Skip to content

SGES — Simple Ground Equipment & Services

SGES is a FlyWithLua script that adds comprehensive ground handling equipment to X-Plane 12. It places and animates static and moving objects around the aircraft on the apron — from GPU and fuel truck to animated passengers and a simplified marshaller.

Background

Features

  • Ramp vehicles: GPU, ASU, fuel truck, belt loader, ULD loaders, catering vehicle, bus, baggage carts, follow-me car
  • Static equipment: Cones, functional chocks (prevent rolling on sloped aprons), airstairs with maintenance stair variant
  • Animated elements: Animated passengers, moving vehicles (follow-me car, EMS, fuel truck, baggage carts, passenger bus), simplified marshaller
  • Pushback: Simple pushback with pushback truck, compatible with aircraft carriers
  • Deicing: Active deicing that protects the airframe from X-Plane ice for a configurable time period (activates only in low temperatures)
  • Adaptive ground kit: Automatically adjusts equipment for freighter, passenger, regional, business jet, or GA aircraft
  • Military variant: Green-painted vehicles for military ramp scenarios
  • Arresting systems: Cable, net barrier, EMAS (Engineered Material Arresting System)
  • Emergency scenarios: Accidents, fires, shipwrecks, industrial/wildfire effects (extinguishable by X-Plane water bombers)

All equipment is toggleable via a non-intrusive popup menu. Compatible with X-Plane 12.2+ native chocks.

Value in Flight Simulation

SGES fills the gap between static default ramps and paid ground service solutions. The adaptive ground kit automatically matches equipment to the aircraft type — no manual configuration needed. The functional chocks and animated ground traffic add immersion without requiring other ground service plugins. SGES complements Better Pushback (for realistic pushback) and openSAM (for jetways and VDGS).

Installation

Download: forums.x-plane.org

Place the SGES files into Resources/plugins/FlyWithLua/Scripts/. The included skunkcrafts_updater.cfg goes into Resources/plugins/FlyWithLua/ (root, not Scripts).

After first launch, assign a keyboard key to toggle the SGES menu via Settings > Keyboard. Generate the airport cache via Plugins > FlyWithLua > Macros > SGES refresh.

SGES ships with five PDF manuals covering general use, animated passengers, arresting systems, and marshaller functions.

Sources