ATC problem

[Duckie]

Sorry if this has been asked and answered before but I have absolutely no luck with the forum search function, and I have tried with these topics, "ATC" and "Traffic".

Seems my ATC will not clear the AI for take off. They start up on time, taxi to the active hold point, line up and hold until they run out of time and begin to drop out. On the other hand, while this is happening to the AI, I can be in an aircraft and request a different direction departure than the curent active and the ATC ground will route me to a different runway (KYIP has 5), hand me off to the tower and it will clear me for take off!

I have verified no conflicting addon traffic files. Global traffic is set to 35% due that all my traffic files for this airport are set to 33%.

The airport is KYIP (Willow Run), using custom AFCAD KYIP04 modified with my parking plan and my traffic files. I get no errors when compiling the traffic files and no errors with the AFCAD parking and taxi plan.

Really baffled. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Steve

[falcon409]

My first thought would be that the taxiways are not connected to the rwy, so the aircraft will taxi to the hold short and then stop. Eventually they will "time-out" and disappear and the next one takes it's place. Having said that, if you didn't get any errors when running the AFCAD "check for errors", I can't imagine it would miss a gap in the taxiway/rwy links.

[emfrat]

There was a period when I seemed to forget this rule every time...
(from the Afcad Readme)
A hold-short node will not work if it is too far from the edge of the runway. That will result in ATC never giving you takeoff clearance and AI aircraft will stop at the hold-short node and get stuck there. The maximum distance seems to be just over 230 feet, but it is best to keep it under 225 feet (68.6 m) to be safe. Note that the maximum distance is from the edge of the runway, not the center line.
The program can display 225 foot radius circles around all the hold-short nodes to show the maximum allowable distance. This can be enabled by checking the Show Hold Short Limits item under the View menu, or by pressing the ‘H’ key.

Hope this helps
MikeW

[Duckie]

My first thought would be that the taxiways are not connected to the rwy, so the aircraft will taxi to the hold short and then stop. Eventually they will "time-out" and disappear and the next one takes it's place. Having said that, if you didn't get any errors when running the AFCAD "check for errors", I can't imagine it would miss a gap in the taxiway/rwy links.

Thanks falcon409. That was one of my first thoughts. And even though no "faults" found I double checked for missing taxi/rwy links. All appear to be connected properly - I wiggled them to make sure!


There was a period when I seemed to forget this rule every time...
(from the Afcad Readme)
A hold-short node will not work if it is too far from the edge of the runway. That will result in ATC never giving you takeoff clearance and AI aircraft will stop at the hold-short node and get stuck there. The maximum distance seems to be just over 230 feet, but it is best to keep it under 225 feet (68.6 m) to be safe. Note that the maximum distance is from the edge of the runway, not the center line.
The program can display 225 foot radius circles around all the hold-short nodes to show the maximum allowable distance. This can be enabled by checking the Show Hold Short Limits item under the View menu, or by pressing the ‘H’ key.

Hope this helps
MikeW



Thanks Mike. I never thought to check the hold short boundaries. I have since done as you suggested and all seemed to be within the "circle" or the hold-short boundary.

Thank you both for your tips. After dozens of restarts I listened and watched one of my AI get taxi instructions and told to contact the tower when in position. Instructions followed and the tower cleared that one aircraft for takeoff, then everthing else sat until they disappeared!

Still looking!

[stansdds]

One thing I've learned with my limited experience with ADEX is to use the fault finder tool before compiling an airport. It will locate orphaned points, unconnected taxiways and hold short points that are too far from the runway.

[Bjoern]

One thing I've learned with my limited experience with ADEX is to use the fault finder tool before compiling an airport. It will locate orphaned points, unconnected taxiways and hold short points that are too far from the runway.

I support that.

AFCAD2 is, by now, horribly out of date and ADE incorportes lots of discoveries about traffic handling made since AFCAD2.

[Duckie]

Well, ATC situation seems to be a universal problem that is deteriorating, and not the AFCAD problem with KYIP I thought it was! All I can do now from a flyable aircraft, from any of several airports I tried, is turn on ATC and select ground control. I get the make a departure request drop down menu and that's where it all stops. It will not let me make a selection. And the menu just sits there. Sometimes AI moves about on the ground sometimes it doesn't.

I tried loading a fresh ATC.dll module from a clean FS9 install that I keep loaded just for such things and it worked for one flight then went down hill.

BTW stansdds and Bjoern, I loaded ADE 9x ver 1.55 and ran my modded KYIP airport file and no errors were found.

Don't know where to go from here. I was really beginning to enjoy the ATC part of this stuff too.

[Bjoern]

Well, Google says that AI not taking of is mostly connected to an effed up hold short node or missing taxiline on the runway.

It could also be that you have duplicate AFCAD files in your FS9 which would cause all kinds of oddness straight up to program crashes.

Use ScanAFD to look for duplicates.
http://www.nwlink.com/~erog/

[Duckie]

Well, Google says that AI not taking of is mostly connected to an effed up hold short node or missing taxiline on the runway.

It could also be that you have duplicate AFCAD files in your FS9 which would cause all kinds of oddness straight up to program crashes.

Use ScanAFD to look for duplicates.
http://www.nwlink.com/~erog/


Thanks for the link Bjoern. I downloaded and ran ScanAFD and no dupes found for any addon scenery - active or disabled.

I have Googled and read almost every relevant forum thread I could find on the subject and have directed my efforts first to troubleshoot the suggested problem areas. As you mentioned here and above, hold-short nodes, missing/disconnected taxi/runway links and nodes, and thanks to you and others, I’ve been able to download apps and tools to test for just such errors and correct the ones found by these apps and myself upon microscopic inspection.

So, my plan for now is to begin to learn how to use ADE and modify my on airport file starting with the stock FS9 airport and go from there.

Thanks to everyone for your interest and suggestions. I know I can run something by you guys and gals and always get some valuable feedback. Such is the case here. :salute: :salute:

Steve