Properties

This is the location for an airport that will appear in the Go To Airport window in FSX. If you are creating a new airport you can put in anything you want here but it is best to try to use the same spelling for country, state and city that FS does or you can end up with two entries for a country in the country list, with different spellings, and the same for state and city. For modifications to stock airports FSX will use the country, state and city names it finds in the stock airport file and will ignore the country, state and city found in the modified airport file. This means that there is no practical way to change the place names for an existing stock airport.

This is the name for an airport that will appear in the Go To Airport window in FSX and the Map View and GPS window. If you are creating a new airport you can put in anything you want here up to 48 characters. For modifications to stock airports, FSX will use the airport name it finds in the stock airport file and will ignore the name in the modified airport file. This means that there is no practical way to change the name for an existing stock airport.

This is the ICAO code (e.g. KLAX, EGLL) for larger airports or the regional airport code for others. It can be up to a maximum of four letters or numbers in length. When you modify a stock airport using ADE and create a new .bgl file for it, FS matches the Airport ID in the modified file with the stock airport and replaces the stock airport features with the features for the new airport. If you change the airport ID then the modified airport will no longer replace the stock airport, but instead it will appear as two airports at the same locations. Therefore, there is no practical way to change the Airport ID of an existing stock airport. You can, however, change the ID for an airport that does not come with FSX.

The magnetic variation for the airport can be found from published airport or aviation charts. This value is used for runways and navaids at the airport and it will appear on the GPS display and Map View for the airport. It is unknown what additional use FSX makes of this parameter but it is unlikely that it is applied to your aircraft compass, as Deviation data for that comes from more a general magnetic map.

The volume of AI traffic that is appropriate for this airport. 1.0 would apply to major airports.   By default ADE will use 0.7 and so far as we can tell all stock airports use this value.

The Bgl Scenery File does not actually contain information about the Region ID.   This is a two letter code that identifies the area of the world that the airport and other elements such as navaids are located.   This is usually the first two letters of the ICAO code,   For example EG for the UK and CY for Canada.   In the US there are seven region IDs K1 through K7.   Whist this information is not part of the airport record Airport Design Editor works it out and will display it here for information and also to be used when you add new navaids or way points at the airport.

Drop down

Some Developers find it useful to maintain a version number for their airport project.   Set the major minor version numbers to enable this.   Note that this is only stored in the ADE project file and not in the Bgl or XML files.

This sets the elevation for the airport.   Note that elevation of an airport is complicated to change.   In most cases (as described above) information in the new file will 'replace' that of the old.   FSX uses the last source it finds to set a property.   This is not true for elevation.   FSX will use the first value and this is going to be that in the stock file containing the airport.   There are ways of dealing with this but it is somewhat complicated.   Note that ADE will not allow you to modify the elevation in the current version.

Allows the changing of the Airport Reference Point coordinates.   You should change this if you have published information that shows it is in the wrong place.

This sets the location of the Airport Reference Point.   The airport reference point is the approximate center of the airport for navigation purposes. If you are creating a new airport you can usually use the Airport Location from the published charts for the airport. If that is not available then you can use the center point of the runway for single runway installations. This point does not have to be exact.     Some times and airport is in the wrong place so you might want to move it and move the ARP.   This can be done but it is not trivial and by moving the visual model it is quite possible to destroy some or all of the facilities model.