Airstair platform not reaching 4L door sill on A340-300

[miata54]

As the pic shows, the airstair, when fully extended, does not reach the door sill of 4L on the A340-300. I have tried changing both the lateral and height figures in the cfg file and have found that going from -2.15 lateral to -0.35 lateral will bring the stairs closer to the AC, but when increasing the height figure, it pulls the stairs back away from the AC. I can only assume this happens because the design angle of the stairs, which I'm guessing is around 45 degrees, is not high enough to reach higher heights, when fully extended.

Perhaps an airstair with a higher fixed angle to the ground but lower in degree number (say 35) would allow it to reach the door sill on heavies, such as the A340 series. I noticed a pic in a post on the PMDG 777 where the stairs did reach the proper level of 4L. Perhaps the ground to door sill height of the T7 is a bit lower than the A340-300. Don't know. Just guessing.

[Bruce Hamilton]

Check the door height in the editor, make sure they line up.

[virtuali]

If you download and install the Vehicles Updates 3 (link is on the GSX page) now, I've made a change to that staircase changing a bit the angle, and will now reach the rear door of the A340-300, I've tested it with the CLS version.

[miata54]

Thanks Umberto. As Bruce suggested, I checked to make sure that the vertical axis setting was the same in both editors and still could not get the airstairs up to the door sill of 4L. As I slowly increased the vertical setting, the airstair actually backed away from the AC! Will go get your revision and see what happens.

On another note, when "Deboarding" is selected, I have two airstairs appear and the one that goes to door 2L is already extended. The airstair to 4L is contracted and extends when it reaches 4L. Just curious about the stair to 2L starting out already extended.

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Back again 15 minutes later after a complete PC reboot, and the airstairs to 2L is NOT extended as previously reported, but now won't extend at all once in position. What is the trigger that causes the airstairs to extend? I'm not sure if I found your amended Vehicles #3 update, but what I D/L'd and installed did not bring the airstairs of 4L to the door sill. Using  the 3D Editor, these are the co-ordinates that were  generated:  -2.15, -23.85, 5.40, -8.00.  

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Back again 25 minutes later. Airstair 2L is gone. I now know why. I am using the jetways from AES with Fly Tampa KBOS and didn't have the "Parking with Jetways" square checked. The bus was also appearing which was a clue as well. So I can be certain I have the correct amended Vehicle #3 update, could you attach it here as airstairs to 4L is still not raising to the door sill. See pic.

Thanks

[virtuali]

You still haven't said which A340 model you use. And, be sure you use the default configuration that comes with GSX, I can't help you without first being sure you haven't done some kind of mistake creating the configuration file.

So, before trying anything, RESET the configuration in the Airplane configuration editor, and be sure you don't have a GSX.CFG in the FSX\Simobject\Airplanes\AIRPLANE_NAME folder too, so the default configuration from GSX is used.

This assuming you use the CLS A340. If you use something else, indicate the model used.

[miata54]

The model is Tom Ruth's A340-300. I removed the GSX cfg and Intelliscene cfg files which were in the aircraft folder. The Intelliscene file is used to activate the AES jetway. Loaded FSX, activated GSX, airstairs moved to 4L, executed command 6 (Reset) and activated GSX (Deboarding) once again. The result is pic #64. Pic # 63 shows the cfg after the "Reset" and with the GSX cfg file removed from the aircraft folder. Re-installed only the Intelliscene file.

Current cfg of the doors is as follows:

1L "No door at this position"
2L "No door at this position"
3L "No door at this position"
4L "Door as Open/Close checks with FSX door #3"

Appreciate your help.

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Further observation. Service door 2 parameter for height is 5.40. Catering truck 2 platform rises to meet the door sill. Door L4 and service door 2 appear to be mirrored when looking at the aircraft from various positions.

[Bruce Hamilton]

There is a configuration file for that airplane in the sharing forum, you can download it here.

[virtuali]

1L "No door at this position"
2L "No door at this position"
3L "No door at this position"
4L "Door as Open/Close checks with FSX door #3"

Since you have told GSX this airplane doesn't have any doors, except for the rearmost one, it's normal you won't see any stairs on any doors except 4L, which is exactly how it's happening according to your latest screenshot.

Configure the doors correctly, and everything will work.

Note that, the updated staircase can now reach higher than before, but that doesn't mean it can go everywhere. The new maximum height is 5.45 mt., up from 5.049 mt. in the previous version. This works with the CLS A340, perhaps your A340 model is higher than that. In that case, just set it at 5.45 mt. and see if the visual difference is not too distracting.

[miata54]

There is a configuration file for that airplane in the sharing forum, you can download it here.

I initially used that cfg when setting up the A340 but found the height was way short.

[miata54]

1L "No door at this position"
2L "No door at this position"
3L "No door at this position"
4L "Door as Open/Close checks with FSX door #3"

Since you have told GSX this airplane doesn't have any doors, except for the rearmost one, it's normal you won't see any stairs on any doors except 4L, which is exactly how it's happening according to your latest screenshot.

Configure the doors correctly, and everything will work.

Note that, the updated staircase can now reach higher than before, but that doesn't mean it can go everywhere. The new maximum height is 5.45 mt., up from 5.049 mt. in the previous version. This works with the CLS A340, perhaps your A340 model is higher than that. In that case, just set it at 5.45 mt. and see if the visual difference is not too distracting.

No problem with the door(s) appearing where they should be, or not. It is just the height that the airstairs go on L4. I don't know if the overall height of the CLS  A340-300 is lower than Tom Ruth's model, but that could very well be. On scale it appears to be between 24 and 30 inches that the airstair won't reach. Just have to accept it as is as a complete re-install of 1.8 did not solve the problem.

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Further note:

In reading through many forum posts, I see that there are other members who have reported problems in getting the L4 airstair to reach the proper height on "heavy's" as well.

[virtuali]

No problem with the door(s) appearing where they should be, or not. It is just the height that the airstairs go on L4. I don't know if the overall height of the CLS  A340-300 is lower than Tom Ruth's model, but that could very well be

Yes, the CLS A340 seems to be lower. The Wilco version is higher too so, I don't really know who's correct.

In any case, if you download the Vehicles Update 3 AGAIN, I've updated it again to reach up to 6.1 meters, which is enough for the Wilco version, hopefully it will for the Tom Ruth's model too.

[miata54]

OK, will get the Update #3 and will let you know what happens.

In the meantime, moving on from the A340-300, I decided to give a go on configuring the Project Airbus A380-800. I looked at the FT KBOS AFCAD first and found gates that were labeled "Heavy" at terminal E had wingspans set from 30m to 36m. The aircraft config file of the 380 listed the wingspan at 216.7 feet which converted over to 67m. I chose a gate with what I thought was sufficient physical room to accomodate the 380. I then changed the selected gate in the AFCAD to 72m to be on the safe side.

When I executed GSX, I was given an error message, "The gate you selected is too small for GSX to operate" or something to that effect. Having set the wingspan to 72m, I was puzzled at the message. I decided to slowly slew the AC backwards in small increments from the AFCAD selected parking position and doing so finally eliminated the "too small" error message. So it seems as though GSX is also measuring the amount of space for any particular aircraft relative to the proximity of the physical terminal building.

What is really interesting here though, is when I called for "Deboarding", the airstair for L4 moved into position and extended to the bottom of the door sill, like it is supposed to!    I went back and re-tried the A340-300 and it still would not make it to the door sill of L4. I find it hard to imagine that L4 on a A340-300 is higher than L4 on a A380-800! I suspect as you mentioned that there may be differences in modelling, but L4 on a 340 being higher than L4 on a 380 just doesn't compute. Maybe it is. Common sense says it isn't!

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Update:

Installed revised Vehicle Update 3 and SUCCESS! Set the height to 5.55 and the airstairs extended to the proper height. Solved.

Thanks Umberto for your attention.