Accurate taxi instructions have turned out to be one of the most difficult problems we've tackled with this project. (If that statement surprises you, it surprised us too).
The problem with accurate taxi instructions
There is, unfortunately, no source for accurate taxiway data for airports, anywhere, either in the flight sim world or the real world. The FAA / ICAO publishes no information on taxiways. (In fact, they don't even have the data themselves). Jeppesen has the most complete data (which is provided to us by Navigraph), but it's optimized for displaying on map overlays, and the fidelity of the data is too low for algorithmic taxi path calculation.
Put another way, while you can see the taxiway data in apps like Navigraph, overlayed on maps, the data is often very low resolution, and incomplete. (Paths end in dead-ends, some of them circle back on each other, many of the lines don't connect, etc.). And while this works well if all you want to do is visualize the taxiways on a map, it's not possible to "compute" a path using this data, since the data is incomplete and/or wrong.
Side note, this is why both X-Plane and MSFS "auto-generate" the taxiway labels, and it's why they're incorrect in the simulator.
How we solved it
To solve this, we’ve built a TaxiTuner tool in our pilot portal that allows you to build/edit taxiways for any airport, that it will use THAT as your taxi instructions. In other words, we've crowd-sourced the taxi data!!!
Anybody (including you) can quickly fix the taxi paths for their favorite airports so that ATC provides correct ground handling. MOST controlled airports worldwide have been done, but this one looks like it hasn't. It's a 5 minute fix for anyone who wants to quickly trace and label the paths.
Note that with TaxiTuner, once someone has built out an airport to work properly, they can “publish” their map. From there, once approved, it becomes the global default for all SayIntentions pilots.
As of now, thousands of airports have been "taxi-tuned", and the instructions are now mostly correct at most airports. Because of TaxiTuner, we now have what is likely the most accurate taxi database in aviation!
What if I run custom scenery?
You can create your own taxi-tuner profile for your customized airport, which is exclusive for your own use.
How do you decide which instructions to give?
Given that we have multiple layers of data available to us for taxi instructions, here's how we decide which data to use:
1) If the airport has been taxi-tuned by another customer and validated for use by all, we use that data.
2) If this data isn't available, but YOU have created your own taxi-tuner profile for an airport, we use that data.
3) If this hasn't been done, and you are a Navigraph subscriber with your account linked to SayIntentions, we attempt to use the Jeppesen data that Navigraph proises us. (This has about a 20% chance of working).
4) If this fails, we use the Asobo data from MSFS.
5) If this fails, you will hear ATC say, "Taxi are your own discretion".
How do I use TaxiTuner?
Login to your pilot portal, and go to the TaxiTuner link on the left. A full chapter based user manual of TaxiTuner is located in the TaxiTuner Folder of this Knowledge Base that will lead you through editing airports with ease. Also we recommend watching this video and this video to quickly learn how to use this awesome tool!
Was this article helpful?
That’s Great!
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry! We couldn't be helpful
Thank you for your feedback
Feedback sent
We appreciate your effort and will try to fix the article