Publish Gate Assignment

[Jonas Kuster (1158939)]

GRP 1.4

Are there any plans to provide the stand status/assignment information via a standardised format to be used for implementation in web applications (overview for pilots about the available stands, arrival/departure boards)?

[Juha Holopainen]

No plans, as there isn't a standardized format to publish them in. It wouldn't be too difficult for someone to code a plugin to gather that information though as the assignments are all broadcast as scratchpad messages, and then publish the information in any format that's necessary. The plugin would only need to monitor scratchpad changes to have all the necessary information. If a project such as this gets underway, I can provide a list of scratchpad messages the plugin uses, but even though I have no plans at the moment to change them, I cannot guarantee they would stay the same in all future plugin versions.

[Jonas Kuster (1158939)]

Ok, then. I'll start coding something then. Can you let me know the message formats you use in the scratchpad?

And is there some exchange via the fligt strip annotation box? Or are this other plugins only? I can remember some discussion to make UKCP, SMR and vStrips work together.

[Juha Holopainen]

The current scratchpad message are as follows (all relate to information for that aircraft):

• GRP/S/<standname>
  • Assignment of arrival stand <standname> at the aircraft's destination airport
• GRP/S/
  • Removal of arrival stand assignment
• GRP/M/<icao>/<standname>
  • Assignment of "manually parked" at airport <icao> stand <standname>
• GRP/M/
  • Removal of "manually parked" assignment
• ONFREQ
  • On Freq state set
• DE-ICE
  • De-ice state set
• ST-UP
  • Start-up state set (handled as custom state when using an older ES version where it is not a default state)
• LINEUP
  • Line-up state set
• NOSTATE
  • No state set

The assigned arrival stand is also stored in the flight strip (index 6, format "s/<standname>/s") as a back-up method to transfer the information to the next controller during handover even if he/she hasn't received the assignment scratchpad broadcast, but the scratchpad broadcast is the only way the plugin actively sends the information out.