Gates And Taxiways

    What is a gate? A gate is a spot were an airplane parks, like a driveway, or a garage. Gates also use names. They use a letter followed by a number to form a gate number. Gate names are very important. If we didn't have names for the gates, pilots would have to find there own gates, and if you were at a busy airport with heavy traffic, you would waist a lot of time searching for one that's open. Because of this great gate system, pilots can be assigned open gates ahead of time.

 Ramps are those long hallways on wheels that connects the terminal to the airplane. It can come in all sorts of sizes and shapes. Sometimes there aren't any ramps at all. Airports that don't have ramps are usually smaller airports, that don't have at lot of heavy traffic.

     Taxiways are one of the most cool, challenging, important, and useful components of an airport. Taxiways are like roads for airplanes. They help aircraft navigate around the airport. Each taxiway has a name, just like gates and runways. Taxiways have a letter, and sometimes a number after it. The picture above is a photo of a taxiway sign. On the left side there is a black square that has the name of the taxiway you are on. In this case the letter is B. The right side tells you what taxiway you would be on if you turned to the direction of the arrow. Here's an example of how taxiways work. As you probably know, streets have names too. If you were planning a trip starting from Chicago to Denver, then you'd probably grab a map and write down all the names of the streets that you need to be on to get to your destination. This is the same principle used by taxiways. So how do I know which taxiways to taxi on? This question has a simple answer. You need a Airport Diagram. An airport diagram is a map that has a complete layout of the airport. It gives you information of the runways, taxiways, terminals, etc. I'm going to talk on airport diagrams in more detail in the future.

     When you think about it, E, C, B, D, G, T, and V sound a lot alike, especially when you using a radio in your airplane to communicate with the ATC. In aviation we don't say the letters, we use a simple name for each letter, so that we don't get mixed up with the letters that sound alike. This new kind of ABC's is known as the PHONETIC ALPHABET. The phonetic alphabet has names for each letter. If we look at the picture above, ATC wouldn't say taxi via B then turn right onto B3. He would probably say something like taxi via Bravo, then turn right onto Bravo 3. When you want to say the letter B on a radio you would say the word bravo instead. If you wanted to say the letter G, you would have to say the word golf, and so on. You will later have to memorize the whole alphabet, but don't worry about it for now.

     Taxiways, ramps, gates, there all really cool parts that make up an airport. I hope you learned something new, and maybe something useful.

If you want to have a shot at memorizing the phonetic alphabet, click the link bellow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FAA_Phonetic_and_Morse_Chart2.svg

Runways

     I'm going to talk a little on Airports, and their functions.

     First thing that you should know; what is a runway? A runway is the long cement strip at your airport, it sort of looks like a road. A runways purpose is to help airplanes land and takeoff safely, and efficiently.

     It has several white lines in the center, that make up what’s called the centerline, hard to remember right. Unlike a road, the centerline does not divide the runway into two different lanes, its main purpose is to keep you on the runway, without drifting to far one direction. Think about the lines as one continual track, and you are the train, your goal is to stay on the track, so you don't derail.

      Runways have names just like airplanes, ships, cars, and you, only their names are always in numbers, sometimes followed by a letter. This number is the magnetic heading of the runway. For example, we know there are 1-360 degrees on a compass, and if we were to be on runway 10, then we just need to add a zero to the end of 10, and we would have 100 degrees. Now we know that if we are lined up on the centerline, on runway 10, then we must be facing 100 degrees. Other examples, runway 15 would be a heading of 150 degrees, and runway 01L would be runway 10 left.

     Sometimes there's a letter after the number, as you saw in the previous example. What if there are two runways, that are both named 05, which we know is 50 degrees, and the ATC(Air Traffic Controller) instructs you to land on runway 05, which one should you land on if there are two of them. The runways should either have a L, or a R. The L stands for the word left, and the R stands for Right. Don't worry, the controller will tell you which one you should land on. Sometimes you might notice a C after the number. When there's three runways at an airport that have the same heading, the C will mean that it's the center runway and not the right or the left runway.

     There are more runway markings that you should know about, such as the Threshold, Touch Down Zone, and the Fixed Distance Marks. Some of these markings can help tell you were you should land on the runway, so that you will have enough room to slow down, will talk about these markings in other articles later on.

     Runways in a way, are like ramps to the highway. If you drive a car then you probably know that if you want to get to a certain destination, you need to first, pull out of the driveway, and then drive on several streets. The reason I bring this up is that a ramp is like a runway, by the fact that it helps you accelerate really fast in a short amount of time, to help you join the rest of the traffic, and ultimately get you to your destination quicker.

     I hope this made sense. I plan on talking about gates and taxiways, and other airport features later on.

About Me

     My name is Christopher, and I am a flight enthusiast, and 3d designer, and a virtual airline pilot.

     I'm building this blog to help others learn how to start virtual flying, and help those that already are. I'm also sharing the things I learn in development, to improve FSX.

     My blog is separated into five different sections. The first one is the Home page were all my posts and updates from all the pages go. Then there's my Training page were you will learn how to fly on FSX, and learn the skills of a real pilot. After that we have the Development Tab which shows you how to make airports, and scenery for your FSX. The last page is the Resources page were I keep all of the digital resources such as downloads, videos, and mp3 files. I plan on using my PathToTheClouds YouTube channel for video lessons. I will also my YouTube videos in the Downloads tab.

     Ever since I was a little kid, I was fascinated on how airplanes could just takeoff and be carried by an invisible force. It seemed pretty neat at that time. I just had to figure out it worked. Then it happened. I got hooked. There was nothing I could do about it. I fell in love with flight like so many other people in the world. I gained a greater appreciation for the Wright Brothers, and there efforts to build the first airplane. I started out with small airplanes and learned the basics of flying them such as  the airspeed and heading indicator. I enjoyed it very much. After a couple of real flights around the U.S, I decided that I was going to make my future career as an airline pilot. As I grew older I learned that there are some things that being an airline pilot will not let me experience, but since I was hook on this fascination of flight, I decided that I would do all I could, to learn how to fly. Because of my FSX and my membership in a VA(Virtual Airline) I have been able to enjoy part of what an Airline Pilot would experience.

     After you have learned how to fly, I encourage you to join a VA. It's really easy, just do a Google search find a VA that interest you and register. You will be glad you did.

     Make sure to watch my videos on my YouTube channel.

FSX Development

     This section of my blog will cover building, designing, and editing airports.

     Building airports for yourself has so many benefits, your able to build any payware quality airport for free. You can also build aircraft of all kinds. Right now i'm working on the Des Moines International Airport, or KDSM, and also my home airport Ankeny Regional Airport. Creating airports is a lot of fun. You can make it as detailed or poor quality as you want. I will also be posting tutorials from my YouTube channel. Bye the end of these tutorials you will have learned many skills that you can use on other projects. What skills will I learn? the one I will cover the most is 3d modeling. You will also learn what I call computer art, you will learn how to make textures to place on those 3d objects you create. If you don't already know this, textures are just pictures that can be pasted on a 3d object such as a runway or a hangar.

     There are several programs I use to build these airports. I currently use Blender 3d(for 3d modeling), Sketchup(also for 3d modeling), and Gimp(for texturing). Most people prefer Photoshop which is great tool if you have it, or if you are thinking of buying it, but I use gimp because its free, and I love free stuff. There are many other programs that you need to make scenery for FSX, but I will cover that later.

     You will be surprised at the realism that you can build into these airports.

     In order to follow along in these lessons you must have the Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK(FSX Software Development Kit), you can find it on your FSX installation discs. I will talk about the installation process later on.

     I'm sorry if I confuse you, or simplify things to much, or even miss a couple steps. I will be trying to teach these things as if I were a beginner.

 And make sure to check out my YouTubechannel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTze_BTsk61uvKnbEjHxR8Q

Introduction To FSX

     My name is Chris, and I have a passion for aviation. I am not an expert on everything, and I am still learning, but I hope to be of some help.

     I'm starting this blog to help, share, and record the things I learn and experience as an aviation enthusiast. Most of what I will post will be directed toward one of my favorite software packages. Flight Simulator X also known as FSX or Flight Simulator 10. It's a simulation of a real flight environment for your computer, and is an amazingly realistic program. A close competitor to it is X-Plane. I have tried X-Plane before. I thought it was okay, but I had several issues with it. The fps(frames per second) was awful for me, and I didn't like the physics on it compared to FSX. I will admit that the scenery in FSX is not the best, but it meets my needs. One of the best things about it is the many add-on you can add to make it realistic. Because of these add-ons I do not have trouble with the scenery anymore. Right now my FSX looks great.

     FSX was released by Microsoft around 2006. Microsoft had made several flight simulators before that, but not very many of them succeeded until they released FS2004, also called FS9. FS2004 was a glimpse of what would later be FSX. It was very popular to those of the FS world. It had better scenery and better physics. I never bought FS2004 because by the time I got interested in aviation, FSX was already out. I first took an interest in flight with FS2002. Since then I have loved everything about it.

     Right now I am currently a Virtual Airline Pilot. I fly daily on a virtual network known as Vatsim which is basically a virtual world for anyone who is looking for a real world flight experience. Before you can fly on it you must have a general idea of how to fly as if you were really in the airplane. My favorite thing about it is that they have live air traffic controllers that guide you from your departing airport to your destination. Their job is to organize the traffic so that no one crashes into each other or lands on top of one another. The pilot has to learn a special language to communicate with them. I'll probably talk more about it in the future.

     I hope this blog will help others to find an interest in aviation, and learn that it's not that hard to get souring, and for those that already know a lot you might find some tips and tricks that will be useful.