How are you supposed to know where the ramp is to end your flight. The ATC instructions are useless.
I don’t really want to use the taxi assist, but the markings are inaccurate and the instructions are not helpful.
I look for the guy with the lights and the pushback tractor, but it’s not always obvious where to go. This is for a GA flight.
Sometimes those parking spots don’t even have marshals at them. At the very least, if they can’t yet get the taxiway marking correct, the ATC audio directions should include the parking spot or gate number. That is accurate at least from what I have seen in LNM. Shame that it won’t help in Navigraph charts, but it would be a start.
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Thats why I use the taxi ribbons. It’s often impossible to know where to go due to lack of signs or other markings in default airports. Yes, the ribbon looks awful, and was much better in previous versions of FS, but for now it’s the only real solution. Just have to hope either the ribbon is improved in a patch, or perhaps it can be improved with an addon or something.
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There is an addon that makes smaller arrows and a choice of colors. But it still leads to the box around the ramp and a sign. I wish we could turn it off and on with a key press.
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Yes, I know what you mean.
ATC generally, I feel, needs work.I am sure Asobo will tidy all this up in the fullness of time.
I use Little Nav Map running on an ‘old’ laptop and connected via wifi.
With LNM I can display an enlarged plan of any airport detailing taxiways and parking bays and the position of my aircraft.
I think they released the next version as a donationware that would remove the pointers and signs. I personally use the tiny green version so it’ll blend and double as taxiway lights.
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While many markings are indeed inaccurate, I’ve had success using the charts most of the time.
When markings are accurate, instructions by ATC are adequate. The problem is when they are not.
I know I’d pay for a key to show and hide the taxi ribbon when the markings aren’t accurate.
The ATC instructions are really horrible on the ground. While on descent I tend to look at the 10-9 charts from Navigraph to see where I’m going to be going. I also tend to plan my flights from parking spot to parking spot, typically to the FBO. So even if the ATC instructions and the labeling of the taxiways doesn’t match up I know where I’m going. But there are still some large international airports where I end up turning on the taxiway ribbons. I really wish there was a hotkey that we could turn them on and off easily at will rather than having to dig through a bunch of menus to enable and disable them.
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Agreed. A hot key to enable and disable the ribbons would be super appreciated.
A keyswitch would be good, but for me I’m fine with them being visible from the cockpit or HUD view, but they should not show ever in Showcase mode - in fact no markers of any kind should show once you switch to that mode; it should be the ‘real world camera’ view.
Very much a side note, but I find the marshals a bit unsettling sometimes. When I start a GA flight from a small field and they’re standing there right next to me, and I end up having to request pre-start pushback only because they’re standing there and it’s the only way I can get them clear of my prop (I know they’re not real people and it doesn’t matter, but there’s just something kind of itchy about starting up with someone that close to the blades. Yet if they weren’t standing there I wouldn’t need to push back at all.) Or I can try to steer past them, but I’ve already clocked more than one of them with a passing wingtip…
(The weirdest one I’ve found yet, though, was landing at a small, single-runway aerodrome on an island off Scotland, where there’s a single exit to parking halfway down the runway. After my landing roll I turned round and backtracked up to the exit and noticed the marshal and his truck standing back amongst a clump of trees off the side of the runway.)
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I let the AI copilot taxi once I vacate the runway. But you need to keep an eye on him, because at ENGM (Gardermoen) he has a propensity to crash into the terminal building. But mostly he stops at the correct spot and I can shutdown the engines and logbook pops up.
Personally I would like to have correct markings on the airports but that one may be a stretch since there are obviously some more pressing issues for ASOBO if some folks can’t even use the sim at times 
For the interim while I am not opposed to a key-map to toggle the ribbon I would prefer having the real world approach of progressive taxi.
I have indeed used that on a couple of occasions and once I think that was Long Beach during the airport remodel Ground provided it without asking because apparently enough signs were missing to really make it difficult.
On the other hand at least on the West Coast where I used to fly ATC would get to only to a certain area of the field and then once you are behind the dotted line it’s up to the PIC to find his way around the Non-Movement area. Parking spots etc that are inside of that do not fall under ATC supervision and you simply “drive” where you need to go.
I get the instructions from ATC and then turn on the co pilot and he finds it for you.
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Honestly, I use the co-pilot for taxiing. It helps with going through checklists and properly ending the flight.
I’m just waiting for GSX.
This is yet another reason why everyone should download and take advantage of Little Navmap. Because it pulls all of it’s airport data from the game itself, it has the ability to mark all of the taxiways exactly as they are referred to by ATC.
If you are on the fence about downloading this tool, get off. It has accurate radio frequency data, ILS frequencies, accurate airport layouts and navaid positioning etc. Until the game itself has easy access to all this information during flight, Little Navmap is indispensible.
I’m also a fan of letting AI co-pilot Charlie do most of the taxiing. I usually do the taxi off parking and exiting the runway myself and then hand over. Charlie has gotten a bit better it seems; although he/she does have a tendency to crash into the vehicles that swarm about on the active taxiways sometimes. Oh, and don’t let Charlie fly. Ever.
Just one thing - remember to turn AI assistance OFF before you exit. If you don’t, next time you start a flight, Charlie will have started the engines, called for pushback and be taxiing towards the nearest airport bus before you’ve had time to close the doors…
I let the copilot taxi and park up. Seems to know the way…
…he is a genius