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Wrong navaids (e.g. outdated ILS frequencies) despite current navdata? Read this.


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We sometimes get messages by users of our airport that the navigation frequencies seem to be wrong, for example a missing ILS with the 111.35 frequency in EDDF (Frankfurt). As a user, one might think that the scenery is broken or has a bug. The reason, however, is different (the following explanation applies in general, not just for the EDDF example).

 

 

1. From where does X-Plane take its navigation frequencies?

 

ILS frequencies etc. are not part of the installed scenery, but taken from the installed navigation data, i.e. regardless of having installed a payware or freeware scenery of an airport, the frequencies are not taken from the actual scenery, but the navdata placed elsewhere.

 

X-Plane looks at the three places for navigation data, prioritized like this:

 

  1. X-Plane 11 / Custom Scenery / Global Airports / Earth nav data / earth_nav.dat
  2. X-Plane 11 / Custom Data / earth_nav.dat
  3. X-Plane 11 / Resources / default data / earth_nav.dat

 

This means X-Plane first checks if for the airport in question a default airport exists. The default airports were created by other X-Plane users for Laminar and the community and are shared in the Scenery Gateway:  https://gateway.x-plane.com

 

 

2. Which effect does this have?

 

If a default airport exists, X-Plane takes the navigation data from "X-Plane 11 / Custom Scenery / Global Airports / Earth nav data / earth_nav.dat"  -- regardless if "Global Airports" is disabled in scenery_packs.ini, and also regardless of more current navigation data installed. The mere existence of this file is enough for X-Plane to use this file.

 

However, if the Scenery Gateway's default airport has wrong or outdated data, X-Plane uses the wrong data, even if you also have installed current data.

 

 

3. What can I do if I get wrong frequencies due to the aforementioned things?

 

There are three possibilities:

 

  1. You can move, delete or rename the file "X-Plane 11 / Custom Scenery / Global Airports / Earth nav data / earth_nav.dat" . However, with each X-Plane update this file is re-installed. Deleting this file can also lead to other unwanted effects with other default airports.
  2. You can correct the file "X-Plane 11 / Custom Scenery / Global Airports / Earth nav data / earth_nav.dat" manually, for example with correct frequencies. Still, the original file will be re-installed with each X-Plane update (der installer usually asks, though, if you want to keep your changed file).
  3. You can contact the developer of the affected default airport via the Scenery Gateway and ask him to upload a correct version of his airport to the Gateway. In future X-Plane updates, such a new version was integrated in X-Plane by Laminar, i.e. the aforementioned file was updated, too.

 

The "cleanest" way of course is the third one, but the second one can be a short-term solution.

 

 

4. Why is this like it is anyway? Isn't this more like a bug?

 

It's not a bug. Laminar wants to keep the default airports consistent. It's explained here: https://developer.x-plane.com/?article=navdata-in-x-plane-11 Of course this can only work if changes to frequencies, which are already reflected by monthly updates through NavDataPro or Navigraph, are also included in the Scenery Gateway's navdata. But as the default airports have been created for free by X-Plane users, one can not expect that this happens quickly. That's why there can be discrepanices, and one has to find a workaround, as described in 3

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