Common default Pushback directions

The “Request Boarding” option is quite similar to the Deboarding, just in reverse.

Once you selected it, the baggage loader will close to the cargo door and, differently
from the “Deboarding”, you will wait for a new baggage train that will come from the
terminal, full of luggage.

At the same time, if the parking spot is in the open, a Passenger bus will also arrive
and, after it goes into position, will ask you to open the doors to let the passengers
board the airplane.

As with Deboarding, the Boarding time is related to the actual number of passengers on Right Pushback
board, and by default the time it takes to board is twice the time it takes to deboard.

Pushback
Left Pushback
Before departure, you can ask for Pushback, and a tow truck will push you out from
your parking spot. The Pushback feature in GSX is way more powerful and realistic
that the default FSX Pushback, because it recognizes the airport layout, and will push
following the taxi lines automatically, you will only have to choose the Pushback direc-
tion (usually Left or Right) if the parking spot used has been programmed to allow Both
choices, otherwise it will just use the only direction available.

Pushback directions definitions:

The most common choice for Pushback are LEFT or RIGHT.
Custom Pushback
“LEFT” means the airplane will be pushed in a Lower Left “quadrant”, when seeing the
airplane from above, so the nose of the airplane will point to the Right at the end of the
procedure. When the airport in use has a GSX customization, like in the FSDT airports, the Pushback
“RIGHT” means the airplane will be pushed in a Lower Right “quadrant”, when seeing the procedure might be more advanced than just “Left” or “Right”, taking into account
airplane from above, so the nose of the airplane will point to the Left at the end of the specific airport limitations, and you might also be presented with easier to understand
procedure. choices, customized for the airport used.
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 16

Pushback Sequence of operations

In order to start Pushback, you need to start at the parking place with engines off and
parking brakes on. All ground connections like auxiliary power units, air units, wheel
chocks and similar must be removed too. GSX is able to recognise some of these features
from the most popular 3rd party airplane products, and will not allow starting push if
any of such ground connections are still attached to the airplane. In addition to that,
you will be asked to close any passenger or cargo doors that might still be open, and
all service vehicles that are still attached to the plane, will end their service and leave.

When you are ready, if the parking place used has more than one Pushback choice
available, GSX will ask you which one you want to use. The following screen shows a
Pushback choice screen for FSDT KLAX, which has been customized to give an easier
to understand choice, rather than the default “Left” or “Right”:
Once the tow truck is in position, you will start hearing the wingwalker talking to you
on the headphones, checking if you are ready for Pushback:
If you use any of the 3rd party airplanes that are recognized by GSX, which features
custom Ground Connections like GPUs, Air starters, Wheel Chocks, etc. at this point
GSX will prompt you to remove any of them, if they are still attached to the plane. You
will also prompted to close any doors left open. Once the departure check is complete,
you will see/hear the following message:
You can now release your Parking Brakes, and Pushback will start. Usually, this is when

The tow truck will then move from its starting position on the parking spot, towards
your airplane front gear. There are different tow truck vehicles available in GSX, smaller
tractors with a single driver, or larger models, some using a towbar, other with a more
modern towbar-less design. Some models have a place for the wingwalker to stand
on, but on smaller models, the wingwalker will approach the airplane walking aside
the tow truck. They are chosen depending on your airplane weight.
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 17

you’ll begin starting your engines. On some 3rd party airplanes (most prominent ex- Wingwalker
ample is the PMDG 737 NGX), GSX will recognize it having a custom-made APU, and
will prompt you to start it before Pushing back, so you should be reasonably sure to During pushback, the wingwalker will walk alongside the airplane and the tow truck,
be able to start your engines while pushing. monitoring the procedure.

Some airplanes didn’t had an APU, and their engines had to be started at the Gate, and
GSX offers dedicated support to some of them. For example, if you use the Flightsim
At the end of the Pushback path, the airplane will usually be aligned to the closest
Labs Concorde, GSX will ask you to start Engines 2 and 3 before starting Pushback,
taxiway line, ready to start taxiing on its own..
which was the standard procedure on the Concorde.

GSX is kept constantly updated to add support for more 3rd party airplanes which such
custom systems, following request by our users, and regular updates of the relevant
code can usually be freely downloaded using the installer self-update feature.
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 18

Ending Pushback Straight Pushback

After the airplane has been pushed in the arrival location, the wingwalker will walk Starting with version 1.9, GSX added a Straight Pushback option, which is always
to the front gear, to unlock the towbar from the airplane, or to operate the release available regardless of the parking Pushback preference, and works this way:
controls for a truck without a towbar.
In addition to the standard ( usually, Left/Right ) options, a new entry in the pushback
The tow truck will then retreat a few meters back, and the wingwalker will back up selection menu has been added, indicating “Straight pushback (manual stop, max 100
too, in order to be seen from the cockpit. Finally, he’ll raise his arm, stating that you m)”. Using this option, the pushback procedure will start normally, and the airplane
can now release your Parking Brakes, and will wait with his arm raised until you do so. will be towed directly backwards, until you press the GSX menu hotkey again. which
will give you the ability to Stop the pushback in that place and complete the procedure
As soon as you release your Parking Brakes, the wingwalker will salute you and will normally, or Abort abruptly, with all vehicles disappearing immediately.
return to the parking spot, either by walking or, if the tow truck model allows it, by
riding on it. You will be reminded to start your engines, if you haven’t already. De-Icing
This concludes the Pushback procedure. Starting with version 1.9, De-Icing vehicles has been added to GSX. De-Icing is consid-
ered to be part of the Departure procedure, which means there’s no separate menu
entry for De-Icing in GSX. Instead, De-Icers are offered as an option, when the outside
termperature is below 4°C, so there’s a risk of icing.

As soon as you select the “Prepare for Departure and Push-back” menu entry, if the
outside temperature is below 4°C, you will be asked if you want to call De-Icers:
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 19

After your confirmation, two De-Icing vehicles will depart from a vehicle parking and
will come to your airplane, and when they are both in position, the following menu
will open:

At the end of the procedure, the procedure, De-Icers will communicate the “De-Icing
code”, which will repeat your choice of fluid type and concentration. This concludes
the procedure and result in De-Icers going away.
Asking you to choose the type of fluid to be used for the De-Icing operation. The fluid
type choice is included mainly for informative purposes, it doesn’t make any difference After De-Icing, the normal Push-back procedure will start.
in the simulation (other than Type IV is green and the other types are yellowish), and the
correct concentration is selected by GSX automatically, according to the following table: NOTE on the simulation:

Outside Air One-Step Procedure Deicing/ FSX has its own internal simulation of ice formation, and GSX interacts with that, by
Temperature OAT Anti-icing sending the command (which is not assigned to any key, by default, in FSX) to turn On
-3° C (27° F) and above 50/50 Heated Type II/III/IV “Structural Deicing”. This is done at the end of the De-Icing animation and, the way
Below -3° C (27° F) to -14°C (7° F) 75/25 Heated Type II/III/IV FSX works, all icing accumulated on the airplane body will be immediately removed
when that command is received. This means, on any FSX airplane that use the stan-
Below -14°C (7°F) 100/0 Heated Type II/III/IV
dard simulation, GSX De-Icers will both be visually appealing, but will also De-Ice the
airplane. If you use a 3rd party airplane that comes with its own internal simulation of
Type I, which is a mixture of heated water and Glycol, doesn’t specify a concentration,
icing on the airplane body and its own internal simulation of a De-Icing methods, it
the water should be heated at 60°C at the nozzle, and the freezing point should be
might not respond to the standard FSX “Structural Deicing” command used by GSX.
10°C below the actual OAT.
After you select a fluid type, the De-icers will confirm your choice, and will start the
De-Icing procedure.
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 20

Assistance Vehicles Customizing GSX

The choice of vehicles that will appear at the parking place depends on many differ- It’s possible to customize certain aspect of GSX to suit your preferences and flying
ent conditions, either related to the parking place itself, the airport, the country, the habits, by editing the following text file:
airplane type you are using, and whether there’s jetway or not.
%APPDATA%\Virtuali\Couatladdons.ini
The airport handler is related to the ICAO code of the airport and the atc_park-
ing_codes of the parking spot and it interacts with the ICAO specifications in the The %APPDATA% string it’s a shortcut for a folder that it’s usually located in C:\Users\
sim.cfg file of the vehicle itself. {username}\AppData\Roaming under Windows Vista or Windows 7, or C:\Documents
and Settings\{username}\Application Data under Windows XP. In the “Virtuali”subfolders,
There’s a hierarchical system that will favors the most specific code to be preferred in there will be several configuration files for our software.
the choice so, for example, if you are parking at Milano Linate Airport (LIML), vehicles
with an L (Southern Europe ICAO) will be chosen but, if there’s a vehicle that has a LI The Couatladdons.ini file can control different Couatl plugins, like GSX, and each
code in its ICAO specification (Italy ICAO), it will be preferred over the generic “Southern plugin have its own section. The GSX section, as standard with .INI files, is indicated
European” one. If there’s a vehicle that has the full LIML code, it will take precedence as [GSX], all settings relevant to GSX will be in this section.
over the generic “Italian” one.
Here’s a list of the possible settings and their default values:
If the selected parking spot has an atc_parking_codes parameter specified in
the airport .BGL file (AFCAD), GSX will try to match vehicles according to that code. Name Values Default Meaning
disable 0 or 1 0 If set to 1, GSX is disabled at all airports.
The airplane type you are using affects things like the choice of the Tow Truck vehicle disable_on_airports List of ICAO codes separated None GSX will be disabled only at the airports with ICAO codes
to be selected. The different available types are chosen based on your airplane emp- by spaces. matching the provided list,
ty_weight parameter. deboarding_time_min Floating point number 15.0 Minimum number of seconds for Deboarding.
deboarding_time_factor Floating point number 0.1 Time in seconds to Deboard a single passenger.
The availability of a jetway at the desired parking spot affects both the appearance of boarding_time_min Floating point number 15.0 Minimum number of seconds for Boarding.
Passengers Stairs and if a Passenger Bus will be called upon Boarding/Deboarding. Both boarding_time_factor Floating point number 0.2 Time in seconds to Board a single passenger.
will appear ONLY if there’s no Jetway. refueling_time_min Floating point number 15.0 Minimum number of seconds for Refueling.
refueling_time_factor Floating point number 0.0022 Time in seconds to fill a Gallon of Fuel
User-controlled choice of the Ground Operator
For example, if you want to disable GSX at Frankfurt and Denver airports, you will set
Starting with version 1.9.5, GSX will allow you to manually select between all match-
the following line:
ing operators available in an airport, instead of always select at random between the
highest scoring ones. As soon as you select a service, a menu will show all the opera-
disable_on_airports = EDDF KDEN
tors that are allowed on the airport, with an indication of what GSX would choose by
default. You can either select an operator, or wait 5-6 seconds for the menu to close
automatically, and have the default operator selected by GSX, which still allows for an
“hand-off” approach.
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 21

Airports Visibility An “Airport inside an Airport”

Auxiliary airports/helipads/seaplane bases There might be some cases where you might want to use BOTH the “large” and the
“small” airport together, and be service by GSX in both, depending on your actual
To recognized the airport, GSX by default checks in the airport database for the closest positions.
airport in a 3NM radius from your current position. While this covers most of the normal
cases, there might be special cases when this automatic detection won’t work, such as: For example, you have a military area, with a separate AFCAD and its own ICAO code,
and a civil area with the normal ICAO code.
• Small auxiliary airports very close or even inside a larger airport, with their own
ICAO code, usually made by 3rd party developers using fictional ICAO codes First, for an AFCAD to be considered usable by GSX, it must contain at least a parking
• Helipads, Seaplane bases, etc. and at least some taxiway nodes connected to it. If your smaller airbase only has park-
ing spots, but not taxiways, it cannot be used by GSX.
By editing the CouatlAddons.INI file, you can specify a custom visibility for such cases,
so GSX won’t be confused by those small airports and will use the correct (normally Assuming the airport meets the requirements to be used by GSX, whether this con-
the larger airport) instead. figuration would work, depends on the Airport Reference Point, as indicated in the
scenery AFCAD. The auxiliary scenery should be programmed with its Airport Reference
The format for the airport visibility command is as follows: Point coordinates ideally centered in the center point of ITS OWN area. If the auxiliary
airport shares the same coordinates as the main one, using both at the same time with
airport_visibility_XXXX = Y GSX might not work correctly, and it would be better to just exclude the smaller one,
by setting its visibility to zero.
Where XXXX is the ICAO of the airport you want to set visibility for, and Y is the vis-
ibility range in NM, or 0 to exclude it. Note that, “visibility” here only means “visibility Assuming even this additional requirement is satisfied, you can configure both airports
by GSX”, it doesn’t have any effect to the actual visual scenery in the simulator. to work together with GSX, by setting a smaller (less than the default 3NM) visibility
for the smaller airport, but different than zero.
A real world example of this might be OrbX’s Monterrey Regional Airport - KRMY, which
comes with an auxiliary AFCAD with an added code for the (fictional) KMRZ airport. By For example, assume you have a (fictional) military base called Z401 inside a larger
default, GSX might find the fictional KMRZ is closer to your position, and use that one airport, for example KLAS (this is just an example, KLAS doesn’t have this issue in either
instead of the main KMRY, which is probably what you wanted to use. FSX default scenery or FSDT’s KLAS), you would set the line in the CouatlAddons.INI
file as follows:
To fix this, the line added to the [GSX] section of the CouatlAddons.INI file would look
like this: airport_visibility_Z401 = 0.4

airport_visibility_KMRZ = 0 This will instruct GSX to use Z401 if you are inside a 0.4 NM ( 740 mt. ) radius from
its own Airport Reference Point, otherwise it will use KLAS, which would be the closest
This will prevent GSX to use KMRZ, and prefer the larger airport instead, which is the airport once you are outside this 0.4 NM range from Z401. This way, both airfields
most common case. will be serviceable by GSX, automatically.
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 22

GSX Settings Page The Audio page:

Starting with GSX version 1.1, there’s an easier way to customize timings without hav- The audio page allows to set the preferred audio device used by GSX sounds. This can
ing to edit the .INI file, and there’s a panel to set various Audio options. be useful if you have multiple audio cards, or different output options on the same
audio card (for example, digital or analog out).
The Settings page can be accessed from the “GSX Settings...” sub-menu of the “Couatl
powered products” menu, under the FSX “Addons” menu bar.

The Timings page:

The Volume slider controls the level of all GSX sounds. At default is set to maximum,
and the level at maximum would be equivalent to the default level in previous versions
of the products.

The Simulation Page:

With the Timings page, it’s possible to easily customize the duration of the Deboardin,
Boarding and Refueling operations. The settings are the same as with the .INI file, the
interface will help getting a better idea of the timings with common configurations of
It’s not strictly required to run FSX in Windowed mode when customizing one or more parking
number of passengers and fuel loadouts. spots, the editor interface is tested to work in Full Screen mode too but, we suggest doing it
in Windowed mode in any case, because switching between the dialog mode and the normal
flight mode will be much faster if FSX runs Windowed.
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 23

With the Simulation page, you can control some aspects related to global preferences Airport customization
related to the GSX simulation:
Starting from version 1.1, GSX adds the ability for users to customize certain parameters
of any parking spot, at any airport. It doesn’t require using external editors or editing
files, and it’s integrated in the GSX Parking menu.

When parked with Parking Brakes on and Engines off, open the regular GSX menu with
the normal Hotkey, a new option has been added “Customize this parking position”

FollowMe Car speed In order for the option to be available, you have to meet the following requirement:
This slider controls the speed of the FollowMe vehicle, from 5 to 40 knots, default of
18 knots. • No ground services are currently in progress. If you want to customize without
waiting for the services to end, use the “Reset Position” option of the menu.
Parking “Slow Down” speed:
This slider controls the threshold speed after which a parking system, like a Marshaller Selecting the “Customize this parking position” option, will display the
or a Docking, will issue a “Slow Down” warning. It goes from 5 to 10 knots in incre- following dialog box. The title will indicate the parking spot position, the next line it’s
ments of 1/4th of a knot, with a default to 7.5 knots. Controlling this setting might be the name of the Airport you are currently editing, and the 3rd line indicates which .BGL
useful to fine tune GSX in relationship with the ground speed friction of the airplane (AFCAD) file is active now:
you use most.

Reset to Defaults
Pressing this button will reset all values in this page (this page only) to their default values
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 24

AFCAD, and the eyepoint position in the cockpit: the higher the eyepoint, the farther
away the Marshaller will be placed. The distance is lowered if there’s a jetway, on the
assumption that Gate usually a wall behind, so the Marshaller might be easily hidden
behind it. Sometimes, it’s possible this calculation can’t fit any situation. By setting this
value to a number of meters (start with about 20 meters) you can fix situations were
the Marshaller can’t be seen because it’s inside a building.

Parking has a Jetway

This option can be used to disable the front/middle Passenger stairs on sceneries that
have static Jetways or use any other method than the FSX native one to display or
animated them.

For a Jetway to be recognized as a Jetway, it must be made as a true FSX Jetway, and listed as
such in the AFCAD .BGL of the airport. It’s not really important that it moves or not, as long is
If you never edited this parking, the customization dialog will display values that inserted as a true FSX Jetway, it will be treated as such by GSX. This means, on certain 3rd party
airports that have jetways as integral parts of the terminal 3d model, or are separate but pro-
have been read from the active AFCAD. The options set here will allow GSX to over- grammed in a non-standard way, GSX doesn’t have means to automatically recognize it, and will
ride some of the informations found in the AFCAD file, and add a few GSX-specific display Passenger Stairs and Bus in any case. This option will help you fixing these sceneries.
preferences.

Pressing the Reset button will restore the parking with the original values found in Disable staircases
the active AFCAD file.

Disable Marshaller
This option will disable all passenger stairs, even the rear one on a jetway-equipped
parking.

Disable Passenger Bus

This option is useful if a 3rd party scenery has its own way of implementing advanced
Docking Systems that don’t use GSX, so the GSX Marshaller won’t clash with it.

Maximum Marshaller distance The option is only available on a Parking position that has no Jetway. Normally, park-
ing positions on the apron always call for a Passenger bus, but on some airports the
Terminal might be so close to the Parking position, that it wouldn’t make much sense
to call for a Passenger bus, this option will allow to indicate such parking spots
By default, the Marshaller distance it’s a function of the Parking radius specified in the
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 25

Pushback Direction

GSX reads the Pushback preference from the AFCAD file, which can be Left, Right,
Both or None. Normally GSX will not allow pushback from a parking position that
has its preference set to None, on the assumption the scenery designer had a specific
reason to disallow Pushback on that parking spot. But, in case the AFCAD is simply not
accurate, this option will allow you to instruct GSX to override the Pushback preference
set in the AFCAD with the one specified here.

Starting with GSX 1.9, a new “Straight Pushback” option has been added, which Left Right
is always available, even in parkings where the Pushback preference is set to None. Inside the wall Looking at the wall

The following parameters will allow you to customize the positioning on ground of
the vehicles/services available on a parking spot, to better fit them with the underlying
airport building structure. Problem!
Custom Pushback
As you can see, both the Left and Right Pushback options will result in a difficult situ-
ation, so Custom Pushback is needed here. A solution could be pushing the airplane
all the way to the corridor, up to the first taxiway. Let’s check the taxiway layout using
an AFCAD editor:

Node 2
Starting with GSX 1.9, we added the ability to specify two custom Pushback nodes
for each parking, that can be useful to sort out special situations, usually in parking “End on Taxi C, facing West”
spots at the end of a Terminal, where a default Pushback in one direction would result
in the airplane pointed in the wrong direction, and the other option would place the
airplane inside a building.

Let’s see an example of a custom Pushback used at FSDT Los Angeles LAX airport. Node 1
The screenshot in the next page shows parking 21 at the Terminal 2, it’s a common
“End on Taxi C, facing East”
problematic parking, where the default Left/Right Pushback wouldn’t work.
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 26

We’ll use the Lat/Lon coordinates of two existing AFCAD nodes, that will work as “at- Vehicles at a parking are positioned based on the radius, according to the scheme in
tractors” for the two Pushback options. “Left” and “Right” now has lost any meaning, the following page:
they are just two options and, to indicate the Custom Pushback, we can specify two
labels that will replace the default “Left” or “Right” text.

Labels can be any text string, and will appear as the two choices in the Pushback menu.
Pushback tow truck

The airplane will now be pushed towards one of these two nodes. It will not end up
exactly over them, though, but it will be pushed the minimum amount needed to be
aligned with the destination taxiway. Think as the two nodes as magnets...

Sometimes, there’s only one solution possible, and by inserting only one custom Node Baggage Train
with or without a Label (if there’s only one choice, GSX won’t display a Pushback selec-
tion menu), the airplane will automatically be pushed towards that node.
Lat/Lon Coordinates Snap

It’s not necessary to be 100% precise with Lat/Lon coordinates. GSX will snap to the
closest node in the AFCAD. However, is still suggested to be precise and use Copy &
Paste Lat/Lon coordinates of the node from your AFCAD editor of choice (usually, either
ADE or AFX), just double click on it in your AFCAD editor, and copy the Latitude from
the node properties dialog in the AFCAD editor, to the GSX Latitude field, then repeat Rear Staircase Baggage Loader
for the Longitude.

The reason for Snapping coordinates to the closest node, is to allow you a bit of flex-
ibility when further editing the AFCAD, since a small movement of the node won’t
prevent GSX to find the right place to end the Pushback procedure, and it might still
work on different/updated AFCADs for the same scenery.
Radius LEFT Radius RIGHT
Parking Radius Left/Right

Vehicles on the left-hand side are affected by the LEFT radius, and vehicles on the
right-hand side by the RIGHT radius. Changing the Left/Right radius can be useful to
fix conflicts between airport buildings or other static vehicles placed by the scenery.
NOTE, the Radius parameters are used only to give a starting point for service vehicles.
It’s not used to decide if an airplane fits into a parking spot!
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 27

Max Allowed Wingspan not offer enough space for both front and rear loaders, and for the larger container
loader vehicle, which is much larger than the baggage conveyor belt.

“Any type” - Both loaders types are allowed, and the airplane type will affect which
Starting with GSX 1.6, there’s a new option that allows to override the parking radius loader will be used.
in the scenery AFCAD, used to verify if a parking is too small to fit a certain parking.
“Conveyor Belt” - Only the conveyor belt is allowed on this parking position
Sometimes, it’s possible that a scenery has actual space available around a parking
spot, but the scenery designer has specified a smaller radius for that parking spot in “Cargo Loader”- Only the container loader is allowed on this parking position
the AFCAD, maybe for AI flow reasons, or to fix problems with default ground vehicles,
or simply because of an oversight. “None” - Disable all loaders for the selected position.

A too small parking spot radius in the AFCAD, might result in GSX not offering its ser- Saving your work
vices at that place, even if the physical layout of it might have allowed that airplane.
There’s nothing special to do to save your edits: as soon as you press the OK button,
Since GSX can only rely on the information taken from the AFCAD, up to version 1.6,
the settings are saved as they are in the customization dialog, and they are in effect
if the parking radius of the chosen parking spot was smaller than half of the wingspan
immediately without having to restart FSX or the Couatl program. To verify your new
of the airplane you use, it resulted in a “Parking too small” message.
settings, just ask for service, and all the parameters used for the parking spot will be
Now, you can customize this setting too, and override what’s in the scenery AFCAD. those you just modified. Airport customization files are saved in the following folder:
You can directly put a number in meters of the highest Wingspan allowed (so, it’s not a
%APPDATA%\Virtuali\GSX
Radius, as in the AFCAD, it’s double that amount) or you can simply click the Airplane
button next to the input field, and this will read the Wingspan of the airplane which Each file will be named as its ICAO code, with an .INI extension, they are plain standard
is currently loaded, and put it into the input filed. .INI files, with a general section and multiple sections for each parking that has been
customized.
So, without worrying about numbers, you can just load the airplane that used to not
fit a parking according to GSX, go to that parking, click the Airplane Button and The .INI file remembers which AFCAD was active when it was created. If you start
save, this will open that parking for that airplane type (and all the ones with smaller customizing an airport, and a different AFCAD is now in use, a NEW .INI file will be
wingspans, of course). Don’t forget you can do this for multiple parking spots at once. created from scratch, named as the ICAO code plus a number. This means you might
have different customization files for the same airport. The one active is the one match-
Front and Rear Baggage Loader ing the AFCAD in use at any time.

You are encouraged to share your customization files with other users. Just be aware
that we might use data contained in files you uploaded on the net, to include them
in future GSX updates.

This option will allow you to select the type of baggage loader that can be used at this
parking position. You might want to customize this, because the parking position might
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 28

Note for scenery developers: Accessing the Graphical Scenery Editor

You can use the integrated GSX editor to make your airport more compliant with GSX, After you upgrade to version 1.5 or above, the customization dialog has been modi-
and feel free to include the .INI file together with your scenery package. There’s no fied, with an additional button labeled Customize vehicle positions, this will allow you
need to install the .INI file into the %APPDATA% folder, you can just distribute the .INI to enter the Graphical Scenery Editor. As soon as you press that button, GSX will enter
file together with the other .BGL files in the your scenery folder, together with the in the Parking Editing Mode, which locks your airplane in the last parking position,
AFCAD it was based on. forced in Slew Mode, with default Slew keys now used to control the Editor functions:

Since it’s not possible under UAC rules to write in the FSX folder if it’s installed in its
default location at C:\Program Files, the GSX editor can only modify .INI file in the
%APPDATA% folder, but it can read them if they are placed in the scenery folder
alongside the other .BGL files.

This means, if your airport is just installed, GSX will read the configuration file from the
scenery folder, but if the users starts to “customize the customization” a new .INI file
will be created into the user %APPDATA% folder, and GSX will then work from there.

If you provide the scenery with different sets of AFCAD files, just provide several .INI
files, named YourICAO.INI, YourICAO1.INI, YourICAO2.ini, each one based on a differ-
ent AFCAD. The AFCAD pathname contained in the .INI file is not mandatory: if no file
with that name is found in the full path, any other AFCAD in FSX matching the name
only will be used instead, regardless of where it’s actually installed.

Graphical Scenery Editor

Starting with version 1.5, the GSX scenery customization feature adds an interactive
Graphical Editor, to edit the vehicles starting position precisely, for each parking spot of When the editor starts, all vehicles are placed in their standard positions, with a pointer
any airport. This will allow you to better integrate GSX with any scenery, both default on each object. The currently selected object is highlighted in Orange, the others are Light
and 3rd party, and to overcome potential conflicts between the GSX service vehicles Blue. You will cycle through the objects using the Slew Move Up/Down Quickly
and the scenery objects, either static or dynamic. The Graphical Scenery Editor is very keys ( F1/F4 by default ), until you find the one you need to adjust, then use the Slew
fast and easy to use, and doesn’t require any text input: everything is done inside Rotate Left/Right keys ( NumPad 1/3 by default ) to rotate the object, Slew
FSX, using the familiar “Slew” keys commands. The results of your customizations are Move Forward/Backward keys ( NumPad 8/2 by default ) to move the object
automatically saved in the airport .INI file discussed in the previous section, which you Forward/Backward in the direction of its facing, and Slew Move Left/Right keys (
can share with others. NumPad 4/6 by default ) to move the object Left or Right, perpendicular to its facing.
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 29

Resetting vehicle positions Exiting from the Editor

If you press the Slew Freeze All Movement key ( NumPad 5 by default ), the Pressing the normal Slew On/Off key, by default assigned to Y you will exit from the
currently selected vehicle will return to its default position. GSX Editor mode, and the Parking Customization Dialog will appear again, allowing
to set other options for the parking spot, or to go back to flying, by closing the dialog
Note the exclamation mark on top of the object pointer: if there’s one, it means the with the “X” window close gadget on the top-right.
object is not in its default position anymore, which will be also confirmed by the green
text line on top, stating that object is in a (customized) position. If there’s no exclama- Editor Keys summary:
tion mark, that object is in its default starting position, and the green text line will say
Editor Function Key command Default Key
(default).
Cycle next object Slew Up Quickly F4
It’s possible to reset ALL vehicles in a parking spot to their default positions, by press- Cycle previous object Slew Down Quickly F1
ing the Slew Heading North/Attitude Level key, which is assigned to Move object Forward Slew Move Forward NumPad 8
CTRL+Spacebar by default. A confirmation window will appear, asking if you are Move object Backward Slew Move Backward NumPad 2
sure to reset all the vehicles of the current parking to their default starting positions.
Move object Left Slew Move Left NumPad 4
NOTE: With “Default starting positions” we indicate whatever source of original infor- Move object Right Slew Move Right NumPad 6
mation has been used to calculate the default starting position. On a default airport that Rotate object Left Slew Rotate Left NumPad 1
has no other customization in place, it’s controlled by the Left/Right radius parameters, Rotate object Right Slew Rotate Right NumPad 3
derived from the scenery .BGL (AFCAD). On a fully-customized scenery, like those that Reset object position Slew Freeze All NumPad 5
are supplied with GSX (all FSDT airports, for example) the “Default position” means the
Reset ALL object positions Slew Hdg North/Att Lvl. CTRL+Space
one that was indicated in the scenery customization file supplied with GSX.
Go to Next Parking Slew Bank Right NumPad 9
Changing parking spot Go to Prev Parking Slew Bank Left NumPad 7
Exit from Editor Slew Toggle Y
Using the Slew Bank Left/Right keys, assigned by default to NumPad 7/9,
you can quickly switch to the next/previous parking of the airport. You will “Warp”
there immediately, ready to edit the new parking. Reaching the last parking spot of
the airport, will start back with the first one.

Automatic Saving

There’s no “Save” option, all your modifications are automatically saved as soon as you
act on the objects controls, this allows for an easier and faster work.
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 30

Airplane customization To change any door’s

parameters, click on a
Starting with version 1.7, GSX allows users to add support for a new airplane, using door on the airplane
an easy to use graphical editor, which allows to place doors interactively inside the diagram, and a pop-up
FSX graphic window. will open, to set all pa-
rameters for that door:
Accessing the Airplane Configuration Editor
The blue arrow indicates the cur-
The Airplane Configuration Editor can be accessed from the “GSX Customize Air- rently selected door. To select a
craft...” sub-menu of the “Couatl powered products” menu, under the FSX different door, just click on it, and
“Addons” menu bar. the pop-up will focus on that door.

The Editor works in two different modes: Dialog Mode and 3D Editor. When you To close the pop-up, click on an
first open the Editor, it will start in Dialog Mode. This mode can be used to select doors, empty area of the main dialog
turn them on/off and set their parameters. box.

The Reset button will Undo all

When you first open the Editor in Dialog
your modifications and restore
Mode, the following Dialog will appear,
the airplane configuration as it
displaying the currently selected Airplane,
was before you entered the Edi-
with its doors configuration as currently
tor. The Save button will save
known by GSX. As further explain in the
the configuration in a GSX.CFG
manual, GSX can use different data sourc-
file, located in the %APPDATA%\
es for your airplane, with different reliabil-
Virtuali\Airplanes\Air-
ity, depending if the airplane is internally
planeName folder.
supported by GSX, has an intelliscene.cfg
file in its folder, or just by looking at the
Inside each door’s pop-up, you can set the following parameters:
aircraft.cfg, which is the worse possible
case. Regardless of which data source GSX
• How FSX checks for the door’s status (opened/closed)
uses for your airplane, you’ll be able to cre-
• The door position on the longitudinal, lateral and vertical axes, in meters
ate a GSX.CFG for it, that will override data
• The door’s Angle relative to the airplane fuselage.
found in the existing data source, so you
can improve and fully customize any air-
To remove a door entirely (no GSX services will be associated to it), select the first
plane, and have it fully supported by GSX.
drop-down list as “No door at this position”, which will remove the door
entirely from GSX usage, the screen for a removed door will look like as in the follow-
ing screenshot:
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 31

Note the “Name” and “Custom Check” fields: the Name is set to “My Custom Door”,
If a door is set as “Door with Custom open/close checks” two additional
this means that, when a GSX vehicle will approach the door, before starting its services,
input fields will appear:
it will wait for your intervention to open the door, with the message “[GSX] Waiting
for your action: open My Custom Door”. Doors using standard FSX vari-
• Name - This is how GSX will reference that door, instead of the default Exit 1, 2,
ables will be referred using standard names, but custom doors can be freely renamed.
3 and 4 or Service 1, 2 or Cargo 1, 2
• Custom Check - This is the XML Expression that can be used to read the door’s
The “Custom Check” field is set to (L:MyVar, bool), this is how GSX can check if
status, which might involve custom L: Variables
a custom door is open or closed. In this example, the door is considered to be open if
the MyVar custom variable is True (the result of the expression is not 0) and closed if
Finding custom variables used by a specific airplane, requires a good knowledge of the
the expression is False (the expression returns 0). You can include any kind of XML code
FSX SDK. Such variables are usually embedded in the airplane .MDL file, and require a
fragment here, allowing GSX to interface with any airplane, even the most advanced
bit of trial and error and knowledge of the FSX XML expression language.
ones, which usually have non-standard ways of opening and closing their doors.
The pop-up dialog for a door with a Custom check will look as in the following screen:
If a door is set as “Door with no open/close checks”, GSX will use it normally,
but it will not wait for you to open it to start a service. This can be useful with 3rd
party airplanes that have fake/inop doors that cannot be opened.
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 32

The 3D Editor Mode to the Lateral (Left/Right) distance relative to the Airplane fuselage, since the door
is perpendicular to it.
Although you can edit the doors positions by inserting the numerical values directly while • Red - Lateral axis, relative to the door’s heading, which correspond to the Lon-
in Dialog Mode, is surely much easier to place them interactively in 3D graphics mode. gitudinal (Forward/Back) distance relative to the Airplane fuselage.
• Blue - Vertical axis, which represents the door’s height from ground.
To access the 3D Editor Mode, simply select a door, and click the “Customize in
3D Editor” button. This will leave the Dialog mode and will go back to graphics The arrows indicates the positive direction of the axes, which means, when values
mode, with the currently selected door ready to be edited interactively, as in the fol- increase, the door will move in the direction pointed by the arrow. Over the vertical
lowing picture: arrow, a label indicates the door designation, for an easy recognition.

You can move the pointer using the Slew Keys, which by default are assigned as in
the following table:

Editor Function Key command Default Key

Raise Door (Blue axis) Slew Up Quickly F4
Lower Door (Blue axis) Slew Down Quickly F1
Move Fwd on Green axis Slew Move Forward NumPad 8
Move Bck on Green axis Slew Move Backward NumPad 2
Move Back on Red axis Slew Move Left NumPad 4
Move Fwd on Red axis Slew Move Right NumPad 6
Rotate Door Left Slew Rotate Left NumPad 1
Rotate Door Right Slew Rotate Right NumPad 3
Coarse/Precision mode Slew Freeze All NumPad 5
Edit Next Door Slew Bank Right NumPad 9
Edit Previous Door Slew Bank Left NumPad 7
Exit from Editor Slew Toggle Y

When you press the “Slew Toogle” ( key Y by default ), the 3D editor will close and
As soon as you enter the 3D Editor Mode, a pointer with the 3 axes will appear at your changes will be automatically saved to the GSX.CFG file.
the door position, as currently known by GSX. The 3 axes are color coded as follows:

• Green - Longitudinal axis, relative to the door’s heading, which correspond

 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 33

Airplane Configuration Editor from the “Couatl powered products” menu.

• Select a door and click the “Customize in 3D Editor” button. The graphical
pointer will appear, allowing to move the door, and the vehicles will still be there
as a reference.
• Once you exit the Editor and Save your settings, use the “Reset Position”
command from the GSX standard menu, then try another operation, to check the
vehicles position with the updated configuration.

The top green status line will indicate the actual door position as Longitudinal, Lateral
and Vertical distances in meters. The Longitudinal and Lateral values are expressed in
distances from the airplane Reference Point, with positive values meaning Forward/
Right and negative values meaning Back/Left. The Vertical axis value (the 3rd value
displayed, indicates the door’s Height over ground.

A small L shaped rectangle colored in Blue/Orange, can help you to better position the
door pointer in relationship to the actual doors location. It’s usually easier to open all
doors before entering the 3D Editor, since the door commands will not operate while
the 3D Editor is active. De-icers In/Out points

Previewing your changes with GSX vehicles Starting with GSX 1.9, De-icing vehicles has been introduced, and in order to follow
the wing profile precisely, GSX must be aware of the coordinates of 2 control points,
Sometimes, you might want to check how good your position is, with an actual GSX named “De-icing In” and “De-Icing Out”. The De-icing vehicles will work between
vehicle in use. To do this, use the following procedure: these two points. They can be set in the same way of any other door, either by typing
coordinates manually, or interactively using the 3D editor. For the best results, place
• Select a GSX operation, for example “Deboarding”, if you need to check positions of both points roughly in a halfway longitudinal position over the wing, and a bit inside
Passenger and Cargo doors, or “Catering” to check the positions for Service Doors the wingtip, see the two screenshots below for an example:
• Wait for the relevant vehicles to go into their working positions, and then open the
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 34

This way, you will be able to do fixes to airplanes already recognized by GSX, without
having to supply every data or losing some advanced configuration options that are
native to the airplane, like custom doors or custom ground connections.

The GSX.CFG file works like a standard .INI file, and it’s divided in sections, each one
containing a key/value pair.

GSX.CFG Sections

The GSX.CFG file has a main [aircraft] section, and several sections, one for each
airplane exit.
GSX 1.9 comes already internally configured with support for all default and many The [aircraft] section contains the following keys:
popular 3rd party airplanes, and the de-icers in/out point has been added starting with
this version. You generally need to specify those points only when you need to add nosegear = x
support for an unsupported airplane.
Distance in meters from the airplane reference point and the front gear, used by GSX
The GSX.CFG file to know where to attach the Pushback truck.

The following is a complete in-depth explanation of the GSX.CFG file, to let you un- refueling = 0
derstand exactly what each parameter does, in case you need to modify an existing
file. With the introduction of the interactive Airplane Configuration Editor in GSX 1.7, The Refueling key controls the appearance of the standard Fuel/Load page when the
there’s no need to know all the following details, but we included them anyway for Refueling service is called. By setting it to 0, the standard Fuel/Load page will not display,
completeness. this could be useful if the airplane you use has a custom Fuel page that you’ll rather
use instead of the default one.
An airplane can be customized by creating a file named GSX.CFG, that needs to be
placed in the airplane Root folder, the same that contains the aircraft.cfg file. For Following the [aircraft] section, there will be one or more [exitN] sections,
example, if you want to customize the default Boeing 747-400, you will have to create one for each door you want to customize. There’s no need to insert all the exits, just
a GSX.CFG file in the FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\B747_400 folder. the ones you want to customize. If an Exit section is missing, GSX will try to take the
information from its other data sources ( the internal database, the aircraft.cfg file, etc.
Complete and partial customization. ). But you CAN disable an existing Exit, if you need.

It’s possible to customize both a new airplane that is entirely unknown to GSX, and an [exit1]
airplane that is already supported by it. If the airplane in unknown, you’ll likely have to
insert data for every door you want to use, but if it’s already supported, your information The [exit1] section refers to the first door on the left side of the airplane, which is
will override what data is already available in the GSX internal database, and if you usually the main passengers door, where the jetway and the front stairs connects to.
don’t supply all information, the data in the GSX internal database will be used instead. This section accepts the following parameters:
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 35

remove = 1 non-standard ways to open them, without having to remove the door and thus losing
its associated services.
This remove parameters instructs GSX to ignore this exit, and can be used to disable The name parameter it’s a string which is presented to the user when GSX asks to
all services linked to it. Removing a passenger exit will disable passengers stairs and open that door, to help identify it better. Not setting this parameter will use a generic
will stop GSX from asking to open that door when boarding/deboarding passengers. “Exit x” name, but it’s possible to use any name, to conform to the naming conven-
NOTE: the remove parameter should be used alone, without any other parameters tion of the airplane.
on the same Exit section. [exit2]
pos = X Y Z Angle
The [exit2] section refers to the 2nd passenger door on the left, and it accepts the
The Pos parameter is probably the most important, because it specifies the Exit position, same parameters as the [exit1] section. It’s the exit were the mid stairs connects to.
and it’s expressed in meters from the airplane reference point for the first 3 parameters
( X, Y and Z ) and an angle, expressed in degrees, to specify the door orientation. [exit3]

X is a Lateral (Left/Right) offset from the airplane center, and negative numbers means The [exit3] section refers to the 3rd passenger door on the left, and it accepts the
Left. same parameters as the [exit1] section. Currently, GSX doesn’t use the 3rd exit.
Y is the Longitudinal (Front/Back) offset from the airplane center, with positive numbers
going in the Front direction and negative numbers going towards the Back of the airplane. [exit4]

Z is the Height of the Exit, measured from the ground level. The door height usually The [exit4] section refers to the 4th and last passenger door on the left, and it ac-
affect the choice of stairs and the kind of loaders in case of cargo exits. cepts the same parameters as the [exit1] section. It’s the exit were the rear stairs
connects to.
code = n
[service1]
The code parameter it’s an integer number, usually 1, 2, 3 or 4, which indicates which
command is used to open the Exit in FSX. The numbers correspond to the standard The [service1] exit is the front door on the right side of the airplane, used by the
Shift+E command, which it’s usually followed by a number. Catering service. It accepts the same commands of a regular Exit, but adds the following:

For example: flip = n

code = 1 - indicates the door opens with Shift+E ( the 1 is not necessary ) The flip parameter, followed by an integer number from 1 to 4, indicates the door
code = 2 - indicates the door opens with Shift+E and then 2 quickly thereafter. has a mirrored position, taken from the Exit indicated by that number. This allows you
code = 3 - indicates the door opens with Shift+E and then 3 quickly thereafter. to quickly add a symmetrical service Exit to be used for Catering, if you don’t want to
insert the position manually. Of course, if the service door in your airplane is not sym-
name = door name metrical to the corresponding door on the left side, you are free to insert its precise
location, using the Pos parameter, like any other Exit.
If code is set to 0, the door will still work, but will be ignored by GSX which will not
Example:
wait for it to start its animations. This is useful to enable airplanes with static doors or
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 36

name = Front Cargo Door

[service1] uldcode = ““
flip = 1
name = Front Catering door [cargo2]
pos = 0.90 -11.0 2.10 0.0
[service2] name = Rear Cargo Door
flip = 4 uldcode = AKE
name = Rear Catering door
In this example, we specified the Front cargo door to be located at 1 meter on the right
This two sections define the two catering doors, the front one being mirrored from the side of the airplane, 12 meters in front and with its threshold at 2.10 meters of height.
main passenger exit 1, and the rear one mirrored from the rear passenger exit. We used This would normally trigger a container loader vehicle ( they usually appear when the
a custom name for both, so they will display as such by GSX, instead of just “Exit x” door is higher than 2 meters), but since we specified ““ as uldcode, a Baggage loader
with a Conveyor Belt will be used instead.
[cargo1]
The 2nd cargo door it’s 90 centimeters on the right, 11 meters in the back and it’s 2.1
The [cargoN] sections are used to define the exits used by baggage and container meters high. We specified the container type should be the AKE type, which is one of
loaders. They use the same parameters as a standard exit, with the following addition: the most commonly used types.

uldcode = code [cargo2]

The uldcode parameter is a string code, usually 3 characters in length, that identify The [cargo2] section, as seen in the previous example, accept the same parameters
the standard IATA code for the Unit Load Device (the container) used by that door. as the [cargo1] section.
It’s important to specify the correct ULD code, so a container having dimensions ap-
propriate for the airplane and the door size will be used. If this code is set to ““ (two A complete GSX.CFG file example for the default A321, commented:
double quotes), the Cargo loaders will be disabled for that exit, and a Conveyor Belt
vehicle will appear instead. [aircraft]
nosegear = 12.25
This way, you have the flexibility to specify, for example, to have a conveyor belt even refueling = 1
on an airplane with fairly high doors that, with the automatic loader selection strategy,
; Nosegear at 12.25 mt ahead of the airplane center
would result in a Cargo loader, which might not be appropriate for the airplane. Some
; default Fuel/Load page is enabled
example are the 757 or the Concorde. And, it’s possible to specify different configura-
tions for the front and rear Cargo exits. [exit1]
pos = -1.95 12.4 3.7 5
Example: code = 1
name = exit 1
[cargo1]
pos = 1.0 12.0 2.10 0.0 ; Main passenger doors is at
; 1.95 mt on the left, 12.4 mt ahead and 3.7 mt high
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 37

; angled at 5 degrees clockwise [cargo1]

; can be opened with Shift+E (the 1 is not needed) pos = 1.2 8.9 2.5 0
; GSX will label the exit as “exit 1” code = 2
name = exit 2
[exit2] uldcode = AKH
pos = -2.0 3.6 3.7 0
code = 1 ; Front cargo door, can be opened with Shift+E then 2
name = exit 1 ; and accepts the A320 type container, the AKH

; Second passenger door, has the same code as the main [cargo2]
; passenger door and open with Shift-E too. pos = 1.2 -11.4 2.5 0
code = 2
[exit3] name = exit 2
remove = 1 uldcode = AKH

; 3rd passenger door don’t exists on this airplane ; Rear cargo door shares the same opening command as the Front ;
[exit4] cargo door, and accepts the same kind of container.
pos = -1.8 -18.85 3.7 -5
code = 1 Saving the GSX.CFG file.
name = exit 1
The “Save” button, will save the CFG.CFG file in memory in the %APPDATA%\Vir-
; the last passenger door in the rear opens together with
tuali\Airplanes\YourAirplaneRootFolder folder:
; the main passenger door, so it has the same code/name

[service1] YourAirplaneRootFolder is the same name of the folder that contains the currently
pos = 1.95 12.45 3.7 -5 loaded airplane, in the regular Simobjects\Airplanes folder, under the main FSX
code = 3 folder. For example, editing the Default Airbus A321 and just pressing “Save”, will create
name = exit 3 a GSX.CFG file in the %APPDATA%\Virtuali\Airplanes\Airbus_A321 folder.

; Front catering door is not perfectly symmetrical with The reason for saving into the %APPDATA% folder, is to ensure the file can be writ-
; the main passenger door (5 cm ahead) and it opens ten without problems even if the UAC is enabled. As soon as you Save your file, the
; using Shift+E then 3, and it’s named “exit 3” modifications to the airplane configuration in GSX will be applied immediately so, for
example, you can try a boarding/deboarding test, to verify your edits, choose “Reset
[service2]
pos = 1.6 -18.85 3.9 5 position”, going into the editor again, test again and so on, to refine your configuration.
code = 3
name = exit 3

; Rear catering door shares the same Shift+E then 3

; command as the Front catering door.
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 38

Unit Load Devices - Loading/Unloading your Cargo IATA ICAO Dimensions Description
AKC LD1 156/234 × 153 × 163 cm Contoured, half width, used for 747
Starting with version 1.3, GSX supports two means of loading and unloading cargo:
DPE LD2 119/156 × 153 × 163 cm Contoured, half width, used by the 767

• The standard Baggage Conveyor Belt, used since the first version AKE LD3 156/201 × 153 × 163 cm Contoured, half width, used by B77, A330/340, MD11

AKH LD3-45 114 × 153 × 163 cm 45” height for loading on Airbus A320 family
• The larger Cargo loaders, with two platforms that can handle baggage and mail ALF LD6 406 x 153 x 163 cm Full-width lower hold container with angled ends
loaded on standard containers. ALP LD11 317 x 223 x 163 cm Full-width lower hold container. Canvas Door.
•
AMP M1 317 x 243 x 243 cm Main-deck container. Door is canvas with built-in net door straps.
On wide-body airplanes, it’s more efficient to load Cargo (Baggage and Mail), using
loaders that move standard containers, named Unit Load Device or ULD for short. Their DQF LD8 243 x 153 x 163 cm Full-width lower hold container angled at both ends. Canvas door with
built-in door straps.
type and measurement is fairly strict, since they must adapt to the fuselage shape and
size, and the cargo door size too. There are several containers type used for different Below, a table of which ULD are used in most common airplane types:
airplane types, and GSX supports the most popular ones which are used on the Lower
Cargo bay.
Aircraft IATA ULD ICAO ULD
A unit load device (ULD), is a pallet or container used to load luggage, freight, and mail B747 LD1 AKC
on wide-body aircraft and specific narrow-body aircraft. It allows a large quantity of B767 LD2 DPE
cargo to be bundled into a single unit. Since this leads to fewer units to load, it saves B777 LD3 AKE
ground crews time and effort and helps prevent delayed flights. Each ULD has its own
B787 LD3 AKE
packing list (or manifest) so that its contents can be tracked.
A300 LD3 AKE
All ULDs are identified by their ULD number. A three-letter prefix identifies its type, A310 LD3 AKE
followed by a 4 or 5 digit serial number to uniquely identify it from others of the same A319 LD3-45 AKH
type, and ending with a two character (alpha-numerical) suffix identifying the ULD’s A320 LD3-45 AKH
owner (if an airline, often the same as IATA designator codes).
A321 LD3-45 AKH
For example, AKN 12345 DL means that the ULD is a forkliftable LD3 with the unique A330 LD3 AKE
number 12345 and its owner is Delta Air Lines. A340 LD3 AKE
A380 LD3 AKE
GSX supports the most widely used ULDs, listed in the table on the next page: MD-11 LD3 AKE
L-1011 LD3 AKE
IL-86 LD3 AKE
IL-96 LD3 AKE
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 39

ULDs specifications: IATA ULD code: ALP rectangular container

Also known as: ALD, AW2, AWB, AWD, AWZ, DLP, DWB, and
MWB. Refrigerated version: RWB, RWD, and RWZ.
IATA ULD Code: AKC Contoured Container
Also known as: AVC, AVD, AVK, AVJ
ALP Rate class: Type 6
Description: Full-width lower hold container. Door is canvas.
AKC Forkable: AVY Center post swings clear for loading. Refrigerated version has
Classification: LD-1 solid door.
Rate Class: Type 8 LD11 Suitable for: 747, 777, 787, DC-10, MD-11 lower hold
Door opening: 120 x 61-in (305 x 155-cm)
LD1 Suitable for: B747, B767, B777, MD-11
Internal volume: 4.8 cu. m (169.5 cu. ft) Maximum gross weight: 3,176 kg (7,002 lb)
Maximum gross weight: 1588 kg (3501 lb Tare weight: 185 kg (408 lb)
IATA ULD code: AMA rectangular container on P6P base Rate
IATA ULD Code: AKE Contoured Container
class: Type 2
Also known as: AKE, AVA, AVB, AVC, AVK, DVA, DVE, DVP,
XKS, XKG AMP Also known as: AMF, AMG, AMK, AMP, AQA, AQD, and AQ6
AKE Forkable: AKN, AVN, DKN, DVN, XKN
Description: Main-deck container. Door is canvas with built-in
net door straps.
Classification: LD-3
Suitable for: 747F, 747 Combi
Rate Class: Type 8
M1 777F center loading only
LD3 Suitable for: A300, A310, A330, A340, B747, B767, B777, DC-
10, MD-11, L1011
Maximum gross weight: 6,804 cm (15,000 lb) Tare weight:
350 kg (772 lb),
Internal volume: 4.3 cu. m (152 cu. ft)
Maximum gross weight: 1588 kg (3500 lb)
Dimensions LxWxH: 156cm x 153cm x 163cm (61.5”/47” x 60.4” The choice to decide which method of cargo loading will be used (Conveyor Belt or
x 64”) Cargo Loader), varies depending how the airplane is recognized by GSX:
DPE IATA Code: LD2
Type Code: DPE
Also known as: DPA, APA, DPN (Forkable) If the airplane is recognized by GSX internal database, we already set up the correct
LD2 Tare Weight: 92 kg* / 203 lb*
Weight Limitation: 1’225 kg / 2’700 lb
ULD type for each supported airplane.
Aircraft: B767
If the airplane is not included in the GSX internal database, the choice will be made
Dimension LxWxH: 244cm X 153cm X 117cm (96”/61.5” X 60.4”
X 46”) depending on the Cargo door height: if it’s less than 2 meters, a Conveyor Belt loader
AKH IATA Code: LD3-45 (LD45) will be used, otherwise the loader will a Cargo loader.
Type Code: AKH
Also known as: DKH
In the previous pages, we demonstrated how you can control the assignment creating
LD3-45 Tare Weight: 82 kg* / 180 lb* a GSX.CFG file, with an uldcode parameter that can control which container type
Weight Limitation: 1’588 kg / 3’500 lb will be used for every Cargo exit.
Aircraft: A319, A320, A321

IATA ULD code: ALF contoured container The ULD used by GSX are customized with airline logos and their identification
Also known as: AWA, AWF, and forkable AWC code, according to correct IATA standards, as explained before. The airline selection is
ALF Rate class: Type 6W
Description: Full-width lower hold container with angled ends.
made according to the following strategy:
Door is canvas with built-in door straps. If your airplane.cfg includes the ICAO code of your airline in the atc_parking_codes
Suitable for: 747, 777, 787, DC-10, MD-11 lower hold parameter, this will take precedence over any other selection method. It’s assumed you
LD6 Door opening: 120 x 60-in (305 x 152-cm)
Maximum gross weight: 3,175 kg (7,000 lb) will preferably load containers with the airline logo of the airplane. If your airplane
Tare weight: 230 kg (507 lb) doesn’t have an atc_parking_codes parameter in its aircraft.cfg file, the selection
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 40

will be made per airport, using the same selection methods as the handling vehicles.
In this case, it might happen you will load containers with a logo on departure, and a
different one when unloading on arrival. This is normal, and can’t be prevented if your
airplane.cfg doesn’t have the airline code set.

The standard Cargo Loader used is modeled after the real world FMC Commander 15,
a very popular vehicle, with two hydraulic platforms that can reach doors as high at
3.55 meters. GSX version 1.8 added support for the FMC Commander 30i, which can
reach the Main Cargo door, up to 5.558 mt. of height.

Live Update
GSX has been designed with the capability of being constantly updated. The kind of The menu shows 3 options, allowing to Download and install the update, Read the
product is very suited to evolve: new 3rd party airplanes that require support with release notes or Ignore the update.
doors configuration and special features, and new 3rd party airports that might need
a specific customization, are being released every day. And of course, with such com- If you choose to Ignore the update, there will be no further automatic notifications,
plex code that needs interaction with a wide range of addons and user habits, bugs until the NEXT update will be published. But it’s always possible to force an Update
are always possible. check manually, using the “Check Live Update” option under the “Couatl powered
product” menu under the “Addons” menu of the main FSX menu bar:
With the Couatl Live Update, your product will be always fresh without much effort to
check for new versions. The Couatl Live Update also covers other products, from FSDT vUsing the “Check Live Update” function, you can check if there’s an update available
and 3rd parties that license the Couatl scripting engine, and can be kept updated very without having to wait up 24 hours after it has being published, and get a chance
easily with the same method. to download or read about an update that you chose to ignore with the automatic
notification.
How it works
The option to Read the list of changes, will launch a mini-browser window (which
The Couatl Live Update is integrated in the Couatl engine, and notifications for updates works in FSX Full Screen mode too), that contains an updated web page that lists all
are both automatic or triggered by the user. the news related to the update.

The automatic notification runs once every day. No background tasks are installed, the It’s possible to read the release notes again, by selecting “Check Live Update” again,
notification it’s part of the Couatl engine and runs only with FSX. The system will check even if you already installed the update.
our servers every 24 hours, and if there’s an update, will be shown with a standard
FSX menu:
 FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 41

and the Couatl engine will restart automatically, so all the new code changes will be
immediately available without requiring an FSX restart.

After selecting Option 1, the Live Update will be downloaded and installed, and the
following screen will appear:

Minor and Major Updates Launching the Updater outside FSX

There are two kind of updates that might be made available: we call them Minor and It’s possible to launch the Updater when FSX is not running, this might be useful if you
Major updates, and will be labeled differently in the Live Update notification window. want to be sure you have the latest updates before starting a flight, or if any kind of
connection problems or corrupted downloads might prevent the Live Update to work
Minor Updates from within FSX.

A Minor update can be downloaded and installed “On the Fly”, without having to leave The Updater is located in the following folder:
FSX, and usually covers the following:
YourFSXFolder\Fsdreamteam\Couatl\Couatl_Updater.exe
• New 3rd party Airplane supported. The GSX internal database of airplanes will be
updated to add new products to the list of supported airplanes, with their doors It’s should be launched directly from this folder when FSX is not running, and it’s
configurations and special features like ground connections. equivalent of doing a manual update inside FSX.
• New or improved airport customization files, featuring both default and 3rd party
airports, to better detection of parkings, pushback paths, jetway locations and
other issues that might affect GSX
• Code fixes and new features for the core GSX program code, or general improve-
ments to the scripts shared by all plugins powered by the Couatl engine, including
sceneries from FSDT and other Couatl licensee that use the scripting engine to
create special features in their sceneries.

All these updates can be downloaded and installed without exiting FSX, if you select
the Download and Install option, a separate Updater utility will be launched:
At the end of the download process, a menu will announce that the Update has been
successfully installed (or will announce of any problems, like a connection problem),
FsDreamTeam GSX - Ground Services for FSX - page 42

Major Updates Updating GSX 3D Models, Textures and Sounds

There are times when an Update can’t be downloaded and installed on the fly, because These are the largest files that takes most of the installer space which means they’ll
it requires an update of the Addon Manager .DLL module, or the Couatl executable, require downloading and installing the most current GSX installer. We might add them
so you will have to Quit from FSX, download and install the Stand-Alone Addon to the Live Update service in future upgrades.
Manager for FSX, ( which contains all the updates normally found in a Minor update
too ), but also other files that couldn’t be downloaded and installed without restart- However, if such update is required, you’ll be notified by the Live Update program, with
ing FSX. When a Major update is available, the notification menu is slightly different: the release notes, that will explain when a full GSX download and installation is needed.
Note the menu Title: it’s says “An Addon Manager upgrade is available”, and the text
saying you can install update without restarting FSX it’s gone. This indicates a Major
Update.

Major updates that requires exiting from FSX and install the Stand-Alone Addon Manager
are usually reserved for features that require to update one or both the two executable
modules that are required by GSX, or to update files that can’t be installed while FSX
is running, like airport .BGLs.

Note that, it’s usually possible to obtain the same result as installing the latest Stand-
Alone Addon Manager, also by reinstalling GSX with its full installer