AI aircraft engines still running after parking

[mrogers]

I wonder why some AI light aircraft continue to have their engines still running after they've parked at their spots? Is there a solution to this?

[Bjoern]

I've never seen that behavior so far.

[mrogers]

It's unusual alright, just the odd one is like that. I've come across this odd behaviour after I've landed at an airport at the end of a flight from another airport and noticed the AI plane still running. I see this AI just sitting there still running while I'm taxiing past to my parking spot, I hear it going all the time and by the time I'm all switched off, etc, the AI plane is still running.
It might be something to do with it's timing in the flightplans or the the way the links are setup in the afcads I don't know. I'd like to get to the bottom of this. These are AI addon packages with different light aircraft from various authors. Has anyone seen this behaviour with their AI before?

[Bjoern]

If this only happens at a specific airport, check the parking spots and taxiway network.

[ananda]

It is because it didn't taxi through an hold-short node.

[mrogers]

Hmm...ok, I'll have a look at the airport afcads. Happens at more than one airport that I know of. The majority of the parked AI have the engines off, it's only one usually that is still running.

[Bjoern]

One specific airplane?

It could be that it's waiting for a free parking spot.

[mrogers]

Well, I've had a look at the afcad for one airport and it has a lot of nodes and lines. I ran the fault checker and it showed that a lot of nodes were too close to each other, also there are a lot of them going right into the parking radiuses. I don't know if that would affect AI behaviour though....as I say it often is just one AI. The hold short nodes look ok, and there doesn't look to be anything out of place.

The scenery is all Orbx, including the AI which was from Orbx as well. It's all a superb scenery that covers the whole of the country. To me it's not a big deal really about the AI behaviour, its just a tiny thing in comparision to the whole picture, but just wanted to work out why this happens.

[IanP]

There are a number of reasons why those situations would be used, which are workarounds for the shortcomings and limitations of the way AFD files work in the sim - nodes inside parking spots are often used to stop aircraft pushing back as if they are airliners, for example, and two nodes almost on top of each other are used to avoid extended transitions between taxiway types.

Neither of those, on their own, will stop AI traffic shutting down. If it's not shutting down, it doesn't think it's reached the parking spot. What specific aircraft is it? Is it a user aircraft being used as AI (e.g. the default aircraft, or from an add-on) or from a dedicated AI add-on?

Ian P.

[spokes2112]

If you have Traffic Toolbox installed from the SDK (SDK\Environment Kit\Traffic Toolbox SDK\traffictoolbox.dll) using the traffic explorer window will show you the state it's in. It may help out in determining if it's the afcad or the aircraft causing the problem.

[mikewmac]

AI aircraft models usually have the starting and stopping of their engine(s) triggered by the beacon light, so perhaps the particular AI aircraft whose engine never stops has a defective engine start/stop trigger in the model and the engine runs all the time.

[mrogers]

IanP, the AI still running is usually a Piper type single, not the default one but is an AI model by another author, that is included in the orbx AI package. Could be that it's not set up properly in its model to turn off when it reaches its parking spot as mikewmac suggested. Spokes2112, I'll have a look at this Traffic Toolbox from the SDK and see how that goes. Thanks for all the suggestions.

[IanP]

Which Orbx AI pack, Mark?

It might be interesting to see if other people can see the same effect.

Cheers,

Ian P.

[mrogers]

It's the AI Traffic for Australia and New Zealand.

[IanP]

Thanks Mark.

I'll take a look at it later today. Bit stuck with the family watching "The Biggest Little Railway in the World" on my FS computer at the moment!

Ian P.